Get angry and write some fucking letters

Someone making sense, an interesting/better alternative to open carry, and a very good point being made...


Free Lolita | #16425DaysASlave from Ian W. McGee on Vimeo.

If youre reading Boat Bits you obviously have some spare time to write a couple of letters and just generally kick some ass.

So, get to doing!

Listening to some good music for a good cause

So it goes...

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Dories get some attention!

I signed onto the Wooden Boat Forum the other day and to my utter delight someone else had created a post on one of my boats, the Deblois Street Dory. At the wonderful 2nd annual Fall Shop and Messabout, I finally had an opportunity to sail the D St. D myself. First off, the talk and messabout was wonderful. We had special guests, Walter & Karen Wales, Sam & Susan Manning, and Thad Danielson. Over 35 people attended.

Together under one roof, the speakers represented about the most knowledge about dories alive today. Walter is infamous for his experience with the Marblehead Gunning Dory, using the boat all his life for the designed purpose of the boat: rowing to ledges and hunting ducks. Sam is renowned for his drawings of boats in general but, to my mind, especially for his illustrations in the Dory Book by John Gardner and Sam. Sams drawings are what inspired me to design my own dory, the Deblois Street Dory. I very much would like to produce a kit for the Marblehead Dory at 18. Who would like one? Let me know...would you like it at the originally drawn 196" or 18 or 16?

How about the Deblois St Dory...would you be interested in seeing this boat available as plans and/or a kit? More photos of the D St Dory underway:

More on the 2nd annual Fall Talk & Messabout can be seen on the WBF thread "2nd Annual Shop Talk and Messabout at Clint Chases Shop"

More about the WB thread on the Deblois Street Dory

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So what do you really get for that extra 425K

Very interesting, well worth a read, and a good point being made...

Reading a recent issue of Sail magazine I was admiring the look of the new Rustler 36 and, thinking to myself, what a nice cruising boat it would be. Well, right up till the point that I saw it was around $450K for a "sailaway" version.

Which is not to say that the Rustler is not a very, very nice boat but an over half-million dollar, old-school design boat by the time you get it off the dock for something that performs like and will take you to the same places as an old CAL 36 (or insert your favorite older classic plastic 36 here) you could buy for less than $15K.

Throw in a smart $10K bespoke refit and anchor it next to the Rustler 36 and 99% of folks who dinghy by wouldnt be able to tell the difference between the two...

Maybe its just me but I just cant see any way that extra $425K spent would make my life any better.

Just saying.

Listening to a hurdy-gurdy man...

So it goes...

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So how did all this crap get on the boat

The word for today is Anthropocene, water, water everywhere, and regarding the most destructive 
people in society...

What can I say but its a new year and way past time for a major boat purge.

Well for one there are those scrap bits of aluminum from an old self-steering project which fall dab center in the middle of the too little to use and too big to throw away zone, some odd lengths of 1" stainless tubing which might come in handy if I ever decide to build an arch, a bunch of Plexiglas offcuts that sorta/kinda might be just the thing for some project I cant quite remember, and then there all that no longer needful but too good to put in the trash...

All of that crap when lumped together adds up to a surprising amount of weight but its the clutter issue which is the real problem as all of this stuff I dont use creeps around the boat (I suspect all unneeded boat bits have legs) like a cancer. Appearing, as if by magic, in lockers they dont belong in obscuring the stuff youre actually looking for and suchlike.

That said, it certainly beats having to mow the lawn...

Listening to Ryan Bingham

So it goes...

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Star 45 Model Sailboat GET THAT TOPPING LIFT RIGHT if you wanna go fast !

By Phil Geren

Of all the go fast stuff I have learned from tuning experts over the past year, the most valuable, and the thing that has provided the most additional boat speed for my 13#-3.5oz Star 45 (the "Fat Lady") is how to get the Jibs topping lift set right. I am doing much better in my racing since learning this.

The curve of the leech of the Jibsail MUST resemble as closely as possible the curve of the leeward surface of the Mainsail when sighting from the foredeck. If the Jibs leech is flatter or fuller your boat will not attain its speed potential while beating and reaching.

The topping lift enables you to get the curves aligned. Tightening the topping lift makes the Jibs leech fuller, more curved. Loosening the topping lift makes the Jibs leech flatter. With a little practice you can get the curves to be identical.

Heres how:

Pull the Mainsail in to the beating position; Swivel the Jib boom with your finger (apply only lateral force, no upward or downward force on the Jib boom) so that when you sight from the foredeck and look up and down the curve of the windward surface of the leech of the Jibsail it is superimposed on the curve of the back (leeward) surface of the Mainsail.

Are the curves identical? If not, is the Jibs leech more curved?
If it is, loosen the topping lift.

If the Jibs leech is flatter, tighten the topping lift.

Make small adjustments. This is very sensitive, and you can get it right if you persevere.
Recheck the need for adjustment after every few heats of racing or if you change anything else.

On sailboats EVERYTHING is related to everything else, and you will need to readjust periodically to maintain your added speed.

Dont have a topping lift? INSTALL ONE NOW! You wont believe the improvement!

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