Damaged rudder on Sonar
What is this?
Let me down!
Danny off to St. Pete.
Sailing in Miami has been spectacular for the past couple of months. The strong easterly flow of endless breeze has been accompanied by sunshine and blue skies. Life is perfect!
Part of operating Team Paradise and a fleet of sailboats must include the ability to fix whatever gets broken or damaged. We have been lucky for a while because nothing much has gone wrong. Win or loose, it's a victory in itself to return to port on a windy day after tight racing with nothing broken and nothing damaged.
Running aground in Sweden is usually very different from running aground, while sailing in Miami. In Scandinavia running aground often translates to hitting granite. One of our Sonar ran aground last week, hitting a sand bank. The incident was remarkable because only the rudder got damaged. The keel had only minor scratches, but the rudder was bent to a point where it locked more like a hydrofoil than a rudder. It was an honest mistake by the operator. If you ever find a sailor who says "I never ran aground", you know he/she is a lier!
We send David Bannister up the Sonar mast to take a picture of the boat. I wanted to compare it to the blue print of the Sonar design, obtained from Bruce Kirby, last year. The blueprint was scanned into a computer and traced in Illustrator. The picture Dave took was later super imposed on the drawing. Guess what I found?
Daniel Evans headed to St Pete and the America's Disabled Regatta last week. He finished in 10th place, only 1 point behind a US Sailing Team member. Not bad at all. What impressed me was his attitude. He told me that his sailing was mediocre, at best. The truth is that it was a very good finish!