Round Sheppey- roll call

I may turn up for this one weather dependant in a contender, needs to be a reasonable breeze to get round in good time.

Dan

Originally posted by oldarn Originally posted by hollandsd I may turn up for this one weather dependant in a contender, needs to be a reasonable breeze to get round in good time. Dan Would you get round any faster if it was epoxy!... apart from the fact you might not afford one.

Haha, I dont think at this stage in the game that the build material will make any difference to my performance, my boat is 20yr old and a little overweight but at my level I dont think that makes any difference at all.

Originally posted by alstorer That went... badly. About half an hour in, hanging on to the back of the fast handicap pack despite it being a down wind leg and them mainly be 5o5s, Ospreys and Merlins, we were going along just outside the pair of Halos and a Dart when all of a sudden there was a lot of shouting about "shallow" from nearby boats, Toby lunged to pull the dagger-rudder up a bit but was too late- snapped gudgeon. We turned around, and headed back to the club rudderless. Glad it didn't happen further round the course!

Sorry to hear that.
So many UK sailing venues really need rudders and centreboards that will survive hitting the bottom. It's sort of ironic, the faster the boat, more likely to have a daggerboard and cassette rudder, more able to do damage by grounding.

It was actually the gudgeon on the cast aluminium stock that sheared. It was the only part of the boat that isn't Icon 'fit' - as part of the development process I was using the rudder and stock straight from the NS.

I had vison of the transom hanging off, but no damage was done to the boat, I just need to fix/replace the stock.

Up until that point, things were going very well. The club was very friendly and well organised and the race is great.

We had a downwind start, so we goosewinged whilst the other fast handicap boats flew their kites. It then became more of a reach, but after half an hour we were ahead of the 400s and Canoes, and clinging on the tails of the Ospreys, 5ohs and Merlins. Then it went pear shaped and we had to beat back in without the rudder, which was also quite fun in a strange way.

Anyhow, thanks for making the effort Al, hopefully next time it'll go better!



Edited by Peaky - 03 Sep 11 at 9:33pm

Icon Rudder .....

Peaky was very unlucky with his NS one but the Icon production boats will/do have have 'regular' swing back ones.  '04' was doing well by the sounds of it if they were holding the 400's etc on an otherwise spinnaker leg, and would have simply flown up the Swale on that very long fetch.  If we'd have known how low the tide was going to be this year Cirrus could have lent him a standard one for the day.

Never mind - plenty of other events coming up and there is always next time !!.

Mike L.