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