Bissell Racing

This past week, we have been working on the boat and training.  We seem to have the best boat speed on the US team in light wind.  In Medium wind all the boats seem pretty even.  In breeze, we were a little bit off the pace, but we’ve made some major improvements.  The biggest change we made was the addition of a barber hauler system that helps us move our jib leads outboard.  It has made a big difference and the boat feels a lot better.

Today, we are going to wait until the afternoon to go sailing, since that seems to be when the best breeze fills in.  We’re in good shape, but we can still improve on our pole reaching, downwind surfing techniques, and jibing.

We have a few projects left to do on the boat.  We need to drill new holes in our spreaders, so we can put security pins in the bracket to keep the mast from inverting in heavy air.  Our pole launching system could be better, because the pole doesn’t launch as smooth as we’d like.  We have an epoxy job for the trailing edge of our rudder and the bottom of the boat needs to be sanded and pollished. 

Tomorrow is measurement and registration day and Monday will be the official practice race.  The big event starts on Tuesday. 

We found a roadside speedometer that was there to monitor the speed of the traffic.  Danny sprinted past it but didn’t register a speed.  He thinks he was going too fast for it.  Haha.