AdMob Sailing Offsite - Zubair's Photos

Nat, Patrick and Sharif

Team Great White

Team Great White

Demon of the South Tower

The afternoon got really really sunny...don't think it was such a gloomy day!

This is also Team Elise...

Admob Sailing Offsite - Sharif's photos

Great White under the bridge

Great White under the bridge

Seth, Anuj and Zubair

Nat and Patrick

This was Team Elise

AdMob Sailing Offsite

4 Express 27s:

• Ergo (with Chris and Belle)
• Great White (with JP and Deb)
• Wetsu (with Phil and Jim)
• Elise (with Nat and Patrick)

A bunch of AdMosters (from www.admob.com)

A day of sailing on San Francisco Bay. We had spare foul weather gear and spare sailing gloves for the AdMosters. The AdMosters brought food and drinks to the boat.

We first went out the gate on a sailing clinic. Night light/foggy morning. Back under spinnaker

Lunch at the St Francis YC

Out racing in 25 knots gusting 30. Spinnakers up

Start line in front of the Golden Gate Yacht Club

First upwind mark was 'A' in front of St Francis YC. Starboard rounding

Then to Alcatraz, leave to starboard (under spinnaker)

Then to Blossom Rock, starboard rounding

Then back up to Golden Gate YC in heavy flood

Elise won...

couple of enhancements made to Elise

• Backstay can now be adjusted from either the back or the mainsheet post
• The twings attach point to the deck has been moved forward
• The interior lights work again...
• The steaming light has been disconnected from the GPS...(and has yet to be reconnected)
• The little hole through which the mast wires get into the boat is now sealed off
• The old (now just for cruising) mainsail now fits perfectly inside the mast...and through the pre-feeder
• Elise also has a new hot knife

Elise Crew Dinner for 2009 Season!!

Patrick is missing but this was Elise's regular crew!

Thanks Nathan, Roger and Mark for all the fun!

Training w/ Dan

On Sunday afternoon, on a fabulous 15 knot-sunny day (that would be about 25 knots at the Gate), Heather, Nathan, Nicolas and I went out on a practice run w/ Dan from Wile E. Coyote (a boat we usually admire the back of)

Interesting learning for us and things to work on

Start: also a proponent of just getting clean air and not start at the favored end of the line (where a big moving wall of bad air will be waiting for us). This makes it easier to also time the start (there should be way fewer boats at the other end, or kind of in the middle of the line). We mainly talked about it (we'll practice when there are other boats on the line I guess...)

• have one crew dedicated to counting down time
• have one crew dedicated to traffic and measuring distance to the line (particularly in strong current)

Upwind: very similar lesson as Jason's (about keeping the boat flat). A few extra tips and changes that we will do:

• have the crew call for puffs (and have the main sheet out of the cleat so the main can be released effortlessly when the puff hits)
• if the boat is not in the groove yet, head down, release the main, get the boat speed up and then slowly work on pointing
• make it easier to pull in the outhaul (maybe add mechanical aid)
• replicate the same purchase ratio below deck for the backstay so it can be adjusted from the main sheet post directly by the driver
• feed more croissants to the crew to increase weight on the rail before each rail, we're usually 50 pounds below legal limit
• Loosen the lifelines to the legal limit
• Tighten up the aft lowers (although Elise will generally be dynamically tuned anyway)
• Install a repeater for boat speed up on the mast, with big bold letters

Downwind:

• Launch from the hatch (already doing that now)
• Bring the twings further forward - and not worry as much about the downhaul
• play the sheet much more than the guy during jibes
• have one person on the sheet and one person on the guy during jibes
• have a person helping the bowperson for takedowns in heavier winds if necessary (particularly leeward douse)
• actively manage weight downwind
• actively manage pole tip (spinnaker wanted to fly a lot higher this time around)

Mark Rounding:

• have a crew bring in 90% of the main during the mark rounding (another crew is actively bringing in the jib) and 1 is at the bow cleaning things up, 1 is up on the rail and the driver is pointing the boat up and will finish the main trim

General Boat Speed:

• Sand the bottom a bit better
• See if there is anything that we can still take off the boat (took a lot of stuff off already though) when we go buoy racing

Bottom line in terms of short-term todos on the boat

1. backstay below deck purchase change (and range so we can adjust the exact same way as we would above deck)
2. add mechanical advantage to the outhaul adjustment
3. move twings forward
4. tighten up aft lowers as we go into heavy air season
5. decouple steaming light from GPS below...
6. add boat speed repeater on the mast
7. replace taktik
8. sand bottom

Any takers??? ;-)

Elise Health Bulletin

Just a quick update - Elise does not have the temporary padeye that Nathan had fixed on the cabin top during Pac Cup 2008, and the openings are now sealed with some solid 5200.

We also put some 5200 on a small leak (not structural) along the motor mount insert.

We also realized that the hot knife is toast...and needs to be replaced (pun intended...) and we diagnosed that the deck nav lights were not working b/c of a small corrosion issue (as opposed to a light bulb issue, corrosion affects the connection quality)

Crewed Lightship - 201

Saturday was the crewed lightship - the crew: Tom (trim 2/foredeck), Mark (trim), Heather (foredeck/trim 2), Pete (pit) and Nat (helm) - very light winds (from 2 to about 7 knots all the way, except near the gate (topped 16 knots at some point) for the last 10 minutes of the race.

It looks like we could have cut off on distance a little but after we rounded the mark and shave a few minutes. Although, we would have been unable to keep a hot angle without a lot more jibes and zigzag, so 100% sure it would have been a better trace. We played the currents heavily, particularly because there was no wind, so we stayed in the middle of the channel on the way out and on the way back.

The start was the weirdest thing. The flag didn't seem to agree with the horn. We weren't the only ones confused. Everyone was looking at everyone else effectively saying 'are you in our start, I think you are in our start, are we starting yet?' Even after boats at crossed the line, everyone was still looking around to make sure that everyone else had started. We didn't hear any recall on the radio so we kept going.

The divisions were a bit weird. We were in the same division as super fast boats...the two synergy's were on the same start. Hard to beat those!

On the upwind, the forecast indicated that the wind would stay pretty much, and if anything move to SW (a few minutes before the start), so we decided not to go too far North of the course. That was our big bet of the day. Looking around, it doesn't look like we had less wind than the other boats on average, although at times, we could see boats move and we never really got the push they did.

Pete actively shifting his weight around to keep the boat at a roughly 10% angle. At times, we went over to 15% when it was so light that the sails would become floppy and we really needed the weight on the leeward side.

A couple of times, I felt that boat speed was kind of low, probably my fault, mostly when the wind was very floppy and kept changing direction by over 10%. I may have been too slow to react. We actively moved weight around which I think made a BIG difference. We are less than 10 min behind the other Express (which probably had a 45 second lead at the start to begin with) which isn't so bad after 24 miles and a new crew.

And apparently, I eat in a specific order: carrots first, sometimes fruit, then almonds and other related nut products, then my sandwich, then some kind of dessert. Never paid attention to that...

What we did well:

- maneuvres: all of our tacks were real smooth - and we kept the spinnaker full on jibes. We even jibed right under the bridge in a tactical maneuvre and we made it no problem.

- sail trim, particularly on the upwind - out telltales were flying horizontal the whole time. We tried playing with the traveler and the various mainsail control (less outhaul/less cunningham when it was really really light) to shape the sail better and we monitored boat speed to see whether what we were doing helped at all.

- current management: we tacked or jibed right before bad current lines.

What we could have done better

- start (although we weren't the only boat confused by the discrepancy between the flags and the horn)

- driving (especially in the really fluky winds) - particularly expensive in light winds as dropping half a knot in speed could mean a reduction in 50% of boat speed!

- course? (not entirely sure what would have been a better course, would be great to see what the winning boats picked)

6 out of 9 on corrected time.

Would love to hear others' thoughts on what we could have done differently and on what we can take into our next event. Was a nice cruise I guess ;-)

Elise's new scarf :-)

Thank you Nathan!!!

Double-Handed Lightship

Not quite sure what went wrong with this race...Late start but we were one of the first boats to host the spinnaker (Yes! on the way out!!), slowly catching up to boats. We tacked away from the North shore (and the no wind area) and kept going where the wind seemed to be, kicking ass.

The wind then started to drop and we weren't sure whether it would pick up from the North West as planned or not. It seemed to be taking forever and wouldn't want to just fill from the right direction. looking at the boat further North, there didn't seem to be any wind on that side of the course.

We narrowly avoided a ship (we were well clear and out of the channel, just impressive to be so close to a big tanker) but that didn't really take us off course.

We had a few minutes of dueling with Diane, and then for some reason seems to just be stuck in the same place for 20 minutes...Not going anywhere and no breeze in heavy swell was a little 'barfy' (Nathan's description but my experience) - things were fine again as soon as the boat started moving again. By then, though, we had lost 20 minutes. I am still not sure where those went. We were further South than a lot of boats by then (part of it was our bet, the other part was kind of bad timing) so this can explain the discrepancy between us and other boats.

However, there is no reason why we fell behind Diane and Witchy Woman that I can find! Maybe just a bad day...or just losing concentration. Or again, feeling so elated that we kind of lost track of the race? Not sure.

We had a really nice downwind, kissed the South shore up until the bridge (to benefit from favorable current) , and Witchy Woman went the other way at that point, despite them having to cross the channel, in heavy ebb, they were still faster than we were and beat us to the finish.

Don't let this post mislead you - disappointed by the finish because we started strong and can totally do better. I have this nagging feeling that it is something that I did that kind of made us take a turn for the worse...but I can't pinpoint it. So apologies Nathan!

The fact that we could keep the spinnaker full nearly 1/3 of the way up to the lightship and then all the way down to the finish, surfing up and passing much larger boats was so much fun, that I even forgot that I hadn't had lunch...It was kind of a mini-Pac Cup. The waves were just perfect for the day. Overall, I had a great time and I wouldn't have traded that day for anything in the world.

France forges ahead

A little duel with Witchy Woman I think

Things were looking up at that time...

Purchased from Lyons Imaging (www.lyonsimaging.com)

Big Daddy 2010 photos

Nice downwind on Racoon Straights, back to Richmond YC. Nice job guys.

Photos purchased from Lyons Imaging (www.lyonsimaging.com)

More Spring Keel Photos

We had some really good speed upwind, and very smooth legs - we did two things wrong in the first day and everything else right (as in really good)

1) Tacks (very slow and cumbersome, but it was new crew, so needed to share things out a bit)

2) Calling lines and current management, particularly close to the mark: after THREE attempts at making the windward mark, we finally rounded...we were in the first half of the fleet initially getting there, one before last after rounding...quite exasperating!

I did not make it easy for the boat as our tactician had called lines just fine on the first mark rounding, but I turned way too early, causing us to miss the mark. I can't quite remember what I was thinking, maybe that I needed to work more on my right side tan.

So I would say that we can improve our performance by

1) doing more crew practice and more races with the same regular crew (there was nothing in what happened that cannot easily be fixed by practice, everyone was great)

2) have the driver better listen to the tactician as opposed to making random unilateral decision and stay focused focused focused on boat speed at all times.

3) practice on estimating currents' impact on boat direction, etc...and better calling the marks

Our starts were that bad on the first day (worst was 5 seconds late to the line, which we made up because we had clean air and really good boat speed upwind)

The second day, with the #3 jib up, our tacks were much smoother already - and we had a few bad tactical calls too - one race, we ended up on the wrong side of the course - and a couple of poor mark roundings (leeward gates). So overall, we did not do very well, but most of it was around mark roundings and boat handling on the second day. Boat speed was still great, both upwind and downwind, we were actually passing boats on both sides.

We had good speed downwind, and did play currents well, we actually did pass boats on both upwind and downwind legs, and lost our advantage rounding the marks and calling currents at the marks on the second day, and pretty much tacking and rounding the windward mark on the first day.

Overall, it is pretty disappointing if you just look at this race. And it is soooo tempting to do that (I am guilty of that!)

However, the reason why I have told all the Beethovens to work on a 2-year plan with Elise is so that we don't have to look at one race's individual results. Every race, we have a goal and this is what we are focusing on improving. We can take risks and better ourselves. It isn't practice in that we will do everything we can to maximize our changes to be in a good place, but we will be satisfied if we meet our goal, just an improvement over last time.

Also, because it takes at least a season to train new crew, and so we are hoping to reap the benefits of this in the second year. Elise had only 4 or 5 regular crew last season, and most of these people could not make every race. High crew turnover was definitely hurting our round-the-buoy performance.

There may also have been a 'oh my God, I cant believe we are kicking ass right now and this is our first upwind legs, we just pass 4 boats and we are seriously keeping up and pointing just as high as the top boats'. By the time, we think that, (or well, I think that), my attention is taken away from what I should focus on: boat speed - and perhaps our tactician's attention on what he should focus on: calling the lines.

After the practice with Moxie Man, our goal was to increase upwind boat speed (downwind was never a problem for Elise) AND starts. We didn't have great starts, but we didn't have really bad ones - I would say we had 75% of good starts over the weekend. We stayed out of the way of boats, focused on clean air and boat speed, even if we were sacrificing distance away from the favored end of the line. So from that perspective, we did well.

One other key to winning in my opinion is consistency. We can't just have random bad and good starts. 99% of our starts need to be B+ at least, so that our average moves up.

We will go into the next race without feeling stressed or pressured and will just do our best.

Purchased from H20shots (Camera at Large) - www.h2oshots.com

Spring Keel 2010 Photos

The Spring Keel crew: Nathan, Andrew, Nat, Suzanne and Steve!

Purchased from Lyons Imaging (www.lyonsimaging.com)

Erik - didn't you take photos on that day too??

Big Daddy - Message from Mark

"geez, thanks for a great day Elise! and I really enjoyed the new company, Belle and Suzanne whom I had never sailed with before.

Not sure on the results yet, but we had a great finish. The downwind leg was well thought-out, well-executed, and resulted in a great opportunity at the finish line that Nathan aggressively took advantage of. Bravo.

I thought our upwind leg to Alcatraz was good, and on the run to Angel Is we certainly picked up a few boatlengths. We cut it a bit too close on the approach to Alcatraz (bad communication) and then went a bit too wide as we
rounded (my bad) but neither cost us much. Other than that, our only big mistake was a bad start, and a lot of that can be blamed on the DELAY, the wind and the committee boat, but of course the final answer is to BE MORE
PREPARED.

Andrew had a great first race on foredeck!"

Pretty cool site

http://www.sail-the-net.com/translate/parts-of-a-boat-translation.html

Berkeley Yacht Club will be hosting the 2010 Sarcoma Cup

From the Sarcoma Cup Regatta Chair -

Howdy Sailors –

In our continuing efforts to provide you with the best possible regatta experience, and after months of top secret meetings with deep-pocketed sponsors, interviewing prospective host yacht clubs, carefully reviewing their extensive application forms, and performing thorough background checks, we have finally reached a decision. Our complex application scoring process heavily weighted kick-ass sailing, parties that would be illegal in most states, and dedication to this charity cause. One applicant towered above the rest…

…those wild and crazy folks at the Berkeley Yacht Club will be hosting the 2010 Sarcoma Cup !!! Congratulations BYC !!

Unfortunately, we are still sworn to secrecy on some of the event’s details. You may have heard rumors about special appearances by some of the SI swimsuit models at this year’s Sarcoma Cup. At this time I can neither confirm or deny these rumors. As soon as we can declassify the rest of the event details we will be making further announcements. Stay tuned.

So, far the following fleets have committed to the event and have it on their calendar:

J105

Express 27

Wabbit

Alerion 28

Open 5.70

Viper 640

Santana 22s (Sunday)

So, if your fleet is not on this list, now’s the time to fix that J. Do your sailing friends a favor and pass this email on.

We will also be posting updates at http://www.sarcomacup.org/

Cheers,

Mark Lowry

2010 Sarcoma Cup Regatta Co-chair

Practice with Moxie Man

Sunday was practice day on Elise -

Mark, Heather and Nat (coach) did a Double-Handed practice, primarily around the mechanics (transforming things that happen in parallel during full crewed events into a sequence of events when short-handed), I will let Heather and Mark comment on that one.

In the afternoon, the Beethovens Mark, Andy, Heather, Nathan and Nat went on a racing practice with the skipper of Moxie (top of the E27 class) - and learned a TON of stuff.

1. we practiced starts (where to be with respect to the line when, how to work with the bowperson to count down the distance to the line, when to jybe Vs tack during the sequence, how to hit the line w/ speed, etc...) - out of 6 or 7 starts, we hit 4 or so really well, one was 5 seconds late and one was on time but not with full speed. Our strategy going forward will be to actually take a quiet portion of the line, say 1/3 down, or through the middle of the line - not because it is the best location on the line but because given our level of skills on the start line in such a competitive fleets, we want to favor a) clean air and b) complete control of when we hit the line. So we don't want to have to worry about other boats around us. It'll just be us and the line and our goal every time will be to cross the line right on the mark fully powered up.
2. we practice upwind boatspeed (and discussed a better way to run the backstay so it can be adjusted entirely from the traveler post) - in 15 knots of wind or so. We managed to keep the boat nicely flat, slightly pinching, keeping her in a very narrow groove, not moving the tiller very much, using loads of outhaul/cunningham and playing the backstay a lot - focusing on the head sail and releasing the main in big puffs. Having a full crew hiking out hard and the driver's butt on the toe rail made a huge difference. Overall, in these moderate wind, the boat felt like it was just nicely trotting around. Very relaxing.
3. we practice jibes - and we will make a couple of changes to the way we handle things. 1) always launch from the forward hatch when on the Bay and use the shackle to keep the spin halyard out of the way of the jib (the part is actually planned for that purpose, but we have rarely used it). Saves repacking, minimize weight on the foredeck during setup. Just needs to prepare this ahead of time. Nice tip during a jibe for the driver: follow the spinnaker, eg point the bow at the middle of the sail at all times to keep it full. Finally, making sure to gather the foot of the spinnaker (eg blow the guy and release the sheet), before releasing the halyard which can then be done at a leisurely pace.

We talked about reducing the purchase on the main sheet in light air so I can bring in the sail faster.

Couple more tips: when rounding the mark, just point the boat upwind, then worry about taking in the sails as quickly as possible.

Try cross-sheeting (but practice first as otherwise, you can end up in a real line mess)

The bag that we are now using in the companionway for the halyards is really helping keep the cockpit clear of line and is making our tacks nicer. We practice one-person tacks w/ the #3, much nicer weight-wise...and a slight depowering of the main during the tack to allow for a smoother maneuvre.

We talked about avoiding to come down on the wrong side of the wave (to keep the boat flat) and give the tiller a slight push as the boat gets on the crest. We will also make sure that the instruments just display boat speed during buoy racing, in big big numbers. We don't actually need to see the compass reading at all times...We can check wind speed occasionally if we have to make sail change choices, although typically.

Elise has hanks (a safe choice for the Ocean, if you are short-handed and you just want to drop your sail, you just drop the sail, it won't be going anywhere and will fall on deck, worst case, it'll get a little wet) which can make foredeck maneuvres faster at mark roundings. However, it forces us to make the right sail choice for an entire upwind (as we can't put up a sail through the second track)

Not very ordered I admit - but this was SO helpful. And we now have our plate full of things to practice and focus on this season. And we have a strong regular crew. It will take time, but commitment makes a huge difference :-)

Thanks Jason!

Berkeley and CYC Midwinters Photosd

The Race Committee at the Pin end of the line... ;-)

Beautiful shot of CYC Midwinters

Elise clearly doesn't want to be mixed up with the crowd...

Great photo of a start at the Berkeley Midwinters -
Purchased from Lyons Imaging

Elise Traveler Car

Needs some re-adjusting...the plastic/bearing just exploded on the last practice...Sounds impressive but it's no real big deal, if you just want to sail. Massive problem if you want to race.

She'll have a nice new system actually attached to the traveler track for the Spring Keel...

More Berkeley Midwinters

On the way to the race course - did Heather get some dust in her eye??

Pete and Andy, human masts

Happy Andy!

More Midwinter pictures

Nathan playing w/ something...

Cookies, Pete, Heather and Mark apparently holding up the phone

Nathan and cookies
self-portrait :-)

From the same camera! Thanks Mark!

Last Berkeley Midwinters - photo shoot #1

Nathan
Mark and Nathan

Happy Pete
Heather

Courtesy of Mark (or rather, of his cell phone)

Race Committee with Sarcoma Cup PRO at RYC midwinters

I was on the El Toro course (no Optis on that day) on the Committee Boat - I would recommend doing some race committee work. You learn how tricky it can be to ensure a square start line, the beauty of flag codes, how to sight finishes (with 2 or 3 people so you can compare notes) and if you do this w/ a very seasoned PRO you learn a ton of tactics tips as you typically have a running commentary of the race. It is SO helpful.

Health Bulletin

Elise's jib track is extended so the #3 should be trimmed really nicely now -and Elise got a new tiller!

She's ready for prime time :-)

Elise's new mast maiden voyage

Belle, Suzanne, Pete and his mom and I took Elise out for her new mast's maiden voyage. Picked up a couple of things that still need to be fixed, but overall, looking pretty good!

Mast is up and new clutch is available. We put up the new mainsail which goes up and down like a charm (better than the old one which incurred a lot of friction) - the new mast stayed up which is a relief obviously.

The boat was static tuned for light air and as the breeze was becoming heavier and heavier, we decided to head back to the Club. Backstay felt really tight and I wonder if there is enough play in it. Will discuss with the rigger. We also noticed that the cam cleat on the side of the mast which we use to cleat off the spinnaker halyard when we race around the Bay was missing.

A couple of other minor things were discovered - and this week, the following will get done:

• dynamic tune the boat (incl. for heavier/stormy weather)
• add cam cleat (otherwise, no biggy, we can run the halyard back)
• replace tiller (the current one is starting to crack itself loose...)
• extend jib car track forward by a couple of inches
• connect tri-color to the connector box

and she'll be all ready to sail!!!

Then a couple more projects on the list -

• fix emergency nav light (deck level, for some reason, they don't light up anymore. Either a bulb change, or a loose/corroded connection somewhere probably)
• Change a flush Harken block used by the Vang line
• add stereo system (it will be nice to have this for Vallejo)
• re-paint deck (it's becoming very see-through)

Photo of Elise's new main courtesy of Belle!

Elise Update

Elise couldn't do the 3-bridge. A block was missing for the backstay...Bummer as there were 27 E27s on the line!!!!!!!!! AND wind!!! AND sun. Triple bummer...

At least, we did get a good day's work today (and this week with professional help)

Pro help

• Elise mast is up and lines are run through the mast, also got new chainplates
• New halyards/topping lift delivered
• Fiber glass dent is patched up
• New mast already has autopilot windvane + masthead fly + VHF antenna rigged up + ocean tri-color
• New mast also has a steaming light to be perfectly legal...

Beethovens' help [thank you Heather, Pete, Nicolas, Andy and Nathan]

• Boom is up and new pin was purchased
• Lifeline swapped so now it's Bay height
• Teak oiled settees
• Changed 2 base corners for the cooler
• Ran halyards/vang/lines, etc....back + added shackles
• Changed bungees at the bow
• Removed clutch and poured epoxy (ready for a drill/change to new clutch)
• Cleaned bilge
• Swapped battery (to a charged one)
• Took picture of old cruising main => coat room for repair
• Picked up and loaded new cruising main
• Checked and flaked racing #3
• Changed lines for boat cover
• Fixed cup holder
• Added storage solutions (2 mesh bags) + 1 gear hammock + a cool gear bag
• Removed a lot of crap from the boat that needs to dry out
• Serviced port winch (keeps freezing up with salt, might have to replace it soon)
• New emergency VHF is on
• Found fitting power cord for the stereo

What needs to be done this week

• Backstay
• Static tune rig
• Connect electrical wires from mast
• Permanently fix fiber glass
• Extend forward jib car track by a couple of inches

Then next personal project is to add the stereo...

Another cool photo from the Sarcoma Cup '09

Three Bridge Fiasco Forecasted Currents

http://www.examiner.com/x-3070-SF-Sailing-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Three-Bridge-Fiasco-forecasted-currents

Photos from the Sarcoma Cup '09

Sorry! A little late - I wasn't on the water, so I will let Nathan comment. Nice job guys!

Photos of the Sarcoma Cup on the Water are available for only $6 each (low-res download) at:

http://photo.beatsarcoma.org/Events/Sarcoma-Cup-Sunday-On-The/9400515_gdpxV#632484052_y6Jb5

They are also in the BeatSarcoma and Sarcoma Cup '09 calendars:

http://www.cafepress.com/BeatSarcomaPlus?s=BeatSarcomaPlus&type=75

oopsie - the spinnaker tore at that time! Thank God for the overnight service North Sails provided!
Great photo - you can see the tear in the spinnaker. Top left corner

Duel!
August sailing on San Francisco Bay - no, not Greenland.

Photos purchased from Photo.beatsarcoma.org. 100% of the proceeds will go to sarcoma research.

Photos were taken by Lyons Imaging, h20shots and norcalsailing.com

Guest Post - Benoit

Re: Sail with Benoit post

What a day! I'd arrived on Tuesday and had dinner with Nathalie, worked 3 days with my colleagues in the Bay area, and before taking the red-eye home to Indiana I was to sail on Elise that Saturday afternoon. I spent the morning at Alcatraz, chatting with a Quebecois in our native language, checking out the famous hole in the prison cell, and admiring the rugged sights and cityscape outside. That was one sunny day, I was lucky.

We were to meet around 3 pm at the boat, so I did not have much time when I landed from the Alcatraz ferry. Before flying to SFO, I'd splurged and taken T-Mobile's offer for their free trial of the data plan, so there I was with a phone in my hand and Google maps running on it, and since it did not have a GPS I still had to locate my exact position on the map and work from there. Nonetheless this was a great help when it came to finding a grocery store to buy a portable dinner for this evening on the boat. Walking to the Marina, I took in all the sights - Fort Mason, then all the richly decorated, impeccably maintained homes and buildings on Cervantes Blvd and Marina Blvd. As I was walking on the latter and looking at the homes facing the Bay, I had this strange feeling - this really, really reminds me of somewhere, but where? Was that Belgium, or was that... right here 20 years ago? After a few minutes of superimposing my memories and the scenery, I came to the conclusion that yes I had walked this exact same path 20 years earlier with the person I now called my wife, on our way to crossing the bridge by foot one way, and in the back of a police car the other way.

After an hour I was in the vicinity of Elise but there's really several Marinas and buildings there so I had to call Nathalie and describe to her what I was seeing so that she could let me know that no, the Harbor Office on Marina Green Dr was not the right place, and I had to continue walking for another 20 minutes... which I did until finally Nathalie arrived and showed me the boat. It was already in the water, a cute light boat about the same size as that of the one I'd sailed on for the first and last time until then about 15 years earlier. Preparations began, I put all my gear in the cabin, hoping that no sea water would reach it, and tried to imitate on the port side what she was doing on the starboard side (I'm showing off here, I'm really thinking left and right). I used to windsurf 25 years ago so I know what a sail is and the principles of wind, but with a boat I was a noob so I asked that Nathalie please check what I did - we don't want anything bad to happen exiting the port or en route. I even got to do some of the heavy lifting but same thing here, how much force was I supposed to apply? Well nothing broke or snapped that day so I suppose that the job was appropriate. In retrospect, maybe I set things up for the mast to break a couple months later in a race? Shh, don't tell Nathalie... In any case the boat was ready and we started the outing.

The wind came in quickly out of the port, and the boat tilted more than I expected it to - but that was fun, that's the kind of action that you want when you have to go from A to B. And all the while, Nathalie was tweaking that boat - pulling on a rope here, loosening that one, and even changing the angle of the mast itself. Now with the speed of the boat, the incline, and all the activity, I knew why she insisted - but still leaving me the choice - that I wear a life vest back at the port. Hey, like I keep telling my kids, the 1st thing to think about is safety, so I had taken the vest and strapped it on tight. At some point Nathalie told me to look forward and up. There was the Golden Gate Bridge, with all the thinking and the activity I had not seen it coming! In no time we were passing it and technically we were on the Pacific and out of the Bay. In my book it was a windy day, so the boat kept going and we made a turn then another one and we were racing back to the bridge.

That's when Nathalie pulled all the stops and got the spinnaker out. That colored sail gave great beauty to the boat. This time I was not going to let the bridge catch me by surprise. We were at just the right angle, and the sun was hitting it from behind us so going underneath it I took it all in. That was truly an emotional passage - that is one big piece of engineering, so high up there, glowing so red in the low rays of the setting sun. You could hear the traffic above us. I had no idea 20 years earlier that one day I'd be crossing the bridge that way! My first experience sailing was between Golfe du Morbihan and the island of Houat, and in that Golfe you have to account for tidal currents, because they're so strong that you can't sail against them. Also this very morning at Alcatraz I'd learned that the most likely outcome for the successful prison break out is that the men had drifted to the Pacific and disappeared. So at port I'd asked Nathalie about tide schedule and current forces, and she told me not to worry about this. Now under the bridge we were at ground zero and clearly, Elise was doing her job of taking us where we wanted. Just overshoot a little and you'd be fine.

I was driving and loving it. Nathalie was probably a little nervous because she'd engaged the auto-pilot and that's an expensive piece of equipment. Steering too briskly or too far could break it. I knew I was going to be fine with it but of course she could not read my mind. Last time we'd met was 3 days ago for 3 hours, and before then was 9 years earlier in a work environment! The plan now was to go around Angel Island, check out Alcatraz, and return to port. The sun set while we started going around the island and soon enough we were in pitch dark. The moon was a thin crescent at a low elevation, and the wind disappeared behind the island, measuring at 0.1 knot.

The only recourse was the engine to get us out of that spot. There was some confusion there - Nathalie first tried to start it and I relayed her quickly. We wondered how much gasoline was in the tank so I tried to open the cap but... all I could find was a hole with no cap, and not even a thread! Did I break something trying to start that engine? After some looking and touching we determined that the plastic case had come loose so Nat snapped it back in place, put some gas in, and I was back at the rope pulling and sweating but not swearing on account of a lady being present. After a while the engine started to sputter. It took several more determined pulls to start it in earnest. I think that this engine has a mind of its own and just used me to warm it up before it would start the fire in its belly.

With the engine running and Nathalie driving I looked at the island. We were close to it, and I could see the dark shapes of pine trees on the steep, tall slopes, and the stars above. Very soon we were behind the wind-shadow of the island and could resume sail navigation. At this point, we needed to return if I was going to catch my flight. So we just munched on some veggies, and left the rest of the goodies in the cabin, including the Coppola wine that Nat had confirmed we could open: this was a french boat and of course she had a corkscrew. Where that bottle is today I don't know, I hope that she shared it with good friends one evening of laughter and companionship.

We were heading straight for the port and noticed with amusement and curiosity that the entrance was marked by a single light - the red one - when we were expecting two. At least the color told us what side to shoot for. Wind was good and no other boat was around. The absence of man-made noise was surprising given that we were getting quite close to civilization now, but it was welcome. Soon we were entering the port, the wind was weak at 2 knots and facing us too. The surface of the water was like a mirror, yet the boat driven by Nathalie was very much moving forward. This looked impossible, not just to me, but also to a man standing at the end of a pier watching us who asked incredulously whether we were using a motor. Sailing upwind with no noise, alone in the dark, on still water - that was a magical moment. It was also a good exercise in trust, like when we were kids and we would fall backwards into the arms of a friend: Nathalie steered the boat and came so close to moored boats before turning that I had to look at her and read her face and see that she was in control.

In the end Nathalie used the rudder to help the boat move and we finally wedged ourselves between 2 boats after Nathalie persuaded an owner to moor their ship a little further. At that point I wish that I could have helped her put stuff away but it was really late and I was trying to find ways to connect to the internet with my phone, or my laptop, or her phone in order to postpone my flight. When that did not work Nathalie rushed me to the airport. Since the traffic was light we made it and I returned home where I could enjoy the rest of the Indian summer. Nathalie - thanks for the outing, it is a great memory and I won't wait another 9 years before I pay you a visit again!

Courtesy of Benoit

Some pretty cool photos of Elise (and other boats)

on the BeatSarcoma 2010 calendars (Sarcoma Cup and generic one)

http://www.beatsarcoma.org/Online_store.html

Elise News

Thought I'd give some news...for the benefit of Elise's fan club...

Rigging:

• new mast made it to the Bay Area
• old and new masts are at the Rigger's
• old mast is getting stripped of its clothes so that new mast will look like old mast

Lines

• spin and jib halyards are ready
• topping lift is ready
• we had a new (spare) main halyard
• Not all the halyards are broken but we decided that their integrity was compromised...
• Planned delivery of the new lines: Jan 19. The new mast has tag lines installed in the mast so it should be very easy to install the halyards

Fiber Glass work

• Weather permitting: this week or next
• Now that the mast is out of the way, it will be easier to do that

It looks like 3-bridge is doable. Fingers crossed!