Boating chit chat thread.

neris wrote: »

theyre trying to make a more spectator friendly/tv viewer friendly sport. Its all about money and tv pays.

Yeah, that was my point - I just think it's a shame that it's all about the money and not so much about the sailing any more. It's like the Premiership in football - it's like a high-stakes auction these days, more than a football competition.

I fully realise that you can't turn back time, though, so I suspect I'll just have to get used to it!

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

That was very good advice for several reasons.
(i) a mast in the water can easily hole and or badly damage a hull.
(ii) stays / shrouds/running rigging can easily wrap on the prop, at a time when your engine is seriously important (like trying to pick up somebody who went overboard.)
(iii) insurers will cheapskate you and make you use any rigging that has been saved. That is a nightmare, I know, I had to go through it once!

If you cut it away and lose it altogether, how are you fixed with the insurers though? We had to store our (broken) mast for ages, much to the annoyance of the club, and they insisted on examining it. Our main (thankfully ) got badly damaged in the incident, so they replaced that as well.

Your second point is very valid for inboards - sadly our hairdryer of an outboard (when it deigns to start at all) barely manages the boat on its own in lumpy seas, never mind a boat dragging a mast and sail after it. No engine danger in our case!

Would they really make you re-use rigging??? I find that very hard to believe. Our mast was the only thing that broke, but we got brand new standing rigging afterwards (minus the 20% or 25% because we were racing). I had assumed this would be the norm?

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

You tell the insurers that they are lucky to be paying only for the mast and not a gelcoat job and personal injuries also! Our mast was keel-stepped, it went just at deck level and was not cut loose. We ended up having the mainsail repaired (slight damage only) and having to re-use most of the standing rigging (it was rod rigging), boom and most of the running rigging. Apart from that the insurers were ok to deal with and quite fast.
There is a danger for outboards when gear is over the side; if its prop hits a solid chunk of mast/bottlescrew, chances are that the cotter pin (correct name?) will break (as it is designed to do) so the engine will sound if it is functioning but the prop cannot turn. Racing cover made us take a 40% hit on the cost. I still remember the pain.

40% :eek: Holy God!!!

My point about the outboard was that we didn't even (try to) turn it on! There was no way it was going to push us, our mast and sail dragging, in lumpy seas, back into the harbour. It barely pushes the boat on its own in lumpy sea - spends half of its time popping out of the water. We got a tow

cricalix wrote: »

For those sailing off the hut today, may it be fun Lovely to see that we've done away with the laundry-on-a-line approach. Pity you'll miss out on the fresh-baked goods - the cannons don't allow me to launch food at boats, alas.

- your resident Tuesday make-things-go-bang person

Our boat won't make it out tonight (I don't generally do Tuesdays anyway) - what's changed

I'm there on Saturday week, don't fancy any (too-big) surprises!

The fresh-baked goods are generally top-notch - should be heavily advertised as an enticement to get more people down to do the hut

neris wrote: »

Do any of the Dun Laoghaire sailors here know if the 1/4 tonner Cartoon had any work done on her over the winter?

Saw her the other day - she's a very different colour anyway! Whether that's the only work they've done on her (knowing Ken, I doubt it) and whether a vinyl wrap will make her go (even) faster - well, who knows!

Wrapped as far as I know. There was quite a crowd around oohing and aahing when I met Ken in the Irish, didn't have a chance to talk to him properly.

And it's black (unless my colour sight is gone wonky!)

neris wrote: »

Royal Irish have cancelled that training regatta for this year, they had hoped to rerun but sent an email last night saying it was off.

What a shame, although understandable really - finding a weekend that doesn't clash with some event (especially since this is a year with four separate club regattas) would be nigh on impossible. The very start of the season is the only time for it really - as well as being of maximum benefit to the participants!

We'll just have to pray for better weather next year