Alto Rides Again!

It's back, fixed, well nearly fixed and bought up to current spec, we got
out on the water yesterday just, still have a few bits that after two months
wait still didn't manage to turn up but whatever I'm back on the water I'm
going to keep this boat rather than upgrade to a new one and I'm going
into hyperpimpmode.

I shall post pics in due course.

Naturally I shall, following this forums formal titular adoption of said craft,
name it ASBO.

So what's happened so far?

The nose has been lowered so the pole angle follows suit. (I also had to
have a repair where I rammed a laser amidships in a fit of pique)

The mast is now permanently held upright by means of a forestay a la
RS500...

Which means I now have a new jib with those clib devices to attach the
leading edge ,but also means the whole lot doesn't fall down if I release
the jib halyard by mistake.

The entire bottom is now covered in stuff called Hi build since at moments
of extreme speed we notice we were scorching the gel coat off the bottom
(A long hi speed reach round the Isle of Sheppey) anyway it now looks
super kewell with twin tone hull and the chines are accentuated.

The hoop thing in the middle is angled back a tad which should ease the
sheet tension and they've switched sides for the spinnaker hoist, we also
realised mid 1st race they've reverted the pole to manual and removed our
pole travel limitation which of course results in the sheets wrapping under
the pole following a drop in light winds, something we'd long since sorted
by preventing the pole from fully retracting.

So we missed our first race last week and managed to screw ourselves into
3rd place this week, but whatever the fun can start again now and it's so
good to be back on the water again.

This year we're surrounded by five oh, they have the legs on us on a dead
run in light wind with their monster chute, we can live with em on a three
sail reach they kill us on a 2 sail fetchy reach but up wind it's seems pretty
even, but then in that weather there's never much difference, we had an
RS400 mixing it with us and destroying us both on handicap..

Now we're still using the 935 recommended, but are under pressure by
five oh (we call em five oh a) because of their new boat but b) because
they're some sort of extreme VAT officers with the ability to totally ruin
your day if they feel minded so to do and you happen to deal in drugs).

Anyway we're resisting at this time but may end up having to give ground
on the handicap...

The saga will continue here..

replace the clips on the jib with a proper zip luff! clips are not your spinnaker's friend!

A word of warning. Hi build is lethal! Don't wear a
shorty, or in fact expose any bare skin near the stuff
unless you've taken an orbital sander to it first.

Edited by Ross

It's seriously abrasive and takes skin off in a flash.
There was a Cherub at the nationals with it. The crew
wore a shorty on the first day and had difficulty
walking all week! His knees looked like they could have
benefited from a skin graft. He had to keep de-sticking his knees from his trousers, not very pretty. The Cherub
Daemon also uses it and Tim very quickly took a sander
to it.

The HiBuild itself is very good stuff. I used it inside the cockpit mixed with fillers and then rolled on to give a stippled raised grip texture. The levels of grip is superb, it just obviously completely destroys anything which touches it. (i turned a pair of textured boot soles smooth in 2 days, and I still have the scars on my shin from where I missed the gunwhale between the rack and used the gunwhale edge as a rasp on my shin.... mmmmmm)