The reason for boat balls, an update
 

Late last night, a huge sailboat came ghosting into this marina.
David, her owner and captain usually sails Aratinga, a 60 foot Alden
with an 80 foot mast, outside on the open ocean but he said he thought
this year he’d like to try the ICW. Now…this is quite the
accomplishment, given that the fixed bridge heights on the ICW are all
around 65 feet. David ingeniously rigged up a way of tilting his boat
over so that she “slides” under the bridges, healed up on an angle. He
has two one-ton (yes, 1 ton) thick rubber bags of water hanging midway
up his mast. His boat has a slight tilt to starboard anyways and when
he wants to tilt Aratinga over to pass under a bridge, he lets the
line out on these bags of water so they hang over the side and that
increases his starboard list. He figures that to cut 10-15 feet off
his mast, he has to let the bags hang out 10-15 feet to starboard.
It’s worked up to this point and I’ll bet this New Zealander will be
the talk of the ICW for years to come.

http://strathspey.ca/?m=200711

Jan
"If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined"