MD Sec

Eric, I think most people with some common sense will remove deck patches and place the hull somewhere warm to dry out. Some more vulnerable parts like receivers, winches and servos may take a little longer to dry so I leave my hull on the stand by the radiator for a couple days. I spray some water dispersing spray into the winch motor (as RMG suggest) and generally just check that the vaseline on all the radio connections has not been washed away. If my rigs are wet I hang them up to dry before putting them away, but I know many who just put the rig box back until they sail again. I clean my hull, rudder and foil with a kitchen spray just to keep the boat looking good. We are sailing at Fleetwood (marine lake) tomorrow and everyone will wash the rigs and hulls thoroughly after with fresh water. When I get back I'll probably carefully rinse the inside out as I rarely sail in salt water. I'm not sure if the locals would bother if they are sailing in it every week. All the above just relates to reliability and will hopefully ensure you don't make a wasted journey and end up going home early. Having said that for all my efforts my RMG winch burnt out at Leicester and I have lost 3 Eurgles to water damage (but that's another story) Finally, a winter refit is always a good idea and can pick up early on problems that may cause problems later on, like the dreaded black wire. It's also an opportunity to try and ensure the boat is as water tight as it can be, because prevention is obviously better than cure. Some skippers seem to get by with very little tlc for their boats and top skippers don't seem to keep their boats long enough for it to be a problem. SYS Paul

Eric, I seem to recall from dinghy racing days many moons ago (more than about 30 years sadly) that at one stage the fashion was to flat back to a dull finish in theory so that in the same way the water runs off, the hull has very low resistance to drag. But then I recall someone came up with the suggestion that it's better to have a shiny finish as this allows a layer of stalled water at the surface and improves the laminar flow or something like that. No doubt Doc Dave is the man for this question, but given the recent debunking of Computerised Fluid Dynamic models by Graham Bantock in relation to hull design in Acquaint, I suspect the answer will be a probable maybe or possible maybe not! Either way I suspect it ain't going to make a hill of beans to you, me or probably even the hot shots compared to many other more significant factors like getting the sails set right and getting a great start. I would suspect any advantage is more in the mind than on the water. So if it makes it easier to clean and looks great, buff it up!! Me? I'm in still in the flat it back camp but only below the water line (which looks good but probably makes little sense).