Water Guy

Not just a water guy, but some evidence that water sports are in my blood. Looks like my dad played around with that kind of things too...

More biking...

Photos courtesy of Serge

#1 getting ready for sports ride

#2 coming back from sports ride

#3 getting ready for commute ride, off to work

Biking and cycling combined ;-)

When it rains, wear your sailing gear on the bike to stay dry...

Oh and the boat computer just arrived - ready to download expedition and look at routing...Excited!

Interesting data

http://www.bicycling.com/news/2011-tour-de-france/tour-features/you-versus-pe...

These 'average' Riders are close to my stats. My average speed on flat terrain is 30 km/hr (or 18.6 miles). My average speed on mountain terrain is about 10 miles an hour (if the climb is super short, I can sprint of course, talking sustained speed here), I wonder how true the rest is...

I ride between 75 to 140 miles/week in the low sailing season - a lot less in the high sailing season.

(for everyone - biking replaced running as my cross-training for fitness for sailing. I really find the combination of endurance sport that strengthens the lower part of the body and a semi-strength/semi-endurance sport that puts heavy demands on the upper part of the body working pretty well. Tabarly also used cycling as his cross training sport of choice. I also do some weight work (pullups and such) to improve my arm strength and general upper body strength.

That way I can trim spinnakers and main sail more effectively in heavier air and that's just a million times faster than grinding it on a winch. I have noticed a real difference in how much wind I can do this in. I just added 5 knots to my top strength compared to last year :)

I read a book about how to train on a bike (not for top speed necessarily, just so that I can build fitness, avoid injuries, etc...) - very similar to how you train for running. You train to be fast by riding fast (over very short distances). You train on hills by sprinting uphills (over very short distances). So high intensity low volumes workouts combined with long rides seem to be working.

However, what I found fascinating while reading this book is the understanding of nutrition on performance both when to take food, (before, during, after) and what to eat at these specific moments (this may be key in short-handed sailing to ensure sustained performance), and the importance of REST in fitness level. This is during rest that the body actually adapts and builds fitness. And the fitter you are, the less recovery time you need for a given effort....

Hence...

High levels of fitness in sailing has a major advantage for me - it allows me to recuperate much much faster. Sailing as bursts of activity - for instance you do a sail change - and the faster/easier you recover from those, and the less energy you spend of those, the better as you can do more things/better.

If you are not tired physically you are less likely to be tired mentally :) If you don't waste too much energy or if you have a body that is used to assimilating energy efficiently, you may need less food, or less sleep for the same amount of effort - or you can increase the amount of effort depending on whether the goal is conservation of energy or all out.

The other thing that I am thinking is a disaster scenario. If something went wrong and I had to work hard to say bring the mast on deck - that would be hard work, and it would take a long time. Well, if I am fit, I will be better able to sustain that effort which makes me safer.

The other thing that I found interesting is that athletes or fit people are actually more likely to develop a cold than the average person...hmmm..that kind of sucks...

On a long distance short-handed race where sleep management will be key - there is obviously another dimension to this. Definitely not the whole picture but I can see how it helps.

Lastly - cycling and sailing share the need for a strong core (abdominal or lower back muscles).

To quote someone that was overheard on my hill today 'if I lived at the top of this hill, my ass would look so good!'

Morning routine

1) Bike Practice - to improve fitness so I can be a better sailor (and because my schedule doesn't allow me to sail every day unfortunately which I wouldn't mind doing...)

 

2) Bike Commute to get to work on the cheap and with much higher fun factor than sitting in city traffic.

Cold Weather Sports

Winter sailing or cold weather sailing means cold hands or fingers (imagine cold air blowing on cold water)...

Winter biking or cold weather biking means cold feet...

Awesome improvement...

My Ride Today

Was fun, about 75 miles. Much slower than my usual pace which meant that I was not even tired at the end of it! It was my first group ride. After several weeks of riding alone, I felt ready to be with others. My host today was Peter and we were joined by Moraya.

We started on the late side after a stop at Mike's Bikes in Sausalito as Moraya had an issue with her bike computer.

The Cheese Factory - the only animals we saw were mainly cattle and horses.

Boat work...

Oops

My Ride Today - East Bay visit

Nice short 20 mile run - I saw a lot of other cyclists and kept up with a group for a little while. Nice, quiet rural area with bike lanes on the larger roads and no cars on the smaller ones - a couple of big hills, much gentler than most hills in San Francisco and the rest was either mostly flat or downhill. 

Tomorrow is rest day, will just bike to get to a brunch with Mikaela (yay!!)

And a different kind of 'wild' life.

My Ride Today

 About 42 miles, getting ready for a long ride on Sunday.

 Very peaceful...and a lot of people.  

or deers :)

My ride this morning

Also went for a couple of hour ride on Sunday

Today, about 10 miles, including Twin Peaks + like every day Bernal Heights Hill - a little less than an hour.

Had an early meeting so couldn't do anything more.

My Ride Sunday

About 25 miles, around the city. Beautiful day for a Ride. Total for the week was about 85 miles. Slow week.

Berkeley Midwinters Pictures

Crew:

• Scott - pit/mast and tactician
• Ella - foredeck
• Mark - trim 1
• Nathan - trim 2
• Nat - helm

Ella taking the boat back to Berkeley

Who cares about glasses :)

Mark helping Nat with the delivery back to the StFYC

Dinner!

Elise's hat.

We arrived shortly after night fall. We initially sailed; then had to put the engine on.

Berkeley Midwinters

Not a super satisfactory day from a racing perspective but such a nice day from a sailing perspective - an interesting course. Because of the fixed mark on the Berkeley Circle and because a couple of them are missing right now, we ended up on a spinnaker leg to the 'windward' mark and upwind to the 'leeward' mark.

We had a good start, on the line, with speed. Unfortunately Wetsu, right below us was over early - they decided to take us up, which we did not understand because they had no room to tack back to the line and gybing not only would have been faster but a manoeuver they could have done without fouling anyone. It looks like this may not be allowed (see rule below) but this is just a midwinters race, so we really are not protesting.

Trouble is this put us DFL because by the time Westu did gybe, the entire fleet had gone by and we were blocked by them.

Ella (on the boat for the first time) made a very good point - too many people on Elise dealt with that incident. One person would have been enough. We could have gybed (fouled by Wetsu potentially but at least not block and back to the mark), we could have focused on sailing, and just be faster than Wetsu because we were windward of them.

In any case, it was a tough road ahead for us. We did catch up three boat on the first downwind. The first upwind (ie the second leg) we went down first, heading for the mark, but had to come up quite a bit to avoid the start/finish line that was restricted. The other boats in the fleet stayed further upwind and then fell down, so we were faster the first half of the upwind and slower the second half. 

The last leg, we also went off course as we thought that we were going to be doing a twice around - it looks like there was some confusion on board and really we were supposed to head for the finish which we did. We probably could have picked up Magic Bus and perhaps one other boat with a longer course.

Oh well :)

 

 

Preamble	When Rule 20 or 21 applies between two boats, Section A rules do not.
– Overview	Section D provides certain r-o-w and other miscellaneous rules.
– Basic	When either Rule 20 or Rule 21 applies the usual r-o-w rules of Section A do not.
– Related	The rules of Section A are primary and always apply unless (1) modified by a rule of Section C, (2) specifically turned off by a rule of Section C or (3) turned off because Rule 20 or 21 applies.
20	Starting Errors; Penalty Turns; Moving Astern A boat sailing towards the pre-start side of the starting line or its extensions to comply with rule 29.1 or rule 30.1 shall keep clear of a boat not doing so until she is completely on the pre-start side. A boat making penalty turns shall keep clear of one that is not. A boat moving astern by backing a sail shall keep clear of one that is not.
– Overview	Rule 20 governs which boat has r-o-w when one boat is returning to restart because over early, taking penalty turns or sailing backwards. Defined terms: Keep Clear.
– Basic	A boat that is either (1) sailing back to restart under Rule 29.1 (On the Course Side at the Start) because over early at her starting signal or (2) sailing to the pre-start side to clear herself under Rule 30.1 (I Flag Rule) [around-the-ends rule] must keep clear of other boats not also returning. This obligation continues until a boat has returned completely to the pre-start side of the line.
	A boat making penalty turns under either Rule 31.2 (Touching a Mark) or rule 44.2 (720° Turns Penalty) must keep clear of other boats not also taking penalty turns. Thus, all boats not taking penalty turns will have r-o-w over one that is. This rule will not often apply, however, because one of the obligations of a boat taking penalty turns under either Rule 31.2 or Rule 44.2 is to get well clear of other boats before beginning her penalty turns. If a boat she does that correctly then there should be no boats close enough for her to worry about keeping clear of.
	A boat that is backing up (moving backwards through the water) because she backed a sail must keep clear of other boats. Note, if a boat is moving backward through the water but did not back her sails then Rule 20 will not apply and the usual r-o-w rules in Section A will continue to apply.
– Advanced	When one boat is subject to Rule 20 the usual r-o-w rules in Section A are turned off. However, if two boats are both subject to Rule 20 (for example, two boats over early both returning to restart) then the usual r-o-w rules of Section A will continue to apply to those two boats (but only as between the two of them).
	Rule 20 starts to apply to a boat that must cross to the pre-start side of the line when she begins to change course to do so. At that time, she will lose r-o-w if she previously had it and, because her own actions caused her to lose r-o-w, under Rule 15 (Acquiring Right of Way) other boats will not be required to give her "room to keep clear." Thus, she must be careful to act only in such a way as to allow herself "room to keep clear" of other boats.

SAIL #	SKIPPER	BOAT NAME	BOAT MODEL	RATING	FINISH	ELAPSED	CORRECTED	PTS.	COMMENTS	YC
28137	Zachary Anderson	Motorcycle Irene	Ex 27	129	14:48:10	0:48:10	0:46:07	1		RYC
48	Rachel Fogel	Great White	Ex 27	129	14:49:47	0:49:47	0:47:39	2		BYC
11	Dan Pruzan	Wile E Coyote	Ex 27	129	14:50:29	0:50:29	0:48:20	3		EYC
18394	Ron Kell	Abigail Morgan	Ex 27	129	14:52:47	0:52:47	0:50:32	4		CYC
0	Steven Katzman	Dianne	Ex 27	129	14:52:53	0:52:53	0:50:37	5		LTWYC
113	Marcia Schnapp	Libra	Ex 27	129	14:53:18	0:53:18	0:51:01	6		SFYC
41	Marc Belloli	Magic Bus	EX 27	129	14:53:34	0:53:34	0:51:17	7		StFYC
101	Nathalie Criou	Elise	Ex 27	129	14:53:54	0:53:54	0:51:36	8		STFYC
70	Phil Krasner	Wetsu	Ex 27	129	14:56:47	0:56:47	0:54:21	9		RYC
28031	Donald Carroll	Take Five	Ex 27	129	14:59:01	0:59:01	0:56:30	10		SSS
8477	Terry Cobb	Mirage	Ex 27	129	14:59:22	0:59:22	0:56:50	11		SSS
18364	John Rivlin	Peaches	Ex 27	129	DNC	:	:	13		STFYC

getting to the boat tomorrow

Thanks Shana!

Advice for single-handed long distance offshore races

I had a chat with the winner of this year's Transpac as I would like to know what it takes to win this kind of races.

Bottom line is really counter-intuitive: the less you drive and the more you sleep the faster you go.

2nd, it is really helpful to learn about routing, what to do about weather patterns, etc

So - key focus for me are

• Power plan: I need to make sure that I can run the autopilot 24hr/day basically (even if I choose not to) - so I will more ned solar power, bigger batteries (so I can store more energy for the night) and a solution for the night (recommendation was to get a small Honda generator)
• Autopilot: I need two very good autopilots - the NKE one needs some debugging right now but should work great. So I need a second one. No AP means no sleep which means slow. Bad AP means sleep and slow so not competitive. OK for crossing but not OK to be comeptitive
• Routing and Navigation: it looks like the software to get (and a laptop so that I can get grib files easily) is Expedition and that it takes a while to get use to it, and figure out what to enter to 'tweak' it so it doesn't send the boat to places we don't really want to go single handed (for instance not where there is 40 knots of wind as it is unlikely that the kite will stay up with me sleeping down below under Autopilot.

Safety-wise: prepare everything in advance (sail plan, etc...) so I can continue to operate well on little sleep

I also got advice for squalls (my big fear is to get stuck right behind them in the no wind zone) but basically, I got the 'Port' trick. Gybe on port...

Moby Dick

Cool Bay pics

Great photo stolen from Lynn

Another great one Lynn took

And this one is from Serge

More pics from the Nationals

Photos Norcal Sailing 2012

Go to norcalsailing.com

My ride today

To Bonita Point, through the Presidio, through Golden Gate Park and back on. About 30 miles.

What a gorgeous day. Shorts and Tshirt and I was too hot!

 

Pirates