Finally I got a chance to post a weekend update. Saturday was a great day of racing on Jordan Lake. We had 13 Hobie 16 show up for the first annual "SWEET SIXTEEN REGATTA". Prizes and swag was provided by hobie and sunjammers sunglasses. Race committee consisted of NORSA's own Adam Domanski and some NC State Sailing club groupies. We got in 5 races and had some great wind.
After an awesome 2nd place finish in the first race John Cathcart (my weekend crew) and I were stoked but with a string of poor starts and a couple of starboard port incidents at A mark soon made us ready for a hotdog or two and we settled with 6th place overall. We had a great time. Good wind, a boat that didn't break (too much) and we didn't get wet. Can't do much better than that. (Click the picture for more regatta photos. Thanks Jana)
After an awesome 2nd place finish in the first race John Cathcart (my weekend crew) and I were stoked but with a string of poor starts and a couple of starboard port incidents at A mark soon made us ready for a hotdog or two and we settled with 6th place overall. We had a great time. Good wind, a boat that didn't break (too much) and we didn't get wet. Can't do much better than that. (Click the picture for more regatta photos. Thanks Jana)
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than this, I saw a Yellow Cat Ketch sailboat launching from Vista and starting to sail around carefully avoiding our race course. No Way, I thought. Could it be a Core Sound? Yup, sure enough I sailed over (which nearly cost us a start..oops) and said hey to Ken Potts who I had not met until that day but who is an active contributor to the B and B yachts forum on http://www.messing-about.com/ and was actually already following my Dad and I's build of our CS20 on the site. Actually he was the first to reply to the thread I started. Anyway, after we hit the beach I went over and we talked boats and the EC for a while before parting ways. Ken is out on Jordan Lake almost every other weekend with his recently finished CS17 "Southbound" and I've got an open sailing invitation and a... summer job offer. COOL. Thanks Ken. Great to meet you. I hope you don't mind I posted a picture of your boat. It looks GREAT. 
That evening we got the Inwales dry fitted and trimmed them to length. We also got the transom wired in and checked that everything was square and symmetric. Sunday we got the Inwales glued in and had just enough time to get the entire center seam down the keel line filleted and glassed. It took us a while to figure out just how to go about this because it was impossible to reach the seam at the bow from the side of the boat. We ended up with a mission impossiblesque hanging stretcher that I laid on while I glassed the seam starting at the bow and worked back. Since the boat was on wheels, we thought we would just roll it forward as we worked. It ended up being a little harder than that but it got the job done.
If you are familiar with the boat plans you may notice that we are missing the forward bulkhead. We are working on incorporating a cuddy cabin in the design of the boat that will be based a lot on the design of the EC22 (especially from a structural standpoint). Since the boat will be used for week long getaways and weekend camping cruises, we thought a cabin would be a great addition to the design. It will also be really nice to have a place to sit up or stretch out that is out of the wind or rain during the EC.
