Sunday, October 19, 2008

End of the Sailing Season, for Me


Yesterday's gathering at West River Sail Club of the Greater Metropolitan Annapolis moth fleet was, for me, the end of the sailing season. You see, the sand bar at the edge of the channel, about 1/4 mile up wind of the clubhouse, proved a little tougher than my daggerboard. Running aground at over 20 knots showed the strength of the carbon layup was definitely not in the fore and aft direction. The sudden pitchpole was accompanied by a loud tearing sound as the cedar core gave way. So, I'm done until I can manage to either build or buy another centerboard. Since the mainfoil also had problems earlier in the season, I'm looking to replace the whole shebang, preferably from a builder who can turn out something I can't break (on the production side I'm looking at AMAC or Ilett; otherwise I wouldn't mind buying a copy of Bill's kit if I can convince him to make another.)

The other thing that happened was a blown trailer tire as I was crossing the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, with winds over 30 knots on the beam and the trailer weaving back and forth, attempting to flip over at 60 mph. No big problem after I cleaned out my shorts.

2 comments:

Karl said...

Joe you would be a lot more bummed if that had been a foil you paid $1000 for - and don't think the professionally built ones are any less likely to break.

Joe Bousquet said...

You're right of course. But with a production foil (that I'm just about ready to plunk down the money for) at least I'll be going faster before I crash!