Crazy weight reductions stories

[Dwight Schute]

Anyone have any crazy weight reduction stories? We all know how much weight matters but anything can be blown out of proportion. Ive see a lot, from dehumidifiers overnight in 14ft dinghies to drawstrings being removed from gear. A common one is switching trap harnesses between light and heavy breeze. I want to hear the stories you have.

 

[dgmckim]

i once took 50lbs off my boat by running regularly and controlling my diet

 

[The Q]

I could lose most by losing 5 stone myself, But as for my 16ft boat, It's got teak laid decks, weight is not considered....

 

[Dex Sawash]

Wank when class flag goes up. General recalls are a bitch.

 

[wannabefd]

I found 30# of corrector weights inside the hull of a Coronado 15 and a frisbee that was glassed in at the factory.

 

[JimC]

I heard recently of a boat which had 30lbs of lead replacing foam in the core each side of the keel...

 

[mustang__1]

Once saw a team that would drink their beers before the first race - partially for weight and partially because they might need the foot straps during the race. In fact, I think one of them might post here... 

 

[Bowchow]

Crew and I were 15 lbs over 1 day before star NA's..

Several hours in the sauna, a liquid diet and some constipation medicine did wonders. Weighed in 5lbs under.

I was so weak I couldn't even pull the main in the first day.. definitely took a few days to get back to normal. 

 

[ortegakid]

Once saw a team that would drink their beers before the first race - partially for weight and partially because they might need the foot straps during the race. In fact, I think one of them might post here... 

OH, you've met me? Four Loco, breakfast of champions.

 

[dgmckim]

Four Loco, breakfast of champions.

my man!

 

[hoofhearted]

Aww, man this thread can be real fun.

True story, I shit ya’ not.  1980 something Coronado 15 Nationals or North Americans.  Buddy of mine and me must have been 16 or 17 years old.  Anyhow, C-15 NA’s come to Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  My buddy , Ben, and I find a C-15 tucked up behind a McDonalds in a town called Niceville in Florida, covered with leaves, and Ben walks up to the building and somehow comes out  with the boat as a loaner.  Owner says clean the boat up, fix it, and bring it back after the regatta.  Nice guy, helping out a couple of kids really. 

We clean the boat up, get a new CB put in, put some lines on it, soap up the hull, and show up at the YC for the regatta.  Allison Jolly was active in the class at the time and was measuring boats and sails for the C-15 Class at the regatta.  Big kudos out to AJ, as she must have felt bad for us two teenagers.  During sail measurement, she said our sails were so bad and blown out, she loaned us one of her spare jibs.  Weighing the boat, she let us know that the boat was like 60 pounds over min weight.  She said bring the boat back tomorrow after seeing what we can do, and she would remeasure the boat.  Now, there was nothing illegal about the boat being really freaking heavy, she was giving us the opportunity to do whatever we could to make the boat at least possibly competitive.  Insert K.T.    K.T was an Aussie with a metal rod stuck in his neck, who, by most accounts was a glass work artist.  KT tells us to bring the boat to the local boat yard, “The Boat”, in FWB.  We follow orders, and KT shoves Ben up inside the boat thru the bulkhead hatch.  KT hands Ben a Budweiser, a hammer,  a chisel, and a hack saw, and tells Ben” Cut out anything you see, wanker!”.   KT then hands me a beat up 8ft VHF whip, takes the drain plug out of the back, and directs me to “transom fuck the boat, knock the foam out!”, which I did, with the VHF whip.  A lot of waterlogged foam, clogs of resin, and bits of wood came out that day.  We measure the boat the following day, and the boat lost like 50 lbs!  AJ was really surprised and measure boat again and came up the same.  Big smiles on AJ’s face, and she gave us a thumps up. 

During the event, the compass binnacle, which covered the back of the CB casing, would pop off, and I would screw it back downwind. Shit was popping off the boat all over the place during the event, we would screw it back in downwind, and keep on racing.    On the way in after one of the days of racing back to the beach, I pop out on the wire, and WHAM!BANG!, the mast drops thru the deck.  We find that Ben had cut out the wooden post between the mast step deck and hull.  KT got us back on the water, and I think we ended up seventh overall.  Good times!

 

[ortegakid]

Aww, man this thread can be real fun.

True story, I shit ya’ not.  1980 something Coronado 15 Nationals or North Americans.  Buddy of mine and me must have been 16 or 17 years old.  Anyhow, C-15 NA’s come to Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  My buddy , Ben, and I find a C-15 tucked up behind a McDonalds in a town called Niceville in Florida, covered with leaves, and Ben walks up to the building and somehow comes out  with the boat as a loaner.  Owner says clean the boat up, fix it, and bring it back after the regatta.  Nice guy, helping out a couple of kids really. 

We clean the boat up, get a new CB put in, put some lines on it, soap up the hull, and show up at the YC for the regatta.  Allison Jolly was active in the class at the time and was measuring boats and sails for the C-15 Class at the regatta.  Big kudos out to AJ, as she must have felt bad for us two teenagers.  During sail measurement, she said our sails were so bad and blown out, she loaned us one of her spare jibs.  Weighing the boat, she let us know that the boat was like 60 pounds over min weight.  She said bring the boat back tomorrow after seeing what we can do, and she would remeasure the boat.  Now, there was nothing illegal about the boat being really freaking heavy, she was giving us the opportunity to do whatever we could to make the boat at least possibly competitive.  Insert K.T.    K.T was an Aussie with a metal rod stuck in his neck, who, by most accounts was a glass work artist.  KT tells us to bring the boat to the local boat yard, “The Boat”, in FWB.  We follow orders, and KT shoves Ben up inside the boat thru the bulkhead hatch.  KT hands Ben a Budweiser, a hammer,  a chisel, and a hack saw, and tells Ben” Cut out anything you see, wanker!”.   KT then hands me a beat up 8ft VHF whip, takes the drain plug out of the back, and directs me to “transom fuck the boat, knock the foam out!”, which I did, with the VHF whip.  A lot of waterlogged foam, clogs of resin, and bits of wood came out that day.  We measure the boat the following day, and the boat lost like 50 lbs!  AJ was really surprised and measure boat again and came up the same.  Big smiles on AJ’s face, and she gave us a thumps up. 

During the event, the compass binnacle, which covered the back of the CB casing, would pop off, and I would screw it back downwind. Shit was popping off the boat all over the place during the event, we would screw it back in downwind, and keep on racing.    On the way in after one of the days of racing back to the beach, I pop out on the wire, and WHAM!BANG!, the mast drops thru the deck.  We find that Ben had cut out the wooden post between the mast step deck and hull.  KT got us back on the water, and I think we ended up seventh overall.  Good times!

Great stuff you can't make up!

 

[knobblyoldjimbo]

I had an 18ft trailer sailer (Katrina, Careel 18).  We had done well in the nationals in previous years, anyway keen to keep up the record I did some weight reduction.

First the outboard (min 5hp per the class rules) took off the Evenrude 5hp two stroke twin (27kgs) and bought an old Tohatsu 5hp single (it had a hole in the cylinder head cover which let out water in the form of steam so I bogged it with that metal epoxy stuff that comes in a cylinder shape that you cut off then nead to mix - worked fine).  The Toey was about 20kgs so that was 7kg difference.

Next I replaced the rudder which was 12kgs with one that came out at 6kg.  It had an alum plate box which bent in the first race!

Net effect NOTHING.  No difference at all.

I know that some classes are different and in ours people were replacing things like centreboards for the minimum weight 67kgs (from either 110 or 200 for the cast iron version).  That didn't make much difference either.