Well, I'm not Tom (obviously!) but I just got back from S2S myself. I was sailing with a buddy on a Hobie 18 (Hey- you gotta get on these old boats every so often just to remind yourself of how lucky we are to have F16's!! AND IT WORKED!!) so we weren't close to Tom for very long. Finally got to see the Blade in person- beautiful design Phill and nice boat Matt!! Also got to meet Tom- great guy, he's only had the boat since April too! Tom did have a problem raising the main (rope halyard) but I finally deduced the problem- Ullman used a very large grommet at the head of the sail rather than a headboard- This keeps the ring too far away from the "hook" to catch- finally crammed some foam insulation (guess hurricanes are good for something <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />) into the grommet and under the ring and got it to work but it needs to be modified ala the Taipan <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. Wind was relatively light but puffy in race out to island (mostly to weather), then in race two back to the "club" (nothing but beach now <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ) wind came up for the downwind run home in quite lumpy and confused waves- Tom told me he had trouble gybing without going swimming so his results are even more impressive! Yesterday was race around the island, short run down the channel, to weather around the channel markers then shallow reach on back side of the island to the channel which was downwind again. He finished very well in that one! He was on the trailer ready to drop the mast when we made the beach (and we got second in our class). Really impressed a lot of people (including the guy who beat him and took first- he was talking to me about getting a used Taipan!). Ullman has built a quite large square top sail- there appears to be NO luff round! Hopefully Tom will post his rendition of the account. I'll try to post some pics once I get them downloaded. Sorry I didn't take the old Tai! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Kirt <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />