Getting ready for a sail
24 May 2006 | Austin, Texas
Craig Tapley
Time to do a bit of regatta sailing. One of the best sailing events in Austin is the annual Turnback canyon Regatta. Day one of the regatta (starting this Saturday morning) sails from Austin Yacht Club 22 miles down the lake to Lago Vista. The evening is filled with dance, drink and sailing stories, not one of which can every be proven, and almost none of which are ever questioned. After an overnight day two is a sail home to AYC. Tradition and prevailing winds have it that day one is all down wind sailing and day two is all upwind, but in central Texas there is no telling until race day what we will find. I went out on Wednesday to check over 'Deuce Coup' (someone out at the lake nicknamed my boat and it seems it has stuck) and take her for a quick check out spin. I sailed 2-3 miles up the lake past Arkansas bend state park and back. maybe 3 hours on the water. Most of the sail was exciting (winds puffy and gusting to around 20 knots). On the return trip I blew the control line for the mast rotator. It was an easy fix as I usually carry extra line onboard, but it was an exciting surprise to go from a totally flat (un-rotated) mast to fully rotated on basically no warning. I would have expected to have also broken the tips off all my batons, but it looks like everything is OK.
On arriving back at AYC I finally got to check on how water tight the hulls were. Pulling the plug on the starboard hull I got a nice sigh of air coming out of the hull. good news. air tight is good enough for me when it comes to leaks in a dingy hull. The Port hull didn't take on much water, but clearly was leaking some. I am not going to take time to find the leak and fix it between now and this weekend, but when I do find time I will snap photos of the 'soap, water, and shop vac' system of tracking down the leak.
Photos of Turnback Canyon after the regatta. Have a great week everyone!
Craig Tapley