Once again I must declare this blog NOT DEAD.  However, it has become derelict.  My life is surprisingly busy and full (for such an old guy).  And once again I must promise to be a more responsible blogger in the future.

Just to let you know, we finished the season with two 2nd places (two red flags — our favorite color).

As part of my New Year’s resolution, I’ve restarted the Countdown-to-Splash timer.   Click on the tab above that says “Countdown to Splash.” Once you click on the link you can then bookmark the link and go directly to it in the future, or you can continue to visit this blog.

Happy New Year!

aj

I have been updating the schedule with the results.  So click on the 2011 Schedule tab above and you’ll see how we’re doing.

However, in a nutshell we’ve been struggling in the last four races.  We’re in a slump.  Going back to the basics to get our heads in the game.

Spring Series #3 (SPIN) — June 1, 2011

Racing was cancelled for Wednesday evening because of the terrible tragedy on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30) at the Yacht Club.  A boat exploded after fueling injuring 6 and killing one person.  The club had a very tasteful memorial service on June 1 instead of racing.

Brier Patch #1 and #2 (SPIN) — Make-up — June 5, 2011

A very good day for racing.  There were two make-up spinnaker races.  The first race was a relatively short W/L course, 2x around.  The winds were pretty light and we struggled to keep up on the downwind legs.  You’ll see from the corrected times that we were not as close to the B Fleet boats as we would have wanted.

So in the first race we were 6th in our fleet (Infinity didn’t fly a chute, so we beat them) and 12th out of 16 in the total fleet.  The winds picked to about 10 knots for the 2nd race, and it was 2 1/2 times around.  We got stuffed at the start and had to tack to port right away to clear our air.  That turned out to be a good thing.  The port tack was heavily favored and we arrived at the first mark with the rest of the fleet.  We sailed well downwind both times (the added breeze allowed to sail a little deeper) and finished upwind.  Of course, on the 2nd and 3rd upwind legs most of the rest of the fleet also sailed the long port tack, so we no longer had an advantage.  Infinity dropped out, but we beat the J-22 boat-to-boat and on time to finish 5th in the B Fleet, and 10th out of 14 in the overall.  Look at the corrected times for the 2nd race and you’ll see that we finished only 21 seconds behind Outlaw – and that’s a good thing.

Thanks to our smart crew:  Judy, Andy, Paul Walkama (on loan from Lady Jane), Dave Hyland, and Chet LaPrice (who did difficult duty in the sewer during takedowns).

Hilbrich Electric #1 (JAM) — June 8, 2011

Second place last night!  Standard W/L M—>R14.  Winds were light (6-10) at the start.  We were at the line at the start, tacked over to port and skimmed the back of the fleet to get into clear air in the middle of the bay.  The gambit worked because there was slight bit more air straight down the middle (and having the pole helped again).  We were 3rd around the mark.  We stayed on port for a while and then tacked to starboard to get back to the center because we still believed that the center was slightly favored.  KEYA, who rounded after us, passed us on that tack.  They were a little ahead of us when they tacked over to port.  At almost the same time, there was 45-degree wind shift and we saw KEYA sailing directly to the mark, so we tacked over and sailed for the mark.  The wind picked up to 10-15 and we mainly lifted to the mark.

All the boats who had sailed to the north side of the bay were too high and had to sail a much longer distance to get back.  If the race had been longer some of them might have caught up with us, but that was not the case.  We ended up a little above M (KEYA was lower on the course and sailed straight across the line).   We sailed almost to the starboard layline and then tacked over.  That put us on starboard and we sailed a relatively short distance to the line (and stuffed Smokin J who was on port).   We crossed right after we flopped back to port.  Then there was a little scuffle with Smokin J who flopped to starboard at the last second – I don’t know why, I thought they were making the mark on their line.  It was a little tense, but we didn’t hit ‘em.

In any case, sometimes you’re just lucky to be in the right place to take advantage of a shift!

Thanks to our crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy!

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Look for more catching up tomorrow.

Brier Patch #3 (JAM)  — May 25, 2011

Our first race of the season.  W/L race in 15 knots of breeze.

5th out of 8.  Not too shabby, considering everything we had to do pre-race and the fact that we really needed to be retrained!  The good news was that we corrected over a few boats in the A & B Fleets (a fair comparison since we all sailed the same course):  Silver Wheel, Sirene, Fairwind, Nyanza, Get N Close.  Though we would have preferred a gentler start to OUR season, we did very well.

Intrepid crew:   Judy, Andy, Kim.

Day Lighthouse Race (SPIN) — May 29, 2011 — Memorial Day

It was a beautiful day to sail.  Started in 10-20 knot winds in the Bay.  Spinnaker Reach down the bay at 8 to 9 knots.  Sailed well.  And, it was B Fleet kind of day.  Beat 8 A Fleet boats!

We had a great race on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day to sail.  Started in 10-20 knot winds (more or less from the South) in the Bay.  It was a B Fleet kind of day, and it was definitely our wind.  We saw 9.3 knots of boat speed in the bay (real boat speed, not just surfing down a wave).  We got the chute up and down 3 times.  We were back in the slip by about 12:30 after 16 miles!

We beat 7 A Fleet boats in the overall in corrected time:  Lanada, Raven, Silver Wheel, Valkyrie, Halcyon, Fairwind, and Schock Top.  In the B Fleet, we beat only one boat:  Sirene.

Thanks, to Judy, Kim and Andy for a great race. 

– Check Part II tomorrow for the next couple races.

Note that I’m still working on updating all the dates and things, so nothing beyond Sunday, July 10  is to be trusted

I’ll do my best to get the whole sked fixed in the next few days.

Thanks to all of our crew and friends who helped:  Andy, Judy, Kim, Steve and Mike!  There is a certain satisfaction in deadlines met…

Also note the unchanging Erie sky!

Too bad I’m going to miss the first four races.  Red Herring racing will begin on Wednesday, May 24th.  Watch this space.

Notice that great Erie sky.  Of course the wind picked up and it started raining just as we were painting the bottom where the cradle pads had been — just one last complication.

Notice that there’s only one other boat on our pier.  I always go in on the first Monday in May (because that’s the one day in Final Exam Week when I don’t have an exam), but there are always a lot more boats in before me.   This year I’m the first sailboat in the whole marina!  Terrible weather.

Thanks to Andy, Kim and Steve for helping on Saturday.  And thanks to Judy for getting up early today to help get to the slip.

Hull waxed.   Thanks, Tracy.

Splash on Monday at 8:30AM.

Time to rev up the crew!