Shipping Elise

I booked the return trip for Elise. Sailing a 27-footer against the wind for weeks on end isn't the most comfortable experience and finding a delivery crew would be quite tough. Besides, we have a race schedule to get back to as soon as the race is over and shipping the boat will be much faster than sailing it. She should be back within a week of boarding the ship. Plus, there's no reason why Elise shouldn't enjoy a little bit of sailing herself, when someone else is doing the work.

Shipping Elise back means first shipping the trailer to Hawaii and the pair back to San Francisco.

There were basically two options: one via Matson and out of Oakland and one via Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines, out of San Diego. The latter works with boat haulers and offers special deals for Pac Cup racers. This is the solution that we opted for. No hassle and cheaper than the other one for our boat. Don't take our word for it. Ask a quote from both and see what works best for you if you are considering sending your boat back by freight.

Load a Boat will come pick up the trailer right at its spot, somewhere around the end of June. They will drive it down to San Diego, put it on a ship to Hawaii and Pasha will send it over to Hawaii for free. Then Elise/trailer will get together, the mast will come down (us or Boat a Load for a little extra of course), board a Pasha ship and 6-8 days later arrive at San Diego. Load a Boat will then drive the set up to the Saint Francis...It couldn't be any easier! We now have all the time in the world to actually prepare the race!

Early August, we're back 100% into the Bay racing game.

It will be Elise's first cruise :)

Head and Tale

Getting a-"head" of the game - preparing for field testing

One definition of "comfort"

Bathroom design at sea is a big problem for me. And it can be quite a challenge on a race boat where weight matters so much (the more you weigh, the slower you are). We will already be ultra-loaded with all sorts of absolutely necessary offshore items but that is no reason to add un-necessary weight in places.

For those you are just joining us, a "head" is one side of a coin, as well as what hosts our thinking matter. It also happens to be a sea toilet. What it is called a head, I am not quite sure. Perhaps because setting it up right requires a lot of thinking...and the amount of space available to the user tend to be as small as a coin?

The additional consideration is comfort. Perhaps a short description of one of my previous adventures will shed some light on the matter.

Imagine a 40-footer whose name I shall not mention. The above-mentioned "head" is a regular white bucket. It sits in an open closet. There is no door and there is no curtain. Privacy is achieved by verbal warning in a language that other crew members can understand, or by distributing smelly French cheese around a semi-circle of security, a few feet away from the entrance of the throne room.

Balance can be a challenge. First of all the bucket is not tied to the floor, or to anything. Hence, in order for it to remain upright at sea, you need to keep it in-between tight legs. There is no door to keep you, your load and your head inside, so your hands are busy holding something so you don't end up on the other side of the corridor, across from where you are, with your pants down.

Interestingly, on this particular boat, there was a stove right to the side of the head room which did have some headroom (see? I have one good thing to say about this arrangement). At night, that stove served to boil water for coffee. Nighttime is also the time when moving around can become risky and burning yourself on a stove before entering a bathroom with no running water isn't the most pleasant of all past-times discovered by man since the beginning of times.

Finally, once you are done, the results of your hard work need to be disposed of overboard. This means a trip across the main cabin, up the companionway, to the leeward side of the boat. At night or in rough weather, it might require you to put on your gear and a harness. This can be made even more complicated if you are handling a leaky bucket as was the case for me at that time...Or you can pass up the bucket and bury any self-consciousness deep inside it.

Anyway, on Elise, I have to say that I was the main opponent of the idea of using a bucket. The chemical head was far too heavy and bulky to stay too long on the boat though. Perhaps a few races and a hint of fleet competitiveness did the trick...We turned to a bucket.

However, it is not leaky and we are maintaining a minimum level of comfort by retrofitting a nice soft seat (this is not hard plastic!). So there's no shower on Elise but you get a reading salon!

Elise's Annual Cleaning

Check out the fleece...

My mom is visiting which is very handy. What do moms do when they visit their children? They do a lot of work with their children, even when they claim that they are visiting just to rest. Just an observation on my part of course.

Anyhow, mom and I did some work on Elise this week (as well as on the Sarcoma Cup preparation).

1) We removed all the mildew from Elise and treated her with a "mildew blocker"
2) We cleaned up all the items contained in various containers on Elise (well, mom did)
3) We rinsed the boat's V-berth and the two buckets
4) We applied anti-rust all over the boat metal parts
4) We cleaned up everything that can be cleaned without vacuuming (taking everything out, cleaning up, waiting for it to dry and putting everything back in)
5) We removed unnecessary items: a harness, a tether, some spare lines, etc...to make sure the boat is as light as possible for Bay racing
6) We treated the inside wood on the settees and the bulkhead with teak oil (and cleaned them up)
7) We put some order into the sink, navigation table and everything else that needed some help in that department
8) We took away with us most of the users manuals that were getting moldy on the boat
9) We aired out the boat as she needed this quite a bit after the various local deluges :)

Elise looks quite beautiful now...wait, not just now of course. And it feels so satisfying when you do something like this - as if your own thoughts and life become orderly and clean all of the sudden. Hugely therapeutic.

A nice hot drink at THE Peet's Coffee at Berkeley was a well-deserved reward.

Berkeley Midwinters - writeup by Eric

Elise' modus operandi is the following:
The driver focuses on driving and together with the trimmers on boat speed
The lead trimmer also makes sure that boat operations/maneuvers go smoothly
The tactician is focused on everything that is not happening ON the boat, but AROUND the boat and calls all the shots (tack, jibe, follow this course, do this, do that, etc...). Everyone can share opinions, recommendation, information obviously to make this happen, the final call is made by the tactician. It takes a lot of concentration and attention to do a good job, and if we have enough crew, it is worth having a dedicated person to do thta.

Here are our positions for the race:
- Helm: Nat
- Tactics: Eric
- Trim 1 upwind and Foredeck downwind: Eric
- Trim 2 upwind and Trim 1 downwind: Dayne
- Pit and Trim 2 downwind: Jacob

"Start? You mean there is supposed to be a start? After Nathalie’s mentioned donuts, there was an initial attempt which was aborted after a few minutes when the race committee realized that there was no way for everybody to make their appointed start times. The second delay lasted until about 80% of the fleet was on the right side of the line and there was a little more wind. Sandwiches were brought and eagerly eaten. Miscellaneous other food and drink were had. Nat brought out cherries and worried about stains. Can you tell it was a long wait?

The start itself found us buried in the third tier at the favored(boat) end of the line. We tacked when we could and managed good enough boat speed to pass two boats and make another one nervous. We tacked towards the next mark and proceeded well. A couple of tacks later found us loosing to the mark (blame the tactician for this one) we tried to pinch it up and lost all boat speed. This lost us the boats we had worked hard to get by. Once around the mark we briefly tried the spinnaker only to find the wind was shifting too far to carry it. We abandoned the attempt and dropped the spinnaker. In the process we gained back a position. The next rounding saw a good set and a nice spinnaker run to the finish (shortened course by the race committee). At least we were not last.

We managed good boat speed on most points of sail and this bodes well. A little miscommunication at the start and a bad tack call or two dropped us back. Boat speed is getting better and the crew work was good. Light air and a delayed start makes for a great training venue. There were no major sail handling screw ups. Weight placement was crucial and helped the boat speed.

Once the race was complete we hoisted a glass of wine to the skipper and in thanks for a great day of sailing. For those of us that hadn’t been out in a while this was just ticket to remind us of why we go sailing. Fresh air, fun, and great friends."

Berkeley Midwinters - action shots

Well...as much action as you can get in no-wind wind down on wine type weather.

Strange. When Jacob takes the helm, the boat goes a lot faster.

Assorted lifejackets!

Trying to find the committee boat...

Berkeley Midwinters - relax

I am hoping that Eric, our tactician during that race, will do a writeup. Meanwhile, here are some pictures!
During the postponment period... (over 2 hours...)

Dayne is reading up on race tactics. We will set up an exam for him next time.

The fleet was rather "board", turning anticlockwise in a big giant snail around XOC, following the committee boat (trying to figure out where it should anchor...)

Nathan is quoted on Norcal Sailing Weekend Updates!

http://www.norcalsailing.com/archives/Entries/2008/1/26_Three_Bridge_Fiasco.html

“We had a good first part. We’ll find out when we see the score sheet for the second part,” said Nathan Bossett of his race with Nat Criou aboard the San Francisco-based Express 27 Elise. “When the wind died in Raccoon Strait, we lost track of everybody. We were in the counter-clockwise crowd, meaning Treasure Island first, Red Rock second, and Blackaller last.”