Sail with Benoit - the boat

Upwind

and downwind

and crosswind

Evening sail with Benoit - Oct 2009

Friday - 4PM, Benoit and I set sail for a leisurely evening sail around the Bay. Winds were moderate (about 15-18 knots on the city front, 22 knots, 16 past the gate and before Benita Pt, down to 0 knot near Angel Island...)

We sailed past the Golden Gate Bridge (thus under), turned around after a mile out or so, set the kite and sailed toward Tiburon, down Raccoon Straits, around Angel Island, Alcatraz, up against the city front and back at the Club, silently gliding on the water by then, past sunset, at around 8/8:30 (Benoit did make his Red Eye flight)

It was so peaceful at night - there was no one else out in the Bay but ferries, tugs and cruise and container ships. We saw seals and sea lions...The city and bridge lights were absolutely stunning and working their mesmerizing magic.

Proud driver!

Wow - what was I not so happy about???

the wine and cheese

of the wine and cheese sail this past saturday

Elise Health Bulletin

Did some maintenance work on Elise this afternoon. Beautiful day for it and no one around.

• fixed broken sheet bag
• replaced broken clip for tiller extension
• hooked up boat hook and oar alongside the starboard quarter berth (previously, they were just sitting on the floor under the berths)
• emptied, cleaned and de-salted (boat soap and hosed off) the inside of the boat
• rinsed off most salty boat items (lifejackets, cushions, lines etc...) and cleaned other interior fixtures (sink, etc...)
• re-packed the 2nd spinnaker
• partially cleaned the bilge
• sanded and spray-painted blue the engine post
• mounted a new way to adjust the backstay from the high side, without having to look back. Will try this. It's very easy to undo
• Fixed a couple of scratches on the gelcoat on the cabin top (apparent fiber glass)
• tried a 'restore the gloss of your gelcoat) in places where the gelcoat is patchy
• applied teak oil/cleaner to all wooden surface
• re-charged the battery
• removed and cleaned uneeded items (stove, glasses, etc...)
• put boat cover on to prepare her for the night

turns out that she might not need a bottom job yet (looks like the anti-fouling paint is still working) and apparently it is normal for paint that is designed to stay in the sun to lose its color. Sounds like it has to do with a high copper content.

As for the kink in the mast, the only solution would be to physically try to bend the mast back. only 40% success rate. It only affects performance, so I will wait for the rig to die of natural causes (hopefully) before I replace the mast. And I need to be careful not to tighten the aft lowers too much and not release the backstay completely to maintain some tension aft. I will probably change the rod before the next big ocean race for Elise.

The 2 of Vallejo 1-2

flying away from the clouds

A seal played around the boat for a few minutes on the delivery trip back from RYC

Hat weather. Must be less than 85 degrees (see heather's fashion statement video)

more photos wine and cheese sail

This is so peaceful. Going out sailing is a great way to medidate. Your thoughts will flow just like wind and water do

There was a race nearby, loads of (beautiful) wooden boats

All photos from all these posts are curtesy of Justin!

full link is at: http://jv.smugmug.com/Sports/Wine-and-Cheese-and-Sailing

Setting up the spinnaker during leisure sail

Saturday wine and cheese sail

Perfect sailing weather! 10 - 15 knots and sun!
Nicolas taking down the small jib looks like

We had no wind past Angel Island, despite our best efforts to stay out of the 'hole'. just as we put the engine on, the wind picked up again. hmm..

Samuel and Nat changing sail (just for fun!)

what's holding the pole?

perfec

t

Things are looking up

Oct 10, First Day of Vallejo 1-2 2009

(map from NOAA)

Map:
1 ~ Start (Berkeley Circle)
2 ~ Finish (Vallejo)
A = Richmond Fuel Dock
B = Pt. San Pablo
C = Pt. Pinole

The Vallejo is a there-and-back pair of races beginning in the vicinity of Berkeley, stopping in Vallejo, and returning to Richmond. Typically, the trip there is downwind and the trip back is upwind. The Berkeley->Vallejo leg is sailed singlehanded, and the trip back optionally double-handed. This year Nathan raced there and Nathan+Nat raced back.

To avoid needless buildup, the result Saturday: DNS (checking in before the start helps...)

The event is run by the Singlehanded Sailing Society, and used a borrowed RYC committee boat for the start at the edge of the Berkeley Circle.

One prep decision which I believe had a slightly adverse effect on speed: I left the engine mounted on the stern, which is a good amount of weight aft. On the other hand, when single-handing, it's hard to get it up and mounted in short order if you get into trouble (no wind and a ship coming or drifting towards rocks) so there's something to be said for having it handy.

Elise was racing one design (6 Express 27's raced) but starting with the sportboat division. The race being singlehanded, the committee set a very generous starting line. Further, unlike the full crew Vallejo race there is no initial turning mark to guarantee an initial upwind leg. The wind was pretty much at right angles to the start line (the line being set perpendicular to the first leg).

I was at the favored (towards the Golden Gate) end of the line but not right on it as the gun went off. It was definitely a reasonable start, though- preferable to being down the line. The wind angle didn't initially justify a kite and the breeze wasn't all that strong, so everyone was pretty much under #1's. Manueverability without a crew being impaired, it was mostly a timed start with everyone picking a lane and then just trimming up with a minute or minute thirty to go. Elise crossed the line a little behind Wetsu (Phil K) and ahead of Taz (George L).

After the start, Elise and Wetsu (Phil K) stayed quite high and were the first to set kites. Phil hung in at a very tight angle, while I sagged off towards the shore for best speed. I also didn't mind the idea of being relatively close to the shore for current relief. The fleet split a bit between people out in the center of the bay (I expect for better breeze and the current relief downstream of Red Rock) while some of us headed down low towards the Richmond shore.

Elise's autopilot had only just been tested a few days previously after some very slow repairs following the 2008 Pacific Cup (not major, just near the bottom of the todo list). It holds course for a little while but doesn't respond very effectively to things like puffs (which should be correctable with some calibration). During the race, it hurt speed and heading a bit to leave the helm for extended tasks such as sail changes but a quick break to trim jib or adjust the spinnaker wasn't a problem.

As we reached the Richmond fuel dock (the area nearby being restricted), Elise and Moxie (Jason) were fairly close with Moxie leading. In a recurring theme for the day, I was adjusting sail trim and spinnaker pole more frequently than the other E27's within view. Sometimes that was helpful, while sometimes the "quiet and smooth" approach seemed to be better- in the light breeze, shifting weight around to reach lines and then making changes to trim can dump wind out of the sails and hurt speed.
This was a low point in the race for Elise, position-wise: being a little bit off the pace left her with the back of the fleet, boat for boat.

Elise sailed fairly close up the restricted area with a couple of other boats to get as far out of the channel as possible. The wind angles were slightly tighter here. Upon reaching the bridge, I went fairly hard to the right towards the shoreline and disused docks between the Richmond Bridge and Pt. San Pablo. There was good current relief there but slightly less wind, and I traded positions with Moxie several times weaving back and forth- up for speed, back down to get out of the current.

There were a couple of other boats doing the same thing, such as Ben Mewes in his Black Soo, Mirage. Others chose to stay in the center. For most of the leg, it was a losing move, but as you near the Brothers (pair of islands near Pt. San Pablo with a lighthouse on one) there's some relief and even a bit of countercurrent. I think the best move is to know exactly when to change lanes from right to left, but in this case most people picked one or the other. At the end, some apparent gains were quickly erased as the group on the left zipped around the corner.

Upon entry into San Pablo Bay, the next decision comes up: the water to the right (shore side) is relatively shallow with less current. Elise picked a course to the right but not an extreme one. Wetsu, for example, was significantly further right. Great White (Rachel) and Diane (Steve) also came back a bit so that most of the Expresses were competing more on boatspeed than position.

I was quite satisfied with Elise's boatspeed during this section of the race (Pt. San Pablo to Pt. Pinole), gaining back significant ground against Dianne and Great White. At Pinole, I lost a bit maneuvering.

Phil broke hard left first, to get to the other side of the bay. In retrospect, he seemed unhappy with the decision.

The current didn't seem very bad, so Elise stayed moderately right but didn't sail significant extra distance to hug the shore (as one or two others did). The E27's having started to split up left and right again, it was a slotcars situation for a while: you'd picked the lane and now lived with the consequences, coaxing whatever speed you could get out of the boat.

Toward the end of the leg, Elise was leading Wetsu and Taz while trailing Diane, Great White, and Moxie.

As I reached the corner to turn and head for Vallejo, two more decisions were tested. Almost always, the wind direction changes from a deep spinnaker run to a tight reach or upwind leg as you enter the strait between Mare Island and Vallejo. The choice of jib had been made well before: I had stayed with the #1 rather than change down to a #3 during the long downwind. A significant stiffening of the breeze would have punished me harshly (no weight on the rail and an oversized genoa is not a fast way to sail a light boat). I also held the spinnaker around the corner and for several minutes after (though I'd seen the other boats rounding dousing as they got close). Keeping up the kite up as long as possible definitely paid off. Phil kept it up for a little longer than I did, but in the net I think my timing was pretty close to ideal.

The trip up the channel was mostly a match race between Wetsu and Elise: the leaders were too far ahead to catch and we had enough of a lead on Taz to not let her govern our decisions. Phil initially tried working up but Elise was able to stay ahead. My main worry was the shoreline and in particular the "Artship" (ex Golden Bear), which is moored on Mare Island and creates a massive wind shadow. As we got close and I could start to feel the hole, I started to bear off a little to concentrate on boatspeed rather than position. Elise was then able to stay ahead the boatspeed race to the finish. The finish line was the entire channel (sighted from the race deck through a pole on the breakwater) so there weren't any possibilities for action at the pin. Finish position, 4/6.

It was a fun race and a great day, but refer back to the punchline: checking in before the start makes for much better points.

Practice Day and the Pirates of the East Bay

Nice practice day in probably 25 knots of wind, with 30 knot gusts in the Bay a couple of weeks ago. We sailed past the Bay Bridge to get lighter air for spinnaker/jibing practice. Andy got to do some foredeck work as desired, Andrew and Juan worked trim, Heather did some driving and coached Andy at the bow.

It was a pretty comprehensive day: heavy weather and lighter winds, both tack/upwind and jibe/downwind work, tried repairs underway (a cotter ring decided to break free from the boom pin at the gooseneck, fortunately, the friction from the sail was keeping the boom in place), taking a reef in and shaking it off, etc...Really cool.

Everything was going OK until we met the renowned Pirates of the East Bay. They punched me in the jaw and I carried their bruise colors for over a week ;-) They pushed Heather and caused her to fall in the cockpit, they forced us into a couple of crash tacks which landed Juan, Andrew and Andy in the water up to waist level. We finally broke free and got home just fine ;-)

Not everyone was that lucky as you can see from the table above and the number of deadmen listed on each boat.

ps: Pirates of the East Bay are also known as 'unlucky mishaps or mistakes'

A little embarrassing

When sailing on Lorelei downwind in maybe 8 - 10 knots of wind, I had the following conversation

- Kevin (driving) - there's a bunch of sea kayaks
- me (snoozing) - well, so long as they are not faster than we are, we're cool
- Kevin - actually, they're overtaking us

Kayaker: and you guys are not even hard to catch up

Heather - she is a CRUISING boat Nat, a Comfortable Stable Cruising boat

Long PAc - boat trying to catch up with us

Long Pac - Safety Talk

Long Pac - setting up spinnaker

Faster than the wind

Long Pac Heather's Fashion Statement

LongPac Fashion Statement

Long Pac Prep Video

Heather has just renamed Lorelei

Heather getting ready to christen Lorelei

Lorelei's Trip Home - Sept 2009

Enjoying a much deserved Thai dinner post delivery
Lorelei is home!!
Captain Heather!
We were figuring out how to put the boom, vang and various other sailing devices in place ;-)

Kevin, Jeff and Heather drinking apple cider - Lorelei had first class champagne :-)



Getting ready to christen the boat




With Heather, Kevin and Jeff

Update on Elise's health

• New race #3 is ready for pick up
• Outside wood work is mostly done (2 coatings for now, we'll see this weekend if we need a third)
• First coat of teak oil on the settee
• Replaced broken masthead fly (yet another one...)
• Fixed loose instrument connection
• Replaced CO2 cartridge for my offshore lifejacket
• Serviced the winches
• And in the process of changing some worn out cam cleats

Out on Red Sky for Southern Cross

Brian spent a lot of his time playing around with his new toy: the RADAR, discovering an hitherto hidden universe of ships and tugs.

No wind outside the gate, the usual acceleration coming into the gate. Two jibes, a short spinnaker ride. Only one of 3 finishers in our division, we placed 2nd and didn't get back to the dock until 10PM!

Got a sunburnt nose out of the trip ;-) shouldn't have taken a nap with my nose facing the sky

How to choose crew for a long distance race

My humble tips

• someone you get along with
• someone you trust and who trusts you
  
• someone who is willing to spend time working on the boat with you, so that this person gets to know the boat very well. If something needs to get fixed or if something happens to you (say you're seasick), you want this person to know the boat as well as you do
  
• someone who is handy/engineer-minded (even before being a sailor), both mechanical and electrical/electronic style jobs
  
• someone you have taken on a somewhat long trip before, ideally overnighter, so they get a feel for what it's like and don't decide they want to head back 10 miles into the race. That's partly what qualifying trips help you with
  
• If you have to choose, favor safety (ability to fix things, and navigate the boat safely, even if not competitively) over sailing performance. If you can get both, awesome!
• Someone who share the same objective as you do - or if not, make sure it is out in the open and OK by both parties. If you want to race for blood, you may not be happy with a crew member who just wants to go out and do some whale watching.
  

Elise's performance a little compromised

At the Nationals, a few things impacted Elise's performance. First, Heather and I had taken out of the boat everything we could after our 24 mile qualifying run for the Long Pac. Unfortunately, Heather's car wasn't as big as we had originally thought and a lot was left on the boat. Over the course of the Nationals, much had yet to be taken out of the boat to give it a competitive weight. Weight in a one design race is particularly unforgiving.

Then, there is a problem with Elise's rig - which primarily affects performance - that was spotted by our rigger, Jason. It looks like the mast is slightly bent, probably a result of the aft lowers being too tight at some point with the backstay released. The rigger has since seen 3 other Expresses with the same problem. He has discussed this with Buzz Ballenger who has made a lot of these rigs and both have alerted the fleet to this problem, since all the boats looked at tuning numbers from the E27 website. Those are correct I guess if you don't plan on releasing the backstay...

This means that Elise is slower. The solution (other than waiting for the rig to die of natural causes) is to try to physically unbend it. Unfortunately this was met with a less than 50% success rate on Ballenger's benches. So probably best to live with a slight loss in performance, most noticed upwind and in one design races.

Other than that - and these are not excuses, but when things are not as good as they can be, I find it helpful to understand why so I can take action and correct whatever can be corrected. Also helps me figure out what is likely to yield best results hence probably something I can focus on first. Based on discussions with other winning boats at the Nationals, here are a few hypothesis and things we can try:

• Weight (already discussed and most of it was due to bad timing)
• regular crew and regular practice: this helps loads as maneuvres happen faster, smoother and crew stays fresh longer!
  
• think about dedicating a main trimmer (as opposed to having the driver do it)
• think about rigging the backstay so it can be adjusted by the main trimmer
• don't worry about slamming into the waves (the other methods is to have the bow come down slightly with the wave but it increases distance sailed)
• don't worry about pointing too much, focus on increasing boat speed
• good sails (in our case, #3 needs to be changed)
• practice starts - to get clean air/good position. A lot of the race will depend on your start assuming mighty competition

The boat will definitely be lighter. We can try to see if a dedicated main trimmer would help ( downside would be that the trim won't happen as fast as the driver might be best able to feel the need for a small change). Elise is getting a new blade. And this season, we will focus on building and training regular crew, and find races for a full crew to have a lot of fun.

Long Overdue Post -Nationals Photos

Credit goes to Ralph Deeds

Day 1

http://picasaweb.google.com/ralphdeeds/Express27Nationals2009Day1SantaCruzYCDeedsphotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCIu966exgtz6kAE&feat=email#

Day 2

http://picasaweb.google.com/ralphdeeds/Express27Nationals2009Day2SantaCruzYCDeedsphotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCILo_IHU3_OJew&feat=email#


Day 3

http://picasaweb.google.com/ralphdeeds/Express27Nationals2009SantaCruzYCDay3Deedsphotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-Z-J6tm-HA9AE&feat=email#

Broken Rudder

After the rudder broke, we tried to keep sailing the boat under sail - after reflection and since Patrick has an inboard engine, it would have been much simpler to start the engine and drop the sails. We called the Coastguard because we were drifting into a shipping channel, just to let them know then proceeded to see if we could hail a boat to get a tow back to a near harbor/dock.

 

 

Patrick's Boat

 

 

 

 

Sarcoma Cup 2009 on the water photos

Available at photo.beatsarcoma.org