Elise

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Climbing up the mast single-handed

I spent some time researching various systems to go aloft single-handed. I wanted a system that was easy to use and that wouldn't have me get to the top tired.

Prepared to sacrifice some weight for this as sometimes going aloft to unstuck something can be a safety matter.

- then I figured that riggers need to do this on a routine basis so I decided to get exactly what they use.

Using a 3:1

and it works!! You need to use your legs to stay close to the past or run a line to keep you close to the mast but otherwise, it is perfect!!

I need to fit the rest of my climbing gear so that I can stop myself without having to hold the line by hand and I can free up both my hands to do work.

Going up the mast under my own power :)

yeepee!

Hanging in mid-air

If space gets tight on deck, we can always set up something up in the air.

New battery charger

This allows us to charge one bank while the other one is in use. This is helpful, particularly in the morning when the batteries are depleted by night use - and the other batteries are likely to remain topped off if the sun is up - or if there is an hour or so of hand-driving.

Also Elise now has the ability to have a three battery system with two batteries wired in parallel as one bank - this means three batteries and two banks to boost up its storage capacity.

New Spinnaker Sheets

Matching the color of the current ones :)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Spreader

Elise got injured as she was lowered into the water

One of her spreaders got bent badly and we couldn't risk a rig failure so we couldn't go out and race

Looks nasty!

Doctor (rigger)

Nathan examining the damage and taking some pictures

We also had a halyard stuck at the top of the mast so good that we sent someone up there.

Old Elise Photos

Purchased from Erik Simonson and scanned

Elise rounding a mark

Elise was in second position in that race...which got abandoned ;-)

Friday, May 17, 2013

Team Elise on other boats

Serge on Solar Wind

Nathan and Serge on Breakout

(photos Serge)

The Butler organizing transportation for the crew

More photos about the J70 sailing day

Purchased from Erik Simonson

Getting Elise ready for short-handed offshore sailing

Backup generator was ordered

New switch to allow the battery that is drained and not in use anymore to charge back up - when this happens during the day, the sun can keep the other battery topped up and all the batteries can get into the night full

This is Brian's handywork

Serge fixed our turning block

Serge also rinsed out Frog

The generator with its cover

and just in case, a carbon monoxide detector

The charger for the generator

Taking Elise out of the water

Beautiful lady

Beautiful? no. stunning.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Extreme Laser Sailing

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Single-handed gybing

Monday, May 6, 2013

Vallejo Delivery

The weather man had indicated that there would be 40 knots on the Bay.
We saw 0.4.

And a warm overcast day

In fact, it was so dead that we needed a tow into the Club. Look at this cute little 1937 boat!

The sun came out again in the evening and all was well :)

Wearing short and T shirt in San Francisco!! Yay!

and 5th overall

we probably were on the wrong side of the channel on Sunday - instead of staying right and hugging the shore getting a push from the current. On Saturday, very close call. Several boats finishing within a 5 min span...after 21 miles