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Frankenboat Comes to Life!
This last Saturday was a commotion of 505 rigging
action at the home of Mike Pollard. I along with Gary Lee, John
Billings, and Geoff Nelson all took part in the resurrection project
of the classic Rondar known as Road Kill. Mad Scientist Mike has done
an excellent job rebuilding that fallen soldier, complete with a very
stylin' new paint job.
Gary and John focused on mounting the many spin
sheet lead blocks, and devoted much engineering effort to the
reassembly of the hiking straps. Geoff undertook the ever-important
board up&down controls, having no qualms about giving away the design
of the super hi-tech crew/wire-access board up control inherited from
the Frenchies who chartered Bollocks! at the Worlds. There goes our
competitive advantage (as if). My contribution was the
extraordinarily complex jib cunningham, followed by the twing system.
Amidst this flurry of power tools, shackles and 3M
5200 circled Mad Scientist Mike, admittedly doing a heck load of
nuthin', save serving up burgers and keeping our cups full of brew.
Some might argue he was therefore the most important member of the
team. He performed his job with much skill, cunning and grace.
All in all, Road Kill appears to be coming together
nicely, though there's certainly a few milestones yet to reach, many
evenings of work I'm sure. The secret to *my* classic reconstruction
project (#5848) was to stay very single through the project. Mike's
girlfriend made an appearance at the event, and didn't appear thrilled
at the fiberglass monstrosity in the driveway. It lends one to wonder
whether Mike's motivation to finish is a thirst to sail Road Kill, or
to appease his better half? Perhaps this 505 boat race is the type
that doesn't happen on the water! Mike, if she boots you out on your
ass before the project is done, then you're welcome to wheel Road Kill
over to my place where we can finish the job. I'll even let you sleep
in my driveway under your boat. Just don't forget to bring the beer.
Cheers,
Mark Kurzava
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Thanks Mark.
that was a very accurate description of Saturday's
events, although I think you failed to emphasize the fact that there
were at least a couple of hours of idleness spent arguing about the
"right way" to do it - actual working time was probably about an hour. I
attribute the success that we had to my keen perceptiveness in keeping
all beer cups full all of the time and serving Grade A prime choice beef
patties with special sauce.
I have a new theory that the more people who show up
to a rigging party, the less progress is actually made (On the boat,
that is. Much progress is made in consuming mass amounts of alcohol).
Anyone else notice this?
Thanks to those of you who came - your help in
getting Roadkill back in the water is appreciated. See you all in the
water soon,
Mike Pollard
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