Today was a good day of looking at sails and sorting out some details in boat systems. We were off the dock around 11 am. I struggled a little to get our new big head main on, but after a few different techniques, we finally found a solution to getting it plugged in. Basically, the main is so big at the head, that the weight and angle of the battens make it very awkward to plug into the headboard car and top batten car. Once the main went up, we looked at our new Fractional 0. This sail is to replace our very successful Fro. This new sail is designed to take advantage of the rating rule for Transpac and make sure we have a good sail for the first part of the race. We also looked at our very large new kites that are bigger and try to take advantage of our longer stern. We came in around 3:30 and then went right into boat work mode. We had a small repair to perform on the headfoil, tighten our bobstay lashing, work on water maker and water storage systems…
Ryan (Super Nipper) has been a huge help to our team. He is constantly working on the boat and taking on an ever growing list of jobs. Guys like him are key to a team to keep getting projects done when the sailors leave the boat.
I also noticed some impressive sail making skills today. Yesterday, part of the main was hitting the lock and forcing the lock to open. So part of the main had to be cut away to solve this issue. Blue (Tomac – those of you who have seen Old School should understand the reference) took a battery operate jig saw, and without tracing or measuring, and ignoring all OSHA rules, held the head of the main in hand, and cut the offending piece of cloth. Pure Skill!
Hap enjoying the once again modified Bella Mente. He's standing, on the new section of boat.
