Tennis balls are so yesterday

by Fritz Baldauf, Latitude 38
Tennis balls being used as dinghy plugs have been a staple for most sailors for years, particularly in the FJs and 420s competing in both high school and college sailing. A local junior sailor is trying to change that through a high school project.

Gus Gossett, 16, is a junior at The Bay School of San Francisco and a skipper on the school’s sailing team. He first came up with the idea of working on a new plug design for FJs as a freshman, in the school’s “creative process” class, but then shelved the idea for two years before picking it up again as a junior and refining it. Gossett has now introduced a plug design that he calls “ProPlug.” – Full report