In respect to sailing message boards, SA is rough around the edges, hard to get along, frat-initiation-style mentality. If you want to join, do yourself a favor and not stand out for the first 100 posts or so. That means don't make your own topics, don't pick e-fights with established and well liked members, and generally just add your two cents to existing threads in intelligible or funny ways. After 100 or so posts, go ahead and be an butt.

However, in relation to OTHER internet forums, SA is full of relative carebears. You can get MUCH worse said about/to you on other boards that are *much* less politically correct.

Like this???

Wouter, what do you mean "TILL exhaustion..."

Mike

grizzly or kodiac?

Arrogant Bastard Ale!

Back to the topic at hand...The Vann has made an update on his blog:

TinCan Blog

He sure loves his masterpiece and will have another go in December after making repairs.

Maybe-

He said he and his wife will have to "consider" whether he will try again.

heh.

Also from his blog
____
February 14, 2008

Test sails went well on Tuesday. The boat sails faster than the wind in light air, much like a Hobie Cat.
______

With the exception of the not so supportive, support structure

That thing will be a submarine in a storm, or winds with large seas. It will go thru most of the waves, with that little bitty freeboard, etc. Sure, it will still float with the foam inside, but it will do it at and under the surface in any serious seas. I hope he has a good snorkel!!

Maybe he should add to the bottom of the hulls. Make them round instead of flat. What the heck, its a contrapulation/fubar anyway. Could get him some more flotation and get his escape hatch above water. Then again it would be just another compartment that would flood anyhow.

Perhaps he could get some parts from Groupama. I hear they have some parts floating around

I'd get a little dismissive and hot if a $500 circa 1970 hobie 16 with some little kids sailed right past my $100K-racing 'Mumm-30-with-a-racing-pedigree' boat. (Also, lead is a neurotoxin).
R

I'll tell ya Saturday AM after the race, Dave. We don't wanna get the whole Sven Schang Poster Boy for not wearing a wetsuit on an inverted H16 story going again. It never ends.
CARY

OK, this guy is completely off his rocker. A Hobie is faster than the wind speed? Which one?

One of my favorite memories of my earlier sailing career was blasting by 12 Meters (with like 12 guys on the rail) in Newport on my $1400 1983 Hobie 16. Those boats are a bit more pricey than $100K.

Mumm 30s are dogs compared to Melges 32s, which are ridiculously fast monoslugs (at least in 18+ knots).

Mike

Here ya go



you can get the Hobie U PDF from

Hobie U

Sam

Ah, the screaming reach. Forgot about that since we never use it when racing... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mike

Remember the days when there was actually a 'B' mark, is nearly every race? I do ;-)

well, The only race I have been in is against the wind anyway <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Maybe we should all have that as a motto: "Race the wind"? May I borrow it?

Yeah,
Now everyone is too scared to ride the ragged edge. We used to pick off boats on the reach legs in H16 fleet 141- and if they stuffed and you didn't, C Ya! Now that there are spin boats, the light air lake sailing here in the SE would be even more fun w/ reaching legs.

This is going back to the close up shots of the failed welds:

I built our backyard deck and large combo swingset/slide/fort out of treated wood.

However, my joints with screwed together wood would have held up better than those welds.

I mean really, I wouldn't have used welds like that on my childrens swingset/fort, much less a home built boat I planned to circumnavigate on.