Those of us on the left coast are finishing up our heavy air summer sailing
and preparing for the almost magical light air sailing of our autumn and
winter. I've taken the opportunity during the short break to haul the boat
and take a hard look at the keel and rig. My Ericson built boat came out of
the water this week showing just a handful of small blisters, which is
always a good feeling.
The rig came out for the first time today. It will get new standing rigging and a Harken roller furler. I'm still debating whether to rebuild my hydraulic backstay yet again or spring for a new one with a longer throw. The longer throw would allow me to get the mast further forward downwind while still retaining a bit of rake for upwind performance. I do plan to move the mast tip a bit forward in any event to lighten the weather helm now that my active racing days are ending. While the rig is down I'm going to install a Windex light, which I've wanted for a long time.
The keel is going to be dropped in the next couple of days. The yard is doing the measurements to see how far off center the keel actually is. I will either correct the alignment or just re-bed the keel to improve the hull/keel joint.
My last bottom paint was white Vivid, which was pretty to look at but had almost no anti-fouling properties and didn't last all that long. In fact, after just over a year and perhaps 10 diver's scrubs the foils had almost no paint at all. I'm going a different direction this time and spraying the bottom with black Trinidad.
It would be great to hear from some of you guys around the country and globe about what you've been up to. Who is racing and winning (other than George Ellison on Shameless here in SF) and who is out cruising?
Good sailing to all. Happy Labor Day.
Bob
Jane Doe
28555
Robert E. Izmirian
rizmirian@comcast.net Received on Thu Aug 30 23:46:31 2007