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to Richard: Dear Richard, The little boats are tremendously stable - in the next few days you will be able to see a movie of one of the capsizes. You'll see me moving to the wrong side of the boat. Nothing happens. I hold onto the opposite side and stick my bum further the wrong way and finally - FINALLY - the little blighter goes over. Wrong sided and sticking my bum out. Boat floats high and comes up through just pulling down on the centreboard from in the water - you don't need to climb on top of the thing. The hull ends up with about an inch or two of water aboard (1 to 2 cubic feet - 60 to 90 lbs) - still sails well with good stability without getting rid of the water. The Americans require a capsize test - which is wise - so just fitting in with the spirit. A capsize is nothing to us red blooded Aussie Sailors. I can't get rid of the grin with these great little boats. Today one of Midge's neighbours who used to sail a VJ in his teens took one out for a zoot - he hasn't been aboard a small boat for 30 years - and he came back - and came back smiling. Yesterday it was the bloke who had done some sailboarding but who hadn't sailed a yacht or dinghy who took his two young girls out. They came back too!!! We won't go into the details of the great exterior ply debacle just yet - but as with the other thread about Marine vs Exterior Ply - caveat emptor. Oh, by the way - We had a race thismorn between the two boats around the island in front of Midge's house - took us about an hour in light shifty winds. Two adults in each boat. They handled the weight beautifully The result of the race ... Midge came to congratulate me on winning, but then I pointed out his sister in law Sue had been steering our boat. And it was her first time steering! Actually they were in the lead most of the way round the island, but we overtook them just before the final turn back to home - sadly they got becalmed and we sailed past and away from them. On the serious side we have had a couple of teething problems. The sails made from polytarp have stretched a bit in the first day's sail so now are longer than the masts that support them - so we'll cut a bit off the top (of the sails) and move the sails up the masts. The only other problem has been one of the masts wouldn't come out of the boat when we went to pack up - a quick job with a rasp will see to that problem. Wish you were here!!! MIK | How Good a Job did we do? VIDEO CLIPS Broadband best |
