Snell Wins North Americans
Congratulations to Don Snell for winning the 2019 North American Sea Spray Championship. Congratulations also go to Richard Braul for second place and Rupert Holmes-Smith for third place finish. There were 11 Sea Sprays competing but unfortunately no American competitors were present. The races were hosted by the Osoyoos Sailing Club with good winds on Saturday and Sunday allowed for 10 races overall. Friday being the sit on the beach day with only one race on that day. It should be noted that Chris Scheuren a non-competitor won the Turkey award for attempting a long distance trip with a motor boat without a very necessary gas tank. Outboard motors can run without a gas tank albeit for only five minutes. Good thing they had oars in the boat! There were a few capsizes but no rescues. John Cormack was able to attend as race officer. The usual format of running races from the fore deck on land was changed and the races were run from a MacGregor 26 race committee boat on the water. A windward mark and downwind gate of two marks were placed and the start/finish line was maintained square to the wind and the windward mark was shifted as necessary due to wind shifts. CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCORING
New Sails
Gary Ford offered some other sail source with the following information....Hi Don, further to our conversation regarding the design of sails for your seasprays. I can send you my notes based on my design and the associations one design sail measurements in both SI and Imperial sizes.
Gary was able to design his sails using this program and have the sails made off shore at a very reasonable price. More info to follow on this subject. There are also sail kits available from Sailrite out of Indiana US. These are a fairly full design but could be modified if conversations with their sail designer take place. At the moment the cord/camber ratio is about 10:1 but could be flattened a bit to 11:1 if desired. Make sure they design the sails using the allowable foot roaches for the main and jib. Having built a jib some adjustment to the patches is needed and I would recommend a slightly longer luff wire for the jib (say at least 2" or 3"). There are material choices as well.
The Windknife Daggerboards
After using these boards for the Nationals and the North Americans I would recommend their use if you want to replace or upgrade your dagger boards. Having built a number of sets over the years the aluminum boards represent a real time saver. You will have to fit them properly in the trunk which will involve a fair bit of work in order to prevent water slopping up the trunk. Even after sealing the boards they still do not float so attaching them loosely to the side stays is recommended.
After capsizing in one race my big concern was not to loose one or both boards. I did have a side shock cord under tension holding them in place but my main concern was to make them secure. Even after turtling and righting the boat they stayed in place because of the sideways force of the shock cord.
They did bend (but not permanently) when levering the boat to a sideways capsize position and stepping on them close to the hull did not permanently bend them so I would say they withstood a somewhat moderate force. The trailing edge is sharp and placing a piece of oak or maple with a saw kerf to help quide them up and down inside the trunk makes for a smooth workable action. I used blue styrofoam in front of the boards inside the trunk and top and bottom was finished and aligned with bondo with the short strand fiberglass strands in the mixture.
For more on this topic see Don's previous article about these foils.
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Waiting for wind on Friday afternoon.[/caption][caption id="attachment_941" align="alignnone" width="640"]
Relaxing and discussing all things that matter[/caption]It's not all about sailing when you attend a regatta.
There was lots of socializing and relaxing too. The Lake Osoyoos Sailing Club provided some outstanding meals as well.
Wine and cheese Friday night had a wide variety of local wine. The weather was great on Friday, good on Saturday (with moderate winds) and on Sunday it rained with slightly less wind than on Saturday. Gas prices dropped to $1.25 per litre in Osoyoos on Saturday, somewhat of a deal in BC.
