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?