Thanks to Jim and Bill for agreeing to do get this regatta together.
It was great to see three skippers from NH (2+ hrs away), 2 from NY (about 4 hours away) and one from NJ, which is further than that! Thanks you guys for coming!
Considering my race boat was taking on water until I loaded up the interior with CA at 10 am, and I’d never raced a Footy before, only tuned it a few times (at night under the lights) I kept up with the fleet. So my Pip Squeak finally got built and races, with Mac rig of course.
The other boat, with the “funky rig” showed some promise in the lighter winds of the morning before racing. Then after racing, in the higher winds, is showed a fatal flaw of not wanting to sail on Starboard tack, and having to be rescued. Oh well, I built it and now we know what happens…but maybe next time we’ll cross it with a Mac rig and try the concept again some day. And yes, I need to use that holographic Prismatex sail material again too.
Two other thoughts:
I thought Allan’s party favor idea was hilarious. I’ll let him fill you in on that.
Several people have agreed that to do well, borrow one of Scott’s boats. Colin, who I swear was shorter than me two years ago, did what he always does in any fleet…sail clean, clear and fast. The kid is really good, even with a borrowed Footy.
Looking forward to the results Jim when you work it out, and Barrett with the photos. Yeah I was being pestered last week for the SAMYC results so now it’s my turn :devil3:
I am sorry I couldn’t reciprocate your journey to Sheboygan by being there Bill, maybe another year. Well done to everyone involved.
This being my first contest ever, I used my laser cutter to make some acrylic footy symbol stencil templates (for labeling your sails). At the skipper’s meeting I announced anyone I unintentionally fouled would get one of these ‘party’ favors.
I ended up handing one out on the first heat! After that things settled down and I did ok, until my McRig adapter failed in race 5 putting my sail in the water and stripping my winch servo putting me out for the day (gears since replaced with metal gears).
I’d like to thank Ronny for letting me skipper his footy for the last 2 heats. He was carrying a little too much sail for the conditions most of the day, but in the last heat the wind calmed a bit, I got a hole shot, and was able to get a first in the heat saving my ego from the earlier humiliations of the day.
I had a great time when I had a working boat to use. I can’t wait for the next one!
Photos as promised… there are a lot… so bear with me… Also, pardon the number of close-ups of certain boats, my camera-men were particularly infatuated with some…
Well, it turns out that the photos are too big to be shown on this site… bugger! I have posted the photos on a special page on my website for the time being, and i will try to send them to Charles Hall over on the footy site, to see if we can get them posted permanently.
Tsk, Tsk Angus, not back a week and already throwing darts across the pond! I may have to challenge you to a duel for this one! (Just kidding)
Yeah, in hindsight, the kull of the “B” rigs was not a wise thing to do… because it meant that
I was left with only one boat that had a serviceable rig
The rig I had for Orange Crush was so big it ended up cracking my sail servo casing
The new racing sails I cut for Orange Crush still needed some refining/recutting to get the shape just right.
Ah well, live and learn right? I have now taken all my toys and retreated to my lair for some drydock work, to hunt for a stronger sail servo casing, and to implement some new design ideas into a new proto (you’ll be interested to know Angus, its relatively skinny… for me at least )… (enter beethoven’s 5th) when it comes to out to the light… nothing may ever be the same…
In photo 15, I wasn’t spilling air intentionally, I was just completely out of trim! That leg was far enough away I couldn’t really see what I was doing, and being a newbie I couldn’t trim by ‘feel’.
Still it’s an excellent photo. I think I might trim a bit of roach off that rig…
)… (enter beethoven’s 5th) when it comes to out to the light… nothing may ever be the same…