Straight Laced

Wow, I can see it now. Design meeting #1: OK guys and girls how about a few suggestions on where the design hurdles may lie. It will be like the New York Stock exchange during the '87 crash. Oh to be a fly on the wall.

What ever happened with Akzo Nobel with their crew? I've been looking ever since the start of leg 1 and either I'm looking in the wrong places, or there is absolutely no news regarding the re appointment of Simon Tienpont. It seems that his return has led to the demise of 4 others??? There has to be a story.

Went 2 whole seasons on a Townson 34 without an engine. Even carried a kite all the way into the Town Basin in Whangarei. Dropped both sails a few hundred metres short and coasted straight into the piles.

Sad to hear. We only crossed paths a few times, but he wasn't scared to give it a go, whether it was a good idea or not. He had a 1/2 tonner called Delphin, which he took to Noumea in 1980 and did very well. He announced on 1 very drunken night while up there that he was building a boat to go in the next Whitbread, of course nobody believed him, but Outward Bound was launched about 6 months later and the rest is history. He told me a story one night after that race, where they got stuck on the wrong side of a weather system in the Southern Ocean and got so far south that everything froze up.

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.