article from http://www.iceboat.org

January 7-8, 2006
Lake Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Day 2
What a difference 16 hours can make...  Saturday evening people were pushing their boats back to the pits; Sunday morning the problem was keeping them in one place.  Overnight the wind shifted 180 degrees and increased, with solid mid-teens and gusts up to near 20.  Whoo, Hoo!

This is exactly the kind of conditions where my stiff mast really comes into it's own.  I reset my rig to the settings I'd been using Friday and went out for a quick test-sail before the first gold-fleet race; everything was working together perfectly and the boat felt great.  Dan put on his brand-new insert runners and played around a bit with mast-step position and fore-stay length; he also pronounced his boat "good to go".  Unfortunately Wes Wilcox was battling a way-too-stiff mast and had quite a bit of trouble in the gusty conditions.   more...    

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