We realised early on that if our intent was to race this boat, we needed to replace the sails. While the sails were in ok condition, they are old and on the point of starting to delaminate. The kite in particular was probably letting more air through it than it was holding. The spinnaker sock was literally falling apart in … Read More
Wildcat F18 – Our Refurbished Foils
In order to minimise drag on a race boat the need for the hull and foils to be ‘fair’ is most important. Fair in this case means that the hull/foil is smooth and water can move across/around it with the minimum of changing of direction. Obviously a hull has shaping so the water can’t travel in a straight line, which … Read More
Wildcat F18 – Really wish we hadn’t looked – Part 3
When we dehumidified the hulls we also removed the badly bent anchoring point for the spinnaker pole stays on the port hull. This came back to haunt us, when we turned the hull over to remove it from the shed we heard a piece of metal fall inside the hull. It was clear that the reinforcing plate had fallen off. … Read More
Wildcat F18 – Really wish we hadn’t looked – Part 2
One of the things we found early on of course was the ‘crack’ which turned onto a hole. We decided to hold off on fixing it until we had taken care of the rest of the hulls. It is an awkward fix because it is right on the turn of the bow of the boat. The hull laminates and gel … Read More
Wildcat F18 – What we have been doing for the last few weeks
While we have been quiet for the last few weeks, we have been busy. Even if a lot of it was busy waiting. When we bought the boat we put a moisture meter over the two hulls. The starboard one, the one with the hole, predictably was wet although the port hull wasn’t that far behind. Only solution was to … Read More
Wildcat F18 – Some times you wish you hadn’t looked
The refit of the boat had been, until we turned the hulls over, remarkably easy. Note to self, never ever forget “It’s never easy”. We de-beamed the boat and flipped the hulls over so we could assess what was needed on the bottom of the hulls. The warning of a problem came as soon as ‘Tris…’ picked up the starboard … Read More
Wildcat F18 – In the Dog House
We are a bit strange here at Bearly Awake, we do things like keep cars in the garage. Which of course means there is no room for boats. Solution? We need more space to work on the boats during the winter. So welcome to the ‘Dog House’, our new temporary boat shed. Of course our Border Collie, Roy, had to … Read More
Wildcat F18 – What we found from our clean and assessment
The reason why we do such a comprehensive clean up is so we can check that there aren’t any major issues we missed when we first looked at the boat. So we can build up our job list and order any parts. The good thing so far s we haven’t found anything major. The boat is older so it is … Read More
New Project – Wildcat F18 – Man maths strikes again
During the IMA National Championships at Swords, Ireland, in September, we were down working on the 600, near to the club house, building a set of Spectra/Dynema shrouds to replace the damaged metal ones. Before anyone says anything, yes we know they aren’t class legal but… Predictably this generated a lot of interest, given spectra is banned in rigging for … Read More
