July Jaunt and Jostle

There have been some discussions of problems setting an IC course. A light bulb turned on yesterday morning and I placed a trianglar 10 oz weight on the Windward mark’s white tough closed cell foam disk (1" thick x 10" diameter) as shown in attached photos. (Note: This is my first attempt to attach photos so I hope it works. The files were about 600KB and I “GMailed” to myself and it shrunk them automatically. Neat!!)

Starting with the “Blue” downwind mark and line support bobbers, I started putting each in the water and let them drift downwind. I then placed the “Yellow” upwind mark in the water and placed the 10 oz trianglar lead weight on the floating disk. It has bumps, so I indented them into the foam to secure it a little. It drifted away to about the end of my 50 foot line. Then, I gave the line a little yank and the lead weight settled to the bottom with no problems. This was on the first attempt. Nothing like luck.

The little loops are every 12.5 feet and the 18" steel leader with snap is used to quickly attach and detach the bobbers so the line can be coiled with ease. The other end has a swivel loop which the bobber clips to easily. With the line supports/bobbers, I can see a slight downward catenary curve. The line is mason’s/brick layer’s line that is brightly colored and does sink a little.

When the wind blows such that I need to push it out against the wind, I use a 3 piece (5’ each - 15’ total) long aluminum handle that snaps together. It comes from a snow rake. Bet not many of you know what that is, but I grew up in Michigan’s Upper Pennsula where snow is plentiful and we need to rake if from the roofs. A golf ball retreiver would do just as well.

Brett - When you establish the creiteria for the IC, I hope you allow for a similar setup for the windward mark.

Best Regards, Frank

Well done Paul congrats on taking the win…You have set a good time that will take some beating.

Comments from Roger follow,
Attached is a photo the winning boat, Paul Midgley’s 'GER design, based on the BUG but with a much finer and more sophisticated bow shape and made of Plasticard rather than Correx. His best time was acheived with a 500mm high Swing Rig in moderate fluky winds. Paul is a very good sail maker and his double sails always look beautiful, here on his largest Swing Rig at the Footy Championship in which he finished 2nd.