GBCA Discussion Forum

A nice cheap J105 would be very welcomed

Oh yes, I forgot.  STINKER it is.

John:

Your boat shall now and forever more be referred to as Malignant Expense --- at least by this part of the Stinger Crew.  I like it.

Oh boy!  A stomach Steinway kazoo party.  If that doesn't get the attendance up I just don't have a clue as to what will.

OOPS, I of course mean Polka Hell.  Squeeze that box for me --- please!

There is no finer club than GBCA.  Trust me, for the yearly dues you simply can't beat it.  GBCA parties are always well attended and there are enough of us old and young drunkards to make everyone happy.  If you don't stop this bashing I will break out my accordion and send all of you bashers  to polka heaven.

I would vote for half an hour early but living on the West side, the bay is roughly 50 minutes away and sometimes I just don't have the time even on a Saturday.

I used to have a link to this guys website on my website but rarely used I dropped it. I seem to remember another one I found but cannot find the link.  Will keep looking.

Too bad I made so many typos.  OK should be OD among others.  Glad you got what you needed.

Which racer/regatta are you trying to view?  I looked at the singled handed results and clicked on the number indicated the race.  This number is on the top bar on the right.  It is true that if you are in a OK class (J22, J24, Viper, ... ) you will not see any times, but all the handicap races I looked at had times.

You guys are really making the Old Phart jealous.  Not only did I not make it to 10:15, I didn't even get to sit on Tramp and enjoy the festivities.  THERE WILL BE A DAY. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Nice to see all are having a good time though.  Gives me something to contemplate besides boring TV at 2:00 AM.

I used to think that it was kind of dumb to not allow the 109's to be part of the level 70 class.  Lately I have come to change my mind.  There are three reasons for this.  The first has to do with the ease of hoisting, dousing, and gybing an A-Kite vs a symmetric.  The second has to do the the current A-Kite "runner" designs.  The third is not so easy for me to explain, so I will leave it under the category of hull/keel/rudder design differences.

In my opinion the biggest difference between the A's and the Sym's is handling ease.  This is especially true for the smaller A-Kites (80's and 105's).  I have timed us against a couple of the best symmetric boats.  Even in the best situation, the timing difference can be significant.  A's can come into the mark at speed and wait until the last moment to douse.  They can hoist at the windward mark as fast or faster than almost any symmetric.  In addition, there is little loss of speed during a gybe. Once the patterns are down, handling the chute is almost too easy.  Don't get me wrong, excellent crew work can minimize these issues to some extent, and certainly there are Sym crews here on the bay that perform these functions with great acumen, but I believe the handling advantage will always reside with the A's.

The first A-Kites might best be described as "reachers".  They were very fast when the TWA was around 160-165 degrees and could handle very high TWAs'.  It was at best difficult to rotate these kites for anything close to downwind sailing.  Newer designs have pretty much resolved this issue.  Ed Christie built a 110 sq. mt. for me that could pretty much duplicate the angle of a symmetric.  (Too bad it got destroyed in the last rum race storm.  Hurts to have been able to use it only twice.)  Not going to speculate about whether or not the A-Kites are faster dead-down then a symmetric, but there is no question that the angle difference between a sprit boat and a symmetric are no longer very great.

Judging from observation, its very easy to sail the current A-Kites to their numbers.  I have watched the 109's just kill everyone in light air and have seen the same thing happen with the 105's in heavy air.   When a 105 outruns a J44 downwind one can only conclude that hull/keel/rudder design differences are at work. Same is true for the M32's.  I just cannot conceive of an older design Sym staying with the 32 off wind.

Having said all that it would be interesting to see how a Level 70 class might shake out with 109's included.  My guess is that the 109's would dominate, but that there would be at least a couple of very competitive Sym's in the pack.  We do after all have some really great sailors here.  I think we all know who they are.  On the other hand dominance of the 109's might do significant damage to participation in the Level 70 fleet.  This potential to suppress participation is why, if I own a Level 70 Sym, I would probably vote against their inclusion.

BTW, neither the 80's, 105's, or 109's can technically be classed as sport boats.  Their SA/Disp ratio is less than 30 --- the break point for sport vs sprit. At something like 45, its clear that the M32 is definitely a sport boat.

Yes fellas.  You have two-stove-ups here.  NEWS! 

Thanks for the opening Jay.  Here is what can happen if you wait too long for a simple scratch to heal, or the Doc's can't figure out the proper antibiotic:

The infection usually starts with just a little white frost and a pretty good itch.  I my case, I also severely bruised the inside of the left knee. The resulting swelling reduces blood flow and gives the bacteria a great home base from which to grow and flourish.  Being an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-healthy individual the body would certainly fight the infection, kill it in the bud, and all would be fine.

Two weeks after the incident my leg had the black telltale lines characteristic of gangrene. The tiny white splotch was now a 2X1 inch long nasty looking thing.  The sports-doctor father of a friend of mine saw it on a Sunday afternoon and immediately arrange for hospital admittance and surgery.  The good surgeon removed a 2X1X.75 volume from the muscle just below my knee and put me on some of the strongest IV antibiotic known to man.

You do not want to know what post-op surgery for this kind of thing is but I will tell you that you that the only way to fill the hole is to let the hole fill --- without further infection.

Quote from: hayesrigging on July 20, 2009, 05:58:54 PM
Bee where are you at.  I am in St johns in Nassau bay with whY they believe is a staph infection in my leg.  If you are her maybe we can get together for happy hour!!!  My injury had nothing to do with sat night but did have to go to er later that evening.  I had to miss the party so I didn't get to here all the carnage reports.   So everyone keep posting stories about SAt night this gets real boring quick


Kevin

That would be great Kevin.  Would like that a lot, but unfortunately I came home Thursday round 4:30 PM.  I have also had what you have and would not change my knee for the infection.  Be damn careful with that.  Those things can eat away your leg or worse really fast.

My requirement for a total knee replacement was based on what appeared to a knee collapse.  On Monday July 6th I could barely stand.  We already knew the knee was bone-on-bone so I just said "let's go", and we went.  The squirrelly thing was that by the morning of the surgery (Monday July 20th) the pain was gone.  I mean totally gone.  Just had to gut up and go.

Take care.

Bee