Chapter 4

One thing I discovered ... it makes no difference if every piece is laser cut ... some parts for one boat won’t fit another. Stringers need to be cut long and there’s always hand fitting ... two things. We’re not building thousands of cars ... we’re building a boat ... with parts cut oversize for hand fitting. Just sanding to remove the laser char changes things. It’s only during inspection that you find out it’s wrong.

Inspectors know the rules:

LOA: 3.7 m/12’2”
Beam: 1.52 m/5’0”
Sail Area: 8.8 sq m/95 sq ft
Mast Length: 6.09 m/20’
Suitable Crew Weight: 55-80 Kg/120-180 Lbs (Not a requirement.)
Hull Weight (with fittings): 48 Kg/106 Lbs (The hull can be over weight but not under. The inspectors love assigning weight to bring the boat up to class specifications.)

Farr drew the plans before New Zealand adopted French measurement. Certain modifications were made to the drawings after the fact.

I’d been studying UTube on the ‘net and a couple of ‘shortcuts’ made sense ... an Arrow stapler with the staples attaching the plywood to the keel. Lay out a thin string and staple over the string and through the plywood. After the glue sets up lift the string and pull the staples. Works better than prying the staples out with a sharp screwdriver. And... 4mm plywood with fiberglass cloth and resin works as good as a 6mm floor and it’s stronger.

Thanks to the ‘professionals’ from Gustafson’s for their help ... we got the boat finished in time for Saturday’s qualifications ... and I did ... qualify.

Rose Murray won Sunday. Rose and her boat were flown in by Qantas Air Freight ... free.

Upholding the honor of New Zealand.
Ludington Airport is big enough. After Qantas left the locals referred to the field as Ludington International.

When they unloaded the boat ... it was All Black ... hull, sail and carbon fiber mast ... her wetsuit and safety gear was black, too.

Not Rose. Rose was the Viking abandoned after a raid... 700 years ago. Her ancestry shown through. Rose was a beautiful Nordic Blue-eyed blonde and she remembered Surprise.

She did not treat me like a little kid. Nor like an adult. She was fun ... and we had fun.

I simply adored her.

She did spend a lot of time waxing her hull ... not just once but several times.

Pentwater has cleaned up the lake. Tidal outflow is no longer brown ... with floaters.
The lake was the town septic tank for years and the sawmill lost tons of timber.

Uncle David and his little tug and crane barge had been lifting logs and shipping them to Grand Rapids ... Oh ... big news.

Well, maybe not so new ... but I didn’t know it.

A few years ago, the FedA asked Junior to accept a new border 42,672 N ... instead of 43.076N.

It seems that circumstances had alienated the residents of that particular part of the FedA. Instead of losing them to an election and maybe losing ‘other’ dissident areas, the FedA was trying to appear magnanimous and acceding to those residents wishes. It would transfer a major tax burden from the Federals to the Princessapality.

The three population centers, Flint, Lansing and Grand Rapids, were suffering from decades of pisspoor management and some of the shenanigans of the local powers were finally coming to light.

Two aging auto manufacturers had been closed.

Re-opened, Junior was building cars again. Hydrogen powered using plain water for fuel and releasing excess oxygen to the atmosphere ... win win.

Grand Rapids was once again building quality wood furniture using Austin recovered logs.

David had a place for his salvage.

Anyway ... I got to race both Saturday AND Sunday. Even if I didn’t podium I was faster than the ones who didn’t race Sunday ... Yea Me!

Another news flash ... I sold the Fokker DR1. Sold to a man in Ludington ... poor thing. Now that I’m not boat building I’m learning to weld ... steel tube fuselage. Aerobatics anyone? Me Me Me! Please and thank you.

But now! High School!