Splooge-n-Go

Decided I was having some trunk flex issues with the new trunk so rocked the methacrylate and some old nomex/carbon plate this morning and gave it some little rampart-like buttresses, more horiz than vert if that makes any sense. 

I have learned from Gui not to let any repair job stand between me and the water if the wind is blowing - that guy is a genius at going sailing no matter what. Bill broke Gui's gantry one afternoon, and rather than pack it in, Gui took a few spanners, duct taped them onto the broken tube like his boat was the Terminator, and went right back out. The "Don't take no for an answer" school of Mothing.

So when it was time to put my thrice-repaired tramp back on and head for the club today, but the little voice in my head just wouldn't let me out of the garage without some little rampy buttresses, the thought of Gui's spanners, some Home Depot methacrylate and the belt sander somehow converged in my head, and BAM - a little carbon pyramid, minus a couple of sides. Perfect.

The boat is behaving itself really well for having just been gutted; not ready for prime time but in flat conditions doing everything a Moth should do, and some things better than Moths have done. So that is gratifying.

The lumps are more challenging but I am progressively coming to terms with them. Learning some lessons the easy way and some the hard; had one great pitchpole today which was fun as it hadn't happened in some time.

Upwind seems pretty well sorted though it had a mind of its own through the lumpy stuff at the end of the channel today and didn't want to stay in the water at times.

First foiling gybes on the new foil, which was sort of exciting. You don't do that with a Moth until you can trust it to hold altitude pretty well. Small step, but progress nonetheless - it's only the third time I've sailed the new foil so I feel pretty good about how things are going. 

Toward dusk with the wind fading I attempted to obey the 5mph speed limit coming back up the channel, but could not manage to go that slowly when foiling seemed possible. So I heated it up on a reach aimed straight at the windward rock jetty, which was only about 200 feet away. The fishermen and I are getting accustomed to each other; some of the kids freak out when they see me heading straight for them, only to pull a last minute tack or whatever, but mostly people just watch. This time I got airborne just in time to bear off in the lee of the rocks and go foiling downwind for a few hundred yards right along the jetty, maybe fifteen feet to leeward of it. I was so close I could hear people speaking quite clearly to each other in quiet voices as I foiled past. That was the only noise apart from the splash of my wand. Eventually a lull forced me to gybe away, heading straight for the other jetty now and a shoal, approaching rapidly. Pulled out the third gybe of the day and hooked back up in time to keep it rolling. Now I was perfectly lined up on the big boat finish line with a whole fleet of 44 foot whatevers behind me in the channel. The new foil holds altitude lots better than the old in the light stuff - kept thinking I would drop off foils as the breeze was really light now, but I just kept foiling straight across their finish line, at which point the RC were kind enough to give me a hoot and a cheer. Amazing how foilers continue to elicit these spontaneous gestures of support from people - I'd have thought fatigue would have set in by now. Then again, I am the only foiler here.

More sorting tomorrow. Still plenty to be done.