New Project........

Hello again. Been some time since the last post.
Mostly we were gone cruising for the last 2 years.....see www.doolittlecruising.blogspot.com


We are back in a cool house, kids are back in school, we are working, and I have a new garage project to keep me out of trouble in the evenings. I am going to build a carbon fiber road bike.

There are lots of internet resources and I have a couple of buddies helping w/ input etc.

Pictures tell the story:

I wanted to just re-tune my vacuum bagging set-up and skills......decided to try a quickie airfoil out of pink foam:

Unfortunately I forgot that polyester resin eats this stuff:

 

Attempt #2 was no better:

Tonight I got my hands on some EPOXY resin.  Here are the shapes I am trying to laminate and tonight's set up:

And now I wait for tomorrow to open this:

Wish me luck!

SOLD!!

My i550 has been sold!

On to new adventures............

check www.doolitlecruising.blogspot.com for the latest....
thanks for visiting.

And if you have ANY doubts, BUY THE PLANS, BUILD THE BOAT!!!!!

It was everything I hoped for!!

Sailing w/ Gordon....

Had a beautiful sail Memorial Day weekend.

Here is the course we took and the speed data.....

Gotta like hitting 10 knots when it wasn't blowing more than 15! (More like 10-13....NO whitecaps).

And here is a link to some video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGrszoC8RuQ&feature=player_embedded#at=306

(Pardon the skip in the soundtrack.....)

Vallejo race......

Got the keel working (Gougeon ROCKS!!) and sailed the Vallejo Race.

Went to the right off the start looking for pressure and current relief....thought we had it dialed but as the wind peetered out towards Richmond it looked like the rest of the fleet was getting lifted out in the Bay. Consolidated after a few good tacks and found ourselves in the mix w/ boats from the earlier starts! Then started the tacking spiral from hell.....we were near the Richmond long wharf and although we were moving through the water well we were losing ground over all against a strong ebb. Watched one boat after another kick on their engine and drop out.....finally threw in the towel about 4 pm and had a lovely sail back to Berkely. Bummer, but we were in solid company as a majority of boats in the 250 plus fleet also DNF'd.....all we need is wind!!

Sailing Anarchy ROCKS!!

Another front page appearance by Carbon Offset....YEAH!!

www.sailinganarchy.com

Thanks SA for the exposure....Buy the Plans, Build the Boat!!!

Ben

Sailing Feb 5, 2011... OR ....Self-Rightous

The weather was so nice I (amost) feel guilty. Gusty winds from the north, probably pushing 20 knots at times, then dialing back to 5+ then puffing hard again....very technical but a GREAT way to get a feel for how the boat responds. The killer part was it was sunny and in the upper 70's....oh YEAH!!!!!

This is only my second outing where I saw any wind and both times have been 2 up....this boat will FLY w/ three guys on the rail. Had the keel humming nicely on a few reaches. John P (who helped out a TON on the build) was w/ me.

Here is a short video of 2 sail reaching:

We tried to launch the spinnaker at one point, shrimped it pretty badly, and decided that as the wind was blowing across the channel, there just wasn't room to run off to hoist it.

Here is a video of the self righting test.....it works!!

And here is the money shot of the day......BLISS!!!!

Three Bridge Fiasco recap

We came. we saw, we sailed.....we didn't finish (along w/ 2/3's of the fleet).

The boat sails great..the outboard let me down. Even though we were over an hour late to the start we caught up w/ the fleet and sailed through...until the wind died all together.

Here is a short video from the delivery back to Sausalito

Here is a pic of me and the boys in our hotel in SF this weekend.....what a way to spend one's Anniversary Weekend (YES, our 11th Anniversary.....and Molly says, "Sure, go sail boat racing!"....God, I love my wife!!)

And here is the boat back at home this evenning.