Stand to attention

Just in case you didn't know my boats going to be on the Spinlock stand (NoB52) at the RYA Dinghy Show. So it now has some new gear and graphics... see you there.

Splash dash

Jam' in

New Spinlock cleats are now on. This was a little more of a protracted operation than I thought. Requiring the removal of the carbon cleat tower. This was both stuck to the deck with silicon as well as screwed down. Not normal screws either. A type is screw I haven't seen before, or indeed have a screw driver bit to fit! The screws have a square hole in the middle. And after some research these are called 'Robertson' and seem to be very common place in Canada. After having found a couple of screw bits from the back of a friends car! I can tell you that they are a pleasure to use. Much more positive than 'slot' or 'Philips' drives.

Anyway I digress. I then had to use a plate knife to remove the cleat tower from the deck by slicing through the silicon between the deck and tower. With this done I could replace the cleats. This was simple as the Spinlocks have the same hole centres as the Harken cam cleats I was replacing. I think I may need some wedges under them. But I'll sail the boat first before deciding. I then tidy up the boat for the dinghy show. Repairing a puncture hole made by a test sailer dropping the sharp edge of the daggerboard into the deck. Not a problem though and easy enough to fix.

Cradle rocks!

Finished the cradle for the dinghy show today. Yippee!

Hail Mary...

Here's 20 odd min's of footage from the recent 'Bloody Mary' Pursuit race. With Piers Hugh Smith at the wheel. I have pretty much left the footage as is, apart from taking out a rather long downwind section. (Which was the real race position killer on the day.) To let everyone see a real time race, with a reasonable amount of manoeuvre's and how the boat handles in a real situation... gusts, lulls, chop etc... At the end I believe Piers 'bailed out' to avoid a capsized boat on the mark.

Perfect delivery...

Look what came in the post today! Thanks SPINLOCK. I've always liked these cleats and have used them on plenty of my other boats. Whats great about them is the positive nature of the action. You know when they are on and when they are off. For my 3.7 they are going to be really helpful as you can cleat and un-cleat from a very large variety of angle. Something that was hard to do with the current conventional cleats. The rope exits have nice little metal baring surfaces which allows you to take advantage of this. Now I've got to fit 'em.

Show boating...

In the middle of the current freezing temperatures I'm busy building cradles for the 3.7 to rest on at the RYA Dinghy Show. It's so cold the draft from the jigsaw / Sander is freezing my hands! But it will be worth it...