Weekend Update

I didn't get the camera out of the car so no photos still.  We did get a lot done this weekend though we still have a lot to do to be ready for Saturday's inspection.  We weren't sure if we should have everything stowed as it will be for the race or have everything out or some combination of the two so I asked the inspectors and found we will need to have a lot more out then we realized, including having the rudder and emergency sails deployed.  I guess we know what we will be doing Friday night and early Saturday!

One of the little things that has been driving us nuts was the main dome light in the salon and the light in the forward head worked only intermittently.  If one worked, the other would and vice versa.  Matt and a buddy who is in an electrical engineer traced the problem to the head and after removing a few trim pieces managed to find a short section of wire "patched" into the wiring run with electrical tape!  Once the offending segment was removed and the wire joined with a proper connector, both lights worked and Matt installed an LED light in the main cabin.  He also put a new, brighter, light over the nav station.  Unfortunately at the end of the day our light in our AFT head was no longer working.  We'll have to figure that one out another day.

We also investigated a couple of leaks but could not replicate either of them so we are hoping the slight forward cabin hatch leak on the last race was due to it not being fastened all the way and that the water coming up under the nav station was due to a problem with a loose connection on the engine exhaust which has since been fixed. 

We had to take off our swim ladder for the emergency rudder installation and we had to do something about the resultant gap in the pulpit.  We had some line very artfully and decoratively tied there but that was not acceptable per the rules.  We had all the while plastic covered lifelines replaces last year with uncoated stainless and we had taken in the old lifelines to have them replicated and have the hardware reused on the new lifelines.  In the course of removing the lifelines we had dropped a couple of sections in the water which were later recovered by the diver.  At the time this was quite annoying as we ended up having problems with the new pieces not being made the correct length and we also could not reuse those fittings, however we ended up making use of one of those pieces to close our stern pulpit gap (though we have to strip off the coating still).  Hopefully the inspector will find this acceptable as the gate is not QUITE long enough and the gap is filled by line.  The rule says no more than a 4" gap may be spanned by line and we are just pushing that.  If he does not approve we can take in the piece and have a longer gate made.

We did several other little things and spent 10-4 Saturday working on the boat, then Saturday night I spent a few more hours cleaning up how the bungees attach our spinnaker blocks to the lifelines. We had been relying on knots and bungee material doesn't really hold a knot well, so know most of them have metal clamps, covered with heat shrink.  I have a few more to do.

Sunday we had a two + hour team meeting and went through the whole inspection checklist and our to do list to make sure we had everything covered.  We were going to discuss the last race and our crash but we never got to either, though we did have the chance to compliment our foredeck on their great (and fast) headsail change!

From my question to the inspectors I found I have to have ALL the extra water and not just the emergency water aboard and stowed for the inspection.  We need to carry 105 gallons (7 crew times 15 gallons per) including 7 gallons of emergency water.  The tank that came with the boat holds 50 gallons and I cannot remember if the one we had made holds 35 or 40 so I am figuring in 35.  That leaves me needing 20 more gallons.  My 7 of emergency water is 2 of the 2.5 gallon containers plus 3 1 gal jugs.  I think for the rest I will do 2.5 gallon containers (I think I will go ahead and get 6 and have a little extra) though I am not sure where exactly I am going to stow them.  I have a few ideas but hopefully nobody else is eyeballing the same locations for something else!  I think I will go to the store at lunch and buy them, then run over to the boat and see where I can put them.