Team Seacats

I launched the boat yesterday and sailed it twice. It was an outstanding success! She handles very well with only a bit of weather helm (this is desirable from a performance standpoint as far as the underwater foils are concerned). I’m fortunate to have this pond on the property where I work so I can take it out at lunch or after hours. During lunch, the wind was a bit fluky but had an occasional sustained 8 knot puffs come down the lake. She remained dry as a bone inside and the rig / sails look exceptional with a bit of pressure on them.

Later, on my way home at about 7pm, I drove by the upper pond and the wind was a nice steady 8 to 10…a quick call to Bonnie to relay that I wasn’t coming home just yet, and I was sailing again 10 minutes later. 10knots is getting to the upper range of this rig and I took a couple of knock-downs going upwind where the boat laid over and I lost helm until I eased the sheets. After a long upwind beat and another tack, suddenly the boat felt terribly unresponsive and I began to wonder if I was having radio trouble. I finally managed to get the boat to bear away and control did come back. I decided I would make an inspection so I pointed the boat onto a reach back at me. I immediately noticed that the mast was bending off to leeward and upon inspection, found that during tacking, if the sails flog a bit, they can shake the shrouds out of the spreaders (spreaders are slotted … it’s a long story). A little tape or thread holding the shrouds to the spreaders will solve that.  I also realized that I forgot to cover up the drain hole in the upper right corner of the stern.  However, even that didn’t allow in a single drop of water even through the knock downs and excessive healing.

We took some video this afternoon and I’m doing a little editing on it – will probably have it up by the end of the week.