Some blog

Some blog, haven’t updated it all summer..too busy working, sailing and racing. Need to make more of an effort. Right now I’m motoring up to Newport for a double handed distance race and long weekend in Newport. Since there’s no wind and water is flat and promised myself to limit con calls I thought I’d compose an entry.

I definitely have a good work life balance! So far this year I’ve race at KWRW, CRW (sort of – see earlier blog entry), AYC spring, OffSoundings spring, frostbiting Lasers and Etchells, Wed nite racing and other misc events. Distance races include Block Island Race, Mudhead overnight, New England Solo/Twin and Ida Lewis Distance race is tomorrow. In a couple weeks the Vineyeard race (275nm) and a couple events in Chicago including J/105 North Americans.

Today is my 68th day on the water this year, which is ahead of last year’s pace. No podiums finishes this year though – can’t understand that as we definitely better sailors than last year and boat prep is not an issue, but they have been some tactical mistakes on the course but I’d like to think as we’re doing bigger events the competition is stronger. Or maybe I need a newer mainsail…No worries we’re having far more fun this year than last!

Loving the distance racing much more than windward leeward course. So much more thinking and seamanship involved. J/105 is great double handed platform too. We can easily fly the largest headsail and spinnaker in pretty much all conditions.Still like big fleet one-desing, that why I continue to crew on “Creative Destruction” it’s just that there aren’t that many such events available in my area.

Kinda too cool (didn’t want to don wetsuit) and more importantly too dark to scrub bottom this morning, I’ll do that in Newport as I should have a few hours before the skipper’s meeting where I’ll meet Eric. I’m sure we’ll head over to Zelda’s, an excellent sailors pub, for a pint or two of Guiness and some food. Forecast for this race is looking light, three course are in the SIs, a 177nm, 150nm and 104nm courses. Hoping for the shorter course to ensure we’ll have soe time to enjoy Newport night life on Sat. This’ll be the second distance race/long weekend (Thurs-Sun) in Newport in 3 weeks, really love that town. I’d move there given half a chance.

That’s it for now, really need a brighter laptop screen for blogging underway in full sun. Thanks to whoever left the SPF 70 on board! And I promise to blog more frequently

BI Race

BI Race
OK been awhile since last blog entry, very busy with work, life and racing on my boats and other peoples boats. A couplef olks asked me why no recent entries so that motivated me to write this entry: Wow the BI Race took a lot of time both to pre, deliver boat and the actual race. Weird, I was most concerned about the big items but the little things really crunched the time window. Big stuff included storm sails, new halyards, code zero life raft, and IRC cert. Little stuff are just far too numerous to mention. Then the logistics of getting boat to Stamford about 65nm away – that’s a 12hr delivery. Delivery was boring mostly motoring, but we left late so double handed partner could come along instead of taking train so we missed flood. Got interesting near the end with t-storms up ahead on the blackberry radar so put into Stratford. Nice wide channel and good restaurant and excellent diner 5 minute walk away next morning, cast off 0900 and 3hrs later at the Cows for the start.

After speaking with other boats we had short 45min postponement waiting for breeze and then we started. Hoisted code zero right away as wind was light, but switched to class kite when it became apparent we weren’t keep up with the two other J105s. 16 boats were doublehanding. Played shifts for awhile and caught up to the others then it grew dark. Running lights on and then battery 2 low voltage alarm came on. Ran engine an hour but it would not charge. Lost sight of J105 Jaded off our beam running close to shore, contrary to what our current charts would indicate as optimum. Gumption the third J105 got past us at we made Plum Gut and we trailed them for literally hours on towards Block Island. After the Gut we started sleep rotation 2hrs on 2 hrs off. When I awoke we had lost sight of anyone in our class. All night we sailed without instruments as we were keeping Battery 1 in reserve so we could start engine. Executed a nice light air single hand gybe 5 nm from 1BI and nailed the layline. Once around Block began long beat back to Stamford via Fisher’s Island sound. Forecast and tides were very ugly and given electric problems and my partner’s domestic concerns we decided to withdraw and peel off to home just a few miles away rather than endure 65nm beat in light headwinds against foul current. Not happy with decision afterwards but at the time it seemed more reasonable to enjoy the rest of the Memorial Day weekend as there was no way to hold time over the bigger faster boats in the class. It turned out many boats had same idea or were later forced into withdrawing as over half the boats, including all the J105s in our class withdrew. Still believe RC should’ve sent the fleet on the short (130nm) course. At least we didn’t have to do another 12 hour delivery home from the finish worrying about the batteries!

Learned a lot prepping for first IRC race and first Cat 3 race on my own boat. We raced 110nm before retiring so it was a good 2.5 days on the water. Will need to asses electrical situation, possibly upgrading alternator and replacing both batteries before another long distance race. But never again I will withdraw unless we’re in imminent danger – can’t stand the giving up feeling afterwards!

Here are some photo-boat pics: http://www.photoboatgallery.com/lightbox/index/gallery/2010%20Block%20Island%20Race/Dark%20N%20Stormy/Dark-N-Stormy.html

Storm sails

Just acquired storm sails for "Dark 'n Stormy". The immediate driver for this was the BI Race next month, although I've been optimizing her for distance racing for past couple years. The 185nm BI Race is an ISAF Cat 3 race so to comply I needed at least a storm jib as my mainsail double reef points would satisfy ISAF regs (I think). So I posted an advert on j105.org and the next day I rec'd email from the owner of "Enerj' in Marblehead, MA. He bought that J/105 in Annapolis last year and rather than just sail it home to Marblehead, he entered the Annapolis-Newport Race. That's a Cat 2 race so he acquired storm sails (and other safety gear) for that race that he wished to sell. I had just gotten a $900 plus tax quote for new storm jib, so when he said $1000 for an unused storm jib, a storm trysail and an ATN Gale sail I was definitely interested. Meanwhile I finally found a buyer in Australia for an excellent Airx symmetrical spinnaker from my Catalina 320 that's been sitting in my shed for 3 years. So for a total outlay of $196, (shipping a sail to Australia ain't cheap) my boat is far better equipped for heavy weather and can now satisfy ISAF regs for Cat 1, 2, 3 races. Bring it on!

Brought these sails to the boat last night to try 'em out. It was blowing even more than predicted... 20-30kts and gusting even higher. But didn't leave the dock as it was too damn cold and not especially prudent to seek out these conditions for the very first sail of the season. So we took our time inspecting each sail, and figuring out sheeting arrangements etc.. learning a few things along the way. Carefully packed away each sail with their sheets and did other stuff to ready boat for the season.

Above is a pic of the trysail, sheeting aft to the spinnaker blocks then to the primaries. Actually had to fly a trysail for 36 hours in the 2008 Newport-Bermuda Race on a J/44 when the headboard parted from a brand new carbon fiber main, but that boat had a separate track for the trysail. Hoisting a trysail on J/105 in big breeze wouldn't be easy...think it would be best just to remove the main completely...hope to never have to do that...but can certainly envision using the storm jib occasionally... oh yeah now I have to peel off the sail numbers and apply mine...another little item for the to-do list!

Here's the other pic I took last night while walking out to my slip..marina workers working on the docks...jealous they get to work outside while I'm stuck in an office...

Urban Sailing

Sailed in NYC harbor on Sunday...practice day for next two weekends’ AYC Spring Series in Rye, NY . “Urban sailing” was the term we coined to describe our reaction to this venue. After a 3hr+ drive to southern most tip of the island of Manhattan, near Battery Park, we parked and quickly located North Cove Marina about a block from the WTC ground zero site, which we visited after sailing, after beer, after sushi. Cute, well protected little marina, in front of hugely tall buildings with restaurants, bars, office towers, apartment buildings and people and tourists biking, jogging, walking, taking pictures. Nice! But slips are expensive here, around $14k/season! for a J/105… location, location, location, I guess…but where do they dry out their spinnakers??

Driving down we were hoping to catch a glance of the Statue of Liberty that day. Little did we know we’d be sailing right in front of her and Ellis Island all afternoon. Interesting harbor traffic, cruise ships, barges, tugs, and ferries. From what we were told, traffic was very light compared to Wed night racing where dodging commuter water taxis, ferries and heavy commercial traffic is the norm. The locals also reported lots of current challenges as Hudson and East rivers merge there, with tidal influences and skyscrapers doing funky things with the breeze.

Really a strange experience sailing in urban environment. While I’m glad Big Applers have access to the sea, I much prefer the more peaceful, natural home waters convergence of Long Island Sound, Fisher’s Island Sound and Block Island Sound.

Frustration @ CRW

Charleston Race Week is a major event, even bigger than Key West this year and when offered a ride on a Viper, one of the hot new sport boat classes, we (me and my sailing buddy Eric) eagerly accepted. Originally, the boat was to be ready to support two weekends of practice off Noank to prepare for this big regatta. Two other Vipers from our yacht club were also planning to attend so it sounded like we would have a blast racing in a big fleet in the warm waters of Charleston Harbor.

But one thing led to another with the boat and trailer and in the end we found ourselves relegated to just a couple hours of light air sailing practice in the Mystic River - and that was with a borrowed rig - for what turned out to be a medium to heavy air event.

Andy, the owner, worked himself silly for weeks and weeks before the event to prepare, enlisting the help of many others, doing everything from replacing the trailer axle to making hotel reservations. This list of things to do was long and this was Andy’s first big travel event and until two days before the event our departure was in question. Biggest issue was the mast. He had bought a new carbon rig last fall from the manufacturer in the UK, but it was re-allocated to another boat at Miami earlier this year when another competitor was dismasted. So we left Mystic without a rig, expecting to borrow another mast from the New England dealer also down in Charleston for the week.

The boat needed a cover to travel 1800 miles roundtrip so we made one Monday night using donated materials, lines and duct tape. We thought it was a pretty good job but we’re stopping constantly to apply more duct tape as highway speeds did a number on our handiwork. This really slowed down progress - we left Mystic an hour late 0500 on Wed, got into Charleston around midnight, checked into hotel and crashed.

Thursday: Practice Day- well that was the plan. Up early, drove to launch, dropped off boat, and then drove 1/2hr away to find the mast. That went quicker than expected, but then we were off to Northern Tool to get a new dolly for the trailer and other supplies. Finally back to boat, but while rigging our hopes of quick assembly and practice in some real breeze quickly faded. Think we spent a good 8 hours rigging, dealing with multiple issues fitting Andy’s rigging with borrowed mast, spreaders needing extra holes drilled, getting the correct size turnbuckles measurements had to be taken, etc.


Then, once the mast was up we had to bring it down to reverse the Windex and take a forgotten forestay length measurement. Then we noticed the spinnaker halyard, which lacked a figure eight knot, was inadvertently pulled up through the mast on the last raise, which meant we had to take down the rig again, pull apart the mast sections and reeve a new halyard which required a trip to the hardware store for some thin, stiff wire, wasting yet more time. Frustrating and especially jealous watching other Vipers quickly rig and launch (which was kind of tricky, check out this video). Three times we stepped the mast that day. We learned more about the Viper mast than we ever cared to know! Finally ready for sailing but by then it was too late in the late in the day to launch and sail boat to the race venue, move the car and get in some practice. So we decided to get up early on Friday to just launch and sail directly to race course, practicing on the way and worry about retrieving the car later.

Friday, Race day! After more boat prep work we were finally ready to launch. There was one Viper ahead of us on the ramp. Wind was blowing strongly directly onto the dock and tide was low and still falling. We assisted the other Viper for almost 45 min but they could not get out. So we flagged down the ZHIK RIB launching as a spectator boat. The deal was the RIB would tow them out and come back for us. Tow worked fine for them but then the RIB took off forgetting all about us still pinned to the dock. Wasted more time waiting for another powerboat to launch and positioning himself for a tow. Andy finally had to jump aboard the powerboat to direct the operation of towing us and another Viper also anxious to get out to the race course. That done, the sails were up and we were sailing finally! Life is good (or at least better)!

Except we missed any real practice and Race 1 due to the launching delay. Blowing mid-to-upper teens with higher gusts so we played the start of Race 2 conservative and the first upwind was ok until we snagged the windward mark on a rounding. What else could go wrong??? Way too windy to fly a kite as we felt overpowered with the GNAV (backwards vang) not working well but did manage to finish 25th out of 26 Vipers racing. Working on the GNAV between races we ran soft aground (that’s what else could go wrong) but a crash boat pulled us off quick enough in time for Race 3. Going upwind trimming main on hard we heard a loud bang and determined the outhaul broke. That coupled with an ineffective GNAV left us no way to flatten main so we were constantly overpowered and IMHO a safety risk. So we retired for the day, sailed back to the dock and spent remainder of the day repairing outhaul and resolving GNAV purchase issues.

Saturday: Up early, no boat issues to deal with, so we tuned rig and headed out to race course early to practice… things are looking up! Spinnaker sets and douses, while not troublefree, were passable. Winds picked again to mid teens and above. Feeling more comfortable with the boat, our start was only a little more aggressive that yesterday but tactics saw us fall to back of the fleet by the end of the race, again besting only one boat in Race 5.

During the last run Andy noticed slop in the rudder, probably a results of our two or three broaches - glad a real expert advised Eric to blow the spin halyard 6-10 feet when that happens! Upon inspection he saw the pintles attachment pulling out. Heaved to, removed rudder and tightened up bolts but this again took time causing us to miss Race 6. Loaded up the rudder upwind and downwind to test then reentered for Race 7. Halfway through the upwind leg, the attachment began to pull out again and we withdrew this time from the day (and the regatta) and sailed back to the dock. Had issues docking within strong current and ended up in a different slip. Andy repaired the rudder enough to sail back the mile or so to the ramp but instead took a tow to the launch ramp, so we hauled, disassembled and fought off the no-see-ums again, then showered, had couple drinks at the party then off to dinner with the two other Viper crews from our club. Excellent food and of course more Viper related conversations. One of those crews went on to 3rd place finish, the other turned in a solid mid-fleet performance and we brought us the rear so I guess one could say the Mudheads covered all bases!

Sunday, race day, but not for us. Instead we put the cover back on, secured for traveling and made a more reasonable 16 hour drive home stopping only for food/gas, tolls and to pickup Fourth of July supplies south of the border.

So out of the 10 races across three days we started four races and completed only 2, ending the regatta in last place. Results here and some photo-boat pictures are here.

Summary: Don’t leave the driveway unless the boat and crew is proven to be race ready – that’s my biggest lesson learned from Charleston Race Week. Excellent weather and venue but frustration after frustration drove us to a last place finish. Boat preparation and time in type is key and cannot be overstated! Race 1 is no time to figure out crew coordination/communications either, this was mostly resolved by day 2, but should’ve been hammered out long before a major event like CRW.

Impression of the Viper: it’s really a dinghy with a lead assisted keel for adults. Wicked fast fun. Found it very ergonomic, except the spinnaker retrieval line seemed a bit undersized. Three person crew is fun, though we were about 50 pounds under weight for the conditions. I was mid which is physically demanding… trimming jib (and main when it’s blowing), setting, dousing and flying the kite and always trying to hike hard. Setup and take down and launching is annoyingly time consuming. I would require leaving it rigged for the season and using a crane to launch, but then I’d rather race then work on boats. Learned a lot about the class, and class politics, history, the manufacturers, support issues, etc.

Overall the Viper is a great sport boat and I would like to sail it enough to get proficient but think I’ll stick with my J/105 as my setup/maintenance to racing/fun ratio appears far lower. For us, CRW was a very long weekend but we did learn a lot, we did get exposed to almost heavy air downwind Viper excitement (love the rudder harmonics at speed!!!), met a lot of new folks, saw some old friends and enjoyed an excellent race venue. Would I return next year? Yes, but only via Delta airlines!

Go / No Go

Waiting on go/no go from Andy for CRW...I'm predicting a GO at the moment but then again I'm an optimist. Originally we hoped for 3 weekends of practice before trucking down to Charleston. Andy had so many issues with boat & trailer prep we were only able to get a couple light air sailing hours in yesterday.

We worked all Friday afternoon and Sat afternoon until dark but did finally get on the water with Dave Nickerson coaching us from his Sea Nymph until his engine died, then from the dock at Ram Island Yacht Club. After a quick sail, Dave swapped out with Andy so Eric and I could receive instruction from a most excellent sailor. He put us through all the evolutions, cool boat, accelerates fast, very sensitive like a big Laser. Then Andy swapped back in for more boat handling drills.

It was blowing only 6-8kts and it seemed like we were only on the water a couple hours. We can only think about Viper boat handling in heavier though we are scheduled to have one practice day down south. Forecast for CRW is mid-teens and with 31 boats on the line the mark roundings are going to be interesting, especially if we don't figure out what's wrong with our douses... current thinking is the knot vs grommet placement in our retrieval line if not correct..need go to Viper class website next and do some research...

Anyways, Andy has still alot to do, including installing a new axle, rewiring trailer lites, enlarging the plate for the keel bolts that holds the keel down in the event we capsize (one is mis-aligned), getting a travel cover made, packing up for a 14 hour drive, etc. before we can leave Wed 0400. And then hoping the new mast makes it to Charleston when we do. Confident he can complete all tasks. Learned a great deal about Viper rigging, tuning, adjustment etc over last couple days. Can't wait to sail a Viper in some breeze!

On another note, in between Viper stuff I was able to do finish prep on my J/105 so we'll be splashing later this week!

man overboard

blowing pretty hard for my rookie Laser skills so instead did mid on an Etchells. 8 boats on the line in our class today. Cold but techwicks, fleece, bibs and spray top were just fine. Trimming spinnaker is physically demanding on days like this - winds steady 14-17kts and higher gusts. Excellent racing, but tough competition got maybe 1-2 boats per race.. After last leeward mark rounding in second to the last race the head stay parted, we finished then set to work looking to repair it for last race. Didn't secure it in time, missed the start of the last race so we doused jib and headed in. Nearing the docks I gathered lines, attached stern line and was making my way forward when we accidently gybed. I saw the boom coming but nothing I could do except go with it and into the water I went. PFD held head clear and I remember lifting my arms out of the water to stay warm. Held on the unattached bow line (actually a light air spin sheet) and waited for the boat to come about and pick me up. Cold! water temp around 40 but got picked up on first try. Sopping wet until we docked then I ran to the car, got naked in the parking lot and put on dry suit as it was the only dry clothes I had. Wish I was wearing it earlier! Warmed up quick enough with help of rum and hot soup. Another excellent day!

my name

Saturday, low 40's but sunshine, power washing the deck and thinking about French solo and multihull sailors, those guys are fanatics. Wondering if I'm somehow related. My dad's family was from upstate Maine, very upstate, like on the border with Canada and he spoke only French until age 8. Ancestors came to Quebec in 1636 from Le Havre (where some of those French sailors I read about are from), settled Ile d'Orleans right outside Quebec City in the middle of the St Lawrence River, thinking they'd be safe from Indian attacks. Any ways they farmed the island, fished in the river, hunted in the woods and one was involved in first lawsuit recorded in Canada, some arguments about a moose someone shot on someone's property, no more details as it was settled out of court. I had an aunt who back in 1970's before the internet did the meticulous and time consuming genealogical research of my father's family, all the way back to France in 1590.

Always intrigued by that so finally visited Ile d'Orleans a couple years ago. Beautiful place. Went to graveyard of churches my family help found and saw generations of relatives who marked their gravestones with the French word for 'pilot'. I was struck by the prodigious quantity of river pilots with my surname. They were all river pilots on the St Lawrence in the days of sail and proud enough to announce that for eternity on their graves. They'd race down the river to meet vessels coming from Europe and escort them up the river known for its currents and shoals. Dangerous work back then. Guess they had to be fast to get their commission, wonder if that's why I like to race? Pretty island, lots of vacation homes. There's a little marina on the island today, maybe I'll cruise there someday when I'm too old to race.

Looking forward practicing on Viper tomorrow... then the phone range... Andy didn't get the keel in today so no Viper practice, bummed. We haven't sailed together and CRW is just a couple weeks away - need time on that boat before we race against serious competition.. ahh no worries for tomorrow at least, will race Lasers in Essex instead.

getting ready for the season

Getting alot done: batteries trickled charged and ready for install, ECSA, J/105, Mudhead memberships, ECSA PHRF cert, Offsoundings membership paperwork submitted. Slips reserved for two events in June on Block. Finally got sail measurement info so application for endorsed IRC cert is complete (I hope). New spinnakers should be almost ready. The 2010 event schedule is complete but some conflicts remain. Ordered new mainsail cover. Thinking about new halyards. Laser (and sometimes Etchells) racing is occupying Sundays, except for next three weekends, as two are practice then down to Charleston Race Week - crewing on a Viper, hot new sportboat class, biggest class at biggest CRW yet! Then week after CRW the J/105 gets splashed and Wed nite practice begins. Need to finish boat prep this weekend I guess. Still need to find a house (and a couple crew members?) for BIRW. Still need to order new battery for boat laptop. The list goes on!

another sailing season has begun

Yes another sailing season has begun. The New Year's day day and KWRW doesn't count. New England sailing starts with frostbiting! Last entry was Jan 31? Guess I’m not a prolific blogger yet. Wicked busy with work and winter storms. Dug out Laser last weekend as Frostbite Yacht Club Spring Series started today. FBYC.org on the CT river in Essex, CT has been around something like 80 years. Lots of folks on shore looking for eagles, I saw one between races. Great fun and a beautiful day. See my Laser blog for more info.

2010 schedule is pretty much set. Still have to resolve some conflicts, but I made the slip reservations on Block Island for the two most popular events. Great calendar, besides my Laser and the Dark ‘n Stormy’s events, I’m crewing on a Viper for at least Charleston Race Week and another J/105 that’s competing more at the national level with Annapolis NOODs (National Offshore One Design) and a bunch of events in the Chicago area, including the J105 North Americas.

My friend Eric had a good day on the water today in Key West matching racing J/24s. He’s “Chief of Mission” for the US military sailing team heading off to represent the US in an international regatta put on by the King of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf next month. A week of practice at J/World in KW during spring week and a week of racing in Bahrain. Sounds like a top-shelf assignment! Wonder what that yacht club's party will be like? Will it top the nice spread and the sushi bar at American Yacht Club hosting of the J105 NAs last November?

Think I’m good to go for launching DnS in mid April. Sail inventory is the best it’s ever been with a new runner and code 0 on order. My club is hosting Dave Perry for tactics seminar on Wed so should see lots of friends haven’t see all winter. Very psyched the 2010 season has begun!!

racing software

I would like to bolster data acquisition capabilities for long distance racing. My daughter went off to university in September so the boat inherited her old laptop. I don't care to spend thousands of dollars on software on yacht racing software and electronic charts (Expedition seems to be the clear favorite for distance racers, btw but kinda pricey) so am researching several freeware programs.

Basically just looking to connect laptop up to NMEA out from Raymarine Seatalk network to track position, wind velocity, direction, assist with laylines, hopefully a better VMG calculation, create/update polars & strip charts and otherwise log all of this data for post-race analysis. I don't really need chart plotting capabilities (I have a small Garmin plotter, backup handheld GPS and paper charts). An addition of AIS receiver might be in the cards for this season so those feature are also appealing.

Here are some open source products under consideration.

OpenCPN is a free software project to create a concise chart plotter and navigation software for use as an underway or planning tool
Capcode is a more regatta-focussed navigation program which takes NMEA inputs from wind/depth/gps/ais inputs, functions as a wind/gps/speed/depth repeater on your PC and computes polar diagrammes, VMG, etc. It's programmed in Java.
SeaClear is a PC based chart plotter for Windows 2000/XP/NT/95/98/ME. With a GPS connected it displays the current position, speed, heading and other data on the screen.
NavMonPc is a Windows program for the capture, display, and playback of NMEA-0183 data.

Of course I like certain features of each product but at at this point I believe Capcode will be the program that best suits my needs. Check back later this year for an update...

sail inventory and handicap

Here's the current thinking for the 2010 season. "Dark 'n Stormy" PHRF rating to remained unchanged and again be based on J/105 one design sail config (class jib and 89 sq meter spinnaker). This will be the sail configuration for all serious racing (all events besides Wed nites). Another spinnaker (2004 Ullman AP) was acquired over the winter to replace the ancient North class kite destroyed in October's BOCC race. In addition, I have just ordered a class legal Hood code zero spinnaker (55 sq meter) and a UK/Halsey class kite (89 sq meter) designed as "runner" versus the standard AP (all purpose) spinnaker. These two additions will best round out the sail inventory. The endorsed IRC application only awaits the dimensions of the new runner before submitting the batch of paperwork and will be based on class sails.

Wed nite racing will again likely permit genoa and 110sq meter kite and (a lower PHRF rating though I would prefer one-design configuration). Not acquiring a new PHRF genoa this year - we will continue to use the old genoa sail only on Wed nites when conditions are less than 10kts. On lite air Wed nites we might want to experiment with the code zero upwind and at the windmark mark, unfurl class jib, douse & detach code zero, attach PHRF kite and hoist - ok that sounds a bit crazy but might make sense in certain conditions...maybe I should talk to rigger about adding another spinnaker halyard.

Rationale: Obviously, the upgraded sail inventory is optimized for distance racing racing but should serve us well on smaller courses. I believe the PHRF and IRC ratings based on one-design sails will continue to favor us in med and heavy air and the addition of the code zero will greatly assist light air performance and tight reaching in heavy air, while the runner would supplement downwind sail choices when wind is >10-12kts true. Next (year?) additions would include a new class AP kite and solent staysail.

Key West Race Week

Wow! What a great week: excellent conditions and a new team improving throughout regatta. The J/105 "Creative Destruction" began with two days of coaching with Dave Ullman then 5 days of racing in a very competitive fleet. Goal for regatta was to finish mid fleet and the team delivered. As a one design class, crew coordination and tactics are paramount. Biggest learning is the need to choregraph boat handling as much as possible and to perform these "dance steps" (mark roundings, takedowns, gybes, tacks) as a team as absolutely efficiently as possible to maximize speed around the course - every boat length counts! In addition, it's no secret that a superb tactician is a pre-requisiite for fleet racing at this level but another key learning is the leadership quality of the tactitian is incredibly important to success. All in all a great week of learnings (some of which will be captured later in the blog), warm weather, fine food and drink and new friends made for an excellent experience yet again in Key West.
Results here:
http://www.premiere-racing.com/KW10_Results/kw10_div2_series.htm
Pics here:
http://www.photoboatgallery.com/lightbox/index/category/gallery2010%20Key%20West%20Race%20WeekCreative%20Destruction/start/0/Creative-Destruction.html

guess I'm not a serious blogger yet...

...just back from Key West Race Week, had my laptop but didn't write a single entry! Will recap experience at some point but for now need to work on 2010 racing schedule (hmm, that was probably short enough for a tweet)

If I can't sail today...

...I might as well work out. While outside with the shorter bo staff catching rays ...ok sometimes pretending it was a really small spinnaker pole... I thought it might be cool to integrate the following detail into my resume or at least on this blog: Martial arts experience: 1983 UCONN tae kwan do club, continued with Mr. Moon, Wtby, CT for another year, switched to Northern Chinese praying mantis/weapons training (tong leung gwo shu goan, jook lum tong leong tsee way kuen) Hartford, CT under Ming Peng and Grandmaster Manuel Agrella (Washington DC) for 3 yrs, rank wong-die. Then after switched to soft style yuan tai chi in Southbury CT for 9 months then at Eagles Quest tai chi, Southington/Guilford, CT, CT for 2 yrs, then back to hard Korean style tang so do, with Grandmaster Robert Cheezic (He is pals with Chuck Norris - they both were in the USAF and started their training together in Korea during the late 1950s). After 2nd degree black belt in 2002 I stopped taking classes but continued playing. Want to try bikrum yoga next but too busy racing sailboats, so you see this blog entry is, in fact, sailing related!

If I can't sail today...

... I can at least think about sailing...ok since I started a sailing blog I guess I should write something even though there's snow on the ground and temp is 6 degrees F. Here goes and I'm assuming, since it's a blog (with no followers - how do I fix that except to write interesting stuff) it's ok to just ramble... 4 more days of work until flight to Key West. It's been really cold all over the country and KW just registed multiple days of record cold, breaking 140 year old records. Watching the stream... looks like it'll warm up to near normal temps for race week, otherwise I'll have to bring frostbite wear instead of shorts and tees.

My good friend, main trimmer and tactitian on Dark 'n Stormy lost his ride for KWRW on Thurs. As I cannot financially justify bringing DnS to KW (at least until my biotechs kick into gear) both he and I were psyched to have secured berths on different J105s. Last week one of the co-owners for his boat sliced off a couple fingers in a furniture accident so now that boat won't race. Eric has non-refundable airline tix and now no housing but wants to race. Looks like he'll bunk with us and need to walk the docks looking for a ride even though we've been networking like mad to find a slot. dayMeanwhile we're following a couple other friends (including DnS's bow girl) racing etchelles in Miami JAG, after day 1 they were in 6th out of 53 boats which is really awesome. Very cold there temps in 40s, winds 20+ and folks on SA describing conditions as "grisly" and "gnarly".

Let's see what else am I doing that's sailing related? oh yeah, wrapping up paperwork for endorsed IRC certificate, putting out requests for letter of recommendations for OffSoundings membership and some YC website stuff. Need to start booking slips on Block Island for events there this summer and find out if that J/44 I usually crew on is doing Newport-Bermuda this year or not. That's it for now... hope to post from KW.

MIYC Frostbiting Regatta

New Year's day I planned on racing Dyer Dhows in Mystic. Snow on the ground as I first stopped at the marina to visit Dark 'n Stormy, my J105, on the hard. Saw a bunch of folks from G-dock. They keep their boats water in the water all winter and celebrated New Years last nite. Sounded like a lot of fun.

Arrived at Mysic Seaport early since I've not sailed Dyer Dhows before. Saw the couple old whaling vessels hauled and undergoing restoration. Wish I had a good camera instead of just the iPhone.

Seaport is picturesque after snowfall, need to come back another time just to take pics. So once I found the boathouse I asked if anyone signed out the Mudhead boat (my club donated a Dyer to the Seaport sailing programs a long time ago). No other Mudheads planned to use it so first I had to find it. Then I looked at other boats to figure how to rig a Dyer (pretty simple), don fleece & drysuit, skippers meeting and then off into Mystic River with the crash boats serving as ice breakers. Didn't get totally stuck in ice (some boats did) but felt like Ernest Shackleton at times navigating through the ice floes. Racing wasn't the best as winds was really light and current was strong but I didn't mind - glad to start off the year with a sailboat race, even if I did finish 21st out of 22 boats racing, good hot chili afterwards and great race organization and venue, many thanks to MIYC! Lots of photos were being taken by the RC and I will hopefully update this entry with them soon.

hankifying

"Hankifying" sounds like a nautical term, doesn't it? Let's try a definition: Hankifying, the process of attaching hanks to a sails luff. hmm I used hanks in the definition, see hanks then..."Hankifying" was the scribbly text I had to interpret for google to create this blog site for me. Kinda surrependitious (ok where's the spell check, dictionary tool thing) for a blog about sailing don't ya think?