Go to http://beachmaster.smugmug.com/gallery/1327719/3/62796345/Large

And see.

This is Mavis Harnden and her boat has the cleat on the mainbeam. But she just graps that part of the halyard that goes up along the mast and pulls on that as if the cleat is on the mast itself. A first I didn't understand it then I did. If the halyard had been in the clear before you started pulling then it will remain in the cleat when pulling on the vertical halyard. Then because the spi is pulled out of the sock, the retrieval line will come taught and start pulling the halyard through the cleat while keeping it engaged. In effect you can hoist the spi in this way without worrying about the cleat. You may just at the end grap the halyard in the old fashioned way to pull the last bit out (the part to the end of the pole. But that will not be too hard.

This sounds like a great way to have it both ways. I will try this myself this season and see how it works.

Wouter

Good eye Wouter!

Take a look at this picture.

7 F16 boats in one camera shot, with 5 boats rounding the A-mark very close together. Talking about close racing.

The order op crews in this picture is :

-1- Seth and Kelly
-2- Hollis Caffee (who said he wasn't in any pictures Nice one Hollis )
-3- Gordon en Mike
-4- Matt and Gina
-5- Chuck and Mavis (right behind the mainsail of Seth)
-6- Hans Geissler (a little bit further downwind still sailing towards the bouy)
-7- Tom Shannon (by the looks of the dark coloured mainsail)

Missing from this picture are Fred and Michael




Wouter

This may only work in sloop mode. I would assume, I do not sail uni so I dunno.

I am sailing UNI this weekend. (knock my head on wood please) maybe I can try it out and report back.

Here another new trick.

Use your spinnaker temporarily as a floating anchor, allowing you to make a very sharp turn around the upwind mark.

The procedure is sometimes, but incorrectly, refered to as shrimping.

Presented to you by ; Gordon Isco and Mike Hagen, the numbers 2 of this event





Wouter

It's slow but easy to fix as they are about to go downwind (?). Pulling the same trick at the bottom mark and running over the spi.. Now that is a real "go slow zone" trick.

Rounding the wing mark under spinnaker:

leading Seth and Kelly
2nd Gordon and Mike
3rd Matt and Gina

We should have used this trick earlier in the regatta. This was the race that we won.

Gordon, I still haven't seen the complete results, are they posted somewhere?

How did the A cats compare to the F16s or was there in scoring in this regard.

Thanks.

Woot,
That halyard hoisting trick works even better if the cleat is a "spinlock" type. Standard cam cleats are okay, but usually the line pops out. Been doing it for years on the N20.

63 Gulport pictures in Gallery

Doug Barthel has shot about 150 excellent pictures at the Gulfport A-cat / F16 regatta. Most of them at the top mark. You can actually follow the racing by looking at the pictures when they are put in the right order.

I've just finished the first batch of 63 pics. You can find these in on our Formula 16 page in the Gulfport 2006 gallery.

Go to : http://www.f16.beasts.org/ and click on gallery and look for events 2006

or go directly to :

http://f16.beasts.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=865


I tried my best to have all pictures ordered in time so you can follow the racing. However; I'm sometimes missing a series as the transfer of the pictures to me was not always trouble free.

Everybody can also look at the orginal high resolution pictures. They can be found at :

http://f16.beasts.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1038


Both Doug and the sailors wish to thank Gulfport yacht Club for running an excellent event and helping everybody (both sailors and photographers) in any way they could. Many have said they will be back next time. So thank you GYC !


I expect to do more pics next week. Stay tuned !

Wouter