April 08, 2009
April Series #1...FAIL
So here I am, looking forward to the first Wednesday race of the year. I got to the dock, with Surprise in tow, Joe showed up right on time, and we started rigging. There's always something about sailing after the boat has been out of the water for a few months that makes me nervous. It was windy, too which is good, but makes problems more likely. After tensioning the rig, I noticed what looked like rust around the terminal on the shrouds. I sprayed them with some WD-40 and found the discoloration flaked off with my fingernail.
The rudder for some reason had some loose bolts, which I tightened up quickly.
We backed the boat into the water, and with the wind at 15-20mph, and a lot of chop at the dock, it was challenging to put the rudder on. We raised the sail, and left eh dock. The water was low enough where we couldn't get the centerboard down all the way at the dock. We tacked once and got the board down. I tightened in on the main sheet and Joe hauled on the jib sheet. There was a loud bang.
As I wondered what the hell happened, and saw the turning block that the jib sheet runs through on the port side to give a fair lead for the cleat had broken loose. Enough to call it a day. We made it back to the dock, brought the sails down and pulled the boat out of the water.
Joe getting something ready.
It was a nice day.
The block and associated support
Where that block should be
Needless to say, We were really disappointed. I've got to figure out how to repair this between now and next Weds. Not that easy to do since I lost my garage and most of of my tools in Ike.
So, maybe next week, I'll be able to actually have something slightly more interesting. We'll see...