Pimp My Waka

I've had the good fortune to link up with kiwi artist Sam Clark (www.samclark.co.nz/), his stylized drawings of native NZ birds really captivated me. I'm keen to display one his drawings of the Karearea on the boat to make it stand out a bit and maybe show some pride in the kiwi heritage, even though my accent is going more and more each day!  Sam has just sent me this custom image to convert into a vinyl transfer and go on the boat. Comments welcome, especially on where on the side of the boat to put it.

First Sail

Had the first sail of the boat on Tuesday, perfect conditions for the first sail wind between 5-10 knots, sunny, 13 degrees, no-one else on the lake.  First impressions: what a blast, seriously responsive boat, nothing was tuned but still every little bit got turned into instant acceleration, beautiful.  I need some work though to master this boat and get it fully under control, especially with respect to adjusting everything from the wire.  May have to get a new trapeze harness, the one I've got now is just too restrictive and gets caught on too many things, even so I need lots of practice of single handing from the wire, with and without the kite up.  Learned pretty quick that this lake is far too small for a boat this fast!  Also learned that despite having about 12 fast cats at the club including A class and F18, no one races, so I'll need to do some travelling to find some racing - that'll have to wait though until I'm good enough not to be a danger to shipping!  Not much sailing gonna happen this month, MSc thesis and a couple of law assignments have to be done by end of April.

Almost ready to go

So, I've finally got some time to update this. Had a few delays in getting the boat sorted through having to go back to UK and a few other things....but the boat is now fully rigged (although not quite in this photo), had to everything by myself, including putting the mast as there was just no-one at the club, it was bit cold and you can't tell here but real gusty.  So I just positioned the mast to raise downwind and it actually helped me out!  Sailing report shortly....