Trophy Upgrade
Our venerable 1971 vintage trophy had a nice upgrade thanks to Michael Butler. A new identical but larger bottom layer of the "cake" was added sometime over the last year by Michael.
This trophy may take up a spot somewhere in Glenmore Sailboats shop hopefully close to the Canadian Nationals trophy which is a 1969 vintage trophy.
A milestone of 50 event years will happen next year at the 2019 Canadian Nationals at a location yet to be determined. The North American event milestone would happen two years later in 2021.
We are still fortunate in that we can attract new competitors to our fleet and with the fixing up of a number of Seasprays to a more competitive level the racing has been a lot of fun.
I hope over this fall and winter season you will consider putting a little bit of time into your boat and plan on attending some regattas over the next few years.
Some Trip Highlights
Here are a few personal highlights from the trip to the North American Regatta written by Don Snell:
- Ritzville, Washington: Top Hat Motel - Great price and it smelled clean, it seemed ok until the trains started to go through town all night long. Must have been a dozen or more. Picked better ones after!
- Sailing in fog in one of the races was a new experience for me. Boats literally appeared and disappeared like apparitions. You weren't sure at times which direction you were sailing.
- Hearing the waves crashing on the Pacific side while sailing along the sand berm in light wind.
- Hiking and driving in the Redwood forests of norther California
- Visiting Ferndale, California and seeing the Artisan displays in the shops.
Upgrading Your SeaSpray
An example of an upgraded boat. Improvements include split two piece trampoline, center tube jib cleating, rudder blade through hull downhaul lines, boom end mainsheet system with mainsheet cleat off the boom, rope adjustable traveller line, barber haulers to outhaul the jib sheet for downwind sailing, 2:1 jib halyard system, a lightweight break apart boat dolly and lightening the boat where possible. This boat was painted with high gloss Tremclad (last of the inexpensive oil based paints) using a foam roller. Other improvements that could be done to a standard Seaspray within the class rules include smaller higher aspect dagger boards, side stay levers that allow the rig to fall sideways or forward, shortened bridle wires to lower and move the jib forward a bit, remove any waterlogged foam from the hulls, make drainway gaps in the fiberglass hull ribs at the bottom of the hull to allow any water to drain out of the hulls easily and new or better sails.
If you have a Seaspray that needs work, set some time aside in the upcoming off season to work on your boat. They are always an enjoyable boat to sail. They say that the bigger the boat you have the less you will sail it. The Seaspray is just the right size, and weight for most of us to handle easily.