Tad,
There are many great H17 sailors in Div9 that would be more than willing to help you. Sam is just one of many that would bend over backwards to help. Heck most of the Div9 regattas are setup at camping areas just to keep the costs down sure there is a little road time! Along with that comes the ability to pick the brains of those 17 sailors as well as the Tiger, H20 and H16 sailors. Some of that is more valuable than getting your A** handed to you one the water. They all want people in the Div to succeed
It's great that you want to sail anyway you can whether it is the 17 or Mono. But the true test and the greatest rewards come from being beat in a race and learning from it to come back the next time and be successful.
As Mary said, even Rick started at the Back as well as any great racers.
Come out to a Div reggatta and sail for fun, if you come out to win every time well...........
Anyway, have a good one,

Tad...As a member of the east coat H-17 group I can assure you that we are all looking forward to seeing you on the race course. After the race we will have a beer and bust each other for the mistakes we made. It's just sailboat racing...Dan

I was going to race in the hatteras regatta later this month, but my sail is almost in pieces. Theres a panel of mylar thats come unstitched and two of my batten pockets are blown.

I'm getting quotes from sailmakers about getting it repaired, although, it almost seems more economical to just get a pentex squarehead for it.

Givee Bill Hendrix a call at Mainsail Marine in Mauldin S Carolina. He is a fellow catsailor in our fleet and the best fiberglass, tramp repair, and sail restorer I have ever worked with. He is also very inexpensive.
Mainsail Marine Greenville SC
(864)299-1092

David Mosley
www.seacats.org

Maugan,

Tell you what- this coming Spring Break I plan on doing one of two things:
1) Sailing from Anna Maria Island to Dry Tortugas on my G-Cat 5.7M
or
2) Heading up to the Carolinas to get my fill of sailing in the Atlantic.

If I go to the Carolinas, we can both enter the same race and you won't have to worry about placing DFL Heck, last time I raced I didn't even remove the two anchors and line I keep tied on the forward trampoline... so much for weight watching

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Thats some of his carbon work. If you look hard enough, you can see a transplanted H17 sailor there somewhere :P

Not that anyone will every likely call you on it unless some obvious improvements are made but the sail repair must be made by the factory shop in order for it to remain a "class legal" sail.

well, in that case, I'll just be getting a non-class legal square head and then keep checking ebay for a used 17 sail around.