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.
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.
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.
Steve at the helm while I trim
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Here is a link to the Google Calendar with all the Seattle Racing events. Very handy. You can click on any one of them to add to your own calendar if you use Google Calendar personally.
This, our third attempt at a Snowbird event, was a bust. Blown out this time. A gale no less. Not just a little too much wind. Way too much. I figured it was still a good day to practice reefing and to see how the boat handled in 30 knot conditions. After all the plan is to enter some events where this kind of wind is entirely possible. Getting out was easy. The wind was a solid 25 knots with gusts to 30. Raining like mad. We headed down the breakwater to find some shelter from the gusts and hoist the main. After an aborted attempt because of some fouled reefing lines we came around for attempt number two. I felt the wind increase and looked down at the meter and noticed the wind was now pushing 30+. Visibility was dropping. I could swear the tops of the waves were blowing off. One of those times where you just know the squeeze is just not worth the juice. Wrap it up. Let’s get the heck out of here.
Well after looking at the West Point wind data I guess we made the right call. Pretty sure we out there right about 11am.
Well Snowbird #2 was a bust. On the positive side we learned some things while in the school of “stuff happens”. We live to race another day. No one got hurt. All that…
I did get my hands on a fun image crew member Sara has been holding hostage in her DSLR. It’s a worms eye view of the new A2. Hoping it gets out of the bag next month during Snowbird #3.
