On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 07:43:02 -0400, DSK wrote:

Frank Boettcher wrote:
I was fortunate enough years ago on a delivery to be forced to stop in
Ft. Lauderdale on one of the leg finishes for the Whitbread. One boat
was there when we got there, two came in while we were still there and
we saw one finish when we left to complete our trip.

Awesome to watch those boats sail, isn't it? They are so
stripped and powerful. It's a very different kind of vessel,
with a very different look, than traditional sailboats.

DSK


Absolutely. It made my trip. We stopped for maintenance (we had some
poorly designed anti siphon loops that were attempting to sink the
boat when significantly heeled) but it was great to watch those long
distance speed machines come in. Just being around it was a lot of
fun.

Frank

Awesome to watch those boats sail, isn't it? They are so
stripped and powerful. It's a very different kind of vessel,
with a very different look, than traditional sailboats.



Frank Boettcher wrote:
Absolutely. It made my trip.

A lot of "old salt" types are very disdainful of these kind
of boats, insisting that they are ugly etc etc. I think they
have a kind of brutal gracefulness.


.... We stopped for maintenance (we had some
poorly designed anti siphon loops that were attempting to sink the
boat when significantly heeled)

Pretty common... it's amazing how few boats are built to
actually work.

.... but it was great to watch those long
distance speed machines come in. Just being around it was a lot of
fun.


In some ways, it makes no sense for them to stop in the U.S.
But I'm glad they do. A leg from Florida to the Chesapeake
is a short hop for them but it shows off the race & the
boats. Maybe in the future they'll add a day race in either
the Chesapeake or Rhode Island, wouldn't that be a
spectacle. It is educational to watch those crews do the
maneuvers.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

The effect of heeling has always to be considered. I do not know whether my
Catalina 38 is the same as all others but when I got her over here I
investigated the propane installation and found that the bottle was
installed in a fibreglass cylinder in the cockpit locker,hard against the
port side of the hull. This bottle container was vented overboard by a
short pipe to a thruhull just above the waterline.
It was evident from the rust stains inside the grp container and on the
bottom of the bottle itself that when she was heeled on the starboard tack
water was coming up the drainpipe and standing inside the bottle container
to a depth of several inches.
That was not going to sink the boat if the drain was properly clipped but
the clip had ben left off to ease the changing of the bottle. Even worse,
someone had overcome the water entry problem by fitting a very long length
of hose and carrying it right up under the deck above the top of the
container and then bringing it down again to the thruhull. No way propane
was going up and then down again, so had there been a leak it would have
filled the container to the top and then spilled over into the bilge. So
they were living dangerously but got lucky there was no propane leak.
I have reinstated the original arrangement with proper clips on the pipe so
no worries if water does come into the container when heeled. It will run
out again when she comes upright. But next winter I shall shift the whole
bottle installation nearer to the centreline of the boat so water cannot
get in.
Edgar

"Frank Boettcher" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 07:43:02 -0400, DSK wrote:
Absolutely. It made my trip. We stopped for maintenance (we had some
poorly designed anti siphon loops that were attempting to sink the
boat when significantly heeled) but it was great to watch those long
distance speed machines come in. Just being around it was a lot of
fun.

Frank