Yo Commodores,

Red Sky in the Morning, sailor take warning. We had an awesome red sky this morning and reports from Reno and Northern parts of the state were high winds 70+ mph, and rain to follow. With that I tossed an ODOM in the back of the truck and headed out.

Garth had sent a text message that he couldn't make it. He was probably still busy counting his winnings from his Vegas run. Put some of your winnings aside for the club dues Garth! The dues could double next year, with roof repairs to the club house and such.

Richard, Rick and Tim made it to the Holiday Inn and we sat down for our Happy Meal and told stories about the prior week and discussed the goings on.

Our pal John B, this last week called an end to this season sailing Hobie Adventure Islands. Whew, we were thinking he was going to continue to freeze us sailing the small wet boats into winter. We knew we couldn't quit sailing till he did. Thanks John!

It wasn't raining when we sat down to eat, but it was coming down pretty good by the time we paid our tab. It was then decided that it should be a shop day. We headed over to the shop and we looked at Garys Victoria at first. I wanted the guys opinion on what they would do to it. No real decision was made on it. Then Rick said he needed new sheeting lines on his Fairwind so that was the project for today.

Bj came in with coffee and Zucchini bread, that slowed us down. But we marched on a bit slower and ran new line for the main and jib. We looked over the boat and it could have used a couple of more things done to it like a new out hauls but we had more fun talking about Christmas parties, white Elephant gifts and re-gifting things to get that done.

Tim had been teasing me about how some of us don't ever throw away stuff. But I had thrown out a great plastic box. So I retrieved it from the trash and that went to Rick. It was a good plastic box. Richard needed a White Elephant gift and I just happened to have a large Cow Femur that I found out at the lake. One doesn't throw away a perfectly good Cow Femur do they? How could you ever toss something like that away? So that went home with Richard. I would love to be at the party when someone opens up Richards gift. Poor them... How could you ever top that. The guy with last years singing trout would be quieted ever more.

Back to shop projects: If you remember one of the previous owners of my Fairwind "Plumb Crazy" had dropped a soldering iron on the Chuck Black sails. This created a hole and a crease up the middle of the main sail. So we took a razor to the burn area on the sail and cut it out. The cut relieved the stress but it also left a square hole in the main.

The guys suggested I lay shipping tape over the hole. I did that and I think it worked out okay. Good enough so I can try it out on the pond again, a temporary patch. Of course we all know temporary patches are permanent, and permanent patches fail. So this could be it.

We had a great day in the shop, not as good as sailing but pretty good. Sitting around chatting with pals makes for a good rainy day.

Lets hope we have a break in the weather for next Sunday.

Rick

Ron, I'm sure Tim was thinking of the boat with the name Plumb Crazy...

It was yellow when I had it.
Is that the boat that was had by all?

Yes, Don. It could be considered in your terms as kind of a outdoor cat, where all of the neighbors take it in for a while.

Must read. We should join in.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1784579

Yo Commodores!

I packed up Vic and an ODOM and headed to the pond to meet up with the guys. I parked over by the pond put on my hat and walked back to the Holiday Inn. Garth had just pulled up, and Tim joined us to round out our quorum for the day.

We had a fun time catching up on each others news. Garth has been out and about to Vegas, and LA. Tim has been putting in time at work. Sounds like his plant may not be sold, yeahhh!. I've worked a bit on Garys Victoria bending on the sails last night. Apparently Rick Harvey is selling his Fairwind to Gary. Gary will have gone from sailing for the first time last month to owning 3 boats. That was quick. I saw a picture of Richard in a Santa suit with a couple young girls. Richard said he had painted that large cow Femur to give away at as a White Elephant gift at a party this week. Glad I'm not going to that party. Hope he gets a photo of the winner.

After eating we headed to the pond. That's when I realized I had forgotten my hat and went back. The hostess said you didn't have a hat on when you came in. I'm getting old enough where she could have been right. More than likely she was trying to get even for Richards pranks. But then a bus boy came up and said he gave the hat to Tim. Almost another senior moment for me.

Over at the pond Tim showed off his new tall stand. Nice job Tim! Garth had his ODOM and Tim and I pulled out a Victorias to sail. We had very light air and spent some of the time drifting instead of sailing.

We made it down around the far end but had drifting conditions on the return.
I had drifted on to the side and Tim was nice enough to try and break me free with his boat. Garth suggested instead of freezing at the pond we do a shop day. It didn't take us long and we packed up and headed to the shop.

We took a break to polish off some hot chili Bj made, thanks Bj. Then with the heater going talked about boats and looked at Garths Yamaha Around the World kit.

One of the issues with the Yamaha boat is it has a 4 pound lead ballast being suspended under the boat with a fairly light plastic keel. Garth wanted to find a way to stiffen the plastic. The plastic keel is very thin and we didn't think we could add carbon rod inside. We came up with the idea of adding Carbon Fiber Tow inside the keel. We will see if that works.

It was a good day and we had fun sailing and spending time in the shop. Don found something on Rc groups that we should do an international rc sail day.

Set on your calendar: March 24, 2013
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...9#post23484780

I'll see ya at the pond

Rick

Love the pics you guys post, but I have to ask...is there ever any decent sailing wind on your pond? Seems to look really calm in most of the pics.

Hi Dobydog...

Yeah some times we have wind. But when the wind comes up I usually put the camera away. Go back to page 13 there is a video of some ODOM's out in good air on our pond. March is usually pretty good.

We mostly practice a Zen style of sailing. Sailing without air means being "In the moment" Takes lots of practice.


Rick

Thats better!!!

Very nice pictures.

Yamaha keel reinforcement. Post 31.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...ht=keel&page=3

I passed the link onto Garth. Thanks Don!

Yo,

I've been periodically working on Garys Vic that is in the shop. He wanted the stock sails added back to the boat and the standing rigging simplified.

Gary lives a couple hours away so I've been working on the boat on and off to get it closer to what he wanted. The standing rigging is done. Nothing fancy just basic stuff getting rid of unnecessary spreaders and components.

I've used the stock bowsies and clips that came with the boat. Those stock parts are solid and should last a long time. I added a tang to the mast to hold the halyards for the jib.

Check out the outhaul and note that it is a single string. I usually have two strings one to perform the outhaul, pulling the end of the sail (clew) out toward the end of the boom, and a second string being a loop that goes through the eyelet at the clew to hold the sail down. This new single line does both.

I'm at the point of looking into the sheeting system on this boat next. No clue as to what to recommend. It currently has a Futaba 3801 servo and small servo arm mounted into a massive wooden structure. Do I over look this and just get the boat back on the water?

Rick

Tims deck looks outstanding.

I agree Schrott, Tims deck is awesome. Tim has a passion for J boats. He spent a long time studying full scale J boats and knew what he wanted before he started building. His goal was to build a modern J and his color choice and design weren't done by chance.

Richard has also done excellent work on two Canterbury J's. Richards has a back ground in working with exotic woods and helped our club move ahead with wooden decks. I really like the deck house Richard made. He also does really nice work in Brass with his fittings.

We are lucky to have some really good craftsmen in the club. Each time we see something new one of our guys have done it pushes the rest of us to try and build better.

We have a fun group of guys to sail with, I'm looking forward to the next build and 2013.

Rick