Mothers of invention

Well "boatwork" day turned into a plain old "workday" which admittedly was more fun, and I didn't do Wednesday night racing because the last time it blew that hard, with so little water in the harbour, I wound up flat on my back in six inches of silt after hitting a mud bank at full chat. That was only two weeks ago.

Anyway I'm feeling under pressure right now, and that's to do with sailing. In the twilight of my years in this class I'm acutely aware that I haven't actually invented anything! The short lived "cleat de payne" was superceded by an off the shelf Ronstan item that I didn't know existed and my early efforts at a wing mast were pathetic. Washing up bottles and electrical tape will only get you so far.

I did however have a consultancy role in the wide axle trolley.

And no manoeuvres either! My gybes are getting worse and I can barely foil tack, although my hit rate has gone up substantially since I read that Bora Gulari has redefined it, in that it is now OK for the hull to touch down as long as the foil is fully loaded. This lateral thinking I like very much and agree with whole heartedly.

But others are hard at it! Roger Angell's boat is fitted with servo's and an electronic sensor which replaces the wand, and this together with a variable dampening function, I think is fantastic. And before you jump, he doesn't care about the rules, and nor do I, they follow development, not the other way round.

And so imaging my relief when I came up with a significant development last night. You ready? Here you go. I'm moving the bung in my boat to the bottom of the transom.. so you don't have to turn the freakin thing upside down, then diagonal, then tilted... to get the bloody water out! Cool eh?