What is there to measure in a class of boats where the organizing authority of the event provides all the equipment to the sailors? As laughable as it is, the Laser class does have to go through a measurement, even at events where equipment is provided, mainly to check the rigging systems, to confirm that nothing has been tampered with, and to sign a contract that you don’t intend cheat. My measurement slot was this afternoon at 4:30pm, and it consisted of a number of really fun activities. After pulling in the boat under the circus tent holding all the measurement activities, two chinese volunteers scrambled up and promptly stuck my bow letters onto my bow and delivered my new sail complete with inked stars and stripes and new USA lettering. Our names will be placed on the foot of the mainsail once the correct fabric arrives for the stickers apparently.
Today is a scheduled day off for Laser Team USA. Now I’ve got to get the heck out of the boatpark, and out of the village to find something interesting and distracting to get into. I’m burning through reading material and movies so I’m going to start rationing myself shortly so that I still have good distractions during the regatta. We have had blue skies here in Qingdao and remarkably clear skies. The fog and haze that usually obscures the city skyline less than a mile from the village has cleared to the point where we have been able to see the horizon during parts of the last two days. Yesterday actually had a splendid 5-6 knot seabreeze fill over relatively flatwater (keep in mind that almost two knots of current were recorded on C course during the max ebb that we experience during practice). The haze and humidity should return shortly and rumors are for another tropical disturbance to pass through with some heavy rains again before our event starts. But, we’ll be ready.
Rick
sounds good. kick some ass Andy.
