This nice note came in from Greg who is excited for his crew bag from Bainbridge! I love hearing the stories of all the ways people get out ln the water!
Bob,
THANKS for your support of our sport in general, and of Sailstice in particular! This is the ideal gift! I’ve just completed the Transpac (on Criminal Mischief) and was just thinking that my former duffel bag probably wouldn’t survive another regatta (it has a lot of character and proven miles but the patches are having trouble making up for the age of the base Kevlar).
Finally, you might be interested to know that during the Transpac, though the conditions were very moderate, we blew up three spinnakers. Two (a 1.5 and a 2.5) were about 6 years old. Both just fell out of the sky as if their expiration date had been reached. No one remembers a puff, wave, hard trim, flog, or anything. Suddenly there was just no more tension on the sheet, or halyard, or tack. The cloth looked like it had just parted like tissue paper. We know there were no visible holes or tears in advance because we’d just finished scanning both kites from the deck (and one of the kites DID have a small hole but that wasn’t involved in the parting). Our third kite tore fully across from luff to leach when we were hit by a squall from in front of the boat and the kite was blown back against the rig (and the boat started backing up). We didn’t have the chance to use that one again though I taped and sewed that one back together just in case. Because we didn’t rehoist it, I’m not entirely sure what the tear aligned with but I suspect it was one of the spreader tips. All the kites were made by Quantum. I don’t know what material was used
Thanks again to you both! What a great surprise,
Greg
Chip Megeath's R/P 45 Criminal Mischief tearing through her home stomping grounds of San Francisco Bay.