Spring 2015

First, this blog is not dead yet.  This blog hibernates for the winter (and what a winter it was!).

Second, It’s time for Spring boat work.  The boat goes in 15 days from today (Tuesday May 5), and I will be ready.  Actually the weather has been cooperating and we’ve made progress on the boat.  The buffing and waxing of the hull is complete (the picture below was taken halfway through and you can see where I stopped one day.  Other work is getting done too.  The batteries are back on the boat.  And this is the year for a shiny new sacrificial zinc.  You have to pull the prop.  Lots of work.

Third, I know I say this every year, but I hope to be able to keep this up regularly for the whole season!  We’ll see.

Anyway, we’ll be in the water soon!

PONY EXPRESS REGATTA DES FEMMES Abandoned

The forecast said all along that we should expect storms about race time last Wednesday (June 18th).  About 6PM it was still clear, so we went out with our light air all-woman crew (Kim, Rosemary, Judy).

About 25 mins. into the race the skies darkened to the west and then the lightning came — and the end of the race.  We hurried back to the dock and got back before the squall hit.  The yacht club instruments said the winds topped out at 57 knots — then the electricity went out at the club!

Gerry’s 8th Street Deli #1 & #2

Happy Father’s Day! Two Spinnaker Races on the Lake. The winds were light and we had a crew of two plus me. Good practice for the Interclub (we’ll have three plus me). The racing started at 11:00AM. We left the dock a couple minutes after 10, and made it out to the race course with only 5 minutes to spare. Phew! I guess it’s all good practice for the Interclub

Race #1 Results: 7th
Wind: NE 3-6
Crew: Mark and Rosemary
Course: W/L 2x around

A light air start. We were almost at the line at the start, but in a lot of dirty air. The first upwind leg was slow — not a lot of power and some chop on the nose on both tacks. As we approached the mark we got headed and had to do two short tacks to make the mark. The first downwind leg was slow going, but we were able to go wing-n-wing with the chute. However, the fleet still sailed away from us.

The breeze was abating by the second windward leg, and once again we were excruciatingly slow against the chop. The second downwind leg was even worse. We still went wing-n-wing, but it we were only doing a couple knots downwind. The whole fleet finished 15 minutes ahead of us and just sat there waiting us to finish.

This boat is not a light air boat, even though we had a light air crew. I know people think I like drawing attention to myself, but I really am an introvert, and I really don’t like everyone sitting waiting for us to finish!

 

Race #2 Results: 7th
Wind: NE 5-10
Crew: Mark and Rosemary
Course: Olympic Course (Triangle then W/L)

The wind thermal wind finally started near the start of the second race. This race went better. The first upwind leg was in a little more breeze. We had a decent start, but tacked away to clear our air after the start. There also seemed to be a little more wind on the right side of the course. We rounded near the fleet. After rounding we flew the chute for a very nice easy reach (we really like reaching in about 8 knots of breeze). At the gybe mark we dropped the chute in a good takedown and sailed a nice fast close reach back to the leeward mark. This race was going much better. We weren’t winning, but we were in touch with the fleet after three legs.

The next upwind leg went OK, but we had to take a hitch at the mark again. After rounding we deployed the chute on the port side but needed to gybe. That took a little while, and we gave up some time there. After that we sailed on a fast reach to the finish. We sailed 7+ knots on that leg. Nice!

Even though we finished last again (we beat Silver Wheel from the A Fleet who didn’t fly a chute) we sailed well for being shorthanded.
Then we just kept on sailing back to the channel, dropped the chute and the main and motored through the channel. In the bay we saw the Niagara on her way out. It’s always cool seeing her out.

Oh, and a broken boat part. While motoring on the way back the tiller extension separated from the tiller. That has apparently been in the works for a little while, with just some plastic holding it in. I just ordered a replacement ($53) so we should get that repaired before we leave for the Interclub. It would have been bad had that happened while we were sailing with the chute up in a decent breeze!

Home Instead Senior Care Series #2

Results:  6th

Crew:  Andy, Kim, Mark, Rosemary, Hunter, Megan

Wind:  ENE 2-6

Course:  W/L 2x

It was a going to be a light air day no matter what we did. The wind was predicated to be Southerly at 10AM and then backing to Northeasterly. The Race Committee postponed the start of the first race until the wind shifted, so we started at 11AM.

Even then, at the start, it looked like the pin end would be favored, so we planned to start a little up the line so as to avoid the cluster at the pin. I thought I found a space close to the line just behind Joker. I didn’t see Infinity coming when they lee-bowed us. So, we got stuck above both Joker and Infinity and we got scrubbed off at the boat. We had to come around to avoid those two, so we started too late at the wrong end of the line.

The rest of the race was just a light air W/L race. We did what we could, but there was no way we were ever going to overcome the bad start. If it helps any, Joker finished out the money too because, even though they were at the line, they were still at the wrong end of the line.

Then came  the rain (and some lightning) and the second race was abandoned.

Splash 2014

Red Herring launched on schedule on May 5.  First race tonight, May 7.  Gentlemen, Hoist Your Sails!

Brier Patch JAM #3 and Day Lighthouse Race

Brier Patch JAM #3 (was actually the 2nd JAM race because the first week was postponed). 6th Place.
Crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy, Rosemary, Mark

It blew 20-25 all day, but by race time it was down 6 kts and dying.  C & D Fleets did a shorter triangle than the long W/L race the A & B did.  We sailed as well as we could, but the dying air hurt us.  We were only about 30 seconds behind 4th and 5th place and were pointing better with about 10 minutes to go, but in dying air “the poor get poorer,” so we ended up finishing two minutes out of 5th place, and 5th was two minutes behind 4th, just in last few minutes of the race.

 

Day Lighthouse Race (Also Brier Patch Spinnaker Series #3) 6th Place.

Crew:  Mark, Andy, Kim

 

The forecasts promised 8-15 from the North, but it turned out to be 4-6 from the NE then back to W.  So, we ended up with an upwind–upwind–upwind–downwind– upwind–downwind race.  All those upwinds on the lake that was still somewhat lumpy from the 20 kts from the day before made the upwind legs tough.  We finished the 14.4 nm in 4 hours and 45 minutes, so we averaged about 3kts.  The good news is that we did NOT run aground at Gull Point (as we did last year).  And, did I mention that it was cold:  38 degrees at the start, and only 45-50 degrees by the end.  But it was sunny.

We ended the series 6th out of 9, so it wasn’t a terrible run.

First Race of 2013

 

 

A beautiful night.  It blew 25-30 al day, but at race time we had warm temps and a nice 12 knots of breeze.  We sailed well, and took 3rd place.

A good way to start the season!  Crew:  Kim, Judy, Andy, Mark. 

 

It helps if…

… you have a mast and a boom and some halyards…

Splash!

Red Herring splashed on Thursday in her new slip at the Erie Yacht Club.  We plan to step the mast on Sunday.  You can see the boat smiling!

2012 Sailboat Racing Season Ending

Today was the last day of the sailing season.  I’ll update the schedule with the results and provide a couple more recaps over the next couple days.  In the meantime, here are our winnings for this season.  We placed in 3 series:  a 2nd and 2 3rds.  And we can really close in the Interclub series.

Overall, we sailed pretty well, the new spinnaker performed well, we had some fun (and, yes, there was some drinking of heart-healthy red wine along the way).  Thanks to our crew: Kim, Judy, Mark, Rosemary, Andy, Chet, and various “rail meat.”  🙂

We placed in 3 series this season.