Blade 716 just arrived in Nisku, Alberta, Canada. This is my co-worker Bill unloading it. You can see some of the crating has been dislodged.













This is a picture of what was behind the split in the plywood. My first ding.



The mast tube was straight but was missing both end caps. I don't know yet if it has been out of the tube at all but the upper end has some small dings.

Now hopefully, I will be able to get it out to the lake this evening. Can't plan on sailing yet as UPS still has the mainsail.

..

BobCat,
Could you tell me the physical dimentions of your shipping containers, I've been planning on picking up mine at a depot some 60 miles away but looking at your photos I'm not sure if my trailer is big enough for the job?

I paid an extra $350 for crating for my international shipment. I would guess that you may be picking up an assembled boat. Or, at the least, something not so massive.

The numbers are 17 ft long by 26 inches wide by 30 inches high. The mast tube is 28 feet long.

The crates I received in Chicago looked the same and also cost $350. The only difference was the fork lift drivers were not as skilled and missed the hull with their puncture of the crate. The mast tube doesn't come with end caps so in my case, the mast stepping bracket was bent. Strapping some wood to the mast would probably help against dinging the ends.

Will, just to clarify, there is one box per hull.

So Will, I failed the reading and comprehension test. Somehow, I figured you were driving to the factory, not a trucking depot. Of course, you would be crated the same as I was.

The good news Will is that I used my old trailer to take the crates 60 miles to the lake. It took me about 2 hours to uncrate the boat and admire everything. The afternoon was occupied with assembling the hulls, beams and trampoline. I also had the mast mostly rigged although I spent some time the next day adjusting the diamond tension. The mast went up at noon on Sunday and I spent the afternoon playing with the spinnaker.
One word of advice that was passed down to me was to attach the mast rotator to the mast before cranking on the diamond wires. There is a compression tube that has to be inserted in the foot of the mast and that will be much easier with the base removed.
This is a photo of an opened crate on the trailer. I screwed a piece of wood between the crates near the aft end to support the mast tube. I also had to spread my forward mast support a bit to take the tube. I made myself a long wiring harness with a pair of tail lights and screwed these lights onto the crates.

Hey Bruce,

It is good to see that your boat has arrived !

Hope you get to sail it soon for the first time.

Overhere we are beginning to have fun

http://www.wvzandvoort.nl/uitslag250606.html

I can't keep up with the Blade !

(although it was blowing 10-13 knots and I was all alone on board and I closed the gaps on the downwind sledrides ! WOW !)

Wouter

Yep, I concur. At Daytona Summer Sizzler I was the only solo and the other F16 had more speed (and pointing) to weather ... but down wind I was smoking. Winds Saturday were (estimated) at 13-15 knots with seas 3-5' swells.

I've just gotta' learn to head *down* on puffs!! I ended up capsizing twice on Saturday while under spi'

... and when overtaking a wave at speed under spi ! ...

Fail on either account and you'll risk a capsize.

I was screwin up on my starts and upwind legs, I must admit to that. I started about 20 to 30 seconds late on both starts; I wasn't paying enough attention to the flag signals. Upwind, I'm still trying to find this years groove. Afterall it was the first sail on my own boat this season after have it put away last september. I'm still allowed the "rusty" excuss !

But on the downwind parts, man, I was doing alright ! I made up significant amounts there. So now to get that start/upwind work going right and I'm in !

Sailing weather over here was good, but the skies was fully clouded over with drizzle rain and a generally somber mood. It was also fresh in the way of temperature. But the sailing was great !

I'm having fun alright.

Wouter

And congratulations to you for finally getting the rust wet!
You are being generous and giving time to both the Blade and the F18.
It looks like you were racing closest against the Nacra20.

More speed I can understand, but more pointing I can not. Right now (but I'm gettng better at it) I just point with the F18's and F16's (2-up) and match their speed roughly, on the downwinds I make the gains. You should be able to do so to.

If you can't point with the sloops then something is wrong. To me it sounds like you are suffocating the rig. Is your traveller of centre by at least 4 to 6 inches, if not then try that. Also if you are using a sloop cut mainsail then let off more outhaul to make the lower part fuller and add some downhaul to have the top flatten. Mast rotation in these conditions should be somewhere halveway between rear centreboard case and rudder stock. It is actually one of the first things to reduce (less rotation) if the boat is flightly. Second is downhaul.

Add a few leech tell tales to your mainsail. I did just the day before yesterday and found that I (taveller) sheeted my mainsail in to close and didn't fly the lower leech tell tale. I was sailing with the traveller about 4 inches off centre. The F16 superwing rig really doesn't like it when the traveller is centred on the 1-up (uni-rigged) sailing trips.

The leech tell tales should be placed : halveway up from leech, halveway between top and mid point of leech, in the middle of the upper panel.

Good luck next time !

Wouter

So you guys now see how much favoritism you have under US portsmouth, especially with that uni-rig (1-up) rating of 67.3 against the 62.4 of the F18's. I race of a rating that is no less then 9 % FASTER then that !

Personally I would have liked to have kept the "equal to F18" handicaps for both setups as I had last year and the year before that. But we now have some old gid doing the scoring for us this year (not even a catamaran sailor at any point in his life, only lead mines) and he refuses to do so. Even when I senior him by being the Race official of our club. Go figure. But I didn't press the matter as honestly I can't do that, being official race officer, and because I really don't think 1 rating point is that significant.

For years now I have been saying that 1 or 2 rating points mean most often nothing as the time difference under texel of 1 point is only 24 seconds per 40 min race. Hardly ever are the results that tight that such a correction puts you higher on the the final listing. This weekend was no exception. On both ratings I would have placed the same in the final listing.

Personally however I don't believe that I can outperform F18's and double handed F16's on elapsed time, not on my boat. Equal performance or just below that is about right. I don't see myself on a basically modified 17 year old Taipan design beat (consistantly) double handed Blade F16's by 40 seconds per 40 min race. Not in these conditions. That is asking to much of the boat (and maybe also skipper)

I was perfectly happy when the F16's (1-up and 2-up) and F18's were sharing the same rating, But again 1 and 2 handicap point differences are not too much. I just need to get a little lucky and find a favoured course upwind somewhere.

Wouter

Bobcat,

Didn't the crates have "FRAGILE" stencilled all over them ? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I would have thought with such precious contents that the shipping and handling crews would have taken more care. Maybe a double thickness of ply in the centre area would have helped prevent puncturing the inner layer. Are you able to get the damage repaired under insurance ?

Regards,

Peter

As can be seen in the picture, the word fragile was not used. There is a "this way up" type arrow but that is it. I think that I got pretty lucky and didn't have any significant damage. My ding is pretty minor. The plywood damage in the picture was from me pulling it open to inspect. The crate did have a second layer in the middle where one would expect a forklift to lift. I was worried about someone with short forks poking up from underneath. I think something that almost happened was someone trying to lift the crates from the end, like if it was on a closed trailer. I had a fork shaped hole on one end and no reinforcing underneath. Fortunately VM packs with 6 inches of foam at each end.

I think I am going to leave insurance out of this. This is sort of like the first door ding on your new car. Now it is out of the way.

Bobcat,

If only it was as simple as a ding in the new car door.

The hydrodynamics of the hull shape will be compromised with the indentation and will be a source of turbulence from that point rearwards. All things being equal it could mean the difference between winning and losing a race.

The top Tornado sailors at our club spend the winter fairing out even the smallest of blemishes and make sure that the hulls are completely fair.

It's probably not worth the hassle with insurance but you should get it fixed for piece of mind.

Do you have any pics of the fully rigged Blade for display ?

Regards,

Peter

That dent looks like REALLY small to me in the picture. I wouldn't worry about any negative effects in the hydrodynamics department. Especially not when it is way back on the hull where there is alot of turbulance already anyway. The laminate doesn't look compromised either I would just sail the boat for the first period and then a few seasons from now fair it when you also are doing the other spots and boards.

I sail of the beach and can't baby tender my boat so I got bigger roughness then that on my keel line. Doesn't feel significantly slower.

Wouter

Main sail has finally arrived. I got so excited last weekend about having the boat built and the spinnaker up that I completely forgot about the camera.
Standby for future developments.

Sweet its good to read about these. Looking foward to some pictures and reports.

Do you plan on comming down for Tradewinds in 07?

[quote
Do you plan on comming down for Tradewinds in 07? [/quote]

I have toyed with the idea of coming back. Without boat of course. I think you understand how WORK limits ones options at times. This year, I had a fantastic window open up and I jumped. Lets keep it in mind though.

Waiting before my first race. Just parked out on the course. It was Canada Day (the nation's birthday).


I have my forestay set at the second from bottom hole and feel that I am still raked back. The helm wasn't an issue but the blocks are close together. The trapeze measurement method ends up 2 feet behind the boat.