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February 07, 2007

A Big Update

Neglecting this site.

I have had a bit of a frantic time for the past few months both on and off the water. Accept my apologies for not updating sooner. I will try to remain on top of stuff a little better as we move into the start of the 2007 season.

End of last season.

We sailed last years EAORA Buckley Goblets shorthanded, a race from West Mersea to Ostend. Our elapsed time was 10 hours 42 minutes and 11 seconds and by the time corrections were done we were 48 minutes off of 1st place. Again I was pleased given we were shorthanded, there were retirements from others with many more on board and the winning yacht had a crew of 10.

Change of club, address, and many many bits on the boat

Having parted company with the ex I moved to Burnham-on-Crouch and joined the Crouch Yacht Club. Wanting to get involved I signed up for their Autumn and Winter series but didn't get very far into it before the call came in from Mark (my local NKE specialist.) With new chums from CYC we sailed NINJOD to Levington where she was due to be fitted with an NKE Gyro pilot (supposedly the best!!).

While Mark started work on the pilot system I took advantage of my location and got Rig Magic to check the rig out DISASTER.. Basically on 1st inspection many things were either broken or worn. The rig came out and on 2nd inspection cracks and other nasty things were found. The result of all of this was that a new rig was ordered. OUCH !

With my winter activities now constrained by the fact that NINJOD was many miles away awaiting a new rig I decided to contract more stuff out to the local Levington experts. Given the marina has an Awlgrip shed I figured they were best place to apply my antifoul.

With some serious ocean miles to be covered in 2007 I decided to get an Iridium phone. Mark's work on the pilot and other bits was so good I got him to sort the phone. I have ended up with a fixed unit after reading that the data cradle on the 9505A was very fragile. The unit I opted for is the Beamcomm RST620

Launch Date.

The plan is to have everything sorted and be back in the water for March... Fingers crossed.

Posted by ninjod at 12:04 AM | Comments (3)