The never-ending project to fill my hole in the ocean while bailing it out

Sailing Season 2011 Officially Begins
Launching Chip Ahoy
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Friday, June 10, 2011

This morning was an absolutely perfect day for Riverhead Beach launch preparations. The oppressive 100° heat and high humidity of yesterday departed with its severe if brief thunderstorm. Today brought high-70s and dry air, partly to mostly cloudy.

Wally Riddle arrived at 9 am, Michael Sullivan called to say he was running late, met us at Riverhead Beach.

I remembered – but nobody let me forget – to attach the Windex this year, the first thing we did upon arriving!  Last year, we didn't catch its absence until we had the mast up – and I wasn't going to ask them to wrestle it down and up again! (I had the boatyard attach it later.)

Chip Ahoy's 2011 annual mast-raising and launch-prep party went smoothly; what a crew! We're getting pretty good at this with the years of one-time practice, but there's still hesitation before taking each step: "Are we forgetting to do something necessary first?  Do we have everything ready for the next move?"

Barbara performed her usual duties for the annual occasion as the official photo-journalist documenting the annual event.

Everything went well — until I unboxed the new Joe Waters genoa and we hoisted it.

The entire purpose for my $830 purchase was to shorten the luff of the genoa (so I can see beneath it) while lengthening the foot to gain some sail area; why I went to a 150 from the old 135. We were stunned (to say the least!) to unbox the new sail, run it up the roller furler, and find that the luff was even longer than the old genoa – too long to even work.

Amazing, since I'd sent my old sail to Joe over the winter so he could take measurements and build the new one accurately.  Old genoa's luff length is X:  The new shorter sail he was supposed to build should be X-minus — not X-plus.

Aw geez, how discouraging — so we dropped the new sail, dug out the old genoa that fortunately I'd brought along "just in case," and hoisted it instead (bottom two photos, left and right).

I tried calling Joe when I got home this evening but was unable to reach him. The only thing I can figure is that he shipped my sail to someone else – who is wondering why his new sail's luff is so short!

NOTE:  Joe Waters returned my call this morning (June 13). After speaking for a while (he has no idea how it could have gone so wrong and apologized) he agreed to provide a full refund; I'll have to box and ship his sail back, wait until next winter to have a local sailmaker build what I want. What a fiasco, a waste of my time, money, and expectations.
Lesson Learned:  When purchasing a sail — BUY LOCAL!

Wally and Mike left at about 1:30. I kept rigging and tuning until Chip Ahoy was ready to go, at about 7 pm. Wally will be at my place tomorrow morning before 7:00 to pick up the outboard then launch Chip Ahoy on the 7:30 am high tide.  (Jun. 10, 2011)