Monday, January 29, 2007

Ladies Ladies Ladies















Kate working Trim 2 (note the super cool hat) - I am thinking that we should all wear that same hat

















Heather smiling at the bow, thinking "Nat looks SO ridiculous as a pole sleeve"










Kate showing off. I am not sure if she's working pit or practicing boxing. In any case, I want to be her friend.

A girls' sail out

Hallo Hallo Beethovens!

This weekend marks a historic milestone for Elise...

First, Nate and Nat were scheduled to participate in the very famous Three Bridge Fiasco. There's a good reason why it's called a fiasco, we didn't even show up for the start line! Nat had an urgent last minute pro appt right in the middle of the race and Nate got a cold! What were those two thinking about???

The weekend was brightening up though as the girlies on the program decided to meet for an afternoon of fine cuisine, fashion, gossip and hard training.

Let's start with the cuisine. We had some fabulous lunch at the St Francis Yacht Club (thank you Amy!!) and we debated for hours some of the most fundamental questions on this planet. Why are French fries called French fries? What is French about them???
Toward the end, we were trying to find clever ways to attract the waitress' attention. I suggested to dance on the table. Amy thought that it would be hugely effective but would have the unexpected effect of putting my membership in jeopardy. A very wise thought indeed. I am glad that I asked.

We then proceeded to a fashion show, admiring the latest collection of boat covers as we need to select a bride dress for Elise (she will hopefully soon be wedded to the club).

After we delighted our senses with those beautiful scents and tastes, we hopped on board for the heavy work. After about 40 minutes of fiddling about with the "always start first time, just look at the label and you know it'll work" Honda engine, we were off.

Fortunately, there was wind for us out on the Bay. Not like some Ushuaia Bay somewhere South of here...

We first started with some gentle tacks, then some trimming...then we looked at setting up a kite which we did not launch because Amy drove us way too fast back to the harbor.

Thank you ladies for taking the time to practice. Good crew work is a necessary conditions to a successful program and to everyone's enjoyment!

Big take aways for the girls:
- Weight matters (more than size...) . So unless there is a very good reason not to be on the rail, move back up there as fast as you can
- Speed of movement/execution is paramount! Observe the other crews on the boats nearby. Around the marks, tacking, hoisting or dropping a spinnaker just before rounding a mark. The longer you can keep your sails up, the faster you can tack, change course, the faster you can bring your weight back onto the rail, the faster the boat will go :)
- Always say "ready" preferrably when you are. That way, the skipper doesn't have to look around to figure things out
- Try to learn one job and become really good at it, then you will a) have fun! b) make us go really fast ;-) c) master the "piloting" skills and have the opportunity to look around the boat to learn the other jobs.
- Come to more practice days :) Practice makes perfect - even the pros recognize this :)

We then decided to practice some spinnaker sets, hoist, trim, gybes and drop...Because there were only three of us left at that time, we decided to do this...at the dock!!
So some weird passers-by must have thought: these girls are dumb. They are hoisting and trimming a sail but they don't realize that they are still tied to the dock!

Do you think that this would hurt my membership application?

Truth is that there was barely enough wind to fill up the kite (I could hold it with my bare hands...). Here are our positions:

- Heather: foredeck
- Kate: Pit/Trim 2
- Nat: pole sleeve, Trim 1

We went through a lot of ceremonious "pole up, pole down", "set, hoist and drop, sometimes in the water" and "gybe "- if possible without hitting the wall. Definitely getting clearer in everybody's mind.

Conclusions of the day:
- Heather: if you're up for it, let's train you up for foredeck! Thing to work on: gathering the spinnaker on deck if possible, unless this is a net fishing day.
- Kate: if you're up for it, let's train you up as Trim2/pit. Things to work on: move fast back onto the rail and listen to Trim 1/pay attention to the foredeck person to work in harmony with them
- Nat: you need to practice starting this stupid engine under any conditions
- Amy: since you worked as Trim 1 and Trim 2 this time around, we might need to choose one or the other for this season. Thing to remember: weight on the rail and try to move as fast as possible!

And now for the good news! Nathan who made up that weird excuse is not exempt of work. He's the main contributor to a crew manual! Coming to a theater near you SOON!


- Finally please note the feminine touch. Amy asked us to be back at the dock at 03:30. Touchdown was 03:33- Hopefully our starts will be more precise...

Pics coming up...

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Elise Health Bulletin #3

Dear Beethovens,

We are approaching an extremely important milestone: the end of Priority 1 task on Elise. A heartfelt thank you to Nathan for getting a few things right (but like he said, I don't pay him for nothing...now, I hadn't realized that this was a paid program. I wish people told me about these things).

Sail Controls:
Most recently, Elise's long-awaited outhaul was overhauled (read line was replaced). This entailed fishing out lines and blocks inside the boom through multiple contorsions and screw-driver miracles. We have removed some ill-looking cleats on the traveler, leaving the ones that are the furthest away from the traveler.
Elise also has a free-running cleat fixed to the Cunningham.
With the battens in the main, this brings up back to full control of the main!
We are also replacing the halyards and getting a reefing line (not really needed for the bay, but will certainly look really pro for the offshore program ;-)), hopefully ready for our next race!

Race Gadgets:
a) Roger patiently entered the waypoints for Berkeley Midwinters into the GPS, so if we get bored, we now have some entertainment. I will try to enter all the other Bay and most common near offshore waypoints so we can use the GPS to get a compass heading on downwind legs.
b) Nathan is nearly done putting together our first "Crew Manual" (which will be posted to the online working sheet for the Elise crew shortly!)
c) We have a glossy new flag sheet (and if you can't remember your VHF alphabet, all the clues you need are in there :)), which will make it a lot easier to figure out which course we are supposed to sail next time around.

Comfort:
The benches are getting a nice little shampoo to protect the wood from follicles :) They should be all shiny for your next visit on Elise :)
We have a cozy sewing kit which can become very handy during the offshore program.
Two instrument covers for the compasses are on order and should reach San Francisco on Wednesday!
We are also in the process of ordering a boat cover (all the Expresses lined up at the St Francis will have the same looking cover :) It's a bulk order!). We get to choose the color, if you have any preference, please let me know!
And we have launched a "logo" context so we can get some Elise gear ready and impress the competition.

Next on the list:
- fitting the halyards
- replacing the knotmeter (a permanent "zero" is quite depressing...)
- getting a proper thermos so that hot tea can be served after the race, as opposed to "barely warm if you have a good imagination" beverages

Then, off onto Priority 2 items!!!!

There were other boats on the water...






"rear view"








Sideways...

Crew Work Pictures


Roger chose the really hard job of trimming...















Captain Brian - eyes lost on the horizon...














A well-deserved lunch!! Boy feels like it was a cold day!

Berkeley MidWinters Pics!!!






A very studious crew.










What is really cool about spinnaker, in addition to the fact that they make the boat go really fast is that they provide for really nice photo framing opportunities.













Rouding the windward mark (time to hoist the spinnaker!)

Sat, Jan 14, Berkeley Midwinters One Design Race

Attending were Roger on trim #1, guest skipper Brian Boschma, the new
Arthur Zwiegincew, and Nathan on bow (Nathalie absent), killing time by taking video clips of the kitties). The course was triangle-w-l, start/finish line centered.

After examining the conditions at the starting line for a different event,
Elise proceeded to the Berkeley Circle start and crossed the line six
minutes late, hot on the heels of several other late starters.
Being too far out to have seen the course flags, and unable to hear
the VHF announcements (VHF and GPS being in Nat's seabag), the first and
second leg strategies largely involved determining the course amid several
widely scattered fleets. Taking advantage of the leading 27s' courtesy in
pointing out several wind holes, rapid progress was made up the first
windard leg ("windward" by courtesy only, as for the second month in a row
the first leg was strongly unbalanced).

Downwind speed was good, with a nice call by Brian on spotting wind
inshore that allowed us to pick off a few boats stuck towards the center
of the bay in extremely light air.

Shifty breeze led to the second downwind being mostly upwind (with
several sail changes between #1 and spinnaker). A scattered and widely
spaced fleet resulted in a few boats taking extreme right or left courses
and others (including Elise) trying to split and cover, with too much
distance to Diane in front to catch up and a healthy (but not necessarily
decisive) lead over several boats behind.

The final "upwind" was a deep kite leg towards the finish, with several
27's behind (Swamp Donkey trying to catch up).

All in all, a very nicely sailed race given the less than ideal start. We
had good speed in general and learned some things about jib trim in
particular. Several established boats had slight edges when the wind
dropped to almost nothing; this is something to watch and learn from.

Pending official results, we believe that we beat Taz, Swamp Donkey,
Expressway, and possibly another boat or two.