CCV 4 & 5, FBG not up for the breeze (yet)

"Nuke'en" as Jimmy says, were our wind conditions for CCV race 4 & 5. (20-22+mph). I did better leaving the dock, but save it to say I am still not quite there. Not for "nucke'en", not yet!

Little rip

On the way out we did 4 or 5 main-only practice jibes and got into a pretty good rhythm. Sailing in heaver breeze is awesome; there's a lot of spray and the boat really moves. But is also demands deliberate action and good gear. Getting the hang of the jibes was great. 

Then we launched the kite. Fire one! Filled it prematurely and couldn't get the halyard made. Fire two and we had an hourglass that would not pull out. And on that douse a crack, an oh shit, and a foot of water streamed up from the floor of bow compartment. Bubble, bubble, bubble; I could see it from the helm. Flooding found us. 

Wood plug + duct tape = still afloat

 Albert went for the plug kit. Although he and Jimmy had our flooding under control in minuets, it was still pretty wild. That was our racing day. We were done. As it turns out our balde has the wrong size luff tape so even if we did start we would not have had a head sail.

Coming out for the CCV spring was fun, but to be successful, I need to focus on a heavy air sail inventory, a better plumbing layout for the fwd compartment and more time on the water in the breeze. 

It's not smart to have a flimsy plastic pipe where your bowman needs room to do his job. Back to work! More sales for more sails. For now, I'll stick to racing in breeze under 15 mph.