Gulfport Yacht Club Spring Regatta

We had a very good day of racing today.  For the first race the breeze was blowing from the south; coming from the land it became quite shifty and rather light, around five knots.  The first race was a real battle between Robbie Daniel, Taylor Reiss, and ourselves.  We had tremendous boat speed off the line to give ourselves an ever so slim lead around the weather mark.  Past the mark, we split chasing breeze down the right side looking to increase our lead but ended up falling back to a deep third.  We cought back up the next upwind and were fortunate enough to pass Taylor back.  We finished second behind Robbie.  For the next race the breeze veered as a sea breeze filled in.  We finished second in a close race between us and Robbie.  The next race the breeze continued to build and we overcame a poor start to claw our way back up to fourth.  Taylor and Mathew really put on a show in the breeze absolutely dominating the races.  At the start of the next race we broke our mainsheet, ending the day for us.  We finished the day in fourth by one point carrying two DNCs.   Overall a great day and we are very happy!

Hulls on Hulls

We're making progress!  Three of my halves are complete and yesterday we started number four.  The same process as previously documented was employed, the outer skin and core were bagged together.  Tomorrow we're hoping to get the next step, bonding the ring frames accomplished, and Sunday we will finish it all off with the inner skin.

April 20th update

Yesterday we cut out the bottom of the bulkhead to save weight and allow for ventilation.  The bulkheads were also tabbed in.  Today we prepped the bulkhead and taped it to the hull with carbon fiber.  This weekend we plan on laying up a beam, then we have to order carbon sleeving for the beam, tillers, and boom.

Bulkheads being prepped to be bonded in

Bulkhead bonded with the hull

Carbon fiber tape with peel ply on top

Practice Racing

This is a clip I put together of our boat handling and racing using Jim Zelmer's f18.  Conditions were very pleasant for sailing, blowing onshore at 7-10 knots.  The breeze was oscillating and through the day we really got synced up with it.  We made strides in our boat handling, improving tacks, jibes, and mark roundings.    Boat speed remained a strength for us in this lighter breeze.    F18 practice Racing

Update April 9th

         We weren't able to go to Spring Fever Regatta in Georgia, but this let us work on the a cats more. We have been sailing a lot lately though, enabling us to capture some video to share.  Even though we weren't able to compete this weekend we sailing in big breeze on Saturday to practice.   The beam plug has been sprayed with duratec and waxed then a flange was added to make a mould off of.   The part was sprayed with black gel coat and fiberglass was laid onto the back of it.  The inner skin of the second part of Sam's boat was added on Sunday and the outer skin and core of the third part was laid up today.  

putting camber into the beam plug

flanged beam plug

Gary spraying gelcoat onto the plug

Gel coated plug

Ready for inner skin

Bagging ring frames onto Sam's boat before the inner skin goes on