Boats in the Yard - USA 109 Elsie

I was over at Doyal picking up my new jib and of course I cruised the yard to look at the boats and there I saw USA 109 - Mike Goebel's boat being prepped for painting.
The prep work looked really good, everything was smooth and fair, however...
I took a closer look and began to find the flaws.
In a one design fleet this is silly. Who needs a knot meter on a Folkboat? This can't be good. No, definitely not... extra drag. So, I stuck a piece of gum inside it to make sure it would slow Mike down.
There were several spots missed and if it were painted like this... he'd be real fast. I couldn't find anything wrong with the prep work... darn it, Mike's going to be fast again this year.

I know he did extensive bottom work last time he hauled out and now it's just about maintaining it.
Maybe the new rudder he had Soren make isn't as good as he thinks it is. It is lighter and it looks illegal, like his last one... much too thin on the trailing edge. But after studying hydrodynamics (I had a talk with Svend about this)....
It doesn't matter. It's how you sail your boat. You can't expect to win races if you make mistakes on the race course. Besides, from this picture it looks kinda warped, doesn't it?
Looks like port tack will be favored for Mike this year. Better put that in the files and see if we can sucker him off of that tack more often this year.
Mike's mast... such a pity. It was a perfect piece of wood last year, but he didn't put enough varnish on it and now it's warped.

If you look closely it bends to the left about half way down. Maybe this is part of his plan because now port tack is really favored for this boat. Ok, I'm just kidding! Mike's boat is in the best condition it has ever been in and with the new sails, new/light rudder and awesome bottom job all Mike needs now is good crew and he's up at the top of the fleet. Now before it completely disintegrates... buy a new cover!