January 19, 2009-Getting Ready to Race

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Polishing the Mast

We are going racing next week and this time we want to be serious about our preparation. We've taken all the cruising gear off and stripped out the inside of everything heavy which we think we can do without.

We estimate that this will be about 4000 lbs of stuff removed when we finish. We've been working on this for a while and most of it is off already, however Wings still looks full inside. It's amazing how much stuff we normally have on this boat. Our new storage locker at Yacht Haven is filled and our boat still looks full.

But the waterline shows the difference: Wings is about 4 inches higher now, and it feels lighter.

We've also done some cleaning and polishing. As you see above we even had Hasan, our favorite boat worker, go up the mast to wax that. This doesn't make us any faster but it makes us feel better.

And Wings still looks pretty good when it gets down to basics and it's all cleaned up.

Click here for a photo.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Phuket