Elise Health Bulletin #3

Dear Beethovens,

We are approaching an extremely important milestone: the end of Priority 1 task on Elise. A heartfelt thank you to Nathan for getting a few things right (but like he said, I don't pay him for nothing...now, I hadn't realized that this was a paid program. I wish people told me about these things).

Sail Controls:
Most recently, Elise's long-awaited outhaul was overhauled (read line was replaced). This entailed fishing out lines and blocks inside the boom through multiple contorsions and screw-driver miracles. We have removed some ill-looking cleats on the traveler, leaving the ones that are the furthest away from the traveler.
Elise also has a free-running cleat fixed to the Cunningham.
With the battens in the main, this brings up back to full control of the main!
We are also replacing the halyards and getting a reefing line (not really needed for the bay, but will certainly look really pro for the offshore program ;-)), hopefully ready for our next race!

Race Gadgets:
a) Roger patiently entered the waypoints for Berkeley Midwinters into the GPS, so if we get bored, we now have some entertainment. I will try to enter all the other Bay and most common near offshore waypoints so we can use the GPS to get a compass heading on downwind legs.
b) Nathan is nearly done putting together our first "Crew Manual" (which will be posted to the online working sheet for the Elise crew shortly!)
c) We have a glossy new flag sheet (and if you can't remember your VHF alphabet, all the clues you need are in there :)), which will make it a lot easier to figure out which course we are supposed to sail next time around.

Comfort:
The benches are getting a nice little shampoo to protect the wood from follicles :) They should be all shiny for your next visit on Elise :)
We have a cozy sewing kit which can become very handy during the offshore program.
Two instrument covers for the compasses are on order and should reach San Francisco on Wednesday!
We are also in the process of ordering a boat cover (all the Expresses lined up at the St Francis will have the same looking cover :) It's a bulk order!). We get to choose the color, if you have any preference, please let me know!
And we have launched a "logo" context so we can get some Elise gear ready and impress the competition.

Next on the list:
- fitting the halyards
- replacing the knotmeter (a permanent "zero" is quite depressing...)
- getting a proper thermos so that hot tea can be served after the race, as opposed to "barely warm if you have a good imagination" beverages

Then, off onto Priority 2 items!!!!