Measuring and fixing everything

Today was going to be simple, get the new sails and the boat measured, mount the new rudder, and take a little practice sail after. None of this was simple.

First up, measuring the new sails. For many years Jay Glazer has been a preeminent maker of racing sails. Besides being a top sailor himself, he and his wife Peasey rose to prominence as their sails won regatta after regatta. Recently he decided to retire and sold his loft in Huntington Beach to Dominic Marchal, a sailmaker from the Bay Area. We have the very first set of Marchal sails, so there was much interest in seeing them measure in.

And … they did not!

checking the 3/4 girth measurement – off by “that much”, but close doesn’t count in World Championships

The Mainsail was slightly too big at a measurement called “3/4 girth”, the width across the sail 3/4 of the way up, near the top batten. Rats! It’s fixable, but who and how can it be done *today*?

Okay, let’s set the Main aside for a moment, how about the Jib?

Again, off by just a bit, but just a bit is too much

Shoot, another problem with this sail! The head is slightly too wide next to the zipper sleeve which goes around the forestay. Another fixable problem, but again, who and how?

And so now the recently-repaired Spinnaker …

Nope 😭 the luffs are too long. The sail is damp though, and “everyone” here says it will measure in once it is dry. Huh, we’ll see.

So, we hatch a plan. Jay Glazer himself is here, and comes over to take a look. And designs the fixes.

That’s Jay above on the left. The Main can be repaired with a recut along the leech.

And now looking at the Jib. It can be fixed also, just narrow the head a bit. “Just”

Dominic and Jay contact Dan Roberts of Quantum sails, in Richmond. (I think I mentioned the Saturday night repair of the Spinnaker? – that was Dan.) His nickname is “Sid Vicious”; he plays in a punk rock band and looks the part.

Dan is standing by to do the repairs in realtime, yay.

This is Jay’s diagram of the needed changes for Dan. All we have to do is drive the sails across the Bay to Dan.

So what about the Spinnaker? Well Jay confirms, a wet chute is a big chute, and agrees it will measure in once it is dry. The Main and Jib are made from Kevlar with Carbon Fiber reinforcement, and Mylar windows. (Yes, racing sails are pretty high tech, and have the $$$ prices to match.) But Spinnakers are made from Nylon, which is lighter and stretchier.

Jay told me that in his loft he hung a 40’ strip of Nylon on the wall. On dry days the strip would pull taught, indicating it was too dry to cut Spinnakers. On damper days the strip hung loose, and it was okay to cut. Interesting.

So the plan is to pile the chute in the car and run the A/C as we drive across the Golden Gate to Quantum sails for the repairs to the Main and Jib, and hopefully it will dry out and measure in. Will Dan be able to repair the sails? Will the Spinnaker dry out and measure in? And will it all happen in time?

Meanwhile, there is measuring the boat itself! Over to the inspection station we go…

Checking to see if a 505 is legal is quite a process. Fortunately Spot has previously competed in a Worlds, and has a measurement certificate. All that’s needed is a quick inspection to make sure nothing significant has been changed. “All” 😮:

And there is the all-important weigh-in:

The minimum weight for a 505 is 124kg (273lbs – yeah, these little rockets are light!). As you can see, Spot weighed in at 134kg, so she’s a bit heavy. Our new rudder is about 5kg lighter than the old one, so that will help close the gap.

And so now to mount the new rudder!

I think I mentioned the late-night run to Home Depot, to get a barrel grinder, to make the tiller fit into the rudder head? Yeah, that was fun, but fortunately it worked and the rudder is ready to go.

Now there is mounting it on the transom of the boat. This requires some precision, it needs to be exactly centered, exactly vertical, and exactly canted a little. Where can this be done?

Aha, the seawall! Stick the end of the boat out over the water and we have a perfect jig. Of course if I drop something, it’s gone forever. The whole process requires extreme caution.

And so of course I drop my awl into the water.

What to do? (And yes the iPhone’s telephoto lens is pretty amazing.) So I locate a pipe halfway down the seawall which can be used as a ladder. And climb down into the rocks.

A little wet slippery scrambling later…

Got it!

So that was done, now to wait in the boatyard for the sails to come back. Lots of people working on lots of boats. Have I mentioned, I *love* boatyards?