Copyright TheBeachcats.com
News
[
|
News categories
| News archive
|
Submit an article
]
|
News categories
| News archive
|
Submit an article
]
Nacra 17 World Championships 2013
The practice race of the Nacra 17 Worlds today started out with superb conditions. At the start at 2 PM there was a medium sea breeze and sunny conditions. 65 Teams out of 24 countries registered for this new Olympic multihull class.
Today was only one race. Twice there was a general recall, because to many teams crossed the starting line to early. Partly because the current pushed them too much forward, partly to 'test the racing committee' as the sailors call it. At the third start the committee hoisted the black flag, which means that the teams who cross the line to early are then disqualified. Tomorrow the competition really starts, so the results of today actually don't count. That's why a lot of teams choose not to finish. Superstition tells them that a good result today will turn against them the rest of the week.
More pictures and photo credits here.
French Billy Beson/Marie Riou
That also counted for one of the favourites for a podium position fresh F18 World Champion Billy Beson (FRA) with his new crew Marie Riou. 'It was good racing", tells Riou. 'We were fourth the whole race, but we also didn't want to tempt fate, so we crossed the finish line at the wrong site. Most important for us is that we have fun and pleasure during the races at all week. Also results of course. We are aiming for the Olympics in Rio and going for a medal at the Worlds here. We train a lot and especially I have to learn a lot. This is my first year in a multihull, I used to do match racing. Sailing a Nacra 17 is not the same. The game is totally different, and the speed also. But I have a good skipper, who taught me a lot. We plan to sail very fast this week."
Dutch teams
The Dutch teams will be very keen to win on its home water, taking advantage of an early start of the road to Rio 2016. Renee Groeneveld and Karel Begemann had a difficult start, but caught up with the rest of the leading pack. Groeneveld: 'The speed was good and we chose some good sides with the current, because we know this water pretty well. We can handle the ever shifting sailing conditions of the coast of The Hague. Current and waves change everyday. We have good faith that we can sail pretty fast this week and compete with the top. Just like the rest of the Dutch teams. We also didn't finish today, but that's part of the game. If you win the practice race you're doomed."
Catamaran Soft Deck Repair With Expoxy Injection
Hull Repair on an Old Hobie
By Rob Morse (prindle599), written April 17, 2013
Soft decks are not a death sentence for your old boat. It took me a few hours to re-bond the inner skin of the deck to the foam core to repair the soft decks. It took longer to refinish the deck than to make that structural repair. The repair isn't difficult, but it does take some feel to get right. The old Hobie decks have a thick outer laminate, a foam core, and a light weight inner skin. In my case, this inner skin came away from the core and I glued it back together. Here is the short version of how it's done before I give you a full step by step description.
- Drill holes in the outer skin.
- Carefully drill through the foam core by hand.
- Inject thickened epoxy between the inner skin and the core.
- Pull the cores together with sheet metal screws.
- Let cure and remove the screws.
- Fill the holes with thickened epoxy.
- Sand, fill and refinish the deck.
It sounds easy, and it is if you take it step at a time. Read through the directions several times. Do all the preparation work you can before you mix epoxy, and don't forget to chock the trailer wheels if the boat is on a trailer (Free lesson number 1. Yes, I chased the trailer around the garage.) The size of the hole we drill is determined by the size of the syringe tip we use to inject the epoxy.
I used a standard syringe with Luer Lock syringe tip. The screw is a number 8 sheet metal screw (#8 x 1) and the drill is a #17 of .173 inch diameter.
Required repair tools-
drill motor, #17 drill bit, tape, rubber gloves, permanent marker, 20cc syringe, rubber tubing, mixing cups, stirring sticks, paper towels, shop apron, #8x1 sheet metal screws, small instrument screwdriver.
St Francis Spring Dinghy a Weta angle
The weather pattern in SF switched from winter (cold/no wind) to spring (cold/wind) just in time for the Spring Dinghy at the St Francis YC last weekend. There were 9 Wetas racing, tucked in between Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, doing windward leewards with a starboard roundings and offsets to help cope with the tide. With a strong ebb on both days, it was classic SF racing! Just to weather of Alcatraz, there is some ebb tide relief behind the island and this is generally where we started our races. Just after the start we’d barrel off on starboard tack to the stronger ebb. Once you hit the tide line it was like sailing into a river where the short, sharp chop would build. Once in the strong ebb, we’d do our best to maximize boat speed and let the ebb pull us to weather. Downwind we’d look for a path with less ebb (not likely) and then surf our Wetas downwind in the strongest breeze we could find. That was the plan anyway!
Page 12 / 124 (34 - 36 of 370 Total)
