Century Club: Tim Ford

Not really a day "on the water," so I will mandate I need 102 days to qualify in Century Club this year (it's unlikely anyway), but just to record another Day of Stupidity, here's the April 29 report:

I don't own waders and I sort of disapprove of them on some level because I believe our streams are stressed enough without someone walking down them thrashing the surface with a flyrod. I fish (catch & release only) from shore and that's exciting enough just trying to keep the feet dry.

Epic fail on that part Wednesday. 

I only brought one leader and that got snapped off almost immediately due to some snag on the near-shore edge of a fairly deep pool.  I had just driven 35 minutes up to this particular part of Gunpowder Falls and there was no way I was gonna trudge back to the car and drive home.  The leader had separated from the fly line right there at the nexus, so I knew 8 feet of mono would be downstream of the spot where the wet fly was lodged. 

So off came the boots and socks and my god, was that water cold.  By some miracle, I found the leader in the rifflle and even got the wet fly back by pullling it in the opposite direction of the retrieve. Yay! I could keep fishing!

Then 45 minutes later I had to do the same. damn. thing.

So call it a day "In the Water" and I'm still waiting to for my feet to defrost and not feel numb.

The usual ride being still on the hard, got an invite on a new-to-the-club (and river) C&C 115.  I'd been on one 20 years ago down at HHSA, one that was successfully campaigned by a great owner who did a ton of shorthanded racing. I was impressed then by the fit and finish of the boat and the elegant interior. C&C has built a huge invertory of designs in its somewhat tumultuous history as a brand, and the 115, certainly rates as one of the top, in my opinion. 

We were out for two reasons: one - to race and two - to get acquainted with the dip-pole gybe process.  Considering this was a team of seven that had never raced together before, that process went exceedingly well in our practice routines. I've seen (and been personally responible for) much much worse.  

Imgaine then the horror of seeing the brand-new main begin to zipper a huge tear on one of the seams.  In something I've never witnessed before on a laminate sail, there was one seam on the entire sail, just one, where they missed sewing the seam.  It was glued but never threaded. Hence the tear. 

We were bummed but used the down-time to practice more dip-pole gybes. And it was still a beautiful night on the river.

Picked up a great deal at BACON & ASSOC at their big sale on Saturday, a new CAL 25 main.  With the 20% discount, what's essentially a new Main cost me 39% - 60% of what a new main would be in the retail market.  OK it has some discoloration along the foot....it looks like it spent a season in the bag sitting next to some rusty ground tackle in the forepeak but other than that, I don't think the sail was ever used in anger.

Went down today to test fit the beast and see if there are any issues.

The one stinker with the sail is: it came without battens.  It's a full batten main, with 4 batten pockets.  Same as my old one, but this main is a tad bigger, mainly in the upper roach.  So my existing 4 battens are too short.  No probelm, move 3 of them up one notch, trim to fit and make or buy a new one for the lowest batten.  I've made battens before, using some lathing I've cut on a table saw and applying carbon fiber on both sides. Problem is, I need 8.25 feet....so....hmmmm....

Happy to help break down the rig and get a boat, that has been sold, ready for a trailer voyage.  But there's no denying it's also quite sad.

I had a lot of fun on BOXCAR and the boat did well (in OUR conditions, e.g., less than 9 knots of breeze).  I'm no wizard on the mainsheet, but I think I got sufficiently dialed in after three seasons to not disgrace myself. Or the boat.

I know there was one race where I probably had the travller up 3 or 4 inches too far on one or two legs and we may have been a 0.2 kn faster had I eased it a smidge, enough to correct into 1st instead of second. That's how finicky BOXCAR was.  Fun to sail but requiring a ton of vigilance.

No cleat it and leave it...in any case. 

And I do not mean to suggest in any way that my performance in other races was optimal. But that's it, right?  I go into every race wanting to get a 100%....can't tell you how rarely that happens, assuming it EVER has.

Today, the last I'll probably ever see the boat, I heard a comment from a BCYA competitor that pretty much sums up the boat. "She needs a little more keel under her." 

When we considered reefing in 12 knots?  Yeah I'd say so.