Crocket

The only addition I put add to whats already been said is keep the hatches closed when the weather gets a bit lively. T/Ss and small keelers will sail fine, but are more susceptible to getting knocked down very quickly. All fine unless you have an open hatch where the water can flood in. They will go down very quickly once that happens. I've seen some quite experienced guys get a bit embarrassed by this trick. The funniest I remember (although not at the time) was a fairly quick little trailer boat back in the 80s in a Wednesday night race, hoisted the bag out of the front hatch, it popped o

I would agree that he will be fast running out of sail options before the finish. However, when you have an uncontrolled sail attached to the masthead, its probably the preferred option to have the sail shred itself before the mast gives up.

I thinks its hard to make comparisons when 1 boat has a broken foil. AT does say that he's pushing hard to try and hang on and he also says he's trying to unload the boat as much as possible, hence the keel being fairly centered. I think if the foil was there, the keel would be fully canted and sitting flat and looking a lot more stable.

I'm sure it's very old logic now, but I did a lot of miles on a Townson in my early years. The fastest set up was all 4 lowers were very tight with loose caps that you could almost skip on. We would also adjust the backstay to the conditions also, which would produce quite a lot of aft bend.

I think I just wet myself. Especially at 1.45 where he finds it necessary to give the guy a little love tap with the bucket. I think they decided it was a bad idea a little late, like by a day or so.

Doesn't Gerontius have a taller rig also? I remember being blown away at the huge interior of Kailua, but it was definitely a cruising version.

There was a Y11 called Rochelle many years ago, not sure what happened to her, but I did a season with them. The boat wasn't even built down below and only had a couple of bulkhads installed. From that experience I can assure you that they like being very light, although we needed a lot of weight on the rail upwind, it was a rocketship. Sailed it shorthanded a few times and a small blade up front worked fine. Still pulled good numbers in a moderate breeze. A modern keel would make them even better. Boyd Smith had 1 at the same time, I think called Forever Young? He modified it somewhat with

I find it laughable that we specialise in gas reticulation and install systems to cope with all types of nasty gases, both highly flammable and toxic. Unfortunately, none of the equipment that we install is approved for LPG or any other domestic gas use. The level of quality is many times superior and leaks or lifespan would not be an issue, but any insurance claim would be a non event. I understand that regulations are needed to keep some level of safety, but these regulators need to get their heads out of their arses and recognise that it will still work if the quality of materials used are

The leak rate on a flexible hose would be almost unmeasurable. A valve seat or stem seal would allow the line to drop pressure before the low pressure gas permeates through the hose. We only have issues with leakage in flexible lines when we are dealing with small molecule gases like Hydrogen or Helium. Then we move to a product called Tefzel. However, Wheels is right. A flexible hose will blister if the outer sheath is not allowed to breathe. Also remember a Stainless Braided line is still a flexible Plastic, or nylon, or Teflon line inside. Its only an outer braided sheath to protect hose

I remember doing nearly a whole year without an engine and didn't have a problem getting in and out at all. Just take a bit of planning that's all. Sometimes we had to get a bit creative to get out as we were parked on the old pile set up in Whg town basin, 2nd row in, but you learn pretty quick. Just put a patch over the hole where the sail drive used to be and went sailing. (Argument with Volvo and the whole set up went back to them)

Can't help on what type, but in my experience even the most expensive guns get a squeaky voice if you punish them with Monel Rivets continually. When you think of the mechanics of how a rivet gun works, you almost need jaws made of Kryptonite to be able to lock on to a little round rod and pull it till it snaps and not eventually take the edge off the teeth, or break. I used to treat rivet guns as replaceable items until aluminium rivets became more popular.

Plan B location if the wind is blowing the wrong way.

The plug for the glass D34s is called Ringleader, which my dad put together with the help of Roly Lindstrum. Unfortunately he did some very un Townson things like put the motor under the cockpit with a Saildrive, which did not please Des at all and he refused to accept that it came from his drawing board. I remember Slice of Lemon always ended up right beside us in nearly every race we did in Auckland, which was quite pleasing as the wooden boats were always regarded as being faster than the glass boats. Ringleader went pretty well and was the quicker of the glass boats, mainly because she w

I would be wary of these SRI figures. I know of a number of cases over the years where boats this size have relatively low volume, so when they get knocked down, they can very easily flood through the hatchway. Twice, I know it was through the forward hatch straight after a kite hoist. Simple round up after it popped open and straight to the bottom. SRI doesn't matter then. I think J24s are very good at this also. I think its knowing that you are in a day sailor and sometimes a very comfortable day sailor and managing the risks.

I'm no expert here, especially with bicycles, but it could be possible that is not the rudder at all. It might be worth having a look at how the water leaves the board. If thats creating a vortex, it could be that it is travelling back as far as the rudder at 18 knots. Only ever experienced it once (on a mono) and we all had massive smiles on our faces hauling along on dead flat water then the helmsman let out an expletive. End result about 2 seconds later was gybing at 20+ knots.

Wow that's another whole new set of loads to take into account. That looks way cool, but I reckon it could go wrong real fast.

Only been caught once by a buster coming through and it could have been a whole lot worse. Luckily we saw the boats to weather of us get slammed about a minute before it hit us. We got the main down just in time and got a couple of sheets wrapped around it. We were in a little R930 with the self tacker on so we centred it as best we could and headed up into it. Still way too much sail, but managed to keep some momentum. I think the race fleet got through mostly unscathed, but I remember a number of fishing boats and cruisers got into some trouble as they probably didn't even see it coming un