In a message dated 12/4/04 9:38:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, chonshell@ia4u.net writes:
. Great Britain, John? It seems I never see American boats with lee cloths . . .
I have not. The Folkboat is the wettest 26-footer I've ever sailed, swept with spray and decks running green as soon as it gets over 15kts. You really pay for that low freeboard. The tall dodger and "weather cloths"---I think "lee cloths" are what keep you in your berth on passage?---have almost completely solved the problem. They also do an amazing job of protecting the helmsman from wind, helpful when it's 50 degrees. The only problem is that, together with the Monitor and the wind generator, all that canvas makes Chimpanzee look HARDCORE and in every anchorage someone asks if I've just popped in from Bermuda. Maybe someday I'll be able to say "yes." In the meantime, sewing that dodger and the weather cloths on a $12 sewing machine will have to rank as the season's singular adventure. Here's that link again, or: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/clcboats/album?.dir=/ba4e&.src=ph& .tok=phWPPKCB6MJVFPoH