Friday September 21

I made a real effort to get my San Juan 21 ready for the Crescent City Regatta. The keel cable had slipped out of the keel pulley and increased the coefficient of friction beyond the torque capacity of my Pectoralis Major. Manipulation out-maneuvered frustration and the pulley was eventually removed.

Note that the sheave is larger than the side plates

An incorrect blade on the cut-off saw eliminated the possibility of modifying the pulley. The obligatory internet search and phone call to West Marine located a suitable replacement in Melbourne, a four hour round trip away. Two possibilities with significantly less required drive time occurred to me. Acme surplus had more than enough stainless steel of the correct thickness to replenish my dwindled stock. Monroe Harbour Marina provided a slim possibility of having a suitable wire block and it was only a few minutes from Acme surplus. On approaching the Marina I observed Show Me under power, head for the ramp, also in preparation for Crescent City. Unfortunately, and truly as expected, Monroe Harbour had no wire blocks. Fisk’s San Juan was derigged and ready for the road, right there in the parking lot. Look at that block on his backstay, total overkill for his backstay, but just right for the keel cable. Do you suppose? Nah, that would be a rule 69 for sure.

Bob Horian has acquired a sailing inflatable catamaran. Ron Semans and I examined it and hypothesized about the rigging options of such a vessel, and while progress was made, we determined that a close visual inspection of the assembly instructions that must be available on the internet, would be well worth the effort.

Fisk was in fact helping Andy get Show Me ready for the road. When I explained my problem, Fisk inspected his rigging box for a possible solution, but alas no. The Carters arrived to gather up all the pieces of the 29erXX. I now realize I should have asked Brent if he had an appropriately sized wire block, but I am sure my first thought was “the 29er can’t have any real rigging”, and besides Maryann had chocolate chip cookies.

Soon thereafter Andy, Fisk, and I were drinking beers at Wolfy’s, I know, everyone is shocked at that scenario.

This short meeting created the impetus for this writing, specifically as an addendum the Rum Race 091912 posting. It seems that, in the first leg, while we were being consumed by the probability that Fisk would hang his spinnaker on our air like a cheap suit. Fisk’s one and only true focus was that Paulie (his crew) be absolutely certain that no matter what, she was to keep an accurate elapsed time of this Rum Race. Particularly humorous to me was Fisk’s insistence that he knew that any possible question mark related to the time he turned in would result in the immediate discard of said time by the scorer (me). Of course he was perfectly correct especially since there has been a question mark or more associated with his time in the past four Rum Races. Isn’t it interesting how the most insignificant of autocrats are allowed to wield their  limitless power with authority and disdain. I suspect that is only going to last as long as I keep finishing at mid fleet or slower.

Bottom line here is it looks like my SJ 21 stays at home and the S2 5.5 goes on the road.