19.) 90 Pound Weakling

Before attaching the hull to the cradle, I thought it would be a good idea to weigh it. The photo of the digital scale to the right reads 97 pounds, but that includes four pounds of equipment I used to lift the boat.

One reason it is so light is that it has been drying out in the indoor shop for more than a year.  The moisture content of the wood is extremely low.

I am going to want to bring the finished boat right in on the class minimum weight of 230 pounds. That weight includes the mast, boom, centerboard, rudder, and all the fittings and racing equipment (though not the sail and a few other odds and ends).

At some point, I am going to have to know what all those items weigh so I can subtract that from 230 to calculate the optimum weight of the finished hull.

The challenge is to make the boat as strong and stiff as possible, but not to go an ounce over 230 pounds.  The more rigid a boat is the more efficiently it transfers energy from the sail (or movement of the crew) into forward motion.