Hiya Eric,

It was awesome meeting you and yours at the Long Beach Mid's.
Your "Rube Goldberg" suggestions for the kite sheeting worked great and helped alot the second day (particularly that subtle suggestion that I turn the sheet ratchet block around which, as you theorized, did reduced the paralysis in my arms significantly...).The R.C. scored me with the "A" cats the first day ( we [ all others 20ft.,PN's < 60} caught the last third of 'em every race), and I sailed too poorly overall to make a fuss about the results...Really great regatta overall!

If you're not up to your elbows in detached retina's ; how 'bout the Camelia Cup Regatta the first weekend in April ??
I'll shoot you the NOR if you e-mail me (managed to empty my mailbox lost your address...)...

Warm Regards,

Paul Kilkenny

Shoot me the NOR. I gotta plan ahead, yano. Isn't that a Hobie event though? I sent you a regular email with my address. I fed my spin retrieval line though the tramp grommet last weekend--seems to work fine but not as much purchase as through a block at the end of the tramp. Yes, it would be nice to get our boat in the same place at the same time. I think we could both learn a ton.

Paul,

I hope to take Eric up on his invitation to check out his boat someday.

And that was me who gave you the 'thumbs up' and said "good job!" as I stood on the deck of a Tornado "T-can" who was sporting a Canadian Maple Leaf on the sail as we raced with you on the first day, Saturday of the races at ABYC.

Your boat really looked great, and the Orange spinnaker was easy to spot. I am disappointed that I was unable to meet you and see your boat, up close.

But Chris and I had to beat eight miles upwind through Hurricane Gulch to put the Tornado back in the barn.

Thanks for coming down to race with us! That was my first real buoy racing on a catamaran. I have sailed cats for 20 years, have done a couple of other races including a race on a Viva 27 from Newport to Ensenada, and a race with an inverted start in a mixed fleet that included no other catamarans. I have even done some monomaran races with various crews. But that ABYC Midwinters, was really, indeed my first time 'around the cans' on catamarans.

Thanks, of course, to the Alimitos Bay Yacht Club for the races.

Thanks to my skipper Chris Scherba of Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club aboard his Sailcraft Tornado for a great day of racing. Further thanks to all those many many catamarans who showed up from all over the place, including you Paul who, from what I hear, came all the way down from the (San Francisco) Bay area to sail in Southern California.

That was fun!

GARY

Hey Gary,

I look forward to crossing paths again sometime... Do try Erics F16 or gimme a "thumbs up" and i'll take you for a spin in my (way faster), Bendigo Blaster....

Paul