31 October 2002

Hi Andrew,

Just a quick note to thank you for publishing the picture of my son's Dabbie, together with the new sails, plus the explanatory note. Hope the guys and girls enjoy it.

Maybe some more background info would be in order, so if you want more, just let me know.

The requests for the mods have come from previous Dabbie sailors wanting to breathe some excitement back into an already exciting class. Primary objective being to make the sails longer lasting, more stable at the top batten and simpler to set/make(loose-footed main), all this with minimal cost implications The large window in the jib, goes without saying, from a safety point of view, also improving goose-winged down wind visibility dramatically. The light winded (NorthVaal) sailors do not seem too convinced yet, but they have been the only ones who have not yet voted as of today. To date, we have had 42 Dabbie sailors voting (each with 4 sub votes), of which 2 were against Mylar and only one was against the full length top batten, the rest were all positive. We now await the NorthVaal replies.

Attached, some more Dabbie pictures I have taken recently. Included are more pictures of the sails, previous training camps and last weeks boat show at the Waterfront.

For my sins, I look after the WC Dabbie interests here in the Cape and at age 47 still often take the opportunity of taking my son's Dabbie for a burn at the Vogelvlei YC. We have seen a bit of a resurgence in the class again, with quite few girls also joining into the class (much to the delight of the boys).

If you need more info re Dabbies (documents/dwgs building kits, etc, ) just let me know.

Cheers,

Casey Wolters
WC Dabchick Rep