Sailing on an 18 m ketch, Mediterranean, circa 1990

Yours truly on the left, back facing out. Playing card on a no wind light day in the Med. Must have been 16 or 17. With family and friends on a warm summer day.

The boat we chartered. Fat, slow and comfortable.

 

Brother diving off the boat. He must have been 15 or so.

Still not a whole lot of wind. However a really hot day!

Mother, cousins, aunt and friend coming back from shore with a new toy to keep the kids occupied.

Village in the Med, near St Tropez as viewed from deck.

Evening meal at anchor. The owner Robert is seen at the back. He never changed jeans in the two weeks the trip lasted. At the end, his pants could stand up on their own when left on deck.

Sailing around St Tropez.

A small beach somewhere in the Med. Looks like it might be near Porquerolles.

On a day with a light breeze, friend and cousin at the helm.

Photos touched up by Serge.

Sailing on a cat circa 1996

And close to La Rochelle, France.
Photo touched up by Serge.

Serge Cleaning Elise

 The cleanest boat this side of the Atlantic.

 

5 hours of hand waxing. She is stunning now.

General Sailing Pictures

Photos purchased from h2shots.com.

Scanned/touched up by Serge

Loic Peyron with disabled sailors - photos Spinnaker Sailing

Testing the generator

Backup power source for offshore racing - it worked great!

Beautiful photos of SF Bay

Ultimate Yachtshots took these great photos

San Francisco

Alcatraz

Raccoon Straights

News on the spreader

Things are looking up - the plate that goes through the mast has been bent back into place - a new one is on order and will be replaced soon.

Some lifeline work

Isn't she beautiful? :)

and it looks like we need some new end fittings.

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 :)

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 ;-)

Team Elise on other boats

 

Serge on Solar Wind

Nathan and Serge on Breakout

(photos Serge)

The Butler organizing transportation for the crew