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Ken arrived (he is furthest left in the photo), and setup his new lateen sail. The sunfish sail he used in the first race made him weather vane too much.

This is a new lateen sail he made from polytarp, it has a shorter foot so doesn't stick out aft of the boat that much.



With all of us setup, we headed out to the starting line to begin the race. Just as we came up to Wayne's committee boat, I saw him on the deck pulling up his anchor. He was motoring back, later I found out that his rudder grounded out and cracked his transom, and he was taking on water. He made it back onto his trailer just fine, and took some of Lake Conroe with him.

We were just about ready to start the race, and then Chuck passed me going the other way saying he heard a big CRACK! I sailed on a bit, looked back and couldn't see Chuck anymore, where did he go? There he is, upside down in the water.

Where was James? He was having trouble making it to windward with his sail, it didn't have any draft built into it, so he was blown to the end of the cove. You can see him at the left of this photo.

I furled my sail and rowed over to check on James and Chuck. James had dropped his sail and was rowing back, so I tossed a line to Chuck and towed him back to the beach.

The pdracer actually does sail without a leeboard, the hard chine does a pretty good job of biting the water. It slips a little, so without a board, Chuck didn't have a chance and didn't race.

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Copyright © 2003 David Routh, All Rights Reserved Home - Email - Catalog