This is a thanks to Phil and others for putting this site on Yahoo. I don't post a lot, but I do lurk a lot. My husband and I bought our boat in 1993, and I have belonged to the list for at least 10 years and have appreciated the discussions and information.
I'm going to especially pick out the rigging tension Excel sheet in the Files section as a wonderful source of information -- we race our boat regularly on Lake Lanier in Georgia. We have used the excel sheet before to help with rigging tension, but lost it, so I was really happy to see it on the site. The recession and the drought have done a number on the racing fleets on Lanier (last year we sailed once), so now there is one non-spinnaker fleet in the Wednesday night race, whereas there had been three. As a result, we are the slow boat in the fleet with a PHRF of 198, having to compete with lower PHRFs, including one with a PHRF of 87. The first 10 weeks of the series we were DAL. We knew the bottom was fuzzy, and the rigging was out of tune, so we were just out to have a good time. During the two-week break we hauled the boat out, cleaned and repainted the bottom, tuned the rigging using the rigging tension Excel sheet, and replaced the 30-year-old bowsprit, among other maintenance stuff. What a difference! We now can point several degrees higher, and the friction quotient has gone way down with our fresh VC-17 bottom. We have done three races in the second half of the series. Our headsail ripped on the first leg, and we taped it up, and then it ripped again on the final upwind leg, and we had to spend time to tape it some more. But even so, we beat a Beneteau 34 in corrected time in about 15 knot winds. We had the local sail loft patch the sail in time for the second race. (It's about time for a new one, but we hope this one makes it through the rest of the season.) The second race was in about 7 knots, they shortened the course, and we came in second. The third race also had light winds, a shortened course, and we came in first, correcting over the boat with the PHRF of 87. (Ideally, PHRF spreads should not be more than 20 points for a fleet, but that's not possible right now on Lanier.) Here's a link to the results -- we are in Fleet 7. Atlanta Inland Sailing Club results <http://aiscracing.com/results/AISC%20Race%2013%20-%202009.htm> So I am really thankful for this great source of information. I no longer have to remember where I put printouts of information, it's all right here! Good sailing to you all! Susan Lunn and Kurt Schurenberg 1979 C-27 TR #4255 "Beau Gust" Lake Lanier, Georgia [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
