So got your new boat? Have your sails been measured and certified?
Check first at the tack of each sail and see if bears a Measurer’s mark or signature? If it has a signature, it will have been measured in. If not, think about getting it done.
Datchet Radio Sailing have the measuring process well sorted. In the workshop, there is a giant board maybe a couple of metres long – see photo above.
I’d half expected when watching the measuring process, that the big rulers would come out and key measurements recorded for all your rigs. It was much cleverer and faster though.
The Measurer had a collection of pre-marked half dowels. So it was very fast for him to run the dowel rods over key dimensions of each sail – check if the sail measurements were within prescribed limits, ….and we were done in no time.
Following up on yesterday’s Item about what stand design to choose if you park a distance from where you sail :-
Kindly given to me by a friend at Chipstead, I’m going to attach here (for convenience) the plan drawings widely found on the internet for the wooden IOM stand with a carrying handle.
The drawings come in two pages:
the stand
The cradle part where your boat sits
These pictures can be devilish difficult to read on a small screen, so let me first offer you the pdf downloads
Our thanks to David Jensen for getting in touch about these brilliant designs that the sport now benefits from.
I have a couple of aluminium type stands in the house, and I’m hoping for another one quite soon. You know, nice clean aluminium legs with straps for the boat hull to sit in. You see a lot of them around.
Then I was down at my Wednesday club and decided to help a pal who was moving from car to shore for the race session. It’s about a 200 yard walk. You have to carry your transmitter (round your neck), the boat, maybe your rig bag, and the stand… plus in his case a chair to sit upon during racing. It’s a major feat, let me tell you. My friend left me carry his easy chair.
Then it occurred to me that on that IOM race day, nobody was using an aluminium stand. All the competitors had wooden stands, some of them just fantastic pieces of beautiful joinery in their own right. Gorgeous.
It was only then that it occurred to me was was really going on. On all these stands there was (i) an integrated carrying handle – see the black bar in the photo above (ii) the boat could be strapped securely to the stand. ….. When walking from the car park to the shore, you need one less arm. You simply pick up the stand by the handle and the boat gets a safe free ride.
There were interesting variations in keel supports (see above) ranging from velcro straps or bungee cords, or in one case a U-shaped keel support which would have its merits.
We have published links elsewhere on this website (see the Category list and select “Stands”) with plans for wooden IOM stands like this.
