Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Bottoms Up!

Last night we finally got around to consuming this particular bottle of red.  It was quite satisfactory as Mary Poppins might say.  I bought this when we stopped at Ventimiglia Winery on the New Jersey wine trail.  Part of the charm was the boat on the label, which I believe is a surviving member of an ancient class of racing yachts still active, either somewhere on Barnegat Bay or perhaps southern New York (maybe the LYC on the main sail indicates Larchmont Yacht Club).  However, I can find nothing about this boat via the all knowing www..  Perhaps Baydog or one of my other fellow travelers can comment.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Drag Race.

If you are a betting person, which would you put your money on as the fastest?  An open 60 Ocean Racer, a hydrofoiling Moth, a windsurfer or a kite boarder?  Place your mental bet and then watch this video.




The answer is here

Sorry Tillerman, no foiling Lasers in this match up.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Fabricating small parts with carbon fiber: A John Zseleczky Production.

Dear constant reader, you may recall that I posted some pix of Mark Saunders' redecked Europe-Moth a few months ago.  Mark's spars featured some neat attachment pieces fabricated from G-10 fiberglass board and carbon fiber cloth set in epoxy.  You may be curious as to how those parts were made; your diarist certainly is.  What follows is John Zseleczky's step by step instructions for making a forestay tang which can be bonded to a carbon fiber mast thus avoiding drilling holes for pop rivets as would be the case if one was attaching a conventional stainless steel hounds fitting.  This same strategy can be used to fabricate other small parts to bond hardware items to carbon fiber components such as fairleads for boom blocks, vang attachment, etc. V. useful info! Enjoy.


The finished forestay tang installed on Mark's carbon mast