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| Stuchlik "Blows
Out" the Balsawood
Blowout Compitition! |
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| Competitors
in the 1999 edition of the annual Balsawood
Blowout Regatta, found themselves faced with a
dilemma. A design dilemma, actually.
With the regatta race course being moved from the
deep waters of Regency Inn's famed waterfall to
the very shallow and narrow Gutter River, all
bets on boat design were off and it was every
sailor for themselves. |
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| John Stuchlik holding "Foul
Language" is presented his trophy |
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In
prior years, directional stability was the single
most important factor to consider when designing
and building a Blowout boat. This year
however, raw boat speed promised to be the key to
victory.
Pile on all the sail area you can would seam to
be the hot ticket, but as many teams would find
out, there was a fine line between a fast
sailboat and a slow submarine! With a mean
low tide water level of only 2-1/2" in the
Gutter River, teams simply weren't able to get
their boats ballast package deep enough to keep
the boats center of effort where it needed to be.
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One of the first teams to test their design in
the tight confines of Gutter River was Team Pond
Scum. Their boat featured a fine entry and
low freeboard complemented by a high efficiency
blade keel with a trailing bulb ballast
package. On deck, Pond Scum sported an
experimental single backstay rig with twin
strut-booms and a massive 1.8 sq. foot sail plan. |
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Pond Scum clearly looked to be one of the favorites, until the first test sail
that is! Her narrow bow section proved to
be a huge mistake. The shallow keel,
combined with the lack of buoyancy forward,
simply wouldn't allow her to stay on her feet
when fully powered up and she quickly buried her
bow and spun out. On the
other end of the design spectrum, 1998 winner
Bill Dattola opted for much less sail area and an
ultra-light hull design. While his boat was
very stable, it also proved to be very slow
compared to the more powerful designs and she was
eliminated early in the competition.
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| John Stuchlik's Foul
Language gives 1998 winner Bill
Datolla's boat a horizon job |
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| Mike
Kleppinger's Hobby Lobby beats
Jay Sawyer to the line in early action.
Note Jay's tricked out Nuclear sail! |
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Somewhat
similar designs presented by new HYC Commodore Gary
Robinson and Vice Commodore Mike Kleppinger, also
sported square rigs and managed to find a balance
between sail area and center of effort. The
pair was consistently fast throughout the regatta
and were favorites heading into the final time
trials.
Heading into the finals, the long shot had to be
John Stuchlik's aptly named "Foul
Language". This somewhat ungamely
design also featured strut-booms and a tall
rig. In early going, Foul Language was
clearly off the pace and suffered a long line of
set backs ranging from failed glue joints to
freak wind shifts and bad luck.
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John had to figure his luck was finally changing
when Foul Language put together a series of
competitive runs to squeak into the time trials as the
last boat selected. Then just at the finals
are scheduled to begin, Foul Language suffers a
bizarre dismasting during a run in with Omaha
sailor Tom Day. A frantic
eleventh hour re-rigging repaired the shattered
spar and may have been responsible for John's
dominance of the finals. With a shorter rig
and a fuller sail, Foul Language blazed a path to
the regatta win and ran the Gutter River nearly 2
seconds faster than her nearest competitor!
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| Calling Dr. Crash! Hobby Lobby
wipes out as Tom Day's boat sails on |
The HYC Brain Trust! (L-R) Vice Commodore
Mike Kleppinger, Commodore Gary Robinson &
Treasurer Jay Sawyer |
The Spectator Fleet! |
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| Harlan Yacth Club On-Line is a service of 3NS Inc, and is provided by Super Sport Marine |
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