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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

April 10, 2013-Moving Day

We’re pretty often asked if we have a house back home, or do we have our furniture and other stuff in storage somewhere back in the USA?

“Everything we own is on this boat”, we answer.

But not now.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Looking good.

We went into the marina on Monday to unload some gear for racing, mostly heavy stuff, and get measured, and before the day was over there was about 1500lbs of sails, spare parts, books, etc, sitting on the dock. Later a truck came and hauled it away, to where I’m not sure, but I am confident we’ll get it back when we want it after Sailing Week is over. There is more to go, we'll drop another 500-600 lbs before race day, but we need some things between now and then, like the chain rode and the solar panels.

This is the fifth time since we left Seattle that we’ve unloaded the boat; three times for regattas, twice for refit periods. It’s a lot of work, and taking it off is only half of it; we still have to put it back on. A local boat worker named Elroy came over and did all the heavy lifting for me. I’ll need him to come back when we put this stuff back on in May. I don’t know how much good this weight removal will do for the racing, it should help, but at least it is a psychological advantage for the crew. They know we are doing everything possible to win. However, from inside the boat it doesn’t look much different. The measurer still gave us credit for having a “medium weight” fit out.

That was Tony Maidment, the local CSA measurer. He spent about two hours with a tape measure and a clip board. Later it all goes into a computer. It will be the 4th measurement rating we will have received since we've owned Wings: IOR, IMS, IRC, and now CSA, not to mention PRHF and a few dozen made up TCF ratings we've had here and there. I watched him like a hawk and questioned everything I dared, but he seemed implacable; the boat will get the rating it deserves despite my pleading that we are just an old IOR liveaboard. “Yeah”, he said, “but you still have kevlar sails, a tiller, eight-foot draft, three spreader mast, and running backstays.”

He wasn’t fooled by the photos of grandchildren on the walls.

While we were here we had Elroy clean the stainless and wax the boat.

It looks nice.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
1500 lbs.

Click here for more photos from moving day.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Antigua

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