C22 Series 2 Race 4

Just Melissa and I.

Winds were forecast for 11-15 knots from the NW, we rigged up full main and #2 genoa.

We got out of the harbour and there wasn't as much wind, and the direction was from the south.  Race committee delayed the start as the wind shifted to the SW, and they set a course as 4 medium.

Out at the course we had the perfect amount of sail.

At the start we misjudged the waves on a starboard tack and were late by a minute.   Once we crossed the line, we tacked to port and were better.  We got a big knock and tacked back to starboard, and we lifted to the mark (not enough to make it).

Coming in the Mark 6 on starboard tack, we had a cross with the Skud 18 on port, but Melissa was more concerned with the two boats to windward bearing down on us to the mark.  We had rights all around, include room to the mark.  I was not sure if the Skud saw us, so I called for a duck around the Skud. Melissa headed up and we did a 360.  Oh well at least we didn't foul anyone.

On the next leg, we went downwind and to the right, and got into some shifty winds

Knock Tack
Lift no wind Tack
Knock Tack

We passed Tanker and headed past Mark 9 on Starboard with Scalliwag on port.  We had rights, I was expecting to cross the port boat before making an adjustment in sail trim.  Instead, we fell off the wind to avoid the port tack back.  Not what I was expecting, so I wasn't ready to trim to the new course.

We finished strongly just behind Mickey the Shark.

After the race

Graffitti in the sun

...and of course the manditory sunset picture:

Have the dinghy on the deck for the weekend.

Trip Odomter: 10.60 miles
Avg Speed: 4.0 knots
Max Speed: 6.4 kntos
Moving Time: 02:38:00

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ACE Delivery to National

We left ACE in a slip after the Whitby 50, and I had to get it delivered back for Wednesday races at National.

Winds were forecast for 11-14 knots from the NW, PERFECT for a delivery back.
ACE can sail faster than she can motor.

Dave Sandford offered to do the delivery with me, and I invited "Start Keelboat Sailling" students Andrew and Ian to come along for the experience.

I took my truck down to National in the afternoon and GO Trained it back to Whitby.

We rigged up ACE with the #4 jib; we probably could have used the #3 for a LITTLE more speed, but it was at the bottom of a pile of other sails.  Dave and I didn't want to be overwelmed with too much sail with sailors new to big boats.

After a short orientation session, we left the dock at little after 5:30pm

Dave took the helm and we went into the wind just past the harbour mouth and raised the main sail, follow right away with the #4 jib.  Seemed a little under powered, but the wind picked up as we went further off shore.

We got the boat going between 7 and 8 knots most of the time.

Occasionally, we would get a puff and would have to let out the main to keep the boat on its feet.

Andrew, Ian,(on helm) and Dave

Andrew and Ian took turns on the tiller, and learned a lot about sail trim.

We got to Toronto's Leslie Street Spit at shortly after 8:30pm, and got a little sprinkling of rain (just a few drops).  We tacked up the eastern gap with Dave helming, the boys doing the sheets, and me doing the runners.

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The winds at the north side of the harbour were less and all over the place, so we dropped the jib and motor sailed for a while before dropping the main before the Porter ferry.

The Toronto skyline from the water at night is a sight to see.  It was VERY dark as the cloud cover obscured the moon.

We docked at National at little after 10pm, cleaned up the boat, and went into the clubhouse for a beer.  Glad I took the truck down in the afternoon, as catching a GO train back at the end of the night could have added another couple of hours.

Thanks Dave and thanks guys for coming.

Trip Odometer: 30.40 miles
Avg Speed: 5.2 knots
Max Speed: 91. knots
Moving Time: 04:32:00

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CS34 Anchoring with Moeder

Rita brought her 88 year old Mom (in Dutch that's Moeder) down to the boat for dinner.

We went out on the 34 to anchor and cook dinner.  The winds were from the south all day, so it was very lumpy out in Lake Ontario.  We decided to anchor in the harbour over by the East Beach in 8ft of water.

You can see the breakwall behind Moeder

We BBQed some kabobs and had a nice salad.

After a while, we hoisted the anchor and motored around the harbour.

Rita on the helm

Twas a fun night!

C22 Whitby Double Handed Race

Whitby Double Handed race is a fun medium distance race that doesn't count for overall.

We had 5 boats

• Still Time (Catalina 22)
• Mickey (Sharrk)
• Once Around (Aloha 34)
• Firebird II (C&C Redwing 30)
• Paradise (Catalina 34)

Winds were forecast for 11-14 from the east all day, so we set a course to Oshawa and back.

Melissa and I went out with full racing main and #2 genoa.

On the race course there was less wind;  we thought about switching to the #1, but didn't want to go bare headed for the switch.  The boat was balanced upwind and could do between 4 and 5 knots.

Firebird II

Crossing behind us

We found that if we flattened the boat out with the two of us on the windward side, our boat speed went up by a knot!

We wanted to go inshore and short tack up the coast, but found that the wind was dying, so we stayed offshore.

We also found that when I went forward to rig the spinnaker, our speed dropped over a knot!

On the other side of Oshawa harbour, the winds kept up, so we sailed to within 30 ft of the shore and tacked in less than 6 ft of water!  We rounded the mark, got on course, dropped and stowed the headsail, and popped the spinnaker.  Got the boat going between 3 and 4 knots.

After beating to Oshawa, it was a little chilly, but when we turned the corner and our boat speed was approaching the speed of the wind, it was apparently VERY HOT!

Melissa did a great job on the helm

The winds died off the Oshawa harbour, and Mickey the Shark, who got screwed beating up the coast, had popped his chute and was gaining on us.  We reached up to go offshore and get some breeze.

For our efforts, we were third to finish, and won the race on corrected time!

Trip Odometer: 21.87 miles
Avg Speed: 4.1 knots
Max Speed: 6.9 knots
Moving Time: 05:28:00

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ACE Whitby 50

The 9th annual Whitby 50 is the first race of the Toronto East Long Distance Series.  The race is an overnight race from Whitby to Toronto and back.

• Me
• Mike
• Dave (WYC)
• Steve (WYC)
• Terry (WYC)

We had 13 boats with many fast boats from other clubs.

Forecast was for 2-4 knots from the SE all night, then swing to the north and lighten in the morning; did not look good.

We were the first to the mark for the short windard leg, and popped our oversized white chute.  Our game plan was to stay offshore and avoid the Scarborough bluffs.

Very light conditions, but we were able to make between 3 and 4 knots of speed towards Toronto.  We definately had more wind that the boats inshore.  We were doing crosses with the 1D35 Razorbill all night.

Moon came up at around midnight, flat water, good sailing.

Mike on the helm @8.42pm

The other side of Cathedral bluffs, we started losing the wind and had gybed back out where we met with the J/120 The Cat Came Back.  The 1D35 and the J/120 beat us to the mark.  Rounding the mark, we decided to go offshore even more where there was more wind.  The J/120 went way offshore, while the 1D35 went rhum line to the finish.

We were on a close reach with a light genoa doing between 4 and 6 knots the entire time.  The wind was different at the top of the mast.  We found that even moving the genoa cars didn't fix it, so we double sheeted the headsail: cars back to flatten the bottom and used a second sheet forward to close the leach at the top.

Perculated coffee with Baileys was AWESOME
You can see the moon
Time was 5:25am

On this leg we saw between 6 and 9 knots of wind the entire night (at the top of the mast).

Sunrise @ 5:36am

Terry took the helm for a bit

4.32 knots of boat speed
38 degrees off the wind
7.9 apparent wind speed
Course is 19 degrees magnetic

Artsy shot in the morning sunlight

The forecast was supposed to swing right from North to East, we purposely stayed offshore which would mean that we would be able to reach (or pop chute) to the finish.  Razorbill inshore would have to beat upwind to the finish.  The shift didn't happen until after we finished.

We were able to fly a spinnaker for the last 3 miles to the finish between 5 and 6 knots of speed.

We finished 2nd across the line 6 minutes behind Razorbill.

We finished 3rd in corrected time behind Razorbill and The Cat Came Back.

Was a very enjoyable race.  Thanks Dave/Steve/Terry!

Trip Odometer: 56.60 miles

Avg Speed: 4.1 knots

Max Speed: 8.1 knots

Moving Time: 13:54:00

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Great White and CS34

Last lesson for Whitby Yacht Club Start Keelboat Sailing students Andrew and Ian.

Winds were VERY light, the flags were drooping in the basin.

I had the guys rig the boat by themselves.  This was the first time we used the #1 genoa.  Had to get longer genoa sheets from the other Shark.

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There was just enough wind to review points of sail and had each of them take the tiller for a couple of tacks and gybes.  The larger genoa enforced the concept of holding the headsail back during a tack to have the wind push the sail to the other side instead of forcing it and having it catch on the mast.

Ian and Andrew

Towards 8pm, the wind completely died:

...so we headed in under main and motor.

Trip Odometer: 5.00 miles
Avg Speed: 2.5 knots
Moving Time: 02:00:00

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We quickly got the boat away, and headed back to the CS34 Still Time to do course evals

We looked out in the lake and could see wind lines off shore, we we headed out to give the guys a bigger boat experience.

Winds were only 4 knots coming out the harbour as we hoisted the main and furled out the genoa; we could only muster 1.5 knots of boat speed on a close reach.  We could see the wind filling in slightly to the south, so we motored with the sails up out to the Ajax buoy.

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After rounding the Ajax weather buoy, we furled the genoa and hoisted the spinnaker and were able to do between 4 and 5 knots sans motor.

Auto pilot did most of the steering.

As we got closer to the race marks inshore, the wind had clocked from from the S to the NW. meaning that we couldn't fly the spinnaker, so we doused it down the salon hatch.  The guys did a great job.  That NW wind off the land was noticeably warmer.

Thanks guys it was a pleasure "showing you the ropes"; hopefully I got a good eval from them!

Another great night on the water.

Trip Odometer: 12.52 miles
Avg Speed: 4.5 knots
Max Speed: 7.0 knots
Moving Time: 01:52:00

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C22 Series 2 Race 3

Since the beginning of the season, the main sail on Still Time has been difficult to hoist.  To get a full hoist, we would have to grind the last 2ft up.  Also the wind instrument cable was severed when I put the mast up.  Time to get the mast down and fixed.

Still Time looking mastless

I think the main halyard was wrapped around something inside the mast.  Also the electrical wires were chaffed near the mast exit block at the base of the mast.

When I was re-soldering the wind instrument wires, it was blowing 25+ knots from the northwest, so I took the cable out of the mast and spliced it inside the clubhouse.

Got the mast back up at 3pm and was still tuning it when Melissa and Chris came.

FAIL on the wind instrument splice.

That 25+ knot NW wind was now GONE, and we have 3-4 knots from east.  Course was set to 7 short; full main and #1 genoa.

We had a decent start and were 2nd to the weather mark behind the T-Bird Columbine.

Terry on his Shark Psyc 101

Cheeky Monkies on the foredeck

Chris

Winds were diminishing, but we were gaining on the T-Bird.  The race committee shortened the course moving the RC boat to mark 3.  After passing mark 1, it was a painful 0.0 knots for long periods.

Ugggghhhh

This is what pain looks like

The little winds we did encounter were all over the place.  The winds at the water level was different than the top of the mast.  At one point, the windex showed us on a beam reach, yet the genoa backwinded and we did a 360 because we had no boat speed so no steerage.

Bob on Foxtrot was CHARGING along at 1.0 knots towards us on a completely different tack than us. We had no boat speed and could not tack.  We figured that Bob carries boat speed from the mark and his apparent wind kept him moving.  GPS track said we were stopped for 26 minutes!

Tiller Selfie

Crew Selfie

 After 2 hours, the race committee abandoned the race for our division.

Another AWESOME sunset

In the channel, dropping the sails, we ran out of gas, and had to re-fuel.

Chris starting motor

Trip Odometer: 5.39 miles
Avg Speed: 2.2 knots
Moving Time: 02:24:00
Stopped Time: 00:26:02

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Shark Night on Hercules

Now that the singlehanded series is done, we have decided to do an unofficial series with just Sharks.

Andrew on Mickey, Bob on Foxtrot, and me on club Shark Hercules.  Cam on Cheeky Monkey was sick and could not make it.

Hercules has not been taken out since the first week May, so I gave her a thorough check.

Had to get my gas can off of Still Time, as well as a shackle for the jib.
The battery was dead, so no instruments.
The shrouds looked VERY loose, and I discovered that the starboard upper was completely disconnected; could have lost the mast!
150 genoa, and full main, which is missing battens.

Got out to Mark 8 and there was not much wind; we did a course from Mark 8 to Mark 7 and back.

Mickey at Mark 8

Took us an hour to finish this mile long course; the wind did fill in from the south.

Sailing a Shark is different than Still Time.  The 150 genoa is heavy and tends to hang in light winds (you need to pole it out).  The main's sail controls are great. Really like the traveller.

I finished last because at the start I was facing away from the mark, and could not tack because I had no boat speed.

Bob on Foxtrot

 On the way back in John was doing sailing lessons with Andrew and Ian on Great White, and they passed close to us:

Great White and Mickey

Here we are chatting while Great White comes to the dock:

Nice night on the water!

Trip Odometer: 4.33 miles
Avg Speed: 2.6 knots
Max Speed: 5.4 knots (under motor)
Moving Time: 01:40:00

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