Well I know you guys had wind, so how was it? <img src=
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An A2 pulled out the rear beam, A2 rounding A mark capsized breaking mast, multiple flips and that was yesterday!
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Ouch, not your boat I hope!
Great party! Conditions were challenging. By all accounts the broken A cat mast was during a spectacular pitch-pole. I'll let the eye witnesses fill you in. I think there are photos.
Unofficial results (hope I remember correctly)!
A cats:
1 Brett Moss
2 Woody Cope
3 Bob Webbon
F16:
1 Matt and Gina
2 Seth and Stefan
3 Terry Back
Bob W:
Way to go. Show them how us Texans can sail!!! Hope to get DK-17 built in 2008 by Lars Guck, see you out there on circuit.
Doug
Any damage to an F16 ?
Wouter
Any damage to an F16 ?
Wouter
None that I'm aware of. Lots of capsizes.
Mast breakages in A class cats are quite common expecially after capzises or pichpoolings, but I never heard before about a rear beam pulled out on a A class cats where strains are relatively low.
Bob did you have the opportunity to have a look at the damaged A2?
According to yr opinion which is the explanation of the failure?
Thanks
I heard the hull saddles were still connected to the beam when it ripped out.
Bob did you have the opportunity to have a look at the damaged A2?
According to yr opinion which is the explanation of the failure?
Catfan,
I was in contact with Bret Moss and had a lengthy conversation with him Sat nite. I'm going to reserve my comments on how the beam pulled out. From a potential A cat owner perspective, I will say it should not have happened(IMHO).
Bob
Just got off the phone with BobH. He put in the wrong beam bolt and that is the reason the beam came off the hull.
Bob <img src=
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So this misfortune occurred to the A2 of the USACA President Bob Hodges!
If I am right he bought the 2005 NA winning boat from Pete Melvin. I heard that the same boat had some troubles also at the recent A class Midwinters in Florida.
However I find quite surprising that a talented and very experienced catsailor such as Bob H (and an engineering in the real life) could have done such a mistake.
I guess we are all human after all!!
Here Here! Just ask a certain former N20 sailor (also an engineer), who hosts a certain 1 design site, why he chose to fly his spinnaker upside down at one regatta...
Damn it Stank! <img src=
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For the record, we were on a Rogers 24 not a catamaran, and it wasn't me that hooked up the chute.
Having said that, it was damn funny when the skip looked at the spin and said
6... 6.... I thought we were sail number 9...
Rum might have had something to do with it, oh yeah, and Jane's Addiction.
Oops! Chris Cordes finished third in the A cat fleet. My apologies.
If I am right he bought the 2005 NA winning boat from Pete Melvin. I heard that the same boat had some troubles also at the recent A class Midwinters in Florida.
However I find quite surprising that a talented and very experienced catsailor such as Bob H (and an engineering in the real life) could have done such a mistake.
Catfan,
If you are going to make spin statements like that above, at least have the courage to use your real name.
My boat just spent 6 weeks at DIVERSIFIED MARINE in Mobile, AL getting the
pimp my ride
treatment from Don Brennan who is now the official boatwright for the US Sailing team. Don does outstanding work. I wanted the boat completely prepped for the upcoming sailing season including the worlds and our list included fairing and painting the hulls (we sanded down the gel coat, very thin to begin with and resprayed with Imron), a new deck non-skid (light grey Awlgrip), stiffened and painted the HALL mast white (to protect it from the hot summer sun), installed a carbon traveller mount, added some additional carbon reinforcements to the rudders and re-faired, and added a daggerboard uphaul system. The results are stunning and I have to say I probably have the best looking A2/A3 currently in the fleet. I like my boat to look GOOD, it psyches me up for racing.
Needless to say the boat was completely dis-assembled for this project and I had a tight schedule putting it back together and getting to Gulfport. I did make the mistake of installing the wrong beam bolt (too short) on both inboard rear beam bolt holes and the result was the bolts only threaded into the non-structural putty used for setting the hull cant in the beam sockets. As soon as I loaded the boat up the putty literally popped loose from both beam sockets. At first, we thought the threaded plate the bolt is supposed to thread into had pulled loose but it seemed strange it would happen to both. It took half a day for me to figure out what happened and was pretty embarressing since I had driven 10 hours to sail this event. The boat is back at DIVERSIFIED MARINE and will be repaired by the end of the week.
This boat is the 2005 NAC winning platform. Structurally it has been perfect except for some issues with rudders cracking. Morelli and Melvin have sent me new rudders overnight each time this happened (twice) and they now have the problem solved.
Catfan, regarding the midwinters, I broke a homemade boom but that was due to using a new mainsail that was slightly shorter on the foot resulting in the clew tiedown moving just in front of the reinforcement I installed for loading. I switched back to the stock boom supplied by Nacra and only missed one race.
Bob Hodges
A2 USA 230
If you are going to make spin statements like that above, at least have the courage to use your real name.
A little detective work, a little study of linguistics, and I'm guessing that (without ever meeting the man)
Catfan = WF <img src=
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If I'm wrong, step up and deny it!
The Gulfport Invitational regatta was dominated by Woody Coope. He ended up only getting the second place because in the last race on Saturday he sailed the wrong course (as virtually the entire fleet).
On the contrary Brett Moss was among the three guys who went the right way. As Woody also had an OCS in race one he had to eat the DNF which moved him to second.
The newest XJ owner, Ben Moon, also did very well in the regatta, being the very first time he had ever sailed an A cat. In fact he placed in the top 3 until he had a collision with Bob Webbon.
The most spectacular pitch pole was performed by Rush Bird who pitch poled right on the A mark breaking his mast in to 3 pieces.
Complete Gulfport results at:
http:/
A few notes:
a) Woody Coope got no 4 firsts;
b) Bob Webbon got no 1 first;
c) Ben Moon got no 1 first (an outstanding result for a rookie);
d) the XJ got no 5 firsts;
e) the Marstrom A class got no 1 first;
f) the turnout was remarkable for the A class (18 boats)