Great job Spartan. I am your boat neighbor a few slips to the east.
Brian
Great job Spartan. I am your boat neighbor a few slips to the east.
Brian
Somewhere near S. Hampton the spin halyard jammed in the clutch. I sailed way off the course to get the clutch opened. Time for two new clutches. Anyone have favorite types ? The current set are Lewmars and they have been gentle on the lines.
When I bought Dura Mater six years ago, she came with single Barient winches. After just a few windy races I developed rotater cuff injuries in both shoulders. Not tears, but injuries. The orthotist I visited specialized in shoulder injuries. He asked if I played water polo. He said that he himself was on a masters water polo team and had developed this same type of injury. Um, no, I said, but I sailed. He knew a little about sailing and asked if I couldn’t steer instead. Um, no, I said. I had to do that, too. There was a long pause.
“You solo sail?”
“Yes”.
“Well, you’ll have to stop sailing.”
“Huh.” I replied, “Well, that’s not going to happen.”
He sent me to a physical therapist who gave me exercises and two “thera-bands”: one yellow and one red, to be used as I got stronger. Or as strong as I could get.
So I sighed a BIG sigh and bought Dura Mater her first nice bling: stainless steel Lewmar 30 self steering winches. They are still shiny and beautiful, but I gotta say that yesterday I needed bigger winches. Big like the winches Jim Quanci has on Green Buffalo. Harken 55s. No! harken 65s!! Really big winches.
I also began to see the wisdom of the Wylies, especially when I saw how well the Wyliecat sailors did in the race. Now I know that their success requires more than just a nice boat with no winches, but yesterday I sure got worn out having to tack and tack and tack in that wind. 18-22 knots at the gate when I was going for Blackaller. All day yesterday my boat kept telling me, “You’ve gotta move faster! I’m keeping you safe, now sheet that jib in! I don’t like the way you’re letting the sail flog back and forth! Jeesh!”
And I agreed with her, but it was a long day and those winches seemed just too small! We were doing really well, too, until I carried my drifter out of Raccoon Straits, right into that blast of wind from Red Rock! I forgot that it wasn’t a spinnaker. I couldn’t just blow one line and drop it into the cabin. It was attached at the front of the bow! Oh Hell! We were doing so well that I forgot that a drifter is meant for light wind, and the wind near Southampton Shoal at 3pm was 15-20 knots. So I sailed over to Brooks Island struggling to get my beautiful blue and yellow drifter down. Then I had to beat back upwind toward the Shoal and beyond.
What a disappointing day! I guess it could have been worse. Dura Mater and I could have gotten clocked at Blossom Rock.
Last edited by Philpott; 02-25-2018 at 02:12 PM.
Not that I'm getting one (damn Wylies...), but when is the Corinthian awards ceremony?
I was planning to come to the award ceremony but the bike's battery was dead (someone disconnected the battery tender). What did I miss?
Not too much. Bob from BAMA made pitch for the Double Handed Farallones race [registrations are open on Jibeset, go support this race].
Folks picked up their t-shirts and we gave out awards and trophies.
As an aside, I received some good feedback about South Hampton shoals... we will very likely alter the course next year to round something nearby not involving a mess of hidden hazards.
DH