05/19/2009
This year's sailing season is here now, but my own schedule remains off-cycle. I am still in school until the last week of June, so not much gets done towards getting a 110 in the water until then.
"In-my-spare-time" projects, right now, include finalizing the deal which will allow Fleet 57 to launch, store, and dry-sail our boats at a reasonable cost this year (yea!), recruiting more crew (3 candidates so far), getting at least one set of new sails, and finishing up the prototype rudder I've started. I have learned a lot with this last project, some of which knowledge just catches me up to where I should have been at the start. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how well it performs, and where it leads me. Not cheap, BTW.
School-wise, we pulled our Lightning hull mold off the plug today. This was a day-long project, but off it came. We ended up pretty much destroying the wooden plug to get it out ("I've been waiting to do this", says Adam, with Skil Saw in hand). There was a little gel-coat damage, nothing real serious, and while that gets touched up/repaired, we turn to the deck mold, adding the stiffeners and mounts which will allow us to work with it once it is pulled off its plug. The days are long and the work is physical, for pics click on the "Lightning mold creation" link on the sidebar.
BTW, our class went down to Bristol, RI, to tour Goetz Custom Boats ("Goatses Boatses"), Hall Spars, and Outer Limits. Goetz is pretty unbelievable, clean and large, everything in carbon. Outer Limits builds 120 mph boats, nice to look at I guess, but what do you do? No strings to pull, no hiking, but a real challenge if you like that sort of thing.
No pics this time, all I've got would be of Lightning tooling, and I have stretched this blog in that direction as far as I care to. Next up here should be the 110 rudder, plus some trailer mods so we can launch down at "The Ghost Fleet"'s first-ever regatta this summer in CT.
regards,
Marty
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02/23/2009
Launching a 110 the "normal" way is not hard - hook the bridle up to the hoist, swing out over the water, lower it in and sail away.
What, no hoist? Well, that's where the fun begins. Wet, cold, scraped, bleeding, broken, all these can easily apply after the typical 110 ramp launching or retrieval. Better equipment can help, and the above is an example of some, even if it's not a 110.
What the above photo shows is somebody's fabrication (not mine) of a tongue extension, made so that the boat, not the driver or the tow vehicle, goes in the water. To this setup I would add some vertical projections from the trailer which will show you where to aim the boat when retrieving, plus some sort of marks to line up before you pull the boat up on the hard, so that the boat ends up in the correct fore-and-aft position.
The TE shown here was done to the boat owner's specs by that trailer company down in CT whose name I forget, but you can do the same thing, or better. The tongue slides out when the pin or bolt is removed, which pin/bolt is replaced in the extended position. The idea is to keep yourself out of the water and make the launch a quick and under-control process. [Edit 3-2-2009: This trailer was modified by Triad Trailer, in CT, phone (860) 354-1146 - admin]
Think it through, avoid a configuration which might end with you watching your boat sliding off on its own, and keep up a good maintenance schedule for any bearings and metal which end up going in the water. Go buy a decent welder (you always wanted one anyway), some metal stock and other stuff, move the debris out of the garage, and get started.
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02/13/2009
FWIW, the new version of the 110 Class website (http://www.110class.com) is up. As of now, it still has a few busted links and stuff, but the webmaster is working hard (hardly working?) to get it all good. Go see.
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12/12/2008
Make a mold, make a plug, fair the plug, make a mold. There's a lot of hours in that process, but here we are, infusing our improved version of that crappy, lumpy, 9' dinghy they gave us back in September.
You can see the resin being pulled up from the right side of the keel. As the vacuum progressed and the process moved along, we opened up more resin ports, to allow resin to saturate the rest of the glass. The infusion itself is largely a spectator sport, almost all the work is in the preparation.
Meanwhile, I am continuing my work on the 110 rudder. There ends up being a lot of math involved, and a bunch of stuff I don't know much about, so movement is slowed by the load of ignorance I tow around with me. I have selected some of the materials, and a NACA 4-digit foil section. The process is one of moving to a new set of problems as quickly as I can, but it is just great to have a trail of engineers, designers, and boating pros pass by my workstation and stop with suggestions. Life is good.
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10/12/2008
In the '06 Nationals in Newport, the rudder fell off our boat (684). It broke off just where the rudder shaft comes out at the bottom, looked like a bad weld from what was left in the boat, but it was hard to be sure. It was one of those situations where you have to steer by just using sail trim to alter your direction, so we got towed back, and were able to borrow a rudder from #738, which was behind Jeff's garage at the time.
Afterwards, I started thinking about another rudder, and it was clear that I had no idea about how to build one. I could buy one, or get another with another boat, both of which things I did, but I was still thinking about building a rudder. A lighter rudder, a stronger rudder. So, I ended up back in school (from 9/08 - 6/09, assuming), to learn something about composites.
This is a pic of some of my classmates, where we are working to fab a plug for a composite dinghy we are going to make. It will be an all-carbon boat, because we can, and the idea is to give us some experience with tool- and mold-making, for the project we will be starting in January, which will be much more interesting.
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08/28/2008
The 110 Nationals were last weekend, in Hull, MA, but I couldn't race. I'm going back to school this year, so there's no Fall to finish up all the stuff which needs to get done. No time for sailing this summer, or much else.
I did need to be in MA on Sunday, so I stopped by HYC first thing, just to see how things were going. It was great to see everybody, it's a friendly group, plus I met Russell Robinson, who had brought his 110 down from out of storage, to have the tech chairman (Fred Eddy) measure it.
Russell is something. I've only heard about him, but it was interesting to watch his mind work, as he and Fred talked over paths which would take him from the keel he has, to one which is class legal. I do recommend your reading Joe Berkeley's piece on Russell's showing up last Sunday (see the side link), he captures the feelings pretty well.
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So, with an International 110, it eventually comes down to where you need to move a long, thin, 1,000-lb object from one trailer to another. Far from the water. In your backyard.
Here's what we did at Pete's (from Fleet 46) house, with "no actual casualties" (Fleet 57's mantra). There are many ways to do this, most involve locating a chain fall at a fixed location over the boat. This lift was fabbed using only materials available at the local HD, which was a difficult restriction.
We need to work on integrating these structures into normal landscaping, as life without a backyard hoist is just too haaaad.
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05/26/2008
This is:
a - Your typical suburban back yard
b - A lame attempt at disguising some 110's behind Pete's house
c - What you'll see when you visit almost any member of this class.
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04/19/2008
Here's Rick and I headed upwind at the '08 Mid Winters in Tampa. Tampa was warm, and this was the last day, so we're used to "warm" here.
We used the Doyle 'deck-sweeper' jib, but we couldn't use the North spin, which ripped out and is now back at the sail loft for repair (we used a Doyle spin, a good sail, but not as fast as the North).
It was not warm when I got home.
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This is Pat O'Neal, from Tampa, who stopped by to see us when we were getting set up for the MidWinters. Like a lot of people, Pat sailed 110's in another life, and he was smiling a lot when he saw these. Hi, Pat! Nice guy.
That's our boat with the hole in the side, BTW. The hole is a drain for the waterproof box in which the spinnaker turtle ends up, and, well, I guess it's not all that interesting. However, that is waterproof duct tape holding the flap on, which finally ended up being a workable solution after trying several different 'flexible' adhesives.
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04/13/2008
I sprinkled a bunch of single-use cameras amongst people we met at Tampa's Davis Island Yacht Club, in hopes that I would get a bunch of photos. This is one of those, where a DIYC'er shot us and Will/Gordon behind a couple of FrontRunners on the way out one morning.
Tampa/DIYC in March is warm (70's & 80's), with foot and-a-half tides, a lot of car traffic, and a good percentage of the boats in the background getting out for the Thursday-night beer cans. We saw lots of pelicans dive-bombing fish, some kind of ray thing scrounging in the shallows, and one manatee.
The sky on this morning showed lots of weather, and the wind came up strongly as the day progressed. That last downwind leg was a great ride!
See more '08 MidWinters photos at the "2008 MidWinters Pics" sidelink.
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03/30/2008
The '08 MidWinters were in Tampa, FL; here we are on the last day of racing, tacking right to get out from under John and Roger, and to clear the weather mark.
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01/04/2008
From John Huff:
"Happy New Year to all shiverrrrrrrrring 110 sailors!"
"Please let me know if you plan on racing in the International 110 Midwinter Championship Regatta at Davis Island Yacht Club on beautiful, warm, breezy Tampa Bay. The dates of the regatta have been moved back to mid-March to make it easier for us to get there. Please forward this message to all your fleet members and ask them to respond promptly. I look forward to hearing from you soon."
"John"
[it's looking like the dates will be March 13-16, 2008, with early registration on the 13th, and racing starting on the 14th - admin]
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12/30/2007
No pics for this one, but we got back to work, again, on #405 yesterday. It's like moving a train, you push and push, and slowly things start to move.
We got the shop in better shape, it holds the heat better now, plus the mowers and stuff have been moved out of the way. We hung up the plans on the wall, which was good, because we had some questions right off about some of the deck dimensions. Check the plans, get the dimension, back to work.
We needed to find all the stuff that had walked off since the last rebuild, like the steam box assembly, the bending jig for the coamings and carlins, stuff like that. We hit about 98% on this task, which gives us a leg up on some of the work in front of us.
Some small projects on 405 are moving along, but there sure are a lot of them. With the keel off and the boat on the dolly which Will fab'd, moving it around is easy, plus it's low enough to work on. We centered the boat in the shop, away from the heat, and then set up the beginnings of what will be the plywood splicing jig. Flat horizontal space is alway useful, so we used the splicing jig table to-be to cut out some wood for a chine repair, and also to roll and flatten the plans for hanging.
Well, some things just aren't that exciting, but progress on 405 continues. This week I get started on 714 & 496, at another location. Pushing the train, again.
- Marty
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12/21/2007
Sometime tonight Winter comes in, and it is looking to be a 'real' one this time. We are well snowed-in up here, and it's been cold. But enough with the weather, it's time to get to work on that bevy (herd, pod, gaggle?) of boats we've acquired over the past 2 years.
This is 405, Linda Epstein's old boat, in Rick's workshop, amidst the normal accumulation of parts, pails, mowers and mess that a 110 can amass if left in one spot too long. We had just started when this pic was taken, and by the time this session was over, the shop was up to a reasonable temp, and we had started on parts of 405's trip back (station repair, plywood scarfing jig, and commitment to a schedule).
There are always things with any project which are new and unknown. Combine that with costs, conflicting obligations, screw-ups, and other negatives, and the whole project can easily run aground, to the point that it is just so much easier not to bother. While this can happen with any project, this boat is back on the trail. Next up: 110's number 714 & 496 - stay tuned.
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11/17/2007
So, I was talking with one of my sailing buddies, and we were going on about how to get our boats out of the back of the fleet next year. A lots-of-plans and anything-is-possible conversation. So he says "just as long as I don't have to go back to school", and we laughed about that idea.
Anyway, it's almost really winter, so I'm thinking about 110 repairs and upgrades to do in the off-season. The idea of going back to school had kept nagging at me, so I decided to do just that. I was lucky enough to find a decent "local" site (The Landing School), in Arundel, ME, which was giving a T3 ("Train the Trainer") class in composites. While this wasn't going to make me a better sailor, it was certainly appropriate to the list of repairs and upgrades I have in front of me, so I signed up and went.
The class, a one-week deal which fit right into my schedule, was taught by Ken Rusinek, who did a great job. Ken knows his stuff, and was able to tailor his presentation "on the fly" to fit the class makeup, which consisted of 2 guys from Hinkley, a boat surveyor, a teacher from the Portland Voc school, another guy, and me. Nice stuff, plenty of good labs, and a daily quiz to keep us out of the bars on the night before. Material samples and properties, hands-on work, great. As always, actual time-on-task is critical, but, in one week, I walked away with a lot. Did I mention it ended up costing me the low-low price of nothing? I do recommend this teacher, school, and program, if you've got the time.
- Marty
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10/08/2007
Quite a while ago, probably about 1965, I was fortunate enough to score a couple of tickets to see the Rolling Stones, down at Agganis Stadium, in Lynn, MA. What a great concert it was, we were all sitting on folding chairs on the grass, but by the time the Stones came out, everyone was standing, first on their chairs, and finally up on the backs of their chairs. The entire field was full of kids defying the laws of physics (and a couple of other laws), because of course you just can't stand up on the back of a folding chair. Regardless, we all were, and Mick and the boys were great. So, of all the 110's which have come our way, the only one I named is "Paint it Black", what else was I going to do?
This boat here is #496, and was decorated by some one who got his musical identity a little later, clearly a dead head. Nice piece of work, needs a little touch up, but maybe it's do-able. Other than that touch up, the boat looks pretty good, it's been taken care of, and maybe only needs some sanding, and painting. And some sails. And some floorboards. And some lines. And...
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10/08/2007
This is always the best part, when almost everything is packed up and tightened down, and we are just about ready to leave for home with our new-to-us boat.
I am told, not by the previous owner, that despite the great artwork, this is "White Tornado". Decisions, decisions, decisions. But that's later, this is just a fantasy day for me, makes me smile.
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09/01/2007
"Boat layout" & "Tacks" ended up being two of our biggest problem areas in this Nationals. "Layout" problems included excessive mast rake (where did that come from?), excessive weather helm (" "), and a tiller too short to properly turn said weather-helmed boat. "Tack" problems were several upwind legs with poor traveler adjustment - the slot was closed, the boat was slow, and resetting the traveler under load took more power than I could generate, so we would just have to live it with until the next tack gave me another chance.
I am almost forgetting, perhaps because I never thought about it beforehand, the drain which was not working. It ended up being a big problem, we shipped a lot of water because of the offset between the chop and wind directions, really too much water to be competitive. Jim bailed us around the course as best he could, but there was just too much water.
Last config s-u was the spinnaker launcher cover, which was installed under the deck. Once water got onto the cover, it was coming in, and did. Hmmm. More water.
{Edit 9-27-07] It is important to improve the speed and dependabilityof the boat we campaign each year, so there is a pretty good list of upgrade items at this point of the season. As for the skipper and crew, the goal here is to keep from losing whatever opportunities come our way, and the work to that end begins soon. One more regatta to go this year...
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09/01/2007
Practice, again. Not right here, this is pretty much the real thing, the Nationals, but we had been practicing our jibes down in Portland, because they were pretty bad, and we had gotten to where we were comfortable, we could jibe when it made sense to jibe, it stopped being a problem. This photo is the end of a jibe which came, quickly, at the end of race 2, when we were running out of finish line on the port end. We (okay, "I") went onto starboard tack in a hurry. Jim cleans it up here. Nice.
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09/01/2007
We did not practice our starts much for this year's event, even though they had been generally bad in our previous regattas. We ended up with mixed results in this one - it's a little hard to remember, but I think we had 3 decent-to-good starts out of the 7 races. Here is a photo of one of our (#684, 2nd from right) better ones.
Of our bad starts, at the gun we were too low once, too high once, and twice we had decent position but no speed, and got "walked over" by the rest of the fleet.
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08/02/2007
This is real early Sunday morning (7/29/07), the second day of the District 1 Championships at Hull, with us in the foreground. We went out kind of early on this day because we had some configuration issues to deal with, and then there ended up being no Sunday racing after all. Something about not enough wind, so we returned to the docks, packed up the boat, and came home.
We added some things in this regatta which we hadn't had before, plus it became clear it was time to move some of the lines around. Things are continuing to shape up for us, although it did seem to me that we had had better upwind speed in the previous regatta. On the return trip, I dropped the main off at the sailmaker for some tweaks, plus I'm thinking that the new control line layouts should help us execute tacks, jibes, and sets more cleanly.
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07/31/2007
Here, I'm down at the Irving's in Newport (ME), where the gas is generally about 15 cents cheaper. It's about 4 a.m., and I'm fueling up for the trip down to Hull, MA, for the District 1 Championships. This is another practice session for us, working to add some starting and downwind strategies, plus continuing working out the kinks in the boat setup.
Leaving at 4 gets me to HYC at about 9, so we can set up, plus load the new North spinnaker. This finally gave us some downwind speed, and we caught several boats off the wind, a new situation for us.
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07/15/2007
We have been sailing down in Portland (it is a reasonable midpoint for us) to work on a list of techniques, along with sorting out the boat's setup and tuning.
I arrived a little early on this particular day last week, and took a short break in setting up the boat to take this photo with South Portland's oil tanks as a backdrop.
Even though it's not clear in this photo, this trailer is one of the ones we modified in order to allow ramp lauching, and that's how we launched on this day. After we finished our practice, we stopped over to see Rob at Portland Yacht Services, and future practice launches will be via their hoist, on the other side of Portland harbor. Much better.
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07/15/2007
550's sternpiece had been covered in fiberglass, which had delaminated. I sanded down through the glass to the wood, patched the bare area, and went back to rolling on the West System/barrier coat on the rest of the port side.
The patch needed some fairing when cured, and will need to be reflowed, as the next step, before the next application of the epoxy mix.
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07/05/2007
Here's a top view of "Betelgeuse", which we got down in RI in April. We have removed the top and side paint, applied a West System/Barrier Coat mix to the deck, and flipped it on its side for more of the same. This epoxy and filler mix should help block UV from penetrating the final finish and causing that proverbial crack along the chine-line.
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07/05/2007
Here's a bottom view. The white finish proved to be extremely tough to remove, so we chose to leave it alone. We've tipped the boat on its side because it's so much easier to apply finishes to a flat surface.
I actually did some work on this day, but I bugged out before taking any photos. Really.
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06/22/2007
So, here comes our first trip this year, to the "Boston Bay Challenge Cup" in Hull, MA. Now is when the rubber meets the road, but not before we get the right boat on the right trailer. No, first we need another hoist, as we already have a boat hanging from all available hoists, and also, we need to finish the rebuild of the trailer we're taking, but before that, let's take care of those trailer bearings.
Once all that is behind me, it's time to set up and tune the boat, pack the gear, take care of the truck, get a little rest, and hit the road (at 3 am). Nice trip, nice regatta, nice people, too bad we weren't very competitive in the races. Getting to the next regatta will be simpler, and we made some important progress at this one.
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06/22/2007
This is another photo of the 110 which the folks down at RTS Forte got their hands and minds around. Not much to argue with here, except maybe that PHRF-inspired cabinoid device, which you can't really see in this view. Fathead, sprit, asym, and retracting keel on a 110 - life is good! Now, let's put the trap back up, and dump that middle guy on a channel marker somewhere.
Sailing Anarchy says they'll be running the "full story" on this project next week, go take a look.
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04/25/2007
Yes, yes, yes, another boat coming to Maine. This one was down in Quonset, RI, for quite a while, but not anymore.
It looks to be in good shape, so we are hoping to have it in the water right away. After a new spray painting and reassembly, in she goes. Can I say that? Whatever, once the work on this boat is done, I will post the pics and process on the 110 Class website, under "Tips, Tuning, & Rebuilds".
Once again, I do not know the sail number of this boat, but it looks to be Graves Hull #15.
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04/09/2007
It's almost a new season, so pretty soon we'll be sailing, but not just yet. Here, we are loaded up for a trip south, to drop off an aluminum mast for Jake, and to pick up another boat in Newport, RI.
This mast has been waiting for a boat for a few years, and I decided its time had come, so we took it with us and dropped it off at Jake's on our way south. The boat we are after, a Peck 110, reportedly has been waiting for a while also, and we took Fleet 54 up on its offer of the boat sight unseen, primarily because of the low-low price of nothing. I brought a trailer just in case the "new" boat's trailer wasn't going to be useable.
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04/09/2007
Here's the boat, number unknown, at the airport in Middletown. There were a lot of boats parked there, and us with 2 tow vehicles, hmmm. Unfortunately, we're too far into this fleet-building process to have the time for a prison sentence, so we left 'em there.
This boat we did take, even though it's not clear whether it can sail again. It's a Peck boat, so it is fiberglass with a balsa core, but there is considerable damage to the skin, and almost certainly water in the core. The port side is ok, but the starboard side has 2 cracks into the core at the chine, and the bottom just behind the rear trailer support is pushed in. We went back and forth on it for a few minutes, but we were there, so we decided to take it.
We got a new tire for this side, put it on, hung an almost-legal (expired Feb - 07) plate on the trailer and took off. No steen keen lights, BTW, but it's sunny and we don't have far to go on this leg of the trip.
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04/09/2007
Here's a view of the bottom, showing one of the cracks, but not the pushed-in bottom, which is aft of the trailer support. I don't know about this one, but we'll see, maybe next winter.
The license plate which was on the trailer when we got there had expired in '97 (like, wrong century, maaaan). What were you doing in 1997? Not sailing this boat, I bet. Me, too.
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01/12/2007
This is International 110 #714, "Pigs", which Anthony Kotoun & Oakley Jones sailed to such a convincing win in the 2002 Nationals that they didn't need to sail the last race. We didn't get Anthony, we didn't get Oakley, nor did we get that set of North 3DL's, but we did get the boat, and so it becomes Fleet 57's last new project for 2006. That's Darryl Dietz, the previous owner, standing next to it, down at the pickup point in Portsmouth, NH.
Since I picked it up in December, it has sat on its trailer for a while, waiting for some work (4 new ribs, some longitudinal stiffening, etc). I got started on that work this week in a heated garage down the street from my house - I will put up some photos of the process as soon as I finish.
Welcome, "Pigs"!
[edit - 4/1/07] - It was great to get started on this project, but there is still some work to do. I got the bulkhead pieces cut, and the new ribs shaped and installed, but there is still some final shaping to do on the bulkheads themselves, plus final installation. I will post the final pics when it's done.
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12/31/2006
We've talked about it, particularly if we can get some volunteers to serve as crew (ha ha). On a nice clear, sunny day like this, we should be out there right now, 'cause that water's definitely calling my name.
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10/30/2006
Actually, this is the first photo I've seen (from SA) of this boat, which is, I think, the 110 test bed from Forte RTS for carbon spars, etc.
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10/29/2006
Winter is on the way, so it's time to stop sailing boats and start planning how to sail boats better next year. To that end, I am adding some "tips-&-techniques"-type links here. Even though they are not all International 110 sites, they have some good stuff.
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10/29/2006
Thanks to Tom Craig for writing up this summary of the regatta:
This year's 110 New Englands Championship was sailed off Portland, Maine on September 24th, and hosted by Fleet 57, SailMaine, and Portland Yacht Services. Upon our arrival, the weather forecast said that a violent cold front was fast approaching, with thunderstorms and gusts predicted in the 40's, which sounded like it might be fun; that forecast was soon revised to gusts in the 60's, and lightning.
Fortunately, the race committee was a no-nonsense team; when we got to Portland, they already had the inflatable marks on station, ready for us to go out and race. They were from SailMaine and Portland Yacht Club, with Dave Whiting as PRO, and Marty's instruction to the race committee was "we want to be back on the trailers when the front comes through and the rain starts”. In the end, after running 4 good races, that is exactly what the race committee accomplished. A committee boat and 2 mark boats kept the races running, 1,2,3,4. Three-minute dinghy starts kept coming, as soon as the last boat finished we were off again! The lines were square, the beats to weather, and when the wind clocked around to the right, the mark boat shifted the marks to match.
The race itself was a lesson in back-to-basics sailing. That is, the basic rules of sailboat racing applied....without exception. A good start was required for a good finish; cover the boat behind, or else overstand the mark and lose boats. The racing was close, and the racecourses were kept compact, with half-mile legs and lots of laps. This kept the fleet in a tight pack, with the winner finally decided on a double tiebreaker
Edits:
- Special thanks for their help in this regatta go to Jeff Cumming (of SailMaine), Dave Whiting (our excellent PRO), Ryan Milldrum and Peg Romano (who filled critical race-day roles), and Rob Benson and Phin Sprague (from Portland Yacht Services).
- For detailed results, go to the "2006 New Englands Results" link on the right, under "Favorites".
- The above photo is of me (Marty) and crew Mike Brennan from SailMaine, passing by the committee boat in "Paint it Black" during the Race 1 pre-start.
- Marty
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10/29/2006
This is Tom and Ann Craig (753), Ross and Eli (608), and the Clancy brothers in #4, starting an early race.
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10/29/2006
These photos are what they are, conditions were not good. Here is a mid-race shot, with Ross, the Clancy's, and the Craigs rounding the leeward mark and starting the next lap. The rest of us are those dots heading downwind in the background.
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