Race Report – July 30, 2009

There were grumblings about skipping sailing and finding a cool movie theater to duck out of the unbearable heat we’d been experiencing the last few days. The forecast was for light breeze anyway.

But the theme for the night was Pirate Night and Travis put Brian on notice. Nobody misses Pirate Night:

“This just in – tonight is pirate night. You’d best find at least a bandana and an eye patch. Or my heckling will only be the first of much for you today.”

And then Bob sent out the scouting report from the boat:

“Good wind down at the marina.”

We arrived at the marina around 6pm with temperatures topping out at 90°. As promised the wind had picked up, shrouds where whistling, halyards were clanging against masts. Sunny and breezy again.

We decided to go with two headsails for the first time. We hit the start mid-fleet at good speed. We rounded the first mark and hoisted the asymmetrical spinnaker. The set went almost perfectly but then we lost the sheet, and then Bob suffered rope burns in the effort to retrieve it (he is recovering nicely). Then the spinnaker halyard got let go instead of the staysail halyard. Then the wind died!

That ended the race for us but not the sailing. The wind picked up as the sun set over the Olympic mountains, warm breezes intermingled with the cooling night air as we made our way back to the marina against a backdrop of twinkling city lights. Brian set the auto pilot, which freed both of his hands for drinking, but then there was a moment when he couldn’t disengage it and I wondered if we were going to be early victims of the impending robot revolt, smashed against the seawall and left for dead. But then Brian disengaged the auto pilot and all was good.

Here are some more photos from the night. Click on the triangles to navigate:

Race Report July 16, 2009

What a fantastic night on the Sound. A sunny 80 degrees and 10-15 knots of breeze. Last week we had two goals: better start, and better spinnaker set. I guess 1 out of 2 ain’t bad. The start was better, mid fleet. We kept pace most of the reaching leg. On the downwind leg we tried twice to set the spinnaker but the sock still got twisted up, or snagged on the jib hanks. Even after we did a dry run at the dock. Next week!

We did witness some excitement too. At the second mark we were coming in with 4 other boats. We were rounding to starboard with two boats to port (windward) and two to leeward of us. The boat clear ahead of me seemed to be warning the boat to starboard (leeward) of us that he didn’t have rights. I found this surprsiing since we were all in the cruiser class and some boats were running motors, definitely not a serious fleet. But never-the-less the boat to leeward felt the need to bail and fell off into a gybe, but didn’t see the boat to leeward of them. The turn was close, but they couldn’t quite make it, and their anchor nearly ripped the after platform of his neighbor off of it’s brackets, crumpling the pushpit, and nearly sending a cooler to Davey Jones locker.

Meanwhile we had asked for room and were able to round without incident. Phew.

Upwind we had a new issue. The last races we had pointed great and made up ground that way. This time we started the windward leg near the middle of the fleet but couldn’t point worth a dang. We ended up being near the end of the fleet at the finish.

Anyway, another awesome night on the sound. Thanks again to Travis and Jen for the keys to Europa and to the great crew: Bob, Pamela, and Jeremey. I’m out next week, Brian will be at the helm. More adventures to come.

Race Report – July 9, 2009

Memo to self – commit the following to memory:

11. STARTING SYSTEM
The Sound Signal Starting System will be as follows commencing at 1850 hours.
Signal Sound Time before Start
Warning 1 Long 10 minutes
Preparatory 1 Long 5 minutes
First Start 1 Long Fast Boats Start, Cruising Boats start five minutes later.
Second Start 1 Long Cruising Boats Start.

We were very late to the line and stayed that way all night. We also spent the entire running leg attempting to set the spinnaker only do douse it immeadiately after it was finally set.  Still, we chose a better course upwind and passed some boats. Brian gave me the wheel all night so it was my first chance to take the boat out and dock it unassisted. Great experience.

It was great to have Arvind and Evonne out for the first time on a race night.  More of Evonne’s photos here.

Goals for next week: start on time and get the assymetrical spinnaker sorted out.