Its all good news as we head for the end of the month. The greens will be available again on September 1st at the golf course having been closed since July 1. Playing on 15 temporary greens is not the best but it does allow valuable practice. There was great IOM racing at Gosport last Sunday, The weed is clearing at Frensham and a few IOM meetings are heading our way in September. A great end to the Summer.
Sailing takes place 1 Sunday every month at Gosport with both a morning and afternoon series. Paul Edwards put the weighing scales out for us to check our boats and just as well he did as I was a few grams under and added the correct weight to bring the boat to 1gm over the limit. I also spent extra time carefully checking the setup of the boat. It was no different to normal but I had noted the shrouds had stretched after a windy outing recently at Emsworth. Well worth the effort as the boat was perfectly balanced and quick.
In the morning I had a near perfect session in a fleet of 15 boats with 6 out of 8 firsts discarding 2 3rd places narrowly edging out David Donin. In the afternoon David exacted his revenge and in the last race I had to win to beat him. The weather was light and shifty all day and I new from the start of the last race I was in trouble as I sat in no wind for the first 50 yards after the start. You win some and lose some and congrats to David. It was brilliant racing but required total concentration and a lot of patience.
Added a couple of mods to the boat. I had been carrying too much weight in the radio pot after reducing the weight of my battery going from a 1600 to 1000 mAh saving more that 30 grams. I needed 60gm in the bottom of the hull and 10gm in the radio pot and this would put me exactly on weight with most of the lead in the bottom of the boat. With a trip down to the local garage to secure 60 gm of wheel weights for a £1, I split the weights and positioned them in the hull before sticking to check the hull balance point was in the right place. Once all was good they were stuck in permanently.
The other addition was to stick two one inch thin tubes into the top of the radio pot, one each side, so I could secure the receiver antennae at 90 degrees to each other for maximum range. To stick the plastic tube to the plastic pot I used clear bathroom silicon sealant and a couple of pegs to hold the tubes in place while the silicon set. So far both tubes are holding.
There is nothing more to do to the boat now other than get out and race with the practice rigs. Next ranking event is at West Kirby or Birkenhead depending on which venue is selected for the ranking event.
Here is the radio pot. The receiver and battery are held by velcro to keep them out of the bottom of the pot so they are protected if any salt water gets in.You can see the silicon tubes holding the antennae. Now with the breather tube neutralising pressure and some craft foam recommended by Robot yachts to seal the lid, I am optimistic that I have solved the water ingress issues in the radio pot. The boat has never leaked, water was just sucked in through the lid of the radio pot as the air in the hull cooled on the water.
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