Wedenesday Day 13

From my speed coach-“Only way to take wobble out of handle bars is more speed BUCKO ”  Thank you sir, may I have another.

We found out yesterday that putting the battens in the jib made a significant difference. Lets see, 35 feet of leech folded over by say 8 inches. 23.3 sq feet of unused sail area, 23.3 sq feet of pure perpendicular drag to the air flow, 23.3 sq feet of slot blockage, 23.3 sq feet of sail area pointed directly at the luff of the mainsail in direct opposition to the preferred direction of air flow. The boat did seem livelier yesterday, in fact the Loose Cannon may have even displayed her feminine side a little, like she was pissed because she has been neglected. So… she proceeded to slap us around a little. Greg got the worst of it. A minor argument with the jib sheet sent him tumbling on to the net. Later, a jibe grabbed the tiller extension out of my hand and whacked him on the funny bone. Really whacked. I got a little close to the traveler car on the next jibe and acquired a colorful little scrape on my thigh. Orion and Joe were very attentive to her rotators so she granted them temporary amnesty. Greg’s comment was poignant and succinct, “this boat is kicking my ass”.
Aside from the fact that we were the first boat to the windward mark in the first practice race, the highlight of my day was the F-39 “Yellow Fish” that was sailing with us.My goodness, what piece of work. Beautiful boat, I could see sailing a boat like that for a week or two and going to maybe… Italy, on the way to Oz.

Today looks like a rain chance of  90%, Weather Undergrounds forecast for 11:00 a.m.
Definite rain showers. The general forecast for the day is; Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the lower 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent. Yeah Baby. Last night, the skippers meeting and check-in and dinner party went very well. Food was great, got to see some people that I haven’t seen for several regattas, and met several new people that I am sure I will be glad to see at the next regatta. The RC chair is very sharp and I anticipate an excellent regatta. I thought about asking the Race Committee to delay posting the results to the web so somebody could complain but I am having too much of a good time to worry about making everybody happy.

-wb-