New Tuesday Night Adventure

On Tuesday nights at PYC, kids in the sailing program, and their parents, can race in 420s. AJ and I had been planning to do this all summer but this week was the first opportunity we had. It was a super night. Weather wise we had 15 knots of SW, enough to really get the 420s moving.

AJ had planned to helm, but because of the wind strength he decided I should do the driving. Probably the right call because even the more experienced parent-child teams had the dads driving. We ran 5 or 6 races with 7 boats -- 4 parent-child teams and 3 junior teams. We got better in every race and with a bit of luck won the last one and finished 2nd for the night among the parent child teams.

The best part of the night was listening to AJ during the race. "C'mon Dad get up on the starting line, you're going to be late". Dad, I think we're on the layline. Time to tack." I realized that he really has absorbed quite a lot from his sailing camp.

Here's us in 3298 leading the pack around the weather mark in the last race.


On the Flying Circus front, we finished our first half Wednesday series in 5th after two mid-fleet weeks in a row. After two weeks of the second Wednesday series we're in 5th again. We had a lousy first week but a good night last night with a 2 - 5 out of 14 boats. For the weekends series and for the overall season we're in 4th. Results are here.

One day race on Saturday this weekend and we're expecting 7 or 8 boats to participate. Will update . . .

Junior Olympic Sailing

So, AJ had his first away regatta in beautiful Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island. He and Meg drove up on Monday morning, practiced Monday afternoon, raced Tuesday and Wednesday and drove back on Wednesday evening. While there, they stayed on Madrigal. Here's a picture of AJ on her bow.

He was sailing in Optimists and there was a fleet of 51 boats from all over. He placed in the middle of the fleet and Meg said he sailed very well in difficult (patchy, shifty, light wind) conditions. His boat / sail number was "NEMO" USA 12369. You can see him below relaxing (or meditating, not sure which) before the race and getting set to launch.


More importantly he had fun and is gaining confidence in his ability. Below he is sailing downwind with good form -- centerboard up, heeled to windward, mainsail eased and tactically positioned to keep clear air. Good job!

Tons more . . .

. . . Bermuda Race pictures are up on the Gold Digger website. Meg and AJ are back from Northeast harbor. I'm downloading pictures now and will write about that in the next couple of days.

Hot Weather

The weather in Maine has been hot lately. Not hot if you're from Florida or someplace else in the South, but hot if you're from Maine. It's been over 90 inland and 85ish at the coast.

I spent most of the day Saturday working on the yard; weeding the gardens and spreading a pile of mulch that had been sitting at the end of the driveway for a month. Of course, I would rather have been sailing, though apparently there was very little wind and some fog.

On Sunday Meg had to work. The kids and I went down to the boat around 10:30. I had two cam cleats that I wanted to install on the mast. So the kids hung out while I did that. Then we went for a sail that started out with light winds and built up to about 10 knots -- perfect for a family sail. We went out Hussey Sound turned left and went east past Long Island and came back in through Chandler's Cove.

When we got to the mouth of the Hussey on the way out I told the kids that this is where you usually spot porpoise or whales if there are any around. I said that the first one to make a confirmed sighting of either got $20 bucks. They have never been so attentive on the water before, but to no avail, this time at least; the $20 is a standing offer for the rest of the summer.

Meg and son are in Northeast Harbor today through Wednesday for a Junior Olympic sailing regatta. He will compete in Opti-Green Fleet, a class for beginning racers in Optimists. I hope Meg gets some good pictures. Meg's dad brought his Hinckley Pilot up to Northeast, so they will stay with him in the harbor -- movable race headquarters!

Both kids are much more comfortable around the boat this year. My son has become a competent helmsman and my daughter has fun even when we're "tipping".

Here's a couple of photos showing how close the last race was of last weekend. As you can see we got second by about 18 inches.

I Jinxed Us (not)

After scoring 2 bullets in the racing on Saturday, I thought it was going to be easy to win this regatta, and though win we did, we had to work hard to do so. We sailed three windward leeward, twice-around, 1.7 mile leg races in 10-15 knot SSW breezes. We scored 2-3-2 in three races on Sunday and beat the 2nd and 3rd place boats by 5 points. Three different boats took bullets on Sunday – Denali, Bad Apple and Second Chance. We were in close contact at the finish of all three races and missed out on the bullet of the last race by less than 2 feet.

The winds were directionally fairly steady with shifts rarely more than 5-10 degrees. It was one of those days in our venue where, because of tidal current, it paid to go right in the beat, especially in the first two races. We figured this out after the first beat of the first race where we managed to round 5th (last). We picked off one boat in the first run by throwing in a couple of extra jibes and getting into some stronger breeze. We picked off a second boat at the leeward mark with a nice tight rounding and a third boat on the second beat by catching a favorable shift. Only Denali was left in front of us and we could not reel them in on the last run. They beat us by about 3 boat lengths.

In the second race, Bad Apple got a fantastic pin end start, crossed the rest of us on port tack, lead us all out to the right corner and did a great job of covering the remainder of the race. Again in this race, I think we got a little too far left on the first beat, given the current situation. We were third behind Bad Apple and Denali.

We started the last race with Denali 3 points behind us and Bad Apple 4 points behind. If we scored a 5 and Bad Apple won or a 4 or 5 and Denali won, we’d be out of the top spot. So tactically, our job in the last race was to sail fast and, if possible, stay in a controlling position relative to Denali and Bad Apple.

We got a good start with Bad Apple below us and Denali on our weather hip. Denali tacked to go right about 150 yards from the start and we tacked to cover shortly thereafter. Bad Apple followed us over. Denali tried to shake us loose with several tacks on the way up the beat, but we stuck with loose cover and kept control of them. Bad Apple was focused on 2nd place for the regatta and wasn’t taking any risks. Rather than break out to one side or the other, they basically stuck close to Denali and us.

Second Chance did go deep right on the second beat and this did pay off for him. Although we crossed him coming back from the right by about a boat length we didn’t think he was on the layline. We went beyond him by about 2-3 boat lengths and tacked. He managed to pinch up to the mark and get in front of us. We had a duel downwind with Bad Apple on both our heels. We almost caught by the finish; they won by about 2 feet. Of course, now that it’s too late I can think of two or three things we could have done to get by him. Those have been logged into the memory bank for next time.

It was a great weekend – beautiful weather, excellent crew work and 1st place!

That's Better

We're competing this weekend in PYC's PHRF/One-Design Championships. There are only 5 J24s on the line which is disappointing. Three of us (Flying Circus, Bad Apple, Al) have four on board, one boat had three (Denali) and one boat only two (Second Chance). So all were technically under-crewed. It's been increasingly difficult to get high participation rates on weekends. The Etchells fleet had only 4 boats.

We're still trying to figure out the proper tuning of our new sails. Rather than just trim them the way we would our old sails, which is what we did on Wednesday, we tried some different things out while sailing around before the race. We wound up with a combination of less outhaul and more cunningham and backstay than the old sails. I wouldn't say that we're "fast" yet, but at least nobody was blowing by us like we're anchored as they were on Wednesday.

Still, even with average speed, we had an excellent day -- two BULLETS!

We waited at the start area for over an hour for the seabreeze to fill in. We had 5-7 knots when we finally got underway coming from SSW. Just before our start, the wind went left about 25 degrees from 195 to 170. So we started at the pin and were probably in 3rd off the line. Pretty much everybody peeled off to go right after the start and so did we. However, as the breeze began to go right back toward its orginal heading of 195, some of the other boats tacked back onto starboard. We kept going, expecting the wind to get all the way to 195 and it did. When we flopped back over to starboard, we were neck and neck for the lead. We rounded a boat length behind Second Chance and knowing that he was short-handed, we decided to try to get a tactical advantage on them by jibing onto port early. We got that inside position and eased out ahead of thema boat length or two. The wind in the middle of the course was stronger and we managed to stay out ahead of them for the entire leg, rounding the leeward mark a couple of lengths ahead.

Second Chance passed us on the second upwind leg. It was a combination of slightly better boat speed and being on the inside of a lift as we approached the weather mark. Again we followed them around the mark and this time as we were trying to figure out whether to try to pass them to windward or jibe, Laurie saw a shot of wind coming down the middle of the course. We quickly jibed into it and took off. By the time Second Chance jibed and headed our way, we were five boat lengths ahead. We kept the lead all the way to the finish, but both Second Chance and Denali we closing the lead as they were bringing in the freshening seabreeze that we would sail in during the second race.

We had 12-15 knots in the second race, steady from 195 with +/- 5 degree shifts. I knew we had an advantage in this much breeze because we had the most weight and most experienced crew. In particular, I knew that Second Chance would struggle with only 2 on board. Keeping the J24 flat while going upwind is critically important and you can't do it with 2 people in 12-15 knots.

The wind was in a neutral phase at the start. The pin was favored and we started at that end with one boat below us. The wind was stronger up the middle than in either corner so we simply played the shifts up the middle in the first beat. Denali went deep into the right corner and got lifted. Al went fairly far left and wound up in somewhat lighter wind and Second Chance struggled with his lack of weight. We must have played the shifts well because when we got to the windward mark we were probably 8 boat lengths ahead of the second place boat. From there, we extended for the rest of the race, applying loose cover to the next boats back. The other four boats all finished fairly closely, we were at least 2 minutes ahead of them.

So we have 2 points going into today's race. Everyone else is tied on points with 7 (5-2, 2-5, 4-3, 3-4). I'd hate to jinx us, but . . .

Ouch

8th of 14 boats on Wednesday night. I had been using an older set of sails so far this year and we were fast with them. This Wednesday I put sails on that we had used only in one regatta. They were SLOWWWWW! Something about the rig tune and trim is very different with these. So I'm going to ask the sailmaker for some help.

Maine Summer Comes Comes 1 Day Early

Monday July 3rd was a picture perfect Maine Summer day. 85 degrees, sparkling sunshine, 10 knot seabreeze. I was in the office . . . at least for the morning. I did get on the water in the afternoon, but not to sail. Meg and I helped to officiate a sail-off to see which junior 420 team would represent PYC in the Bemis Cup. The favorite walked away with it.

The weather on July 4th was a downer -- 60s, dense fog all afternoon and very little breeze after 1300. Time for Fall, I guess.

The good news is that Flying Circus won the coveted 4th of July PYC Scavenger Hunt trophy -- a stuffed lobster nailed to a 36" length of pressure treated lumber. "Some wicked", as they say up here in Maine.

The bad news is that our plan to race 420s as part of PYC's 4th celebration was cancelled in favor of rowboat races. Oh, but the good news is that my son won 1st prize as he was one of the few kids around who could row at all.

. . . and the kids had fun.

US Coast Guard Cutter Eagle

Shortly after we arrived in Bermuda the US Coast Guard Cutter Eagle sailed into Hamilton. It turns out that one of the cadets on board (James) had sailed on Gold Digger in Miami the previous year and he offered to give us a guided tour of the vessel. While the public could tour the top deck, we were privileged to be lead around the whole ship. That special privilege was afforded by the fact that Gold Digger's owner had purchased a second J44 and donated it to the Academy's sailing program.

In the midst of the tour we found ourselves in the senior officer's ward room when our cadet's superior officer called him out into the hallway. A couple of us overheard the conversation which went something like this.

Sr. Officer: "Cadet, these people are not allowed to be in this part of the ship."

Cadet James: "Yes Sir. I know that is normally the case, sir. But I cleared this with the Captain this morning, sir. And one of our guests is Mr. Bishop who donated Glory [the J44] to the Academy, sir".

Sr. Officer: "Ah well, make sure they get a tour of the Captain's cabin as well then. Carry on."

Near the end of the tour, Gold Digger's owner was presented with a gold commerative coin.

What did we learn on the tour?

-- The ship was built in 1936 for Hitler and was originally named SNS Horst Wessel. It was taken at the end of WWII as a war prize.

-- Every one of the 175 or so cadets is required to spend time aloft in the rigging of the 190+ foot tall spars.


-- All the sailing manuevers are conducted manually. For example, spare sails are stored two decks down and, if needed, have to be hauled to the main deck through very narrow passages by however many cadets it takes to lift them.

-- There is no power steering. Two or more cadets man the helm at all time.

-- This is not a dinghy. In all of 2006 thus far, the Eagle has managed to complete one successful tack, a process that takes at least an hour.

Pre-July 4th Weekend

Meg, my son and I went for a nice sail on Saturday afternoon. It was a gusty and shifty 10-20 knot westerly. We sailed down to Portland harbor with Meg getting some helm practice on the way. In those kind of conditions, it takes a bit of effort to keep the boat balanced and moving -- traveller, backstay, sheet in and out constantly. Meg got it after a while and did well.

When we got to the mouth of the harbor I asked whether we should go up into the harbor or turn around and head home now. One look to the west however and our answer was given to us. A line of dark clouds advancing to the east dictated that we head home ASAP. Home was downwind, so we proceeded under main only. The clouds appeared to be passing NW of Falmouth and indeed the worst of it did.

However, we got into some squally conditions with 20-30 knot winds about a mile from the mooring. To keep the main from getting battered and in case the squalls intensified, we put on the outboard and took down the main. Meg was able to handle the helm in the squall while I was putting on the outboard and taking down the main. Not long after we got the main on the deck the squall line passed -- no thunderstorms thankfully -- the sun came out, and the wind went to nothing. So in the end, it was a nice afternoon sail with a bit of extra adventure added in.

Our son, who would have panicked in that situation a couple of years ago, didn't mind a bit and even said after one strong blast of wind, "Wow that was cool"! Well, I don't know about that. In a 25+ knot gust the main is trying to rip itself to shreds and the mast is trying to shake itself out of the boat.

There's lot's of activity planned at the club for the 4th -- kids games, scavenger hunts, 420 racing, pie tasting. Summer is here!