going out of business: APS 30% off sale

in a bit of sad news, Annapolis Performance Sailing has announced that they will be permanently closing and will be liquidating all of their in-stock inventory.

It is with much sadness that we are announcing the permanent closing of APS.  Unfortunately, we are unable to bear the burden of the losses caused by the COVID-19 crisis. We want to first and foremost thank you, our customers, for your continued support throughout our 29 years of business. We hope you will take advantage of our liquidation sale through the following weeks.

on the bright side, if you’re looking for any new sailing apparel, now would be a good time to get them on sale.

the downside, no way to try on any items and no returns…. but if you know your size(s), grab some sailing gear before it’s all gone.

[for the record, I have links all over my blog to items from APS… I’ll slowly try to get rid of these links, or update them to another sailing supply vendor]

new Minifish sails

I just saw over on the Sunfish Forum that Neil Pryde is now offering brand new sails for the Minifish, with multiple color options as well.  in recent years, Sunfish sailors have had several options for buying a new Sunfish sail (Intensity Sails – the cheapest option,  Sunfish Direct, etc), but it was typically hard to find reasonably priced new sails for the slightly smaller Minifish sail.

https://www.neilprydesails.com/shop/mini-fish

the Minifish sails are priced at $120 + $17 shipping at Neil Pryde. this is quite a deal compared to some other places that have the Minifish sail for $300 to $400.  it’s not clear from the Neil Pryde website if the sails will have the Minifish logo or not – so that might be worth double-checking before you order one.

if it doesn’t, you can always make your own logo using insignia cloth.

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(I’m not getting any compensation for posting this – just thought I’d pass along a good deal to fellow sailors!)

10% off orders at APS

APS has a quick promotion going on right now for Sunfish sailors – 10% off on orders over $100, from now until August 15, 2017.

Sunfish parts can be found here.  might be the perfect time to upgrade your Sunfish lines package, and maybe get a Harken ratchet block and the other various parts for your mainsheet block upgrade.

 

locating the Sunfish logo

a blog reader reached out to me recently to ask how to locate the Sunfish logo on the sail if you had bought a non-class legal sail that didn’t come with a logo (from Intensity Sails or APS for example). I previously blogged about making your own Sunfish logo using insignia cloth.

the Sunfish class provides a sail diagram to show where sail numbers (and country letters) should be placed, but no dimensions are shown.

I got out some really old Sunfish sails, that would have been original manufacturer supplied sails, to measure a few different locations to see if there was consistency over the years with the “official” or class-legal sails.

I also measured my APS racing cut “practice” sail that I made a logo for to see how it compared (bottom right in the photo above, larger photo below).

it seems that the basic summary is that the Sunfish logo usually is placed in the 2nd panel from the top of the sail, about 48″ or so from the top of the sail, but you can probably use your best judgement as you place it. the nose of the Sunfish logo was typically about 16″ from the front of the sail.

 

vaavud sleipnir

[no, I haven’t forgotten how to write in English.] 

this is a post about a neat gizmo for measuring wind speed using a smart phone.  there are often times when I’m standing on the beach, thinking about – or getting ready to go out sailing my Sunfish, and I’ve wondered what the wind speed currently is. I’m not well versed enough in the Beaufort wind scale to estimate wind speeds accurately myself, so gadgets that do it for me are always appealing.

I currently have an app on my iPhone called Wind Meter – which is pretty neat, but I’m always skeptical that my case might interfere with the results, or just that the speaker/microphone on the iPhone is partially blocked by dust, etc.

and there are certainly dedicated wind meters, often used by sailing race committees – but that’s another piece of equipment to deal with.

I posted about the Vaavud previously, but here is another promotional video for the latest Vaavud model, the Sleipnir, that now measures both wind speed and direction.  the red model (with 2 cups) is the older model, the Sleipnir is the grey/black model, updated to measure wind direction as well as wind speed.

 

 

I’m not getting anything for posting this, nothing free, no extra discount – just thought I’d share a neat product with other sailors.  but as an extra bonus this week, both of the Vaavud wind meters are on sale for 35% off… so maybe it’s a perfect time to get a Christmas gift for that sailor in your life!

harken h150

I was just browsing online for some new rigging to get for the Minifish that I bought in November, and came across a nice little video that Annapolis Performance Sailing just created that talks about the Harken H150 cam cleat and some of the accessories you can pair with the H150.

the H150 is a great little cam cleat that I have used before with my Sunfish if I want the option to cleat the mainsheet.  my setup includes a Harken carbo ratcheting block – the 57mm H2135 on a stand-up spring – that controls the tension on the mainsheet.  I mounted the H150 cam cleat on the turned down lip around the cockpit of the Sunfish.  the picture below is before I installed the stand-up spring, but shows the H150 mounted on the cockpit lip.

this position is important for a few reasons: it keeps the cam cleat mostly out of the way, and it makes it fairly difficult to reach that far into the middle of the boat to cleat off the mainsheet when you are hiked out in a stiff breeze.  some sailors/racers like to install a cleat on each side of the cockpit near the outer edge of the Sunfish, but these can hurt your legs if you ever are hiked out and forward enough that they get in the way.

the reason to avoid cleating off your mainsheet in a medium to high strength winds is that you lose the ability to quickly spill the sails if you are hit with a quick puff of breeze.  it is recommended to learn to sail with the mainsheet always in your hand, controlling the sail and making minor adjustments with the wind.  if you were hit with a large gust of wind with the mainsheet cleated, it could cause you to flip your Sunfish and take an impromptu swim!

a note for newer Sunfish with the rolled gunwales – the cockpit trim makes it difficult to install the H150 on the cockpit lip.  you might be able to figure something out, but with my newer Sunfish, I just installed the H2135 and the standup spring, and skipped the cam cleat.  either option works!

HT: APS Stern Scoop blog