Found som epics from the Texas 200

[Martin Williams]

I found some pictures on the Texas 200 site of my CS17 that I had not seen before. thought I would share them here.

After my main mast step slid loose (builder error) and my rudder kicked up/kicked out on something in the ICW, land cut (not my fault)  we patched her up. Well, mostly Charlie Jones patched her up... and we have been sailing the Cuyahoga free and easy ever since.  Without my crew Mr. Kim Apel from California i would have pulled out much sooner than we did. He was awesome. I learned more from him and the rest of the Texas200 sailors in 5 days than the previous 5 years.

[Guest wwbaginski]

really nice Christmas gift ! Thank you Martin!

[Daniel Gross]

Nice pics. It was an adventure for sure.

[DLM]

Those are very nice pictures. The CS boats seem ideal for an event like the Texas 200. The down wind shot really shows the advantage of the cat ketch over the sloops with sagging jibs behind.

Some of these seem to show your sprits both on the same tack, set to starboard of each mast. I thought they where typically alternated. Did you rig this specially for this event due to the prevaling wind?  If so can most CS sails do this or would you need to modify the clews to take the sprit on either side?

[John Turpin]

The CS boats seem ideal for an event like the Texas 200. The down wind shot really shows the advantage of the cat ketch over the sloops with sagging jibs behind.

You're correct. This June, I'll be crewing on Kevin Nicolin's CS17 in that event.

[chuckpierce]

Enjoyed Kim's article in MAIB. What a great week that was!

[Tim]

B&B's look good flying along at the bottom of Texas or sitting still at the top of Texas. A couple pictures from BOOTS at Texoma.,,, Merry Christmas

[Ken_Potts]

  Hi DLM,

  My sails are set up so the sprits are on alternate sides, like you mentioned.  The way the sprits fit into the clews I can't pick which side I want from one sail to another.  With a minimum amount of work I could probably modify them so I could swap sides at will but I haven't felt the need to do it.

[Travis Votaw]

I just switched Pilgrim's sprits over per the above pic.  The reason being that when the masts fold down, the sprits will lie down along side them in chocks specially made to hold them.  When set up the other sides, I had to just pile the sprits up on top of the masts, but that made a mess that I didn't like to fool with.  Now, when I raise the masts, the sprits lie in their chocks until I'm ready to hoist them with the snotter tackle.  Looks and works a lot better.

But, the loops were installed for the sails to set in the first configuration, so instead of re-sewing the loops, I just attach them the the sprit ends with a cow hitch.  Works fine that way.

I suppose there could be a slight advantage sailing the TX200 (I've sailed Pilgrim in it the past two years) by having both sprits set on the windward side of your masts since it is mostly a run or broad reach on starboard tack, but it is not worth the effort to me.

[Martin Williams]

I never noticed the sprits being set up like that before. Good eye.  I generally never rig it like that with both on the same side, but that morning I do think we did it on purpose. But, it could be that we just woke up and geared up, and thats just the way it ended up. The CS 17 is great for the TX 200. I just brought her back from rockport to San Antonio for some work over the winter.

I have to do alot of work to the hull. All the oyster reefs and shallow water fishing have taken it's toll. I am going to sand out the paint failures and patch some glass, then coat in a epoxy and graphite mix. I did this on my rudder and it made a huge difference. glad to have the boat back home with work to do on her, makes me feel like sanding.  Yes, sanding....it is a sickness....don't laugh you all have it too.

Thanks for the nice comments.

I hope to see many of you this summer for the 3rd annual TX 200. I wont be sailing but will be helping with land based assistance from Corpus to Matagorda. Soooo... I really I hope I don't see any of you.

[John Turpin]

This video:  http://www.svbluepeter.com/tx200_video/tx200boats.wmv is from the 2008 TX200 and shows three B&B boats: Tim's CS17 (at 1:15), Graham's EC22 (at 2:19) and Travis' P22 (at 4:15).  And, this webpage:  http://www.svbluepeter.com/tx200.htm contains video from all five days of the 2008 event, shot from my boat/perspective, and contains numerous B&B boat footage as those speedy boats flew past me.