Saturday, June 21, 2008

Blogs I like

Too dumb/little time to figure out how to put this on the sidebar, but have wanted to do this for a while. Theres a couple other blogs out there that I really like, and would read before summer rigging season turned my weeks into 70hr sweatfests. Here's a couple cool boat/tech pages I like a lot.

www.knockaboutsloops.blogspot.com

This is all about rebuilding a Shields, but taken in a completely different direction than 88. Where we wanted a race prepped one design, they (Bill the owner and Tim the craftsman) took Shields #9 and made a daysailor with a cuddy cabin. The 1d part of me rebels, but the way they're going about it is thoughtful and professional so I admire the project.

http://www.bammiller.blogspot.com/

A very tech savvy friend of mine started this page to chronicle some of his custom projects. He has a nice little workshop that can turn out custom sailing parts, including a few things that have found their way onto 88.

http://oldwoodenboat.blogspot.com/

My friend Josh bought an old wooden Lightning, and is going to go for a traditional resto with new parts under-the-skin. Since I own an old wooden Lighting (somewhere...) I'm excited to see how this comes out. The second I heard about it, I started thinking it would be cool to get our old boat going and get some sort of "heritage class" racing. This is an insane idea for lots of reasons, but anyone who digs boats will get the appeal.

Racing cancelled today, due to no RC, due to everything in the Chicago sailing world grinding to a halt for Etchells worlds. Bummed, as it was forecasted light winds, and I've never actually sailed my new boat in anything under 15 or so, and I'd love to see how she goes/what she needs to race in the light. Right now I'm thinking about softening up the shrouds until it sits straight 22 style, and maybe blocking the mast fwd in addition to the looser forestay.

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