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You're a bit harsh on the Fun N Games there Mark. I think it would be more appropriate to send them off at 17:45 today.....

Give me a call on 0212222143. Boat is at home in Birkenhead. I actually have 2 sunbursts there buy the other one is a false floor race one and not quite ready for sailing right now.

How long do you need it for? I have one that you can use if you want. It's a Fiberglass side seat in average condition, needs a paint bit perfectly usable as it is. I have both beach and road trailers if needed.

Sun Fast 3600 Racing's entry just sent. Note for the handicapper- Furling jib and full cruising gear on board!!

Its a swan 68 called 'Titania of Cowes' coming around Tasman island in the 2013 Sydney Hobart. Bicky from North Sails was on board doing mainsheet.

The top of the keel box inspection port is always well above the water line, so you can oopen the hatch at any time. We used to rinse the dishes in the keel box on many other canters I have sailed on. At pace you have some nice jets of water to do the washing. Sounds like the keel pins have snapped but the ram is still attached so its just hanging from the ram. We had a similar think on V5 in the round north island race and had to take the boat over the hokianga bar for shelter. Usually the bulkheads either side of the keel box are very strong so hopfully the ram just snaps and sends the kee

Just to clarify Shane, did you just go in and tie up without booking anything or paying?

KM they are only different due to the restrictions in having only 5 movable apendages. So the foils also need to work as canard to give lateral resistance. Who would have thought 5 movable appendages would ever not be enough!

Here is a diagram of the 2 that I have hit. Note that this was a while ago and in boats with drafts around 2.4m, 4 years for the one inside the marina and at least 10 years for the one off the end of the wall.

Thanks guys, we ended up buyong a new battery for it so are sorted now.

The sat phone we had organised for the white island race doesn't seem to be taking any charge at the moment. Anyone got a sat phone or even just an iridium battery or charger we can borrow for the race? We will know by the morning if our phone is OK. Should have checked it earlier!

We went up last week Sam. It's a fun day out.

The Sun Fast will be there. Maybe just choose a letter of the alphabet and that leaves it pretty open. It needs to be easy and open enough so that people can really run with it. This was our dress up for it a few years back when it was a 'T' theme. We were terrorists (very bad taste i know but it was pretty entertaining and a very large night).

You are on fire Ken!

I wouldn't race on a keel boat in barefeet unless I had no other option. Seen way too many injuries.

I must say that I am pretty excited about following this race. So many different concepts in boat setup and some of them very untested. I would be suprised if the 24hr record doesnt get smashed this time as well as the total time RTW, that is if anyone actually finishes.

Yes but it's generally hoists drops and Wipeouts that ruin kites!

I would think 1.5oz is plenty. 2.2 would be pretty heavy and hard to handle. Normally a kite is around the same luff length as your ISP (halyard height off deck) and your foot is 1.8 x your spinnaker pole length. However in NZ some of the race boats have seriously oversize spinnakers. If you go too small it gets unstable sitting so high off the boat. It's normally the shoulders and mid girth that vary alot between a full size and a heavy kite although some people do have really small chicken chutes. also you don't want anything too flat. Flat sails can be hard to trim and unforgiving.

Great photos Eric. I would love to get a high resolution copy somehow.

Choke choke

Major job to change the boat to take running top mast back stays, it involves adding 2 winches to start with. Probably close to a 5K excersize for us. Not really worth it, 5k is better spent on sails! Topmast runners also make manoeuvres a fair bit more complicated when short handed.

Yeah just trying to make it easier 2 handed and loose all the weight of the furler. We have found that we use the medium jib for pretty much everything, it has a reef point in it so covers 8-30kts easily. Thie reef is by far the best way to change gears, we could reef it and then unreef it in half the time and effort of anyone elses single jib change. The reef was pretty dodgy with the foil so the soft hanks will make it safe and easy. Code zero covers the 0-7kts range OK so the light jib doesnt get used all that much offshore and we have only needed the heavy jib twice in since the boat wa

Made up a new much longer carbon prod for the Sun Fast. Prod is around 15mm think carbon with a foam core and a full length horrozontal bulkhead, we got this engineered by a mate of ours and stuck to his layup plan. Didnt vacuum bag it as we dont have technoligy like that but Dave Faulkner who made up the original blank/mold shape for us vacumed bagged that (huge thanks to Dave for his help witht he project). We had to extend the hull flange attachment an extra 150mm past the hull resess to get enough shear strength and go from 3 to 5 bolts. Decided to make up some low stretch bobstays

Thanks Mark

Forecast dependant but most likely Awen I would say.