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So Ian, where exactly are you? Sounds like the Solent????
Sure isn't Lake Ontario!

quick tip that a lot of people don't know...
use a magnesium anode for fresh water and zinc for the sea.

As for size, try one and see how long it lasts. You can don a swimsuit and add another. I hear of anodes lasting a month or a year depending on the local chemistry.

I'd just pick up another fibreglass battery box and fibreglass it in, with a strap over the top to hold the battery in place. Or build your own battery holder with wood and fibreglass it in place.
It'll work fine.

The ever-efficient Ron Jenkins replied to Jordan's request within the hour. He also sent me a copy of the Notice of Race and a voluminous copy of the picky regs, totalling 650 kbytes. I have asked Adrian to load it onto the forum, if poss. If not, contacrt Ron or me and we will send you a copy.
cheers, Oliver

from Ron:
I will look into the safety requirements involved in the distance races for
LYRA. I know that in the case of the Lake Ontario 300, there are stringent
requirements; I would doubt that LYRA has them to the same degree, but that
is certainly a consideration. I'll start with a look at the sailing and
registration instructions for the LYRA 2010 event, which I know are still
online from that time.

But LYRA is not just distance racing -- there are also 2 or 3 days of
course racing (depending on the fleet's preference). These races are going
to be held around marks off Ontario Place/Humber Bay, and they would not
have difficult safety stipulations.

Without PHRF ratings, and with enough boats for a fleet start in the course
racing, Contessas could race level. I'm sure that within the fleet there
would be quite a range of competitiveness in the boats, and that racing
level would mean that slower boats would inevitably trail behind the faster
boats, but that would probably be a situation not remedied by putting the
boats up against a rating rule in any case. I personally would rather race
level given the chance, and let the chips fall where they may, than have a
rating rule divide a class into separately-rated boats.

The LYRA regatta is designed in a modular fashion, with separate entry fees
for each long distance race, and another for the course racing. The
distance races are envisioned as a Founder's Cup race from Rochester to
Toronto, a Centennial Cup race from Youngstown to Toronto, then two
versions of the Freeman Cup race (long and short) starting and finishing
probably at the Dufferin buoy, then the course racing. Preliminary details
are at lyra2013.com, a web site I am currently assembling. Courses will be
most likely ratified at the LYRA AGM, to be held this weekend at the NYC.

Cheers,

  -- Ron Jenkins

**********************
Cell: 647-406-1226

Don't know for sure, but the newspapers said the captain was highly experienced and in constant contact with the coast guard. He was apparently trying to go around the storm and didn't realize how big it was.

I also noticed that the ship had only 17 crew. That seems way below the minimum necessary to run a 50-year-old, three-masted, square-rigger tall ship.

It's also one of many tall ships that have gone down through the years. There was a ship off Brazil that was hit by a microburst with the portholes open. The water streamed in through the open windows and sunk her in minutes. The Baltimore went down in a storm in mid-Atlantic a few years before that, and a quartermaster was washed off deck when steering another ship without a safety line. The original Bluenose went ashore on a Haitian reef.

Perhaps we don't realize just how dangerous ships were in the days before safety became an issue and labour codes wre enacted to protect the crews.

The inquest will be worth watching.

Contessa weather!
Why does everybody haul so early?
This is the best time of year to sail (well, maybe not today!)

This is an interesting discussion....

Ian:
How about if the cockpit drains cross over to the high side.
And, the bilge pump hose goes as high as possible under the gunwale in the centre of the boat -- way above the water line.   
A vented loop is a good idea too.
So are doubled stainless steel screw clips. A lot of them have stainless clips and carbon steel -- ie rusty - screws.

By the way, the first thing I did on my 1975 Contessa was to install seacocks on the cockpit drains. I later discovered that many of the older boats never had seacocks (Help!). I also replaced all the Canadian Tire bathroom fixtures that a previous owner had used as seacocks elsewhere in the boat.
Proper seacocks are a good idea!

I have the same question for the two Vetus hatches that open at the front of the main cabin. They have a special seal that I'm sure is unobtainable. I tried smearing the seal with vaseline as a stop gap measure and it helps a little. I may also try a butyl seal that you can buy by the foot but I haven't found any thin enough so far.
thanks

My two bits...
I'd suggest posting the Association material out in the open where all the Contessa owners can read it and participate.
The website is excellent and serves a very, very useful function. But the association serves a different function. It is a very good way to actually meet fellow Contessa owners in person and play with the boats.
We may get the odd junk mail, but Adrian seems to be keeping his eye on that.
Thank you, Adrian and John. You're a good team.

Adrian
I'm a non-racer at the National Yacht Club in Toronto. It costs me $3,000 a year, all-in for a boat my size, cheaper than several local marinas. It's on the mainland, so I can get there by streetcar day or night, I can walk from work, I can sneak down during my lunchbreak and get back to work before anybody notices I'm gone.
A club is good because it is multi-dimensional. I can talk boats or maintenance or techniques or any other topic, from books to software to wine.  It is a self-help club so I can help out with the workboat or the forklift or the garden or the workshop or the committees.   And it's big enough that I have a huge pool of people that share my interests.
I'd go for a club if you like people, if you want more than a marina can give you. But choose a club with like-minded people, that suits your taste.