The Chronicles of Acushla at Abersoch; chapter 1 : correctors

Having never raced my Albacore against other Albacores I was unsure how our upwind speed and pointing ability and our off wind speed would compare. Folk who knew the boat from old were giving me encouraging remarks that the boat is fast but just how quick and how competitive I had no idea.

But before the any racing was the 'weigh-in' where the all up weight of the boat is checked that it meets the minimum weight of 136kg. They weighed Acushla 6 times in different configurations because they could not believe that she was so light, the wind played about about with the process and caused quite a bit of fluctuation but in the end the settled for the maximum weight of 129kg, which meant I needed 7kg of corrector weights fitted. Where on a Saturday afternoon do you find 7kg of lead weight? In the end I borrowed two 5.6kg lead weights used for mark anchors and strapped and gaffer taped them to the centreboard knees and we raced with them for two days until I could get to Jewsons and purchase 7kg of lead flashing which I then had to fashion into two equal chuncks of lead weights and fix them into the boat.

I fixed them in the time honoured fashion - with Gaffer tape. Until I can reshape them into a more attractive shape and something that fits neatly onto the centreboard casing knees.