We sailed from the breakwater of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Our boats and sails were laid out in the tent on a pontoon to the side.  Both these features are visible in the site photo, taken from the fourth floor of the RVYC clubhouse.  Quite a walk to the sailing area, then...

I liked the weighing stand, used during event measurement, which did not require an assembled boat.  Instead, you put your fin, bulb, and rudder on the base of the stand, your hull in the centre cradle, and your rig on the top shelf.  To weight the boat with each of its three rigs was very straightforward -- you just took one rig off the top of the stand, and laid the next one on.  Very quick and easy.

There was a flotation tank for draught measurement, and the sails were measured on a large, long table.  Some sailors were seen to be drilling and filling, some were seen filing, and some were cutting pieces of lead to glue in place.  The organisers laid on the necessary materials right next to the weighing station...  Very thoughtful!  Don Martin was quick to explain that, if anything caused a problem, he wanted to provide the solution as well.

The booms are hand-made, being sheet aluminium bent over a specially-fabricated mandrel.  Maximum cross-section dimension of the boom is 20 mm.  Thomas wants the maximum size for "unmeasured" area downwind.

The boom ends are SAILSetc plastic fittings cut to size and shape.

Rigging is attached to the boom with a fine hook of stainless steel wire;  I estimate the wire diameter to be about 0.75 mm or 0.8 mm.  The eye of each hook is closed by silver soldering, both to prevent snags and to add necessary strength.  The hook is held in place by a sleeve of slightly flexible plastic tube, dia around 15 mm or 16 mm.

Rigging adjustment is made using a series of small holes, about 1 mm dia, spaced diagonally across the boom such that each increment in adjustment is itself small, about 1 mm or 2 mm.

In the first picture, the jib downhaul is adjusted by a hook which has a choice of 12 holes, each hole giving an effective 1 mm adjustment.

The second picture shows the aft end of the jib boom, and the third picture shows the adjustment holes for jib topping lift, jib outhaul, and jib sheeting.  Not an adjustment screw in sight!

The fourth picture shows Thomas' gooseneck and main downhaul arrangement.  A SAILSetc ball-raced gooseneck has been milled, and two further ball-bearings added, so that the gooseneck itself, and the kicking strap, enjoy separate rotation.  The purpose of this is to allow a precise main downhaul, a loop of wire which runs either side of the boom and gooseneck fitting, and which can then be adjusted by a line taken to the boom.  Notice that the downhaul adjustment line passes through an eye that is slung from the boom end and not from the kicking strap pivot.

1 Jib boom - forward end

2 Jib boom - aft end

3 Jib boom - aft adjustments

4 Gooseneck, kicking strap, and downhaul

The picture also shows Geoff's mast partners, with the mast ram calibrated with ciphered annotations for various conditions of wind and water.

Downhaul, ram, and partners

Brad said the cover helped prevent water being scooped up by the aft cockpit during a tack, particularly in waves, and that its effectiveness had been demonstrated in home events.

The result is an aft deck that, if it were "solid", would have a strong similarity to the Bantock Ikon and Italiko arrangements.  The SAILSetc Web site has a FAQs item which explains Graham's thinking on "skiff" cockpits and why he prefers to lower the mast using a dished cockpit rather than an open one.

Deck cover

Fairing

The insert is placed into the foredeck fitting, and turned 90 degrees to lock it into place, using the little handle.  The foredeck fitting has a sprung plate which engages with a slot in the insert.

Pivot insert

I found it very difficult to anticipate and accommodate changes to the apparent wind when tacking with a relatively light wind following a relatively strong current.  During the tack, the apparent wind vanishes, and so the tacking angle is nearer to 120 degrees than to 90 degrees.  The boat must be left sailing free for much longer until she builds up speed and can be pointed.

I also found it difficult to manage the boat on the run with a relatively light wind following a relatively strong current.  Again, the apparent wind on the boat is very low, and while the boat certainly seems to be moving along at a reasonable clip, it simply has no response on the helm!

Sailing when the wind was against the current seemed a little easier, because the boat at least behaved itself more predictably, even if it usually seemed to be sailing quite furiously yet taking forever to get to where I wanted to go.  An interesting point was that, though the wind speed measured on the breakwater might be 2.5 m/sec or 3 m/sec, it was usually necessary to change down from no.1 to no.2 rig because the current (and waves) would add to the apparent wind on the sails.  I started by not changing down until my "usual" wind speed of 4.5 m/sec or 5 m/sec, and discovered I was hopelessly over-canvassed until I did so.

Tuning the boat for the waves and conditions involved sheeting the main out to around 10 degrees or 15 degrees instead of my normal 3 or 5 degrees pond setting, and increasing the twist on the jib by about 7 or 8 degrees at the lower batten, and 15 to 20 degrees at the upper.  I sailed the first two days in C fleet, the next three days in D, and only managed promotion to B for the last two races of the event -- I found it a steep learning curve that I failed to master until the very end.