Does this Leak Make me Look Fat?

I might be a looker, but leaks are deceiving!

I'm Sunfish 3929, and I'm a leaker.

No not the kind the NSA doesn't like, the kind that Sunfish skippers don't like. Worse yet, I'm  Binge Leaker.  Sometimes I let in a lot of water during races. It's not all the time, and I don't know how I end up this way sometimes, but I do.  One race I'm going along just fine, dry as a bone, and the next I'm wallowing up to my chines in "moveable ballast".

I hate being a leaker, but I can't help it. At first it cools off my hull, but after I get a few gallons in me it makes me really slow, and tippy. I do really bad roll tacks and downwind death rolls.  Then I start to feel like a old workboat. I can't move and Skipper doesn't like it when I'm that way. Sometimes when I get back to shore, Skipper has to open my drain plug and tip me over so I can be sick. Sometimes he even has to pump out my hull between races. Then I have to bake in the sun for a couple of days to dry out.

I don't know what to do. I've had negative bubble test after negative bubble test. I can hold water in my cockpit and in my mast tube for days. Then once in a while, Boom!  water sloshing through my hull like it was the ocean. I think I may need to see a specialist.

Skipper + Me Forever!

Me and Skipper - as it should be (Photo by Bob Gaffney)

Skipper really does love me! I thought all the abuse making me freeze my rudder off sailing over the winter was just skipper being sadistic, but it was really tough love to make us a better team!

He brought me to summer camp this week, and when we pulled in SHE was there. That Green Harlot, sitting in a dry sailing spot.  Skipper rushed me past her, brought me straight to the beach, and parked me on my dolly right at the shore line.  It was late, and he said that he'd be back to take me sailing in a couple of days.

Then a couple of days later, skipper showed up early, and took extra time making sure that everything was just right.  No rushed setup, no forgetting to put my windex on. The beach was full of Sunfish going out for a regatta. Skipper and I entered in the B fleet with 6 other boats. Here's where the winter torture paid off.  We could point better and sail faster.  We started better (mostly). We got into some awesome tacking duels. We each made a few mistakes, I got my mainsheet tangled around my tiller and we capsized.  Skipper hit the turning mark in one race, but at the end of the day, we came in first in the B fleet!

We had an awesome day on the water while that Green Harlot sat alone, in the woods, covered with pine needles.