The next venue was Blakney. A decent breeze but the cramped race course ment that the course crise-crossed and this was an accident waiting to happen. The picture shows the massive gash created by a collision with another boat. I was on starboard close-hauled and the other boat was running on Starboard, I hailed but he took no notice, I luffed at the last minute and he chose that moment to bare away.
After the collision he capsized and we were in irons. He did his 720 but I had lost so much distance that it took me the rest of the race to catch up and finished 3rd 10 seconds behind the 2nd place.
We were not the only collision but I think the only one with any damage. A fellow competitor gave me some RAF battle damage tape to patch the hole up and it has lasted for the last two months of the season. Repairs will be done in October. The Insurance companies are dealing with the claim and I guess they will work out who is responsible but in my mind it's a no brainer!
4 comments:
"RAF battle damage tape"? Is that anything like duct tape? It has worked for us... so far. One regatta to go before the repair.
It is sticky backed foil tape that the RAF use to patch up bullet holes in aircraft... apparently. The chap who gave it to me had some connection with the RAF at some point and had a small reel of teh stuff. Its very effective! absolutly water-tight!
Oh, yeah... I've seen that stuff. I found some 'foil tape' on this site with "aggressive adhesive". Do you have any trouble getting it off?
Haven't tried yet!
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