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Mosquito sails


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After a herculean effort by team Alan, Mosquito was launched yesterday evening and a quick test sail before loading up within minutes of the final deadline and driving south for the Ultimate Florida Challenge.

She sailed beautifully, lots of power, easily driven and well balanced. Alan will have 1200 miles to get to know her over the next couple of weeks. She was named after the "Wooden Wonder" the WW2 fighter bomber Mosquito and because of the number of insect namesakes that became encapsulated in the epoxy.

Anyone wanting to follow the race can log onto the Watertribe website and follow the Spot tracks. Alan's tribal name is SOS. The race starts on Saturday morning at 7:00 am from Tampa Bay and will circumnavigate Floridapost-127-0-43418800-1330575502_thumb.jpg

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Congrats Alan, Graham, families and all creating such a neat and hopefully winning boat. So glad she sails as fine as she looks. Will be mid/south FL in a week for the month and will be tracking and trying to catch a view. Fair, firm and steady winds and safe seas! Go Dawn and Alan!! R

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I was in the shop in August just a few days before their visitor came in and rearranged all the furniture. Mosquito looked then about as it does in Charlie's photo. Somebody did a lot of work in a hurry, but deadlines will do that for you......and probably without all the drama of an Orange County Chopper episode.

To those who have not met him, Alan is great kid, and at a relatively young age, quit an accomplished sailor and great hand to have working in your boat shed. He is the kind of kid most of us would like to clean up, take home and claim as our own.

To Alan, fair winds and all the best on your adventure!

PS: Would love to see the video of that boat with that skipper on a beam reach in 15 to 20 knots of wind. Yikes.

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I have talked to Alan. They have not left the beach yet. During the sail from the launch to the beach they found a few issues with the boat that did not show up during the quiet test sail. The water stays stretched out of adjustment and at least one leaked into the main hull. The rudder hold down was too stretchy. The self tacking jib setup slipped and a couple of other minor issues.

Instead of launching into the fresh headwinds at the start they rushed to the nearest West Marine store and worked all day on fixing the issues.

The wind continued to increase through the day, I looked at Sail flow site for Tampa day, the highest gust recorded was 35 knots from the south. The wind shifted nw this morning and has been moderating. Alan was planning a test sail this afternoon and an early departure tomorrow morning.

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Team B&B (SandyBottom and SOS) left Ft. Desoto at 10am on Monday and have now reached Key Largo (finish line for the EC) at 8:00pm on Thursday. The "Mosquito" trimaran was fully reefed almost the entire way due to high winds this year in the EC.

The EC is the first leg of their adventure race circumnavigating Florida.

--Paul (DancesWithSandyBottom)

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After a herculean effort by team Alan, Mosquito was launched yesterday evening and a quick test sail before loading up within minutes of the final deadline and driving south for the Ultimate Florida Challenge.

She sailed beautifully, lots of power, easily driven and well balanced. Alan will have 1200 miles to get to know her over the next couple of weeks. She was named after the "Wooden Wonder" the WW2 fighter bomber Mosquito and because of the number of insect namesakes that became encapsulated in the epoxy.

Anyone wanting to follow the race can log onto the Watertribe website and follow the Spot tracks. Alan's tribal name is SOS. The race starts on Saturday morning at 7:00 am from Tampa Bay and will circumnavigate Floridapost-127-0-43418800-1330575502_thumb.jpg

Beautiful! Good judgement waiting to launch until the details were addressed. Will plans ever be offered? A simplified 4-5 panel boat like this might be just the thing for the small trimaran enthusiasm going on right now.

Richard Woods has three small tris in his stable, Jim Brown/John Marples have several new designs, the W17 by Michael Waters, the Mark Gumprecht has several tris, etc. Now Alan pops out of the shadows with the B&B F18 meets adventure trimaran. I'm looking for something that I'm calling solo+, which is a solo boat with the capacity of handling two for a daysail or a bunch of supplies for an EC like expedition. Thoughts? The hobies and Windriders and Weta are sorta close, but not really on the money.

Dan

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Yep- Traveler ( my tri) is18 foot (main hull) and 4 foot beam

Here's a link to a video of her sailing fast-12.5K per GPS. When this was shot we were loaded for a weeks camping, tent, tent, clothes, water, food, and two aboard. Shot during the Tex 200..

Can't wait to see a vid of Mosquito doing this. I bet she's faster.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I published the photos of team B&B at Fort Clinch at http://cumberlandsound.blogspot.com

The kids loved the mosquito and they enjoyed getting to help with the kayak. Allen was very patient and even let my oldest Joshua push him away from the dock.

My mother is following the team now, and interested in doing some sort of race with me someday. I have heard from others that other parents/mothers have expressed similar interests and in the next couple of years may see more parent - son/daughter teams.

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Richard Woods has three small tris in his stable, Jim Brown/John Marples have several new designs, the W17 by Michael Waters, the Mark Gumprecht has several tris, etc. Now Alan pops out of the shadows with the B&B F18 meets adventure trimaran. I'm looking for something that I'm calling solo+, which is a solo boat with the capacity of handling two for a daysail or a bunch of supplies for an EC like expedition. Thoughts? The hobies and Windriders and Weta are sorta close, but not really on the money.

Jim Brown and John Marples stopped by the finish of the EC on a wooden trimaran designed by Brown and built at Wooden Boat School. They did not get to see Mosquito since she was not in yet.

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Richard Woods has three small tris in his stable, Jim Brown/John Marples have several new designs, the W17 by Michael Waters, the Mark Gumprecht has several tris, etc. Now Alan pops out of the shadows with the B&B F18 meets adventure trimaran. I'm looking for something that I'm calling solo+, which is a solo boat with the capacity of handling two for a daysail or a bunch of supplies for an EC like expedition. Thoughts? The hobies and Windriders and Weta are sorta close, but not really on the money.

Jim Brown and John Marples stopped by the finish of the EC on a wooden trimaran designed by Brown and built at Wooden Boat School. They did not get to see Mosquito since she was not in yet.

Have you seen the A18-T by Chris Ostlind? There is an article on Duckworks that describes the design. http://www.duckworks...a18-t/index.cfm

I really enjoyed your write up of your experiences during the EC 2012.

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