Rare bird - A Beneteau First 260 resource

A very wet May and June has lead to historic high waters on Lake Minnetonka. The water level as on June 19th, 2014 is higher than any other recorded level. It is currently 18 inches over max high water; the level that the Conservation Board tried to regulate as the max level. Beyond evaporation, the only way to control water level is to open the sluice gate that allows water to flow into Minnehaha Creek and over the falls. That amount is controlled to keep the creek safe, so the max loss of water is about 1 inch per day. The high water is now endangering shore and shoreline property. The docks at Wayzata yacht Club (where we keep Blue J) are awash. Even on a quiet wind day, we cannot get to BlueJ without getting our feet wet. The situation is dangerous as the fenders have no effect with the deck underwater. To minimize damage, the Board has taken the drastic step to ban all wake-generating boating until the water level drops to the approved high water level. This will ...

When we went with a set of laminated racing sails for BlueJ, a big question was how to protect the roller furling jib from UV. Left uncovered, the sun would soon destroy the sail. From a practical perspective, there were three options: Cover the luff and foot with UV-resistant acrylic (sunbrella) Cover the luff and foot with UV-resistant Dacron (stickyback) Buy a removable jib sock Option 1 and 2 are very similar, and are often seen on cruising sails. The only difference is the material. The Sunbrella is much longer lasting, but also much heavier and thicker. The stickyback Dacron tape is lighter and effects sail-shape less, but does not last as long, and is also only available in white. And both materials have a hidden down-side. The 'hinge' created at the inboard edge of the cover flexes the sail material constantly along that edge, weakening it over time.  An additional down-side is that either would need to be added to any headsail we bought, and as of now we hav...