Chip Cunningham Strikes Again!

In January, Chip put Nick Seraphinoff's and Tony Krauss' hearts to a thorough stress test with an email to Nick relating a hair-raising mid-January sail on and over the Detroit River. This can be enjoyed on page 5 of the Winter SKIMMER..  Now Chip Cunningham has risen to new heights: In late May, Nick Seraphinoff, Chip's skipper, arrived for the Bayview One-Design Regatta to discover that Chip had added an unexpected "go-fast" to Impulse II:



An old-style beer bottle opener, mounted where the crew could easily open beers without interfering with his secondary duties such as spinnaker trim. Surprised and not too pleased, but sensitive to Chip's fragile psyche, Nick toned his response down to something like, "Shouldn't we talk about something like this before committing to it? Two 5/16" holes through the mast? I hope that hasn't weakened it too much."



An animated discussion ensued, before Chip could stand it no longer, and admitted that it was all a prank: There were no extra holes in the W10978 mast. Everything had been glued on. Nick probably didn't know whether to kiss or kill his crew.



I thought the aluminum shavings were a masterful touch, but had missed the other item that Chip pointed out when he sent me the photos:

-----Original Message-----
From: Chip Cunningham
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2015 4:38 PM
To: Al Schonborn
Subject: Your pictures as promised

Note halyard shred on bit.  Hope you like it.  When I showed it to Nick you could see in his eyes that all his mental machinery was locking up.

Chip


Chip's version of the story is in the SKIMMER also.