Elise : December 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

More Regatta Pro Photos

J105s

J105s with white sails

Triumvirat w/ Elise in pole position...

Looks like a mark rounding to me!

Beautiful photos from Lyons Imaging (www.lyonsimaging.com)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

RegattaPro (Second Saturday Series), Dec 13 2008

Leading in, NOAA had been forecasting a possibility of rain or even thunderstorms.

Saturday morning, the forecast was upgraded to a fun 15-25 kt day with NW breeze. The expectation was a race near the slot, sailing across the current. We had a fun group with Dayne and David G trimming, Gus making a good first appearance on foredeck, and Nathan+Nat trading pit and driving.

On the way to the start line (having inadvertently abandoned the bucket) we arrived at the start line (roughly Berkeley area but avoiding interference with the other event run by BYC on the Circle itself) to find dead air and a postponement. Expecting a fill from the NW after lunch, we broke out baguettes, salami, and a very nice runny white cheese.

The breeze very promptly filled from the direction of San Pablo bay and the marks were set (standard windward-leeward with no gate this month). Both races were W-L twice around, finishing downwind. For the E27's, #3's were the choice in the first race.

Unfortunately, the breeze rotated right until the windward mark was almost a fetch from the start. We had a slow start- not far from the line but we didn't tack over onto port early enough. Also, we hadn't had the combination of wind and time to tune up- we suffered versus the boats who just knew their settings perfectly.

It took us about 1/3 to 1/2 of the leg to get competitive (point and speed) but thereafter we were keeping up the pace. Unfortunately, there wasn't much opportunity to make gains on tactics because of the unbalanced course, and "as fast as them" wasn't good enough once we were behind (and sucking a little bit of bad air here and there).

Our rounding was pretty good, and our set clean (thanks Gus!) though we took all of our sail-handling at a measured pace to avoid problems since we hadn't worked together before. The first downwind was a pretty tight carry with the kite at first, but worked out. A conventional leeward drop later, we had a nice rounding and were ready for the next (and final) lap. With another fetch (or close to it) there wasn't much opportunity to make gains though our speed was good, and the next downwind was a lower angle. We did well from there on out except for a missed shot at a late overlap at the leeward mark, but only managed to edge out 3 boats across the line.

After the first race, the wind promptly dropped to nothing. Much of the fleet switched over to #1's when the wind came back enough to race, but Nat made the correct call of sticking with the #3- on the bay in the early afternoon, if you've got hanks (not a tuff-luff) and aren't sure, the smaller jib is safer. The breeze built back up for us. We had a better start this time (maybe because I wasn't calling it :) ) and a similar period of orientation on the beginning of the upwind (new driver). However, we'd figured out our trim and were keeping up.

We considered ourselves to be doing quite well to have arrived at the windward mark near Moxie and Witchy Woman, and managed to stay near them for much of the rest of the race. We had another smooth set, and a deeper angle to the leeward mark than the first race. The first leg down, we were able to drive quite deep and hard, with a following swell helping us out a lot.

Our leeward rounding was again pretty good (smooth kite drop) and we held pace upwind (also making gains from taking a hitch to the left). Following the downwind, we were solidly in the middle of the pack, with a very deep angle to the finish line but lighter breeze requiring a hotter angle. Unfortunately, at that point, with some boats approaching from behind, we made two mistakes: #1 gybing early for the finish line, and #2 refusing to acknowledge just how much we'd missed the layline by just sailing low and slow towards the finish line instead of staying fast and gybing again if necessary.

Watching 5 boats sail by you at the finish line was not the ideal way to end the day, but overall the day's performance was still quite encouraging: in a variety of conditions, we'd been able to keep pace and even make gains on boatspeed. The only time we suffered a bit was when the popular choice was #1's but before the breeze had filled enough to prove us right (at least for our quite slim crew weight- I think we might have been even near the class crew limit of 880 lbs only once or possibly twice last season).

On the bright side, the unusual wind direction meant that the trip back to the STFYC was also a fetch, in pleasant wind though a bit more waves and spray after passing Alcatraz. Thanks everyone, for a great day!

ToDo's: possible spinnaker bag in the forward hatch, keep the interior drier (taking waves through the hatch). We had no sail-handling mishaps, and are clear to work on speed.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Photo gallery from Regatta Pro midwinters

On our merry way to the Berkeley Circle, I look around the boat and I cannot find 'the' bucket.
Nat 'strange, I can't find the bucket. Has anyone seen it?'
Nathan 'well, you had two buckets on board right, from the offshore setup?'
Nat 'right, and I took one home at the end of the Thanksgiving sail'
Nathan - 'hmm, so the one with the cleaning supplies in it that we took to the car was the toilet?'

Crap.

I used a mug...it's in my dishwasher right now.

and the wind went from zero to 10-15 knots in no time. Veering some 70 degrees back and forth during the course of the day. It strengthened in the evening to probably 20+ knots

Wearing matching team uniforms ;-)

And Nathan and David were also wearing matching foulies!

Hi Peggy :)

It rained to our left, to our right, to our left again. But not on us.

note the color of the lifejacket is assorted with that of the foulies. This is not a coincidence.

Courtesy of Dayne!

Nice slideshow: http://beatsarcoma.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=6844729&AlbumKey=UjzgC

And if you want to order prints or get downloads: http://beatsarcoma.smugmug.com/gallery/6844729_UjzgC/1/437619030_dgqT4

Practice Sail - December 14, 2008

Amir, Adrian, Juan and I - the international team, met at 1PM at Elise's home. Amir is from Israel, Adrian from the UK, Juan from Chile and I am one of these cheese-mongers. The weather forecast indicated 10-15 knots, going up to 20 in the evening and 70% chances of rain. In fact, it was raining already when we got to the boat.

Crammed in Elise's main cabin, sitting on top of the flare box, the sailbags and the cooler to stay out of the rain, we shared our most intimate sailing secrets. Amir had no sailing experience, Adrian had raced on J24s and did some bareboat cruising and Juan had chartered boats several times. We were all there to enjoy ourselves and share our knowledge. The dockmaster, looking alarmed, walk up to me and says pointing at the sky 'it IS RAINING, they said that it would rain.' I replied that we were hard core and would go anyway. The other piece of information I should venture out at this point is that the breeze was very light. I was hopeful though as the wind was a late starter the day before, so I wasn't as dumb as I looked...bundled up in my foulies, I stayed amazingly dry and warm. I wasn't sure about the others (although the decision to go out anyway in the hope of getting better breeze was a consensus). As we cast off, I asked how everyone was doing. Now, that was a dumb question on a cold, rainy and not so breezy day.

We did get some practice, especially for new people: setting up the boat, hoisting and dropping sails (we changed from a #3 to a #1 given the majestic and persistent absence of wind), we set up and hoisted the spinnaker, did a few tacks and jibes. Until the wind died completely, really just as we were outside...

The dockmaster must have been scratching his head at that time: what is this only boat doing on the Bay, drifting in an ebb, with a crew that's looking like they are actively sailing, messing around with sails and instruments. Most of us kept warm as sailing does take effort.

Until I took out the engine...and headed us back to the dock. I wasn't tired physically by then but I think that low(er) levels of carbs affected my ability to do precision work. It took me forever to line up the trailer and the boat as we took her out of the water - although I haven't yet beaten the record established with Philip a couple of months ago.

We concluded the day with some great and fun conversation around drinks, to complete the sailing education of the day. Beer is definitely a pretty universal sailing language, except among cheese-mongers apparently...

I actually like being out, in the wet and cold (better than too hot) - tried by the elements on a boat. It feels rough and it feels good. I feel very alive in those moments. A hot shower later on, a dinner with friends and more importantly a very effective set of foulies turned this into a near perfect day. Wind would have perfected the picture.

The marina on Sunday...courtesy of Juan!

Post Race Chat

Nathan will post a race writeup - it was so nice to be in a warm atmosphere back at the club, enjoying some hot Irish coffee, beer, or other warm beverages....really a perfect day. Some nice and exciting sailing, great company, nice social dinner and an evening at the Symphony for their Gospel concert. It couldn't get much better!