A Sunday of Fury

Sunday's race was interesting in that with no rain we had winds from almost 0 to 20kts.  The 1st leg from 14 to 18 had great winds from the south.  During the 2nd leg from 18 to 2 winds dramatically diminished and switched from the south to north north west.  The spinnaker leg back to 14 was a slow crawl with speeds over the bottom from less than 1 kt to 3 kts.  

We were in a battle with the J 42 Velocity all around the course.  We rounded 18 just head of them. At 2 we were about 5 boat leans behind them.  On the spinnaker leg we found more air than they did and finished 2 minutes ahead of them.

In the end we finished 2nd overall and corrected 4th with a J 35 and a Olson 30 correcting on us.  First to finish by a mile was a Melgus 24.

All in all a great day with great crew work keeping us in the Hunt.

Weather permitting we will sail again next Sunday.

Fast Freddy

Credit

Last night John reminded us of Huseby's tactic of sailing down the river until you tack for the mark.  Typically with NW wind and the current favoring long starboard tacks it really makes sense.  Remember the old adage "stay on the favored tack as long as possible."  Further, you don't lose one ore 2 boat lengths every time you make extra tacks.

Fred

Nice Start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Wind - good upwind leg.  Came around the mark with a twist in the spinny.  No problem.  We were in the middle.

Boats to the right of us

Boats to the left of us

Boats behind us

Into the valley of lost wind

But we hung in there.  Gawahir was the guy to beat.  We had to stay ahead to pull a third for the Regatta.

Rounded the mark clean.  Locked Gahwir out.

More hats.  Good thing.  I lost 2 during that series.

The bitch wins again!

Was over early by a nose.  Circled back around and headed East in good breeze and DFL.  Stayed in the middle and did well against the Oregon boats – we climbed near the top.  Then the wind lightened and they took off.  DFL again. 

Decided to go for current relief and hit the shore.  We worked the shore for the next three hours and worked our way to the front of the pack again. 

We were second to put our Anchor out at the Bitch (Glenn Jackson Bridge).  So we were second.

The race was called at 5:30 as no boats could make it past the Bitch.

Enjoyed the race with Steve and Cheryl. 

Good day to be on the water.

Worked on the deck again yesterday – I have a long way to go but I have enough to get furniture out again.  Got the lawn mowed and weeded too.

Another Sky day

I'll explain later - I got this at 5 this morning

Craig,

Yep. I looked it up this morning. I’ve cc’d John and Fred here. I’ll send something out to the fleet also. Nice job last night. Curren relief paid off big time. 

D

On May 18, 2017, at 11:44 PM, Craig Daniels <craig@craigdaniels.com> wrote:

10.1) The area between McCuddy’s Moorage and the 42nd Street boat ramp is restricted. A boat shall not sail inside the boundaries that are between the lighted day mark “2” at McCuddy’s Moorage and the end of the breakwater at the 42nd Street boat ramp, and inside the county marker buoys which designate the restricted area. In the absence of county marker buoys boats shall not sail within 150 feet of the moorages or launch area. County marker buoys upriver or downriver of the restricted area do not designate an area restricted to racing.

Clearly the questions we all asked tonight have been asked before.  I somehow don't have skippy's email so if one of you could forward it to them, that'd be great.

-- Craig Daniels

Light air day.  No wind at the dock.  Freddy didn't want to put the sails up.  I put the engine on - Denny put up the Jib - we rigged for a spinnaker.  Tuned to channel 72.

No wind at the committee boat.  Farted around.

Wind cam up light.  Course was 'T' - Downriver upwind start.

We banged it pretty good.

Came to the windward mark and rounded well.  

'Put up the Kite Skippy - NOW!!!'  Kite was stuck  -  I pulled harder.  The halyard came off and skyed to the sky.  

Fred - Oh Shit - We are done- pull the sails down.

Skippy and Denny - 'Fuck off.'

Fred - Use the Jib halyard and take the fraculator off

Skippy and Denny - Way ahead of you.

We were DFL again.

We had a great downwind leg.  We went Oregon shore - looked for breeze - stayed out of current and were 3 around the mark.  

One guy that went way into shore - see the original note.  We protested him.  And like good sailors we discussed it at the dock and withdrew our protest

What a difference a week makes

What a difference a week makes

Last Thursday I put the mast up twice
Last Thursday some of the lines were not run right
Last Thursday I sky'd the halyard
Last Thursday the wind was light and flukey
Last Thursday we had a not so good start
Last Thursday we got in the wrong position
Last Thursday everyone stole our wind and we did nothing about it
Last Thursday we had to fight not to be DFL (dead fucking last)
Last Thursday I was washed up and going to hang up my cleats

This Thursday we battled for first.
It blew like stink on a stink bug
Fred had to hang on tight to not fall off and keep the boat under control
Denny worked his ass off and kept the sail full
Most of the lines were run properly
We got two new compasses and didn't use either of them

I wrote this down because I will remember this Thursday and forget all my Last Thursday's.  Sometimes a limited memory is a blessing and sometimes it not.

Thoughts while sleeping

Thoughts while sleeping.

With the heavy wind behind us and often by our lee there were times when maintaining control was difficult.  John was doing a great job of warning us of impending winds.  Later it occurred to me that we should have put both twings on hard and let the pole forward to allow the spinny to be more in front of us.  

Moe

On May 1, 2017 1:26 PM, "Dennis Damore

Fred,

Agreed, BTW, I did have both twings on hard for that very reason. I never did ease the leeward twing after the set. As to the pole, every time I attempted to put the pole forward, the spinnaker would collapse. It is my experience that when we are by the lee, our mainsail disturbs the air so much that if I ease the pole forward, it blankets the chute and i get a big curl that I can only correct by pulling the pole back and then getting flow off of the main into the body of the chute. We could do a bit of practice and see if there is a happy medium. Easing the pole forward and hardening the sheet does not seem to work. Also, gybe set was the way to go. In a big breeze with the big main out, we don’t lose much distance on the set. Further, had we done bear away, we would have been much farther to Oregon, and then had to fight it out with Keith. Moreover, a gybe in that kind of breeze could have gone terribly wrong.

I do think that upwind it might have helped if we had taken the car out a few inches and eased the fairlead to open up the top of the jib to spill some air. It likely would have kept us on our feet better. 

I think also that any WNW breeze calls for us to be exactly on the pin for the start. Jim and Brian did that all season last year even if they were a tad late to the start. Every boat length to leeward is a boat length we need to make up and given that they are pointing higher on that board, it is a sure way to have to play catch up all the way up the beat. 

Lastly, I want to check mast rake. As I said, I shortened the forestay about 2 inches to put that toggle on and I’m concerned we don’t have enough rake, which could affect point.

D

A view from the ass end

A view from the ass end.

I missed SPP’s email.  Sounds like it was a shit show at the house.  I was already on Fury before I checked on my email.

I was there anyway – so what the hell.  I could see that Misty was understaffed. 3 regulars and one rookie.  So I wandered over.

Pam didn’t recognize me.  My disguise worked.  They think my name is John.

Me: “Hi – did you guys need an extra hand?”

Pam – to the rest of the crew:  “Well, we weren’t going to ask anyone but what the hell – just what I said we wouldn’t do.  We can handle this ourselves”

Pam – to me:  “Can you sail a spinnaker?”

Me “Yes ma’am.”

Pam “You got something besides those boots - like sailing shoes.  I am tired of looking after rookies and worrying about them overboard.”

Me “Yes ma’am.  I have sailing shoes”

Me “I just finished Safety at Sea – I might be ok?”

Pam “Ever trimmed a main before?”

Me “Yes ma’am.”

Pam  “Come aboard”

Michelle Bennett swung by just to see what the hell I was doing.  I exclaimed “she is a better sailor than me – maybe you want to take her!!!”

Everyone else “Damn right she is – we don’t even know you!!!!”

Michelle was having nothing to do with it – she waved goodbye and took to the crow’s nest.

Pam “We do not just set the main and go.  I expect you to trim the whole time!”

I think I did ok – Besides giving me boat trimming techniques on where to trim the main from – they left me alone.

I helped them lee roll a boat and then Pam let them lee roll us – I didn’t say anything.

A Cascade 36 is great boat to be a main trimmer on.  Misty is set up for a rear trimmer.   You get the whole ass end of the boat to yourself and all you have is a sheet and traveler to worry about.  Ok, maybe I was watching the weather helm and the backstay also – but not because someone asked me.  I watched everyone do the dance.  On the way back I helped the rookie with packing the spinnaker – I kibitzed and she packed.

The weather wasn’t bad – light wind – 14-18-14.  No rain and it wasn’t really cold.  The hail started after we had put the boat away.  Everyone put on party hats and glasses and sung Fred (a different Fred) a happy birthday.

Seriously Phast Phreddy – sorry about the fiasco at home and you couldn’t come play. I missed all of you. 

I had a good time.

Regards,

Skippy

PS  If I get aggressive I will make some Chili for the cookoff next week after the race.  How many alarms should I make?

From: Fred Hazzard
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 3:55 PM

Sorry about the late notice today.  Things here were going downhill in a hurry. All is good now.

We will be out next week to do the final race and for the chile cook off at PYC after the race.

Sailflow weather forecast was off by 30 mins.  They said no rain from noon till 3PM, when in fact if was 11:30 to 2:30.

Fast Freddy