Sleeping quarters submarine....

Submarine heads

Beats Elise's bucket?

Pampanito - complex and incomprehensible pieces of machinery...

No idea what that is...

Pampanito - torpedo room

[[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___9]]It took 4 men several long minutes to load up a torpedo into its launch tube - the torpedo was heavy, the tube then had to be secured, pressure inside had to be made even with the pressure outside the submarine. [[posterous-content:pid___1]] There were two torpedo rooms, one forward and one aft - each had two tubes into which to load up the torpedos. Submarines played a huge role in the war - they were destroying ships faster than new ships could be built thus ensuring supremacy over the oceans.[[posterous-content:pid___6]][[posterous-content:pid___7]][[posterous-content:pid___8]]

[[posterous-content:pid___2]][[posterous-content:pid___3]][[posterous-content:pid___4]][[posterous-content:pid___5]]Sleepîng right in the middle of missiles doesn't strike me as stress-free...

Pampanito - entry ways

Uncomfortable ways to get in. Dive Dive Dive! People on deck has 

30 seconds tops to get in...those who didn't make it in time, would be left behind...

USS Pampanito - World War II Submarine - exterior views

See the full gallery on Posterous

Most of the time the submarine was surfaced and using its diesel engines - under water, it used batteries to power up its engine and everything on board. The Jeremia was built in 56 days. I wonder how long it took to build this submarine.

SS Jeremiah O'Brien Visit

Nathan, my brother and I visited an old steam ship - a cargo ship employed during the second world war and now harbored in San Francisco. It was great to have Nathan, a naval architect with us while we explored the ship. He knows so much about these things!

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My brother was so delighted by the experience and by his conversations with Nathan that he even said that if he stopped making planes, he would consider making boats!

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]This is a view of the bridge, with a set of flags used for communication purposes.
[[posterous-content:pid___28]]The ship didn't have many guns - we counted 4. One at the bow, one at the stern and one on each side of the ship - they were mainly used against planes. Most people on the ships were not soldiers, but simple government workers whose role was to furnish the armies with what they needed. Because the ship carried precious cargo and fuel for the war and because their convoys typically were not very well defended they were a primary target for submarines and the chances of dying on such a s

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hip were five times higher than the chances of dying in a submarine or a destroyer.

Apparently, the guns didn't help the crew increase their chance of survival. Quite the opposite. Since most crew were civilians and known to others to be civlians, when the ships were destined to be sunk, before they were equipped with guns, it was not uncommon for enemy ships and submarines to give the crew a heads up so they had time to evacuate the ship and board the life boats. After all, what was precious and needed to be destroyed was the cargo. The crew was insignificant.

After the ships were armed, the risk of pulling alongside and offering them a chance to withdraw was too high and ships were just sunk without any notice.

[[posterous-content:pid___29]]One of the officers' cabin.[[posterous-content:pid___30]]

Yep, these guys shit on the Jeremiah's deck just like they shit on Elise's deck. No loyalty.
[[posterous-content:pid___25]]Crew quarters.[[posterous-content:pid___23]]Mate's quarter
[[posterous-content:pid___24]]Somebody's quarter...[[posterous-content:pid___19]]OK - time for the boys to play and inspect the guns.[[posterous-content:pid___21]][[posterous-content:pid___10]]

[[posterous-content:pid___9]]Each gun required a lot of muscle to move around and aim...[[posterous-content:pid___11]]OK, where are these seagulls hiding
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Wonder what the range was...

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Look at the size of these wrenches in the engine room!!!
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The electrical panel looks scary - open connectors everywhere. In heavy seas and if you are not looking, your hand might just grab the metal of a closed connector...
[[posterous-content:pid___22]]Pistons connecting the engine to the shaft of the propeller

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There were 4 cylinders of various sizes through which the steam would be pumped through (the boiler were big and the water was heated with gas and not coal - other than that, very similar to the Titanic engine room, in smaller of course. And funny that but one of the engine scenes in the movie Titanic was filmed on the Jeremiah. 

[[posterous-content:pid___2]]The engine is operational and the Jeremiah takes about 4 cruises a year. There is no gear so the coupling is super simple; it is either 'stop' or 'forward' or 'back'. In order to reverse, the entire engine had to be reversed (and stopped first of course) - it took 30 seconds to go from lowest speed in forward motion to reverse.

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[[posterous-content:pid___14]] These are the cargo bays[[posterous-content:pid___6]]Cafeteria...
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[[posterous-content:pid___8]]Bathroom and head
[[posterous-content:pid___5]][[posterous-content:pid___1]][[posterous-content:pid___4]]The old fashioned bolt cutter and door opener...

Elise Boat Work

Both projects were completed thanks to the help of Elise's bosun.

Photos courtesy of Serge

Elise has a new sheet bag which we use for halyards mainly down below and a new engine. The previous engine breathed its last at the last Berkeley Midwinters.

We have not had the opportunity to try the new engine during 3bf was there was plenty of wind....

3bf results

101

ELISE

213

Nathalie Criou / Olivier Criou

129

14:27:35

ryc

Express 27

 

Overall Results - or 2/3 of the fleet, there were over 350 boats registered

 

By Division

 

 

 

16 - Double Handed Express 27

Pursuit

Start: 01/26/13 at 09:00:00

Fleet:

17

Started:

17

Sail #

Boat Name

Place

Skipper

Rating

Finish Time

Corrected Finish Time

Club

Make

Comments

18178

TULE FOG

1

Steve Carroll / Jordon Paxhia

129

13:30:34

13:30:34

ryc

Express 27

67

SHENANIGANS

2

Nick Gibbens / John Collins

129

13:35:22

13:35:22

san fran

Express 27

113

LIBRA

3

Sergey Lubarsky / Bill Woodruf

129

13:37:51

13:37:51

Express 27

11

WILE E COYOTE

4

Dan Pruzan / Mike Herbert

129

13:55:50

13:55:50

encinal

Express 27

41

MAGIC BUS

5

Paul Deeds / Hans Opsahl

129

14:02:15

14:02:15

ryc

Express 27

usa116

BESSIE JAY

6

Matt Krogstad / Jonas Kellner

129

14:02:34

14:02:34

Express 27

40428

ERGO

7

Chris Gage / Michelle Michele Sumpt

129

14:07:35

14:07:35

mpyc

Express 27

51

FREAKS ONA LEASH

8

Scott Parker / Oj Olson

129

14:09:05

14:09:05

ryc

Express 27

0

DIANNE

9

Steve Katzman / Jarian Westfall

129

14:12:30

14:12:30

ltwyc

Express 27

18070

OPA!

10

Peggy Lidster / Jody Locascio

129

14:15:55

14:15:55

st franc

Express 27

87275

SIMBA

11

Karl Belgum / Russell Huebschle

129

14:18:51

14:18:51

cyc

Express 27

85

SUMMER PALACE

12

Wolfgang Stehr / Ritchie Rayrao

129

14:22:54

14:22:54

ryc

Express 27

18394

ABIGAIL MORGAN

13

Ron Kell / Oliver Kell

129

14:25:17

14:25:17

corinthi

Express 27

101

ELISE

14

Nathalie Criou / Olivier Criou

129

14:27:35

14:27:35

ryc

Express 27

18315

CHILE DOG

18

Richard Deveau / Scott Gordon

129

DNF

ryc

Express 27

28031

TAKE FIVE

18

Donald Carroll / Steve Sarsfield

129

DNF

sss

Express 27

28137

MOTORCYCLE IRENE

18

Will Paxton / Fred Paxton

129

DNF

Express 27

 

 

Typical engineer...

Courtesy of Serge

Three Bridge Fiasco

My brother was in town for the weekend which was quite unexpected and so welcome! He does not usually sail and we decided to sail around the Bay during the three bridge. Quite a sight!

So we approached the race course with a 30 second strategy chat and the intent to have a ton of fun. And fun we did have.

We set the kite and sailed the course and even a bit more :) My brother drove most of the way, except a little upwind in heavier wind.

Several mistakes:

1- boat was not set up for high breeze shorthanded and we got very lazy with the sail plan upwind - I did not have reefing lines and it would have been good to put a reef in in the last leg upwind in 30 knots of wind

2- we chose to carry the genoa a little too long, probably damaging the sail more than we had to and flogging the (nice) racing main. We finally had to change down to a jib as the wind went up from 10 to 30 knots as soon as we were out of Racoon Straits.

Downwind, no such problems and Elise behaved nicely as her usual self.

We played a couple of tactical game with other boats and for a short while optimized for boat speed and did pretty well against our most immediate neighbors.

 

 Norcalsailing Photo of Elise and Simba.

My brother driving on a tight reach

 

Getting his strength back after some tough sail changes.

and a wet day on the Bay for a very unique three bridge!

Elise at rest after the race

Roger's new boat at rest after the race

and we all met at the bar, like true sailors :)

Thank you again Elise.

We finished last in the E27 group right before the DNFs and about 196 total (beginning of 2/3 of the total fleet), not bad for someone who had never driven an Express before :) nor set foot on a sailboat for many many years!

Norcal Sailing Writeup about the Three Bridge Fiasco!

http://www.norcalsailing.com/entries/2013/01/27/fiasco.html#.UQone780V8E

Corinthian midwinters (1 day)

Trying out a J70

Photos

courtesy of Spinnaker Sailing 

Weird course setting which turned out into a reach parade - also confused and a bit of a mess because the boats rounding the mark ending up going straight across the course of the boats from later starts heading up for the mark and then ploughing through a sea of boats in the start area - super hard to find clean air as a small boat so we ended up taking a huge hike out to get that. not my favorite choice of course and I think that for the corinthian, I don't expect an attempt at windward/leeward but more a course around the Bay type event. 

In any case, light air but steady winds made for a fun day.

I was on a J 70, much more modern design and some of the discussions went around whether it is best to get to newer designs (for a sailing schools) or stay with older design. One argument is that students should train on boats they are likely to then see in the market/sail on later.

Very light boat - needs serious footing off in waves as it otherwise would just stop. super easy to depower, a teeny bit of backstay does it. Under canvassed in lighter air, with a teeny jib (with two massive turning blocks where you attach the sheets, might be a little oversized :)) - cleats for jib sheets are not well positioned which makes for awkward cleating when you are on jib trim and an awesome jib halyard tensioner. Wondering if we can install something similar on the express as it is also super sensitive to that in light(er) air. Kind of a mini J105 :) We have only seen the boat in fairly light conditions so hard to see how it would behave in heavier air and if it would get going. Good standing upwind and fast on a reach not enough wind to really look at more downwind performance and weight management.

I wonder what the modern equivalent of the Express 27 is? a boat that can take you across ocean safely, that can accelerate beautifully, surf like mad downwind, be small enough that it has loads I can easily handle even if winches break (although not top performance clearly), small enough that it can be short handed or fully crewed and perform each step of the way, with a fleet that makes round the buoy racing exciting and competitive, under canvassed by design so it is super comfortable in the 25-40 knot wind range (and competitive, meaning this is not survival sailing but very much performance sailing) and that has a good performance for all points of sail (as opposed to just downwind) - any recommendations much appreciated...although there is no plan right now to part with my beloved Elise. And I feel actually safer going across the pacific on her as I a) know her well and know how she reacts to a wide range of conditions and b) she has proven as a boat herself and as part of a design family that she can handle that kind of passage.

Ride Today

Serge accompanied me for the first mile

Reaching the beginning of the first descent post Panoramic Highway climb

First view of Stinson Beach

Arriving at Stinson Beach

On the way back on Highway 1

To Stinson Beach via Panoramic Highway and back via Highway 1 about 42 miles...  (I actually did about 76 kms or 47 miles as I took a wrong turn in Mill Valley.

Some Long Distance Single-Handed Prep

• Got replacement for boat laptop
• Installed snailmail, grib file viewer and expedition
• tested grib viewer and expedition
• ordered performance package for Express 27 (including upwind polars and with different crew weights) - received it but the excel file looks buggy. Keeps crashing Excel.

Expedition is a piece of work...Took veteran Jim and I half an hour to figure out how to set a position for the boat...kind of basic requirement when you set a course. We got some weather info and played around with soem routing. I was trained both on Expedition as well as weather routing both of which I kinda enjoyed.

Expedition has some weird states and I can really see how frustrated I might become at sea if it got stuck into some error mode...I guess that I will have to try to play around with it enough beforehand to try to get all these bugs out of the system.

Was fascinating :)

Boat Work Day - January 2013

[[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___1]][[posterous-content:pid___2]]

• Fixed masthead fly
• Inspected shrouds and top of mast: looks like masthead nav lights might not be completely sealed anymore
• Fixed turning blocks for spin sheets
• Re-sealed forward hatch and noticed cracks on the hatch - devised plan to solve the issue
• tried new boat bridle and realized it was too short
• rinsed anchor and two line

Boat Work Day - January 2013

• Fixed masthead fly
• Inspected shrouds and top of mast: looks like masthead nav lights might not be completely sealed anymore
• Fixed turning blocks for spin sheets
• Re-sealed forward hatch and noticed cracks on the hatch - devised plan to solve the issue
• tried new boat bridle and realized it was too short
• rinsed anchor and two line

Berkeley Midwinters January 2013

Perfect start:

Clean air
Favored end
Fully powered when crossing the line
Ahead of all the boats

Scott and I had discussed how to best get the boat going. As it was going to be light air, a lot would be about feel. and focus. So I just tried to feel the boat and be with it. I didn't even look around once to look at other boats, other than immediate proximity. I trusted our tactician to do that. I only used the info (pointed well, etc...) as input into the boat speed management.

I also used Scott's input on main trim and that worked like a charm.

We had great timing with Mark (trim) on the tacks (a bit slow around so the boat wouldn't stall) and we talked well on the upwind.  I just had to resist the temptation to come up before boat speed and apparent wind speed allowed me to after a tack for instance. it took just an extra 4 seconds maybe but it kept the boat going.

We had  the so so tactical call on the first and unique upwind as we tacked a little too late and ended up in a no wind hole.

We had good spinnaker handling throughout, which is actually really tricky in light air.

We were 3rd to windward mark but we couldn't really round it as the wind was too light to allow us to beat the current. And dying. We threw an anchor right past the windward mark. A lot of boats didn't. This was a bet of how much/how fast the wind would fill in frm the West. If it didn't travel fast enough, the boats that drifted further and that would get the wind first would overtake us, otherwise, we had less distance to cover.

Technically we were back in first place when they abandoned the race for lack of wind.