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A little cheer for the snow bound from Half Moon Bay, California

This works.

One of the best reasons to attend the mid-winters or nationals is to ask questions and see different approaches to problems.  Beside picking up tips on sailing faster, I found three gems on hardware. 1) US Cargo sells a small stainless ratchet trailer tie down.  It works so well I bought 2 more for other projects. 2) Lots of discussion about trailer tire wear.  The NAC RC Pro described his frustration with tire wear on a J70 trailer. His final solution - get a new axle.  I checked my torsion axle and found that the tires were toed out 1-1/2".  Apparently too many potholes and/or curb hits. No one online thought it was worth repairing.  I installed a new axel and what a difference. 3) I had a problem with my gnav car slipping off its boom track. I checked out one of the other gadget skipper's setup and noticed that he had replaced the car bungie hold down with non stretch line.  I did the same with spider line and my car slipping problems went away.  Thanks to all people who patiently listened and contributed.

Two VX1s will be racing at Marina Del Ray on 1/27-28 in the Santa Monica Windjammers Charity Regatta. Stop by for a look at the boats if you are interested.

My wife of 58 shows how to drop the kite in 10-15kts.  Last 2 minutes of race is SF Bay running down a pair of J70s. https://www.facebook.com/susan.pike.355/videos/1686704374726212/

Ben's demo sail.  He had never been out in the ocean surfing a dinghy.  Now he has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ_C5pelLAk

Added two mods to trailer. Side guides and offset mast support. 

The jib sheet system has a ratchet block under the deck.  Does anyone ever set the ratchet on?

What is the desired length of the extended pole?  My currently setup is 70-1/2 inches which leaves 4" of poIe inside the scoop, picture attached. 

Hello from sunny California.
My wife wanted to go sailing for Valentines day.  She's a peach. Not exciting weather, just a mild swell and clear.

I have not raced other VXs in light wind, So I'm not sure what is the best sail plan strategy.  I can set the kite much faster and fly it with the jib furled. Does this work or should the jib always be out?

Noticed some chafe on the dagger board.  See attached.  The open 57 guys showed me that they install a wedge between the board and trunk on each side from the bottom when trailering to prevent trunk/board rubbing damage.  Is this the result of sand in the well while trailering? Any other reports of this?

Hit a submerged chain.  Back in the yard, an examination revealed that the f/g bulb housing had been holed.  Attached pictures of before and after repair.  The kelp cutter slot was smashed closed.  I used a disk on a dremel to recreate the slot and tweaked in the gap with a flat blade screw driver.  Also noted that there is a 1/8" space between the f/g skin and lead in this area.  I filled in the patch back to the lead.  Then sand and paint.