the PMG CanAm CL16 Regatta
 Hilton Beach, August 12-13, 2006
Wednesday ashore
photos by Uncle Al


After an overnight stop in a Parry Sound hotel, Marc and I arrived refreshed, and had a look at the Hilton Beach ...
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... Tourist Park that would be our ...
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... home for the next few days. Note the luxurious gravel surface with mostly bedrock below it. Having resigned himself to the likelihood of needing to use body weight to keep the tent in place, Marc loads up the cooler and we're off to check out the CL that Mason has kindly lent to us for the series. But first ...
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... a look at Colin's (r) CL into which ...
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... he's put a lot of effort during the off-season.
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Voilą: a split mainsheet to do the work of a bridle
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Crew, Heather Wood, of course needs no work - she's fine just as she is!!
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And Heather even put this little gift under the tree last year!
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Next, it was time to meet with Eric Kirby at the Tilt'n Hilton to finalize the seminar schedule for Friday.
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Aah! That great patio overlooking the North Channel and other scenic ...
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... marvels. I suppose you wouldn't believe that this was to be a picture of Marc but that the camera had a mind of its own?
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Ah, a second attempt is successful. Doesn't Marc look right at home already??!!
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What a lovely sight indeed!
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There was a practice race on Wednesday afternoon.
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We were invited to take part but, with a borrowed boat to adapt to, we had our plates full with things like ...
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... a replacement centreboard. We had seen in pictures kindly provided by Eric Kirby, that the rudder and centreboard were more or less factory fresh and thus not suitable for serious racing due to their 1/4" thick, rounded trailing edges with the "lip" still in from the mold. Thus we chose to bring a spare rudder blade and centreboard from W3854. Chewed up as they are, they at least have an eighth-inch trailing edge that is sharply squared off, and the CB has a nice, elliptical leading edge.
Some 5-minute epoxy that we had liberated in Thessalon soon had the worst of the nicks and bare spots filled, and it was time to set to work. After a small warm-up notch was cut from our spare Wayfarer rudder blade to enable it to pivot down to vertical in Mason's rudder stock, it was time to do the serious cutting: our beloved spare board from W3854 needed to be adapted (photo above) to the CL where the leading edge of the centreboard box is vertical, unlike that of the Wayfarer which angles forward. We felt guilty doing this, but it needed to be done.
Of course we had tipped the boat over at the water's edge of the launch ramp and removed Mason's board first to use as a template for the cut. This is not easy on a CL since your hands and wrists barely fit in through the inspection ports that give supposed access to the centreboard bolt. And God help you if you drop the bolt, nut or washer - or a tool - since they tend to disappear into the side tank where only a human gumby toy would be able to reach. Or you'd need an inspection port at the forward end of each side tank, which a couple of the sailors had wisely installed. That way you could not only retrieve lost bolts and tools but also remove those horribly useless jib tracks on the side deck!!
While the boat was on its side, we slid the "new" board in to make absolutely sure it would fit, and to mark it with an 83°-line using a board I had made for the purpose in 1978. Alas, that board had disappeared by late afternoon. Good thing that Marc had scratched the line into our board so that we would know where to put the stopper knobs that would keep the board from going down past an angle of 83° to the keel.
After a beer break while the epoxy glue dried on the cuts, it was time to install the new board. We had earlier decided that we would sail without a centreboard brake and use a tie-down line instead. But over his beer, Marc came up with one of his many great ideas. "Why don't we," he wondered ...
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"... just screw that piece of car radiator hose you carry as a spare brake, onto the edge of the board without carving a recess? It's only for the weekend." "Brilliant," I replied. No sooner said than done, as you can see from the photo above.
We then saved the tricky part for the next day, but since the pics are here, I'll tell it now. It may be educational. Getting the new board located such that the bolt and its washers could be re-inserted. Using  a screw driver, I soon located the hole in the board, and now all that remained was to insert the bolt. Cleverly, I  tried working the bolt in from the top down so that gravity would help. But the bolt stubbornly refused to go through. We knew the CB hole would accommodate the bolt, so I did what I do on the Wayfarer: got out the awl and vigorously whirled it around the hole to line up the board hole with the CB trunk hole. Too vigorously, alas! I lost my grip on the bolt which fell with a sickening clunk into the inaccessible recesses below. Giving my treasure trove of expletives a good work-out, I tried reaching down as far as I could force my scraped arm through the inspection port. Not even close. One last hope existed: we took the board back out and gently let the boat come upright, turned it around and tipped it over the other way. Halleluia! There was a merry clunk and tinkle as the bolt, complete with its washer landed on the centreboard box. Feverishly I reached in and clutched it. We then repeated the whole procedure with totally fanatical caution - not forgetting the silicone sealer to combat potential leaks around the bolt - and at last the job was done!
Of course, when we tried putting the board full up, three inches still stuck out the bottom, but after the near loss of the bolt, this was indeed a tiny problem. We spoke with the marina people and got permission to leave the boat at the dock for the next few days.  Then we would remove the board again prior to haul-out on Sunday. And that's what we did. It worked a treat!
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Meanwhile, the North Channel YC gang was finishing their practice race. This was duly followed by an awards ceremony (above)  which featured ...
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... North Channel YC Commodore, Mason Phelps Jr. (r) presenting "Three" Gawthrop and crew, Craig Bouck (l) with the blue first-place flag. Meanwhile Three's step-father, the legendary Arnold Palmer, was out for a little motorboat cruise, admiring these beautiful waters.
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Marc waits for his supper at the TH.
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Colin and ...
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... Heather as well.
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Eric Kirby and ...
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... Bob Tisdall kept us company.

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