So we bought our boat in July this year, and motored it home about 40 miles to Vancouver. Since then I have been steadily working at getting her 'safe' for my family. She had (still has) a lot of issues, but to begin with I had to kill off all the mold, install a proper propane locker, and rearrange most of the electrics. Next I have to tackle the heater but that is a whole other issue.

Anyhow, yesterday was one of the local annual Single-handed races. I said 'enough!', jammed all my tools into the back of my car, and went sailing. 18 degrees C, 18 or so knots of breeze, all by myself, and the first time I had even looked at my sails. Set the genoa, dropped it to install tell-tales, put it back up, and had a wonderful thrash around the race course. The boat needs some serious work on the sailing systems, and all the lines are WAY too stretchy for my tastes, but it sure felt good to be out.

Ended up rounding the weather mark second! behind an Express 37 but ahead of an Olson 30, SR33, and bunch of bigger C&C and Beneteau type boats. Held them off to the finish mostly through their errors (Singlehanded racing is like that) and may have even won the race on handicap. Ridiculous, but I am encouraged about the boat and enthusiastic to actually get out and use her now. Anyone have an old 150% genoa stashed away they would like to part with? The 125% I have was okay in that breeze but in lighter air I can tell I am going to want a bigger headsail.