Ideas –Friday, April 26, 2013, Mazatlan, Emerald Bay, Mx – The new U bolts arrived before we left, and UPS delivered the new sail numbers while we have been here. 

No doubt we needed this vacation. We both worked almost 28 straight days with no days off before we left.  The first few days here we slept 13 hours and had to spend the day relaxing just to take another nap.  But, after 10 days, we feel pretty rested.  The last few days I have been waking early and waiting for daylight so I can get coffee and walk four miles.  Spend a good deal of time thinking about how to keep the C-Lark from going turtle.  Once we get the hang of racing the thing, we will want to win.  We should capsize now and then—if we don’t ever capsize, we aren’t trying hard enough. 

From reading it seems the biggest problem with C-Larks is that, once they go over, they like to turn turtle (mast pointing straight down).  If you are really quick, you can feel it start to go over,  loosen all the sheets, hop over the side, stand on the centerboard and pull it back up.  Let’s get real! I’m 66, I have always been a bit clumsy, and that hasn’t improved with age. 

To prevent the turtle some sailing clubs use mast head floats—styrene foam balls attached to the mast head, or, for a couple of hundred bucks, you can buy a mini air bag that sits on the top of the sail and  inflates when it hits the water—both obvious, and ugly, give-aways.  Probably not a good solution for a guy who spent $700 to have a scratch removed from the Miata bumper since it interfered with my “old-man-posing-in-his-convertible” thing.  If you haven’t picked it up by now, I am more vain about the appearance of my stuff than my person.   

But  it did occur to me you could just put one of those water noodles inside the mast.  It would fit the space nicely; you wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the mast sealed water tight.  I will have to check this out with some people smarter than me. 

The vertical post holds a bit less than .5 cu feet of water--about 32 pounds.

Other ideas:  The upright trailer member that holds the winch, bow chocks and mast supports was full of water when removed from the trailer—obviously it needs a drain hole at the bottom.  Thinking about putting foam plugs in the trailer beams once they are reassembled.  They were just as rusty on the inside as the outside—plus, of course, adding some drain holes just in case.  Read that galvanized bolts last twice as long when they are painted.  Once the trailer is reassembled, they will get a coat of Hammerite.  Pretty sure we’ll just rebuild the bearings while the trailer is torn apart anyway.

There is plenty of metal left, but the inside of tubes are pretty nasty.

 

Well, four more days of vacation—plenty of time to think about finishing the trailer, painting the boat bottom, mowing the lawn, and burning our pile of debris.  Plenty of time to think about Susie’s counter top and dishwasher—plenty of time to think about Marja’s upper cabinet.—Patti wants to do three weeks in Mazatlan this fall.  It’s nice here, but I’m not sure I can handle that much rest.

Yes, it is tough duty-- but somebody has to do it!  This is just the southern pool at the far end of the resort. View is from our 4th floor room --that would be 57 steps if you don't take the elevator.