The Vietnamese River Cobbler

I was in a perky mood when I left the gym last night, for no other reason than I felt better than I thought I would after a long hard workout. And the rowing machine does give me time to think, which I did.

I thought amongst other things about next year and doing things differently, for I would no longer be sailing a Prowler, but a new Mach 2. This decision is largely driven by the fact that another finishing line is out there somewhere for me to cross.

Yet any change, no matter how positive, often involves some form of loss and I was pondering this when I pulled up at Tesco's hoping to find a nice steak for dinner.

And as I walked the same way I've always walked around the store to fill the same basket with the same stuff, to get the same result, it occurred to me to stop, and do things differently.... And this thought thrilled me.

And so I walked the wrong way round the store and bought all sorts of things I'd never seen before, like a flat screen TV, and a Vietnamese River Cobbler, which replaced the steak, and was OK for fish that had traveled thousands of miles dead and was farmed in a sewer. Still I tried.

But when things are important, really important, you need to think harder and make more informed decisions.

The above picture is from Gaussian Curvature Graph software that is one of many tools we use to get the final shape of the Mach 2 foils as perfect as possible. This means the molds are as near as dammit perfect. Straight from the milling machine.

And this excites me greatly. That’s because I know the second most there is to know about the Mach 2 and whilst a milling machine may replace a hand faired hull and (just like the terracotta army) there will be lots of Mach 2's made, I do like character and there is more human element in this boat than any other moth project. Ever.

Sometimes you have to try things new, especially when there is another finishing line out there..