Weather:  Broken clouds, occasional drizzle, windy.  WSW 5-10 mph with higher gusts.

Back in the saddle!  While I was in Phoenix, the good people from Fluidesign dropped off my boat.  I am massively impressed with the results.

Here’s the before picture:

And here are the after pictures:

The finish is beautiful, and there are only the the slightest hint of a ripple where the carbon had been creased and torn.

On the water, the boat felt just like before.  Stiff and responsive.  It set well and had been rerigged perfectly.  It tracked perfectly.  I am amazed at the repair.

By the time I had gotten it all unpacked and all the gadgets mounted, I was short on time, so I did a quick 8K steady session.  I wanted to take it easy and make sure that I felt confident in the boat before I did anything too intense.  I loved being back in my boat!  For the same effort, I feel like I am about 5 seconds faster on pace.  A little tough to tell because of the breeze this morning, but the speedcoach seemed much more willing to spend time below 2:30 pace than in the peinert.

Of course there are a few nits that I need to take care of on the boat.

1.  They reset the fin when they repainted the boat.  In doing that they did not notice the damage behind the fin from a close encounter with the sunken log (Trees and this boat do not get along!)  During my row, I shipped a little water in the stern.  I just need a dab of silicon over the area and it will be fine.
2. When they refinished the boat, they forgot to remount my impeller.  I didn;t even notice this until I was rowing and saw the pace display on the speedcoach stubbornly staying blank.  I felt under the boat to see if the impeller was fouled with weeds and discovered that it wasn’t there!  I’ve asked them to send it back to me so I can get it put back on.
3. I noticed that an elastic bands on one of the Magik oarlocks had snapped.  This band opens the oarlock when the latch is disengaged, so it is not critical, but I’d like to fix it.

All minor, and easily fixed.

Tomorrow:  Out to Worcester.  Time for a bit  more intensity.  I’m thinking of doing a  4 x (6 x 1′ on / 1′ off) 4′ rest at r30.