Monday, August 11, 2008



WOW, it’s been a busy summer. Dropped offline for a bit doing way too many things. Uber-multitasking.

I (Spinnaker) bought an Ultimate 24 in May, hull number 2 that was made in 2003 by Elkhorn Composites, the maker of the molds. It’s an awesome boat! We hauled her out at Berkeley Marine Center and put a new bottom on her. We’re trying a new approach, Seahawk Sharkskin bottom paint with carbon fiber shavings mixed in so that the paint will burnish hard and fast. So far it’s worked great.

Garett, Spinnaker’s operations manager, and I sailed the boat back from Berkeley. What a delight. Since then we’ve been racing the boat at the South Beach Yacht Club Friday night beercans. Still sorting out some boat issues. We’ve borrowed a kite from Pete’s U24 as well as his hold headsail. Another U24 owner, Nick Roosevelt, gave us his old main, thanks Nick.

The boat has a new full battened North Main and Jib, both cut small and made of heavy cloth for charters. Also there’s a new North ‘shy’ kite (smaller for high winds). These sails are perfect for sailing in the slot on those 20-25 knot days.

Just last week we took down the mast and removed the boom and bowsprit. These are all carbon and were finished in a clear coat, showing the beauty of the carbon fiber, but the finish had broken down and was flaking off in sheets. We’re painting all the carbon white with Awlgrip epoxy. This will keep these parts in good shape for many years to come.

There’s been quite a lot of conversation of turning the Ultimate 24 into the Antrim 25. The changes would simply be the addition of the Antrim articulating bowsprit and adding 50 lbs to the keel bulb, bringing the ballast to 800 total lbs.

The articulating bowsprit is a great idea, taken from the Antrim 27. It allows you to rotate the kite to windward up to 27° making for much better VMG letting you drive deeper with speed.

The 50 lbs additional ballast is to give the boat full offshore status under the new rules. Garett and I are trying to figure out a way to do the Doublehanded Transpac on our 24. FUN!!

While the additional ballast is easy to do, the necessary modifications to the deck molds to incorporate the rotating sprit is tough. Lots of work and of course, it changes the boat so the one-design status is under jeopardy.

I'm proposing to the class that the A25's race with the U24's in one design but they have to keep their sprits centered and the U24's get to sail with 100 lbs more in crew weight to offset the 50 lbs in the A25 keelbulb. These are similar concessions when the Antrim 27 went from an aluminum mast to all carbon.

We hope to have additional U24’s and A25's coming into the fleet by early 2009. Keep your eyes out for these speedsters.

Oh yeah, the charter requirements for these are:

BCC (ASA 103) certification
5 charters on the 22-27’s
Intro to Sportboat Certification

After you get 5 charters on the 24’s, you can take the Assymetrical Kite Class which allows you to sail the Bay with the Kite.

Fast really is FUN!