| SCR-Rigged Bluto is PHRF Boat of the Week |
 Sailing with a full set of SCR rigging, Ben Hall and Bill Berges sailed the Evelyn 32 Bluto to first place in PHRF 2, earning PHRF Boat of the Week honors for Key West Race Week 2010. "The best part was being competitive through a wider range of conditions," says Ben of the upgrade to SCR rigging and a Hall seamless carbon mast. "We were competitive against the bigger boats in conditions where we weren't competitive before." The conditions he's talking about are big waves and wind – exactly the conditions experienced on the fourth day of racing when team Bluto won both races. "We could see that the mast stood up well while sailing upwind in waves. The carbon mast is much stiffer, and with the carbon rigging the mast just doesn't move around," says Ben. "It also helps that the mast and rigging are much lighter. The mast doesn't pump like it used to, even without the checkstays." (Bluto was originally equipped with an aluminum mast with wire shrouds and checkstays. With the switch to carbon, the checkstays were eliminated.) "With a new No. 3 and the stiffer rig, we were fast upwind in lump," says Ben. "We overcame a weakness the boat had with its previous set-up. On the last day, which was light air, we still had a confused sea state left over from the breezy day. We noticed that we were pitching less and we were pretty quick upwind. Bottom line is, with the new set-up, the boat is livelier and even more fun to sail." |