When it gets cold I might were a spray suit. So
far, I'm still wearing my work clothes (bathing
suit and a tee shirt).
The boat is a good boat for kids programs. Being
ACP, it flexes on impact as opposed to glass. We
had made some modifications but are in the process
of making a few more. We had two mast failures in
25k winds. They both broke right at the partner.
This is a rotating mast and I think it could be a
combination of wear as it rubs on the partner and
the fact that there is hole for a retaining pin
right under the partner.
We had some leaks, but they are working with us to
get them fixed as the show up. Apparently, since
they were rushing the construction process to meet
our dead line, some of the centerboard slots
didn't get sealed well. There have also been a
few other hardware issues that will be resolved.
We put JY15 rudders on them instead of the stock
sunfish rudder. This makes the boats pretty
responsive.
In our Xcite nationals, which we held, we had guys
as big as 250# in these little 10', 95# boats.
They seemed to do ok.
We're putting our high schoolers into them and
even some of your adult LTS students in them with
fairly good results. The single handed boat
concept seems to work for 95% of the students.
--
----
Steve
S/V Pony Express

"Bart Senior" bartsenior
wrote in message
...
: So after a season of sailing them, how do you
like the Excite?
:
: Do you need wet suits to sail them?
:
: How about a boat review for us?
:
:
: The Housatonic River where I sailed as a youth
in a centerboard
: Mercury is the not the best place to sail a 30
keelboat with 4.5'
: draft. San Francisco is a far better place
since grounding is never a
: problem. Currents in the Housatonic River get
over 6 knots on the
: ebb--I've heard numbers as high as 9 knots after
a heavy rain--which I
: didn't believe when I first heard it. Now I'm
not so skeptical.
:
: I spent most of the summer away on business and
did not sail much this
: year. In half a dozen sailing adventures, I've
managed to run HOOT
: aground 6 out of 6 times in the river.
:
: Some boats are easy to clear a grounding-the 23'
Ensign for example.
: It was interesting to learn that Etchells are
very hard to free on a
: grounding. Usually I see groundings are
training excercises for my
: crew. Not in this case.
:
: I'm the only dry sailed keelboat at the Boat
Club that tacks in and
: out of the river. The other dry sailors
consist of a fleet of J-24's
: that use their outboards. Not having a engine
gives me the excuse to
: sail in and out of the river. I thoroughly
enjoy dodging the parade
: of power boats going either in or out depending
on the wind direction.
: And so far few of the power boaters have gotten
mad at me--I think
: this is because the boat is so pretty and I make
a effort to stay out
: of the way. Still they can make it difficult
when they stack up
: close together where the channel is very narrow.
I'm still not fully
: comfortable with the shoal areas. I try to
depart on a rising tide
: because the potential to sink the boat if
grounded on a falling tide
: with any kind of chop is very real.
:
: Etchells are very stiff boats and it's nearly
impossible to get them
: off a grounding with body weight alone to heel
them over. Nor does
: kedging seem to work. Saturday, I was very
surprised to touch bottom
: because we were very close to the edge of the
channel in an area I
: thought was safe. I used the wind--sheeting the
main in hard and
: backwinding the jib to point downwind, combined
with weight to leeward
: to free myself.
:
: It is against the class rules to install a depth
sounder, but I'd be a
: fool not to. That is something for next season.
:
: Bart Senior
:
: On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 10:58:01 GMT, "Pony Express"
: wrote:
:
: Ok, now try that in a 10' dinghy like the
Xcite.
: The morning was dead, but then about noon it
: picked up and was blowing up to 22.
:
(http://www.millersismd.com/home/millers_island_m
d
: .htm) Water temp is about 55°.
: We're running a level 1 instructor training
class.
: We've got two young girls from Barnegat Bay
that
: are hot sailors. What a blast racing against
: them!
: