Thanks Tad and Philip(!!!) for bringing the cup info each day.

10000x better coverage than if i had been at the beach watching!

It was Tartaglino who flipped at the A mark.

The mast broke near the spreaders. Early examination think that the spreader moved downward, then twisted, and then the mast tore in two front to back.

Many photos of the start with a port boat, that was hairy! Many pictures of the finish. I'll will post the sequence. I'm sure it will start a new rules thread.

More later. . . .

Thanks Phillip.

The dyneema link is basically a loop of dyneema or similar with a stopper ball and knot. We replaced all of the boat with brand new links or soft shackles. Several of these let go this week. It is the stopper ball that is failing. It will be changed. A little thing and simple. The other recurring issue was a spin halyard getting off the sheave. That happened several times and is a design change, most likely a different brand and/or size of block.

Thanks for the updates Phillip. Great work. Well done JC and JW.

Why are they using the soft shackle on the mainsheet? Just to save weight? What does a little stainless steel -won't ever fail- regular mainsheet shackle weigh? I think sometimes people go a little too far just to save one ounce.

And I had the same problem with my spin halyard until I replaced the Ronstan hoist block with a little Harken carbo, no problems since.

That's the second Alter Cup they have won on F16's, I'm seeing JC joining the fleet soon! And JW, we can ship you one out to Cali too! ;^)

Congrats and nice job guys.

Also, a very impressive job by all the females out there in the big air too! I would love to hear from some of them as to how they liked the boat.

And some kind of an award to the 13 yr. old Emily as well! Is that a record for the youngest crew in any Alter Cup?

We took special pictures of the females (11 out of 40) and the youths. I'll get them up later. JW will be heading to Houston to address youths and sailing, so I'm excited with what has happened and happening.

Congrats to JC and JW.

And thx to the guys for the excellent updates.

Final Official Results
1. Casey/Williams
2. Michael Easton/ Tripp Bird
3. John Tomko/ Paige Railey
4. Leondro Spina/ Jamie Livingston
5. Chris Batchelor/ Taylor Reiss
6. Julian Roots/Taylor Palmer
7. Nigel Pitt/ Emilee Pitt
8. Ken Marshack/ Timothy Zenderman
9. Jeffery Newsome/ Susan Korzeniewski
10. Olli Jason/ Kelly Jason
11. Haywood Cope/ Tina Pastoor
12. Sandra Tartaglino/ Glenn Holmes
13. Sarah Newberry/ Elizabeth Newberry
14. Jake Kohl/ Tom Hall
15. David Ingram/ Kathy Ingram
16. Andy Humphries/ Chris Amador
17. Greg Raybon/ Dan Rodriguez
18. Karl Langefield/ Beth Bonifant
19. Eric Witte/ Eric Witte, Jr.
20. Brent Carlson/ Chris Rothmeier
My apologies for any misspellings.

Actually, Easton/Byrd were awarded 1 in the changed redress, so they went into the last race 1 point apart. It is a crying shame the mast broke.

Should have made them match race for it...

Seriously, well done by all. It was great fun to "watch" from here.

Mike

If it is the stopper ball, it must have been the piece of line that attaches the clew of the mainsail to the top mainsheet block - encircling the boom. It is a loop of Dyneema with a stopper ball on one end.

String it up by taking the loop end through the eye on the clew around the boom, through the shackle on the top mainsheet block and around again. The loop then slides over the stopper ball. I guess the stopper balls were cracking under load (?).

The soft shackle on the Orbit maisheet blocks are on the bottom block. Mine did not seem to twist very well.

Sounds like some close racing. Awesome job!!!

We went to soft shakles because they where ment to be more reliable and simpler.

The problem is if the plastic ball isn't top quality it can crack under loading.... might have to look at the more reliable part ... i'll have a new solution by lunch time.

Great reporting and photos too.

Isn't the "more reliable part" made from titanium instead of plastic? Just out of curiosity, why use a ball at all? Wouldn't a button knot on the end be stronger and more reliable?

Regards,
Eric

Congrats to JC and Lil' John.
Thanks Tad for keeping us up to date in real time! This is huge in promotion and coverage of major regattas.
Talked to Mike and Tripp about the mast snapping on them. There is only one thing to do when you go through circumstances like they did today (drink heavily) but they were able to clearly iterate that they were clearly in the lead double trapped upwind with 75% downhaul on when the mast suddenly snapped at the spreader without any warning. They are obviously disappointed.
Chris

Button knot would be more reliable, but the dyneema is so slippery we decided to use the ball... a plain knot might be the way to go.

Well, the examination was damn near spot on. The starboard spreader moved up, not down. I was at Robbie and Jill's taking the images off the card to the computer, and damn near fell off the sofa when I saw it. Holy **** guys, take a look at this picture. Greg, Robbie and all jump up and there it was. I just happen to have taken a picture of them as they were heading out to the start line showing the spreader at a sharp upward angle.

Yeah, this tidbit is common knowlegde (at least should be in F16 circles) ever since 2004. Ronston (plastic) blocks should not be used in the spi halyard systems. Several of us have had this experience. In my opinion the simple steel Harken small blocks are best in this use.

Mainsheet ? Simple (small) shackle on the bottom and a 8 mm or thicker S-hook on top. Quick release possible (even quicker then with a shoft shackle) and heavily tested over 5 years now. Never failed on me.

Wouter

Wouter

I have tested these softies with only a double figure 8 knot (button knots are too complicated IMO) and there is no way the knot will slip out or the shackle break unless you expose them to thousands of pounds. However, any abrasion in the system (like from a stopper ball) and you should just use a metal shackle