Anyone racing their CS17?

[Davo]

Gday all - I want to do a bit more racing with my CS17 and am finding that the race organisers want to know the handicap of the boat - has anyone had a racing handicap worked out - I can do it here in Australia but its a bit of a job to have it worked out by Yachting Australia. Any leads greatfully received. If someone has had it worked out in the US maybe you could include the handicaps of some other classes so I can compare the US system to the OZ system and work it out from there.

BTW Im back on the water after a major (3 year!) rebuild of the boat and enjoying some summer/early Autumn sailing - great!

Thanks and good building/sailing/dreaming

Davo

[Mike Vacanti]

What happened to your boat that required it to be rebuilt?

[Davo]

Gday Mike - Long story, here goes .... I bought the boat from the guy who build it (it was probably 2-3 years old) - sailed it for a season and had trouble with the boats balance in mod-heavy winds (I couldnt stop it rounding up in gusts - extreame weather helm!). Anyway I got hold of some of the building measurements and realised he had put the centre board a good 9 inches too far forward!  :shock: Which of course changes the whole centre of effort of the boat. He had changed the mizzen mast thwart and step into some craxy box and bolt affair (I guess he thought the original design wasn't beefy enough) and this forced him to push the centrecase forward. I guess he didn't think it would matter? :???:

Anyway - I bit the bullet and decided to shift it back to it's rightful place - I was just going to do a cut and paste job - but the further I went, the more shoddy workmanship I found, which made me go further and the more shoddy .... (etc -you get the picture). This included dry rot in the seats, dry and chalky seat joins, rusting fasteners, no profiles on the centreboard and rudder, etc. 

So ... these issues along with my tendency for perfectionisim and an understanding (mostly) wife led me to basicaly rip out all the internal structure (except for the seat sides aft of the thwart), sand back to bare timber, rebuild seats, thwart and centreboard case with new timber, epoxy coat and paint throughout, sand back and paint the hull and topsides, profile the centreboard and rudder blade, fit new running gear to original specs, new marine grade bottom mast sections (bent the other cheapo ones)....good fun and lots of learning! (I probably could have build 2 boats from scratch in the same time! )

Anyway Im back on the water now and she goes like a dream - just the way the designer intended. Morals of the story? .... don't stuff around with good design and buyer beware!

cheers

Davo

[Mike Vacanti]

Davo, thanks for the explanation. I've had similar rebuilding adventures with my Bolger Junebug. I find that it is a lot more work tearing things apart and putting them back together again than building from scratch. I've made so many mods that it is hardly worth it to put on a careful coat of paint since I'll likely be tearing it apart again soon enough. Hope you enjoy the fruits of your hard work. If you feel like it, posting a picture or two of your boat would be fun.

[Gordy Hill]

I never raced around the bouys, but I sailed my CS17 twice in the Great Race. It's very competive with a Sea Pearl........unless Graham's sailing the CS 17. Then there's no contest.

[Davo]

thanks Gordy - took the CS17 out on the weekend and had some fun racing against dinghies and trailer sailers - a bit more wind and i reakon i would have been up there!

cheers

Davo

[Dale Niemann]

"Man invented the slowest form of transportation - the sailboat - then decided to race them". - Philosopher Unknown

Racing has never turned me on much. When I get to the water on the boat I have reached my destination.

Dale