San Diego review -

Thursday night:

We are in the pits and ready to go. After the problems at Silverdale we found a wiring issue while going over the systems and took the boat to Spanaway for an APBA GP race. The wiring change made all the difference and we took second in Spanaway. We feel good about our chances now and look to run the fastest laps anyone has ever seen from the UL-13

Friday night:

We appear to be back on course now. I was able to qualify the boat at over 103mph. The boat is sill a bit flighty coming down the backstretch in San Diego but we can make some canard adjustments that will hopefully keep the flight attitude more predictable.

Saturday night:

The day started fine but certainly didn’t progress that way for long. In Heat 1 the boat nearly blew over going into turn two. We still have too much lift down the backstretch and the starboard sponson is 3’-4’ in the air by the time we enter turn two. We make some changes to the canard setting and add an air deflector to the starboard side of the canard to reduce lift. This helps tremendously in Heat 2, however in lap three we hit something and limp across the finish line and back to the pits. When the boat is lifted out of the water we see a hole in one of the transition panels between the cockpit and bellypan – this is not good but recoverable overnight. Back on the trailer we find that the shaft is seized and the rudder bracket is cracked our weekend is finished. For a second straight year we won’t be racing on Sunday in San Diego.

Sunday night:

Our season is over. I have two 12 hour days of driving to look forward to and then the boat has to be torn down, flipped over and repairs to the transition panel, strut and rudder brackets made. Given the few points we have scored over the course of the season I can’t justify asking for the Herculean effort that would be required of the crew to prepare for Port Angeles. This was a disappointing season. We put in incredible hours in the off-season adding hydro shoes, new skid fin brackets, canard controls a new engine and fresh paint. While I think the UL-13 was the prettiest boat in the fleet this season our on water performance didn’t live up to our hopes and expectations.

I know the crew is disappointed – but I certainly am not disappointed with the crew. Dean, Jim, Chris, Dwain and Rick worked monumental hours in the shop. They along with Kathy and Donna worked feverishly at each race site. My great thanks go to all of the crew for their effort in 2007. 2008 is a new season and we’ll determine what we need to do in order for it to be a successful one that we can all be proud of.