Tech trick of the week

Good day all. The UPS man was just here and dropped off the Cabin top, Primary and Mainsheet winches from the NM 43 Tyrant.

You see we had shipped them off to Oyster Bay Boat Shop to have the winches refinished. They are all Lewmar drums that are about 10 years old and the finish had turned very slick. We would have to totally stack the winches with wraps in order to get any grip at all.

Bam Miller from Oyster Bay has developed a way of stripping the drum down to Aluminum and "regripping" them and then reapplying the Anodizing finish.

So I felt like a kid at Christmas as I ripped opened the box and the bubble wrap of one of the drums. They look awesome! they are a little darker in color, they look more like Harken winches now and the grip feels real nice.

I will write up another report after we use them the first time, but from what I have seen any one with slick drums needs to seriously consider this option.

The cost is about $500 a drum and the process takes just over 4 weeks to complete.

For more information on this give me a ring or an email and I will happy to help you in anyway I can.

Cheers

Tac

tac (at) truewindracing.com
616-396-3030

Slam ATS Spray Top

For this weeks Slam Featured Kit, I have picked the ATS Spray Top. On Drumbeat 32, the Melges 32 owned here in Holland by Ted Etheridge, we have a full set of the Spray Tops and the crew are quite happy with the tops.

The top is light, airy and very easy to care for. The fit is quite nice as well, I have sailed with every brand splash top you can imagine and I am very happy with the fit and performance of this top.

They come in either Red or Blue. We have the Red top for the Melges 32 but are going to order a set of Blue for the J-22. I have seen the blue and it is very electric!

Anyway, they retail for $124.98

Is there a sight more sad then this?

Apparently a micro burst ripped through a yard in Palm Beach Florida earlier today and it reeked the havoc you see!

The boat on the left is Rima the CM/Farr 60 and the boat on the right is Harrier, which I believe is a RP 77, (ex Pegasus). This is a truly sad sight as both boats are likely a right off!

Nothing worse then seeing pretty boats off their cradle and on the hard literally.

Bummer in the worst degree.



PS I got this picture off of Sailing Anarchy.

Slam Gear of the Week

This Weeks Slam Item of the Week is the Summer Sailing Jacket. This is a nice light weight water resistent jacket that is perfect for the Spring and Fall sailing days when a Splash top or a full Oily jacket is too heavy and cumbersome.

I have one of these jackets and have used it a fair bit. It blocks the wind out and with a mid layer under it is plenty of warm in the brisk spring and fall conditions. It also is not too hot for those chillier summer nights on the town.

These boots retail for $ 78.95. They come in several sizes and you have Red, Dark Blue, Yellow, Lt. Blue, Black, Silver and Orange. (I have the silver jacket and it is real sharp. Good for Sponsor logos and boat graphics!)

Owners these are the perfect team jackets for the crew. Call and order a full kit for the crew, we can even arrange the stitching!


Cheers,

Tac

PS Again call with an order, mention the blog and get a bit of discount!

True Wind Racing Inc
87F Aniline Ave Holland MI
49424
616-396-3030
tac(at)truewindracing.com

Culebra International Regatta!

What an awesome venue for racing! The island is totally beautiful and the people are amazingly friendly and go out of their way to make you feel welcome on their island.

As I mentioned last week, I was signed on to sail aboard the RP 44 Storm for this event. What a great bunch of guys led by Trini Peter Peake. It was great to see my old friend Philip Barnard who is the crew boss and tactictian on Storm for the CORT Series this season.

We got out on the water for a short sail on Friday to get some bugs worked out. The boat is quite nice to sail and is very fast. We were the fastest boat there and scratch boat by a long while. We ended up losing to a well sailed Megles 24, how the hell do you cover a boat that you are finishing more then 9 minutes ahead of?

Anyway we did three windward leeward races on Saturday in 13-17 knots of breeze the sun was shining and the waves were big enough for us to have a couple real nice rides downwind! This boat is very slippery downwind and a lot of fun to sail. We had a couple crew snafu's but that is to be expected when you had 7 of the 11 crew on the boat for the first time.

Some good partying on Saturday night was now due and the boys did not disappoint! If you are ever in Culebra check out El Bate after midnight! It will not disappoint :)

Sunday morning arrived with a little less wind and a lot more sun! The RC decided to the send the big boats on the around the island race. What a beautiful venue this is. There some some awesome views along the coast line of this tiny island. The white sand of Flamingo beach is gorgeous and certainly made more of us wish we could have been on the beach for some of the day.

We ended up finishing 4th in that race but had enough of a point lead on the third place to hold our second place OA for the event.

We again hit the bars for Sunday night and did the team proud again!

I would recommend this regatta to anyone that is interested in some really nice sailing, beautiful women and great parties. I would however advise that you sail a boat more in line with what the fleet has to offer. Bringing a 44'er to a small boat regatta is not what I would do again. I know that Peter was wishing he had brought his Henderson 30 result wise.

Anyway, it looks like BVI spring regatta is the next on the ticket for Storm. I will know by the end of the week if I am on or not.

The picture here is Storm on the mooring in front of the house that we had. Not a bad way to go sailing each day!
Cheers

Tac

A long cold week

Hey All

Sorry not to have posted much this week, just can't seem to find the motivation! The weather is freaking awfull and not really condusive to talking sailing.

But there is a bright side! One week from today I will be sailing in the beautiful waters off of Culebra! That is a small island off the North East coast of Puerto Rico! I have been signed on to trim the mainsail aboard Storm the R/P 44. I am looking forward to that as I will be sailing again with my good buddy Phil and we also have Juggy coming down for the ride as well.

I will try to get some pictures of the sailing, partying and boats that will inhabit this regatta. Here is the link to the regatta!

http://www.culebrainternationalregatta.com/

I hope that you all have a great weekend!