General – Page 4 – S/V Kinetics

Scatchet Head scratcher

OK that didn’t go as planned. The weather was somewhere between great and wowza. Started out blowing in the teens and low 20s under cloudy skies at the start, which was nice. No rain made it even better. We were late to the line but given this was a long race I wasn’t too worried about the 15 seconds. It kept us out of the frenzy. We hit the line moving well with the #3 up on starboard on a broad reach. It was gong to be a 13 mile run downwind to Whidbey Island under some pretty decent conditions. Except things didn’t go as planned. The photo below from Jan’s Pics tells the beginning of the tale. A bit short on crew and new people in new positions with the breeze up and things went wrong quickly. Right after this photo the kite wrapped the headstay and eventually rolled up with the #3 for a real puzzler that took us nearly all of the run to Scatchet Head to sort out.

I was nearly certain we were truly screwed until one final desperate attempt managed to get the two sails untangled and allowed us to drop the kite. We had only a short distance to go so we just bagged the kite and sailed under the #3. We were happy to just still be in the race after that.

The ride home was a blast with the wind building to 30+ over the deck and plenty of sustained gusts to 40. About halfway home the 3/16″ stainless steel cable outhaul parted with a bang. Fortunately everyone responded to my “duck” command and the cable didn’t make contact with any flesh. We dropped the main, wrapped and taped the cable and rehoisted to the first reef and were off and beating to weather again. Guess that was the boat’s way of telling us we should have reefed a bit sooner.

Despite all the delays and problems we didn’t finish dead last! Broken but not out. Overall, another day of learning for everyone and some more things to sort out on the boat. The kite will be getting a new banding solution from Ballard Sails so hopefully our hoists will be better and the new outhaul should be good for another 30 years.

Snowbirds 2016

Finally! The rain lets up. We had a nice day on the water in decent conditions for a February. A strong front had moved through the night before with rain and 40 knot winds so it was all about the timing the next morning. The front had moved through fast so were left with a dying breeze of 5 – 10 knots but it was enough to get off a shortened course race under some chilly, cloudy skies. But it was dry, and that’s good enough.

We had a great start thanks to some nice crew work. We struggled a bit to get the big Nordic 44 moving in the light air and we’re still learning the trim on the new #1. It was a good day to let everyone work the boat and figure things out so that is what we did. There were two downwind legs so the foredeck crew got a work out. In hindsight I should have put the #1 up with the swivel so we could have roller furled it between legs. Lesson learned.

There just was’t quite enough wind for the boat to do well and the shorter courses are tough as we lose time in the tacks. However, it was fun and good practice. We even got to do a penalty turn after fouling a starboard tacker at a windward mark. Another lesson. Always something new and good experience for everyone I think. Here are a few snaps from the day.

Snowbird 2016 #4 — A happy, relaxed crew getting things done is a beautiful site

Seattle sunshine — Too far left but the view was nice

Garyling — The beautiful Grayling behind us, until they weren’t

Snowbird 2016 — OK, I missed this nearly sunny moment!

RTC 2015

Our first Round the County is in the books. It was exactly what I had heard RTC’s could be. A little of everything and a bit rough. Overall we performed well for our first effort. There is a lot involved in this kind of race. It starts long before the race weekend. The crew eagerly took on assignments from boat prep, logistics to meal planning and shopping. I could not have done this without their help. In another way, I owe this race to my mother. She passed away just two weeks prior. We knew she nearing the end but the timing allowed me to go. I know she would have wanted me to do this. I thought of her often over the weekend. Fair winds and following seas mom.

There are a couple nice write ups of the race which I will link to and keep my comments here focused on our experiences and what we learned. There is one here and one here. The always excellent photos from Jan’s Marine Photography are here.

We did the transit up from Seattle to Anacortes, Cap Sante Marina on Friday the 6th. The weather was decent and we sailed most of the way on a broad reach with the new #1 up doing 10+ knots. We had a bit of an “oh crap” moment on the way into the marina though. Managed to snag a crab or shrimp pot and wrapped the prop. Lost reverse and had to limp in. Fortunately we were able to get Jim from Bottom Time Divers out to unwind it all. Thanks Jim! No damage and we had a green light for the weekend. The party seems to have moved to Anacortes as there were a lot of boats in the marina for the race. It is a nice marina and the Anacortes YC puts on a nice event too (although I never made it because of the boat issues).

Up early Saturday for the ride to Lydia Shoals. It was clear pretty quickly we were in for a wet and windy day. The forecast was for 20-30K out of the SE and that was what we got. While circling for the start (we were division 3 so part of the first group to go) a shackle pin worked out of one of the main sheet blocks on the boom. Great timing. I dove below and managed to find the right replacement shackle on my second try and we were back in business with 10 minutes to go. We hoisted the #3 and made for the start. We crossed the line a 5 minutes late. Oh well. We made it. The angles were wrong for the kite so we drove up to the first left turn around Orcas but by then we were seeing quite a few boats crashing and burning with kites up. The crew wasn’t volunteering to rig the kite and I don’t blame them. The waves were picking up and the boat was moving around a lot. The consequences of a screw up with the kite were going to be high so we decided the better plan was to ride it out with the #3 and live to fight on Sunday. As it was, we still saw speeds over 12 as we surfed off the backs of waves. The boat was a bit out of balance and required real concentration. We swapped out helmspeople a few times; going below to warm up. Yes, we have heat, comfy seats, and hot beverages down below. Continue reading “RTC 2015”

So long Summer

Summer is gone but the boat is back in action. We did one event in June, the 3-Bouy Fiasco. It pretty much was. We were looking good for a while and then sailed into a hole at West Point and got hammered by the current putting us out of the running. It was nice to get back out and the boat sailed very well with the newly finished bottom and repaired rudder. The helm was light to the touch and the boat just felt a little faster. It has to be after all the work right?

I’ve decided to finally commit to do a Round The County. Pretty excited about it. It has taken a long, long time to get the boat into the shape it needed to be to do this kind of race. There are still a few things left but the crew is leaning into it and helping me get things done that I would just not be able to do without them. We now have a nice second spin halyard, tether pad eyes in the cockpit, tested and rigged Life Sling, a new #1 genoa on order and a several other nice things on schedule for the race. I expect this to be a good learning experience as I’ve not been able to spend any time in the San Jauns since bringing the boat to Seattle almost 5 years ago. About friggin’ time.

Stay tuned for a nice write up with, hopefully, some nice pics. Here is one of the boat getting ready to go back in after the new bottom and rudder repair at CSR earlier in the year.

Always something

It seems like every year something (at least it seems that way to me) big comes up to take me or the boat out of commission. Last year is was personal/family stuff which continues to make life a bit complicated but I’ve found solutions. However, the boat needed new bottom paint and it was time to strip it clean so it was more than the usual haul, paint and splash job. I put some work into finding the right yard for this effort and settled on CSR right here in Seattle. Lots of reasons, too many to list.

So far so good. With help from a couple of my loyal crew we get the boat through the small Lock on Monday morning with me only making a fool of myself once. After getting things sorted I leave the boat in CSR’s hands. A few days later I get the call I was dreading. The bottom is blistered worse than expected. After seeing some photos I have a friend go check it out. Sure enough it makes no sense to spend good money putting a lot of work into stripping and painting over them. Time to decide between the peel job I was hoping to avoid or simply slapping more paint on. The amazing thing is I’m getting used to this stuff. The worst part of it is knowing the peel job will keep the boat out of the water for two months!

I looked at many factors and came up with a ‘yes’ on doing the peel job. Better now than later and I can’t live with a lumpy bottom. Who wants that?

So we’re a few weeks in and counting. If all goes well the boat could be back in the water sometime later in May. We shall see. I’ll miss Blakely Rock and Race to the Straits 2015. Damn. Sorry guys.

Down the Sound

A bit late in posting this udpate. Hey, it’s Summer and lot’s going on. As expected this was a drifter for the most part. Like the Race to the Straights this is an over night race. Race one is south to Gig Harbor from Shilshole and race two is back to Shilshole on Sunday. As always in the Sound tides and terrain played a part with the light winds teasing people to go this way and that. The start on Saturday was exciting as there were thunderstorms in the area and we got pelted by some heavy but short down pours. My enthusiastic crew mate for this race, Steve, was so confident in the weather he didn’t bring any waterproof gear. Oops. A dash down below for some extra foulies and we stayed dry albeit a touch too warm. The breeze was very light and it was a downwind start so up went the A2 on a nice angle for us. We were pretty much right on the rhumb line for the west side of Vashon Island. Steve and I were watching the 3 J-105’s sail away from us (as they always do downwind) when out of blue sky a bolt of lightning dropped down to the water right in the middle of them. That was way too close and later we heard from their crew that yes, it was. We hit the halfway mark and noted our time as a bit after 1pm. We were actually doing well by having stayed right on the rhumb line because at the end of the day no one actually finished in time and we placed a decent 4th in class behind 4, fast, light air boats. We were the turtle in a race with hares that day.

Sunday promised more of the same. Light air, downwind start. However, the angle was bad for the A2 so we had to hoist the heavy #2 jib on the furler. Not the best option but it was my best guess for later in the day. We finally turned the corner and got the A2 up as we headed north. The wind was very, very light. We got good at keeping the big A2 up in about 5 knots apparent. It’s not easy I can tell you. Gybing is nearly impossible and we had to actually drop it a couple times just to be able to gybe. Then the most bizarre thing happened. A line of swimmers in a race across the channel between Vashon and the peninsula ended up cutting us off. We had limited steerage and a bit of current pushing us into them and really no safe way to avoid them. This was a first! I finally decided I had no choice but to start the engine and motor for a few seconds back to the south to avoid endangering any of the swimmers. I made sure I did not advance our position and hoped my fellow competitors would understand. I’m pretty sure this is covered under one of the rules but it’s a bit unclear to me so I self reported to the committee after we finished in case any one took issue.

Unfortunately that put us just far enough behind to get caught when the wind died. A number of those that made it past the swimmers escaped into a building breeze that would eventually reach us about 2 hours later. The afternoon sail from then on was actually really nice. We saw winds over the deck in the low to mid 20’s. Wish I had committed to the new #3 as we would have done a lot better with it up but the furling rig was already on so there was no going back at that point. While we reeled in a lot of boats outside our class we just didn’t have enough time to overcome the “swimmers block” despite nailing the lay line to the finish from over a mile out in a strong current. We did that!

New #3 in GPX — New #3 we should have had up on Sunday afternoon

Overall, nice event. Sloop Tavern does a great job putting on events and knows how to run a race. I’m not a fan of light air racing. Never have, never will but in the PNW that’s what you get this time of year more often than not.

Catching up

June was busy! I’ve been busy. We did both the 3rd of the SYC Round Island series, Round Blake Island and the crazy 3 Buoy Fiasco. Both races had something in common. A real lack of wind. At least with the RBI we finished and placed 3rd in class thanks in part to a boat or two that called it quits after what was a long, long day of super slow sailing. Whether by luck or skill we managed to sail from puff to puff from Shilshole to Restoration Point while a lot of the fleet ahead of us in the Racer-Cruiser fleet was dead in the water. We felt smart. Thankfully a fellow racer clarified the “shortened course” instructions which we were totally confused by or we would have rounded Blakely Rock instead! The current was ripping around the buoy at Restoration and we were sailing backwards for a bit but cleared and headed back to West Point which by now was another upwind leg as the wind had clocked around to the north. It was still very slow going though. The wind finally started to fill as we neared the bluffs and a couple of good legs put us right in there. Not bad for big bruiser like the Nordic 44. Some good gybes back down to Elliott Bay and we were happy to make it into the finish before the cut off. We had no idea we placed until the next day.

The 3 Buoy Fiasco was just that for us. We started well and I think we picked the best course but Murphy got us. The A2 kite’s leech line managed to get snagged on the jib halyard shackle during the drop at Spring Beach (Bouy #2 for us) we lost 15 minutes at least getting it unstuck. We were toast at that point. By the time we got to Jeff’s Head the wind had completely died. We spent an amusing 90 minutes drifting around that buoy snacking and drinking until it was clear we wouldn’t make the 5pm cut off. Too bad as we might have actually finished another race not really suited to the boat. Crew work was good but sometimes that just isn’t enough. We had a great time all the same. The Pig Roast at PMYC on Bainbridge was good fun. They put on a nice event.

Race to the Straits

First, there is only one Strait, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and we didn’t actually get all the way there. Whatever. This was something new to try. A double handed race. Just two of us to manage the 44 foot Nordic. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I figured we would sort it out along the way. Well, we did. Regular crew Jacqui took up the challenge. And it was a character building experience. We came in dead last. The photo below sums it up. The big A2 was simply too much for the two of us to handle when the winds kicked up past 20 knots at Double Bluff, the only mark in the race between Shilshole and Port Townsend. We learned a lot and nothing got broken but our egos. We blast reached into the finish line under genoa on Saturday with the meter showing 30 over the deck. Awesome. And it was sunny for a lot of the way North so it wasn’t all bad.

Sunday was another story. We got another late start but not because we got up too late but because the #1 reef line decided to untie itself. With a reef finally in the main and the genoa rolled up to about 110% we started the long grind into the current and 25 knot breeze. I tired out pretty fast. The tacking was murder. There is just too much sheet to release and trim with that genoa and it is not all efficient when furled. To make things worse the leech tensioner broke after about 5 tacks and the leech flogged like mad the rest of the day. We could never get the boat moving and despite doing our physical best we failed to reach Shilshole before the 7 PM deadline. Missed it by 30 minutes I would guess. Damn.

We were both really wiped out. I’ve never been so tired. Everything was wet. Spinnaker was drenched. It rained for part of the day on Sunday too. Sheesh. However, looking back, with some changes in the boat we would do it again and do a lot better I think. In fact a new racing #3 head sail is on order from Ballard Sails. A mothballed ATN spinnaker sock will be refurbed and put back into use for shorthanded sailing. This can be done!

Spinnaker Tug of Ware — Photo by Jan’s Marine – Spinnaker Tug of War

Blakely Rock Benefit 2014

I’d say we got lucky with the weather. It could have been a lot worse. As it was we had wind, a decent amount of it, not too much rain and it wasn’t that cold. For mid March that’s not bad. We always like to participate in these charity events. The cause this time was Sail Sand Point and the club raised $9,300 for them. That’s a win!

There is a nice write up by Ben Braden here of the race so I won’t repeat what he has done such a good job of. We had a good time for the most part. Things went a bit pear shaped at the end for us but we got out, sailed, had fun and came home safe. Below is a photo from Jan’s Marine that finally shows our new A2 from another boat.

SBYC Snowbird 2013-2014

We went out feeling pretty good. We grabbed a second place in our 5th and final race of the Shilshole Bay Yacht Club’s Snowbird series. It was a great day for a winter race. Good wind, great course (we went over to Blakely Rock off of Bainbridge Island), the rain was very light and the competition was good. We had a good start although it was dicey being on port tack with the big Beneteau coming in on starboard but in the end the Bene was in a no win situation and all of us port tackers won out. We played it conservatively at the Rock turn and let the Dehler 39 Deltane get inside us. That allowed us to have fun all the way downwind to Meadow point where we were side by side most of the time. They pulled ahead but we slipped inside at the leeward mark and made it to the line a bit ahead. The crew all did well today and it shows we are starting to click and get smarter as a team. Thanks to SBYC for putting on the series. A big thanks to my friends that show up for the fun and games.

Next up another Blakely Rock race with my club STYC. We know the drill if the wind is the same! Here’s nice pic from Sara’s cam with me trimming for a change. Jacqui on the helm dueling it out with the Dehler 39 about 50 feet to my back.