Erick Brunswick

I understand:- The MYA group policy is Public liability insurance. It provides coverage in the event of a member of the Public suffers loss or injury as a result of the Insured’s activity. It covers costs like medical, legal bills i.e. concomitant damages suffered arising from an accident / mistake on the part of the Insured. Competitors are by definition are NOT the Public. So damage or loss to equipment used by a Competitor is NOT covered. This was tested some years ago when a Competitor’s boat was run over another by a Car. Bill Smith can probably elaborate on this What has not been tested, I understand, is if an action / claim can be brought by a Competitor against a Club hosing an Event for damages sustained for example falling off an unsafe platform. The key, one believes, is the phrase Jointly and Severally in the definition of the Policy Holder. The fundamental being you cannot bring a suit against yourself. My house hold policy covers my boat but it must be specifically listed / declared on the policy. It is classed as a TOY. just as if it were a bicycled, camera etc. Forget boat insurance, it is NOT a boat, you have an expensive TOY I have a limitation on the policy in order to reduce the cost of the coverage – Excluded - Loss in use i.e. the boat is NOT covered when sailing. Included - Theft, provide there is forcible entry to home or car and Included - Damage in transit. Phone your Insurance Company – Let us know how you got on …

The problem of how to deal with 0 ( zero ) as a leading digit seems never ending. Reading Sail numbers is hard enough One believes that the long term solution is not to issue registration and personal sail number that would give rise to this. Similarly boat that are already registered with these cherished numbers should be given 1 year to re-register and similarly personal sail numbers falling in this category should be cancelled. To be honest ALL personal sail number should be cancelled since not many people use one rig on multiple boats. Simple ! Problem gone in one year - no need for MYA to make up local rules mmm

Develop the IOM you Have I could not decide if I should add this to the post by James Dunn – Buying a Yacht 24.04.16. I decided upon a fresh post hopeful that others might add their thoughts to it. All so often one sees people spending a vast amount of money replacing their boat rather that spending a couple of quid and a few hours on their existing boat because they believe their boat to be non-competitive not quite understanding that the hull does not propel the boat through the water but rig and the skipper. There are at least 10 other simple modifications that one can make to older boats costing little more than 25 quid and that will take no more than a couple of hours to implement that will gain places. The chances are that the second-hand Lintel, Garget ,etc you will buy will need these improvements in any case. Brad Gibson published a very good article in the Acquaint Magazine - Pimp my RM but I cannot remember a similar article intended for the IOM. Rig Design If anything Rig Design, the mast and sails, have taken great strides forward in the past ten years. These improvements are quite subtle but contribute to what one might describe as Wider Operational Dynamic Range and an overall increase in boat speed in variable conditions during a race. Hound Position Take look at the hound position, the point where the shroud attaches to the mast:- 20 year ago most hound points were at 220mm from the top band and on the side of the mast. i.e. at the same point as the jib attachment point. Whilst perfectly fine in constant wind conditions, this position is far from optimal in gusty conditions because the mast bends inward when the main sail load increases closing leech of the main sail. In place of the boat accelerating in a gust it simply lays over and slows down and in extreme cases violently flicks up to weather. By lowering this position below this point, say 160 to 200 below this jib attachment point allows the top of the mast to bend off to leeward opening the leech of the main. The boat now accelerates and doses not flick up to wind as it did before. Back Stay and Crane A very accomplished skipper at one of the clubs I sail at made the comment recently that most club sailors did not adjust the back stay correctly and did not understand the importance of it on a Fractional Rig. Make sure the back stay crane is just about long enough to allow the sail to swing past it and the attachment point is at far out on the deck as you can possibly get it. This reduces the bending moment of the mast, the tendency for the mast to bend forward Provides greater forestay tension Make the adjustment 3 or 4 to one rather than the 2 to one conventionally used. This makes the adjustment finer allowing easier adjustment of the main sail maximum camber point Develop the boat you have, don’t just leave it in the shed all week and wonder why you are left for dead in every race. Those were my top 2 modifications .. what are yours. 00CEF

This is all well and good. The boat most certainly is not an IOM as John so rightly points our , but you knew that. The boat would require considerable modification in order to measure under that rule. It however will not be competitive against even the most poorly equipped IOM most of the time and it would really be a total wasted efforts and money. But don't you think that the actual question should be:- Do the club members want to gain the owner of the boat as a member and allow him to sail with them. It will not be long before the owner realises that he is totally out classed and will either:- • Never be seen again • Buy a used IOM and stop shopping on E-bay As Chris Harris constantly says - Look at the bigger picture The latter is surely the most preferably outcome since your club will gain a member, the MYA will gain a member and you may possibly gain a friend. So why not welcome him? Many clubs run a metre long class as opposed to a an IOM class and sail J Class, Soling, Laser, IOM and many other boats approximately a 100mm long on condition that all of the boats have bow bumpers of some sort. They all race together and have a great deal of fun and everybody goes home happy. Clubs really do not need MYA permission to do this and there is really no need to establish a wider class is there. .,.

Fellas, While this is a little off the subject, I came across some steel wire that is so straight is laid almost hard down the mast with out any tendency to curly up. Where do you get it. ? Erick .

Terry, For best results do not use a nipper to remove the short end. Simply hold the wound part with a pliers and rock the wire back and forward and it will snap off exactly at the correct place leaving it smooth. The method shown in the video works well too but did not work reliably with the wire we get from all the UK suppliers The wire you get in AUZ is very straight so when to de-rig it lay flat. The wire you get in UK has NOT been straitened and coils up , very irritating. But still it is much better and easier to handle than stranded plastic coated trace wire. Did you actually buy one and how have you go on. Post a picture mnmn

Thank you for the explanation. Regrettably I do not think I have 30 year to play around with. What confuses me little is that the helm was for all purposes tending the weather not the lea and the boat was quite balanced. It simply would not go until I raked back. Raking it back made little difference to the helm and I simply loaded up the head sail by less twist and foot. Oh well Another week end is upon us and I must find another pond to sail on because there is not too much activity with IOM. I might go and watch the Bourneville All comers event. See if I can pick up something Ericka

Being new to this game there is so much I do not know. Last weekend it blew like mad and I used the No2 rig for the first time. The boat was slow but did not have any held to speak of lee or weather. It simply would not go - accelerate and kept pushing the bow down up wind to a degree but mostly down wind to the point where it broached In desperation I lengthened the jib stay moving the mast head back about 5 mm and suddenly the boat took of. I did not try moving it back any further. There was no real affect upon helm , it just went much better. Why ? is the question Does one move this back as the wind gets up or is it A SET AND FORGET SETTING ? Ericka