No Chain

Erik Schmerik.  I've got Skipper!

I guess it pays to be a flirt!  Skipper got me a new gooseneck quick release this week, and adjusted my rigging so my sail shape is easier to control. He didn't yell at me at all or plop down hard on my deck. He told me that he would rather sail me than a Laser anyday.  We worked a bunch of beautiful races this week.  We tried new ways of starting, and port tacked the fleet three times on starts! We caught other boats downwind, and pointed so much better upwind that other skippers were talking about us. We were over early on one race and still managed a second! Racing today was awesome!

Skipper's bike came with him to summer camp today and said that we had a "no chain" day.  The bike calls days like we had today "no chain" days, because everything's going so smoothly that it's like there's no chain on his gears.  Even though it doesn't really work with a boat, it sounds better than "sailing like I had no sail", I'll stick with "no chain".

Sweet Revenge!

I can sail with someone else too, Skipper!

I've discovered something. Skipper is a serial philanderer. He sailed five times in the past week, and only sailed with me twice.

Yesterday was the worst. Or so I thought.  Skipper dragged me 40 miles to a charity regatta, then proceeded to rig up a Laser that was hanging around the boathouse. He brought me all the way down here just to humiliate me? Worse yet, for the first time in 30 years, he was going to let someone else sail me! I was horrified. How could Skipper do this to me? What would this other skipper do?  Does he know what Sunfish like? Does he know that it hurts to scrape my daggerboard on the bottom? Does he know how to sail at all?

So Skipper introduces me to this new skipper, then goes off with this drinking buddy of a Laser that is his newest best friend.  ErikSkipper says that he's never sailed a Sunfish before.  Now I'm really scared. We launch.  The wind is light and there are only a few waves.  ErikSkipper takes me through a couple of tacks and a couple of gybes. So far so good.  He's gentle on the tiller and the mainsheet. I decide not to try to throw him off.

 ErikSkipper is really nice to me. He doesn't yell at me like Skipper does when I make a mistake. He doesn't contantly adjust my sails. He's really easy on the tiller and when we tack he doesn't drop hard onto my deck like Skipper does. He's easy with my daggerboard. Sailing with ErikSkipper was awesome!

Then the races start. Skipper and his drinking buddy nail the start and shoot out into the lead. Another Laser is right behind him. ErikSkipper misses the start by a couple of boatlengths, but he's so nice to me that I don't mind. I gave my best on the run to catch up, but those Laser boys are just too fast. Then the Race Committe tell us that they used handicaps to even things out between the Laser boys and us Sunfish.  ErikSkipper and I got two firsts! We beat Skipper and his drinking buddy.

Skipper might have the Harlot, and might go sailing with his new drinking buddy Laser, but he's got to be careful. I've got ErikSkipper to sail with now.

Tilt-A-Whirl Racing

Are Sunfish Supposed to go underwater?

I'm glad I'm not sailing today.  I'm still hurting from yesterday.  I raced at summer camp on Saturday, then Skipper took me to another camp. This one was on the ocean.  There were a bunch of Sunfish there too, just like the convention a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get to do too much talking to them though, because we went out on the water right away.  We left the launch area, and as we sailed past the dock, it looked like it was going to be a good day.  There was a lot of wind and a lot of boats.

Then we cleared the dock.  All of a sudden, we got hit by wave after wave. Skipper said that he was a lake sailor and had no idea how to go fast with waves like these.  I did belly flop after belly flop. Skipper leaned into the waves, then he leaned out of the waves, then he sailed me flat, then he sailed me heeled. No help. We couldn't pinch like we normally do, and we had to foot to make any progress. A lot.

Then we turned downwind. We surfed off a wave. That was awesome.  Then the next wave came. My bow went about a foot under water and my rudder came out of the water. I was under water up to my coaming. Skipper just kept saying this strange word that he says when we're in trouble.

We finally got things straightened out, and skipper found out that he had to sit near my tiller and hike backwards to keep my bow out of the water. Once we figured that out we were ok, except when Skipper wasn't paying attention.

It was rough out there. One poor Sunfish got a broken mast, and a couple of others had lines let go, including me.  Skipper managed to fix it so we could keep going.  We didn't do great, but this camp had a lot of prizes to give out and Skipper did well enough to win a hat.

Skipper and I are both sore this morning from the pounding.

Do they make ibuprofin for boats?

Does This Leak Make Me Look Fat? - Part II

My leak is right at the rub rail about 3 inches back from my bow

After the Sunfish Convention, skipper didn't bring me back to summer camp. He brought me home so that he could hunt down my leak.  He was doing a bubble test (Did you know that bubble tests tickle?) and turned me over to do the second half of the test, and my bow came off the dolly and Skipper lowered my bow onto the grass.  Water ran out of my hull from the leak and Skipper saw it and marked it. Then he checked the area using a bubble test. Nothing. Skipper thinks it's because the leak is behind the rub rail.

It's on the right side of my bow, along the seam where my deck meets my hull.  it also fits my symptoms, where I leak only in heavy weather when I heel a lot.  Skipper says that he dreads the fix because he has to drill out the rub rail rivets and remove a section without bending it. Skipper has a carpenter cousin who tells him that he has 10 thumbs on 2 left hands (Skipper is right handed).

Do they make Novocaine for boats?

A Sunfish Convention

Me, and 30 or so of my closest friends

Sorry for the late post, but Skipper and I (and a rare treat, Mrs Skipper and the 2 mates) just got back from the Sunfish Regional Championships at the Wequaquet Yacht Club in Hyannis this weekend. It was awesome! I've never seen so many Sunfish in one place in my life. There were 31 of us. All the All-Stars and their skippers were there. There was one brand new 60th Anniversary Sunfish there and there were a couple of Sunfish that were nearing their own 60th birthdays. The club loves Sunfish, heck they even have a special bar just for us!

Sunfish Only!

We didn't do too badly, but we had one race where everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.  First we bollixed up the start and made our way to last place before the first tack. Then Skipper fouled a guy and had to do a penalty turn, then my outhaul line broke. We managed to hobble through the last three legs with my sail looking like an old wrinkled bed sheet, and fended off a couple of boats who tried to take advantage of us.

All in all, we didn't do too badly.  They All-Stars beat us, like they always do, but we held our own against the mortal boats. Skipper and I are both sore after two days of hard racing, but it was well worth it.  Thanks Wequaquet Yacht Club for an awesome time.

A Friend is Hurt

One of the boats at Summer Camp got badly hurt the other day, and it doesn't look good for him. Somebody dropped him onto the storage rack and his bottom got cracked really badly.  Nobody's fessed up to it and he's not talking, but he's in a really bad way. They dragged him away from the waterfront and put him up in the back where nobody can sail him.  I've heard rumors that there are scavengers that come and strip parts off of hurt boats.  I hope they don't get him. And I certainly hope that he doesn't end up like this:

Electricity and Sailboat Racing Don't Mix

Us Sunfish, All wet and getting wetter

Skipper and I were both looking forward to our time racing together.  The weather was hot, and we both wanted to get on the water. Anyway, he showed up early today, we got all set up and went out to the race course.  The wind was really weird today, one minute blowing hard in gusts then completely drying up the next.  Skipper almost fell into the water more than once. We got a great start, then halfway up the leg, all of a sudden the Committee Boat comes up to us full bore.  She looked panicked, and her skipper was yelling.  Then we saw it. A huge thunderstorm was bearing down on us, flashing and booming, and blocking all the sunlight.

I took us in as fast as I could. Near the club, the wind died, and Skipper had to paddle us in.  We got in and Skipper was just about to put my blankets on when it started to rain. Hard. Now that we're both wet, the heat wave broke, and we got cold. Lightning was hitting all around us. It figures that the only thunderstorm of the day had to hit while Skipper and I were racing, and clear up right at the end of our racing time.  Dang!

Even though today was a disappointment, Skipper had a surprise for me.  We're doing a road trip! Next weekend, he's signed us up for a huge Sunfish regatta. He says all my friends from frostbite camp are going to be there. Two full days of racing at someplace called "Cape Cod". I can't wait.