Kiteroa

What's the best product for restoring dirty and moldy tubes? There are a few options on the market...

Hi all, The Frostbite dinghy fleet is experiencing a bit of a revival down at Taikata sailing club, however we're somewhat hamstrung by the availability of good secondhand boats. There were plenty of fibreglass Frosties built back in the 80' and 90's, but many are now tucked away under peoples houses and no longer being sailed. If you know of someone who has a good glass frostbite hull and who is not actively sailing, please have them contact either myself or the Taikata Sailing club and we can make you an offer, or even better, have them bring their boat down to Taikata and join the

The best thing about this setup is that they swing in an arc! Just kidding......... I dropped one side of each seat down a touch to compensate.

It's a good use for an otherwise redundant piece of hardware! There must be more kicking around from other teams....

I'm not sure how much credibility you can give to Dana J's opinion these days. She's borderline rabid when it comes to ETNZ and her articles are prone to hysterical levels of hyperbole. Sure Nick Holroyd is pretty clever, and the other two are probably good grinders. Do you need grinders on a AC48? I'd be far more worried if it was Dan Bernasconi or Glen Ashby stepping outside. Both of those guys are the best of the best and they've chosen to stay. But either way, negativity towards ETNZ isn't helping the cause. Dalton can't go. It's too late for that now. So why not just support the team we'v

I think Sea Shepherd do a great job. Sure they have moderated a little since the early days, but no one can argue with the direct positive effect they have on the front line marine conservation. I've had the pleasure of having been on board a few of their ships and as a whole they seem to be very professional and organised.

Nice work Dave. Looking forward to seeing the carbon rig go in.

I like this write up from today's Scuttlebutt, only because it agrees with me. Quieting the critics Team New Zealand leader Grant Dalton is the man who goes into the board rooms and gets the sponsors for the team. The Kiwi America's Cup team would not exist without sponsors. Whether or not this is a popular decision is not relevant, and even Mr. Coutts said that this was a difficult task, and Dalton is better at it than anyone else. Dean Barker is a great guy and a fine sailor, but the decision to hire Peter Burling was made a long time ago, and was never a secret. However, the fact that

Sure is going to be interesting. I hope they put all this dis functionality behind them and become a team again. I can't see Ashley having signed up for another round if the team was a train wreck. Hopefully amongst the 50 full time staff there's a PR position being filled though. Also Interesting that Brad Butterworth has been so quiet. I would have thought this would be the prime opportunity to step up and fill Daltons shoes? And then there's this inconvenient spanner in the works: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11409765 Unsure about his 'cl

There was a pretty thorough financial break down done by ETNZ after the last cup. It's available online for anyone with 10 mins to search for it. Like it's been said above, Dalton walking right now would likely spell the end of TNZ. If that's what you'd like so see, then jump on the Deaker band wagon and call for blood. It's all very well lynching Dalton, but I'm yet to hear any mention of a $100m plan B. Cause that's what we'll be up against. Just ask the French/Australians/Koreans etc.

Yeah same. The team would be better off hanging onto him. Just depends what the other offers are and how attractive the 9-5 role is for a family man. Having him on the executive committee would be interesting.

I have a horrible feeling that this Barker fiasco is going to go really bad for ETNZ. Hopefully I'm wrong but I just can't see Dean hanging around after this episode. Hopefully the team will survive it, cause I've got a terrible feeling that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Obviously not everyone is motivated by money as this case proves.

He was let go because he took management to task over the teams family relocation policy, or lack of it. Nothing to do with his performance or abilities as a sailor. He was guilty of having a bit too much backbone for the teams liking.

The old Harken/Fosters building was a special place. Legend has it that at high tide they would get salt water puddles in the basement. Receiving your new hardware in a brown paper bag was all part of the Fosters experience also.

UHMWPE fibre then if you want to fight about it

There's no question that the dynex type fibre are getting better and better all the time. It's just a question of application.

For me, the best way to compare a rigging product is a comparison with diameter and tested load being the constants. Stretch could be measured in mm per M at that given load. That way it’s very easy to compare a new development against the current products. To make a stretchy fibre perform better, you need to increase diameter, which in turn increases the weight and windage. Un covered fibre rigging also gets heavy when wet. So the gains start to diminish. More stretch equals a greater loss in headstay tension (more luff sag) which means the boat can’t point as high up wind. For a multi

Dynex or similar side rigging is fine on a multihull, but I wouldn't go near them on a mono, especially one with spreaders and without a mast base jacking system. Sorry to be negative, but if it was the magic solution, everyone would be doing it. But they aren't because it isn't.

This is crap. I made the call to go fibre & composite pretty early on with my lines on Wild Thing. Although at the time, I did get Fineline to make a special line specifically to be used for this application. I don’t own the boat anymore but the lines are still going strong and the new owner has full faith in them. We’ve both had to rely on those fibre lines and composite stanchions during some pretty dangerous slips. I found with the flexible but strong composite stanchions and the dynex lines, injury was hugely reduced when taking a big fall directly onto the lines, say falling from the

Yeah, they've become popular all of a sudden!? 3 guys at Southern Spars have them now. I think it's because since the schools dropped them in favour of the 420, they have become cheap enough to actually be really good value learn to sail boat to teach the kids. BooBoo, we're planning a Southern Spars staff dinghy race for a few weeks time. We have enough boats in the company now to make a good fleet. Not just sunnies, anything with a centreboard can race in this one. Very casual and run on handicap, probably out of Taikata as it's close to Southern. Come along if you have time.

Any word on whether Mix T Motions was doing the coastal? Apparently she was lost out at Kawau a little last night/this morning?

Completed my first Frostie race down at Taikata. Even if it was the pre season warm up race, I managed to come first, just in front of an 83yr old rocking a grey toupee! Crafty old chap. A real inspiration to us younger fella's. And he's quick too. So now i've got 2 weeks to sort out my rig issues so I don't too much of a lesson when the rockstars show up!

Have managed to get out most weekends for a bit of practise and to gain a bit of confidence in the old girl. Although last weekend didn't go so well. it was pretty windy, but so was the weekend before and she was doing fine. But this time I got about 20m off the beach and the rudder stock came apart and cracked the top of the blade in the process. The wooden rig is taking a bit of getting used to. Although the sail matches the rig really well, so maybe it's ok. Really looking forward to the 1st race. Hopefully I don't get too much of a lesson from the regulars!

Kiteroa is number 71. My old man used to race against him with #69 back in the 70's. Judging by the volume of silverware in old bob's living room, he had the Frostie fleet under control back in his day.