Recent content by tomsinamerica

Matt.... Welcome to the forum and congratulations on buying an awesome boat! I'd say $700 is a pretty good deal, especially with a trailer. You could most likely ebay it in a couple of years and get what you paid for it! Nothing beats free sailing. From the sound of it, the damage you're...

Hi... About the telltales... the one i love having on my sail is about 18 inches in from the leech in the bottom third of the sail. The nice thing about that is that when reaching it makes sure that you don't oversheet as that telltale will break a long time before the luff ones do. It's also...

Mariner... Where abouts do you live? If you were at the masters event then I guess you're somewhere in NC? I have a lot of involvement with the Opti Fleets at Carolina Sailing Club (Raleigh) and Lake Crabtree events.... If you're around I'd invite you for a beer and chat about types of boats...

i lock all my stuff in the car and then hide the key behind a wheel, underneath the bumper, in the tow hitch or something similar... Alternatively, get a car like mine and no-one will think there's anything valuable in it and move on to break in to the nicer car parked next to it! :-)

Buy a Laser.... Very high resale values, so many fleets you'll always have people to race against and no... you're not going to win the Olympics if you're over 200. However.... with me being around 220, you can compete on a club and regional level. I firmly believe that the reason I don't...

Alternatively Ross, if you posted less then it might free up some bandwidth. I'm not saying don't post at all, just try to only post useful constructive information? Bradley, Keep up the awesome work. If it's a bandwidth issue though and you feel like paying back to the company as you've...

Hi... From memory - although it's been a while since i read this, once you start a series or event with a particular sail, you have to continue to use that sail for the remainder of the event or series. If anyone else wants to confirm or deny that would be awesome! T

I think you can get a finish gelcoat which cures fully when exposed to air. It contains wax which rises to the surface so that the gelcoat is sealed. The only thing is that if you're doing multiple coats then you'd need to sand the surface to remove the wax so that the next coat adheres to the...

does anyone know if there's camping facilities near the event?

Sure as in for a boat to tip over, the CoG needs to move outside the CoF. By placing a rigged mast in the boat you probably raise the CoG by 3 feet or so. So to tip the boat, you would still need something to rock the boat by a significant angle, even the wake from a passing boat wouldn't do...

the cleat may just be worn out depending on the age of the boat. This does happen to them. I would suggest using either a thicker rope or replacing the cleat. With regards to tension, if you tie a half hitch around the bowline as you pass it through on the way to the cleat and make the loop...

Rob, I hear what you're saying and while it will be less stable than not having the mast stepped, I'm sure that for a temporary solution it would be fine so long as it's not windy!

And I along with most others have no idea what a "boy eye" is... maybe you mean bow eye??? Ross, before you rip people, please ensure your own perfection first. As you and most people are considerably far from perfect, perhaps spend more time educating yourself rather than your petulant habit...

Re: Laser 2 Hellm Position ha ha ha... A long long time ago I sailed Laser IIs at school and can relate to your experience.... Screaming reaches are wet.... very wet.... The way I got around it was to pretty much have the crew tell me where to point and then do as much as possible by feel...

That's cool for when you're buying a boat... not so cool when your lining up on the start line....? What do you suggest we do regarding bailers, gudgeons, bow eyes, grab rails etc...? And to the other point... A laser is not a laser if it doesn't conform to class regulations in my opinion...