Christian,
I'll ask Pat to write a bit about how he did the jib track. Basically, you
will end up sanding (grinding the bottom of the track) to fit the deck on your
sander (only the part over the deck) and making some epoxy ends.
Just got back from a really fun weekend regatta in Vancouver. Jericho is a
superb sailing facility and the Canadians are of course great hosts. Raced a
bit against the 49ers and learned a bit about the new main. This thing is
sensitive to cunningham and cap shroud tension. Had it going well in the
moderate
air (around 8 to 10 knots could almost stay with the 9ers) but was slow when
it got light--which is every 15 minutes or so in their Northerly and Easterly.
Sunday we did some experimenting on shore to figure it out and came to
realize that this chop top main responds differently to cap shroud tension.
When I
know for sure what I'm talking about I'll write a bit about it in the "how to
sail" manual. At this point I only know enough to be dangerous. In light
air the sail seems to require much more cap shroud tension that I was carrying
which isn't surprising, even though I didn't know. The surprising part is how
little you need to carry in 8 to 10 and right on up (in the 49er we carry a
lot in 8 to 10). This seems to allow the sail top to really work in even
moderate gusts. Sailing in Seattle has convinced me that flogging of the sail
will
not occur until significantly higher wind speeds than the conventional sail.
It was really fun to get out a bit with CAN 001. I'd forgotten how
spectacular these boats look on the water since I'm not usually in a position
to see.
Having two Swifts in the wash down area as well as on the water created a lot
of interest. A BS session that started around the boats about 1:30 Sunday
didn't end until we were too hungry to go on (about 6pm it moved to the
restaurant upstairs)
We should have 10 or more boats at Higgins Lake and it will be a sight to
behold. During the clinic we'll be doing some video work with any of you who'd
like the help. We'll show the best of it over some beers in the evenings to
help with training. We'll bring some other training video as well.
Regards,
Bram
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