"you don't see a six for measurement in ages, and then three come along at once!" We had three sixes at Bournville for measurement, the two cheeky girls were joined by a Ravenna belonging to Cliff Pascal Jefferies from Doncaster. Consequently the plan for the day went something like this, weigh Monica, weigh Gabriela, weight the Ravenna, check Monica sits on the correct waterline, check the other measurements on Monica, check the measurements on Gabriela, measure the Ravenna. All should have gone to plan, Monica was weighed, no problem, Monica was put in the tank no problem all good so far. Gabriala was weighed and found to be overweight, ah ha we cried we are not going to be caught out this time we have the drill! PJ sets about drilling 1/2" (12.7mm) holes in his keel bulb, he gets to hole number eight and the battery on his cordless gives up, still 120g over weight. "I have a cunning plan" using the battery drill as an auger we set about hand drilling the final four holes, an hour later and three holes down (see how determined we are) one of the IOM skippers present for his morning sail says "oh I have a cordless drill in the car!" Five minutes later Gabriela weighs exactly 11.5kg! and passes the measurement tests. In the meantime the Ravenna is weighed and found to be 600 grams overweight also, some discussion takes place as to whether we should drill her there and then or Cliff should take her home and drill her in the privacy of his own workshop, not being as brazen as PJ & I, Cliff decides upon the later course. All that remained was to measure the sail sets we made, both sets pass and take Monica for a spin on the water, as you can see I was so keen to sail her I didn't even put on the rear deck patch and she still has the masking tape from the measurement process. Apart from some cleaning up & painting of the keel bulb all that is left is to make the other suits of sails. Thanks to David Alston & Bill Green for their assistance and advice on setting up the sails which I had literally just plonked on the hull and put her on the water to get a sail underway, there are a couple of minor alterations to make to the construction but generally I am very happy with them.
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AuthorI am Footy skipper turning his hand to the Six Metre class Archives
August 2015
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