MUMM36 ZAMBONI Last Wednesday Race

Last fall series Wednesday night race.

Phil was out east touring universities for his son.
Ash was tied up in traffic.

We had five of us

• me
• Mike
• Kris
• Dave
• John

John is an old friend that I met at work in like 1990.  He used to helm for me on little Still Time in Newcastle and Whitby, and sailed with my daughter Melissa for a number of years.  John and his wife Stacey now have a condo in downtown Toronto.  Hoping we can make him regular crew.

I got down a little early to repair the top batten on the main that had poked through its pocket:

The screws that hold the plastic batten keepers on either side had come a little loose.

Winds were 11-13 knots from the NW, so full main and #2.

We had a great start near the committee boat.

Johnny railmeat

We didn't fly the chute on the downwind legs because they were short and we were short handed.
We still hit 9.3 knots without it!

Trip Start: 05:29pm
Trip End: 07:04pm
Trip Duration: 01:34

Trip Length: 3 miles

Average Speed: 1.9 knots

Max Speed: 9.3 knots

Click for BIGGER

GPS tracking is still messing up!
 

Navionics GPS Tracks Problem Solved on Android 11

For the past two years, I have been using the paid Navionics App on my Android Phone to generate GPS tracks and statistics.  Works on all my devices.

Before this I was using a stand alone hand held battery powered Garmin GPSMAP 76, and downloading the track via a USB/serial cable to an PC application called MapSource which is no longer supported by Garmin, so I was glad to be using an app on my phone.  This app would run in the background logging the GPS track and would upload to the cloud where I would export it to a GPX file, then import it into Google Earth to generate the images for the GPS track.

For the past month, this process has been broken.

Discovered that an Android Update changed the battery optimization for the Navionics Boating app so that it would shut down Navionics when run in the background.  Would record fine if the Navionics app was in the foreground.

Today I changed the battery optimization setting for the app:

Changed from "optimized" to "not optimized" and went out to cut the lawn:

Click for BIGGER

Glad to have it working as it should again!
Don't know why I didn't think of this issue sooner.

Trip Start: 01:01pm
Trip End: 01:17pm
Trip Duration: 16:46
Trip Length: 0.7 miles

Average Speed: 2.5 knots
Max Speed: 9 knots

STARBOARD

CS34 MUMM36 ZAMBONI and Sail Back to Whitby

I made the usual french toast and bacon breakfast for the four boats.

Shortly after 10am, we loaded up Still Time with Mark, Peter, and Mike and headed over to National for another Ahmen race on ZAMBONI.  Kris and Dave met us and we went out and did the race with 5 of us.

Shortly after returning to the dock around 3pm: Mark, Peter, and I headed home back to Whitby on Still Time, while Michael and Kris cleaned up ZAMBONI.

We motored through Toronto harbour and out through the eastern gap.

We turned the corner to Whitby and hoisted the spinnaker sans main turning the motor off making 4-5 knots of boat speed.

Winds were 9-10 knots from the west almost dead downwind.  After about five minutes, we hoisted the full main and sailed under autopilot wing on wing almost Pickering.  Set the autopilot to sail at 170 degrees to the wind to avoid an accidental gybe.

Winds swung to the NW, so we gybed the spinnaker and sailed her conventionally all the way to Whitby Harbour keeping our speed over 6 knots the entire way.

Hooking up the sheet, we attached a pair of Mark's underwear for some extra speed:

We covered the 25 miles from Toronto to Whitby in 5 hours completely under autopilot.

We doused the spinnaker about 1/4 mile from the harbour entrance.

It was an intense and fun 4 days of hard sailing.

CS34 MUMM36 ZAMBONI Out in a Blow

 After spending the night on Hanlan's Wall on Friday night:

We had a community breakfast with all WYC boats.

We loaded up Still Time with Dave, Mark, Peter, Bill, and Phil and headed over to National Yacht Club for a sail on ZAMBONI.

Here we are bringing ZAMBONI over to the wall by Still Time:

Where we met Michael, transferred some gear and the 7 of us went out for a sail.

It was blowing 20+ knots from the WSW with 5-6 ft waves, so we rigged a reefed main and #3.

We sailed closed hauled out into the lake and tacked toward Port Credit.

As we got closer to shore we noticed a storm cell approaching from the west, so we gybed, and hoisted our smallest chute and flew back to Toronto avoiding the nasty stuff.  We hit 14.1 knots surfing down a wave!   It started the rain just as we got to the dock.

Phil and Bill had smiles from ear to ear!

We flaked the main, and stuffed the wet #3 and spin down below.

We had a couple of beers below on Still Time while major rain and wind pounded the area.

After about half an hour, I motored back over the Hanlan's Wall:

Michael also joined us for the night.

  

Sorry no GPS track

CS34 CBYC to Toronto

It was around midnight before we all hit the hay.  We were up a little after 8am.

We made coffee and toasted some bagles on the propane stove for breakfast.

I checked the engine oil and it was low, had to add 1L.
Engine burns oil when heeled over.

When we came in last night, there was a squeaking sound from the motor.
I was too tired to troubleshoot it last night.
Discovered that the glue holding the engine sound insulation has let go and the foil backed rubber material was rubbing against the alternator pulley.  Secured it with some duct tape. No problem.

Peter re-tuned the rig.

Still Time was parked in Coug's old slip.

We left the dock around 9:30am.

Winds were from the SW 14-22 knots: on the nose to get around the Leslie Spit.

We sailed the entire way with a double reef and 110 jib beating upwind until turning into Toronto Harbour.
Boat performed admirably.

Coming into the inner harbour, we saw the 76ft yacht Tasbaco at anchor by RCYC:

We pulled into Hanlan's Wall around 1pm with the others.

Beer Thirty

Discovered some problems with the boat:

We forgot to close the one kitchen cupboard, and all the dishes came crashing down breaking a couple of plates.

The front hatch is leaking: all the bedding, and v-birth cushions were soaked. We were taking waves over the bow, and the hatch gaskets are not sealing properly.  Even though I have had it rebuilt, the hinges are worn and have an 1/8" gap at the top of the hatch. Something to address in the off season.  Got all the bedding outside to dry in the sun, and propped the cushions up and dried them out with an electric heater.  

The bathroom was soaking wet.  The toilet paper roll weighed like 10 lbs!
Thought I had left the window slightly open, but now that I think of it, we were heeled over so much on a port tack, that the bathroom sink would have been underwater.  There was 4" of water in the bathroom vanity behind the mirrors.  Have to remember to close the sea cock for the sink next time.

The head was smelly and the bowl water was discoloured a sure sign that the joker valve needs to be replaced.

CS34 Whitby to Toronto Take II

After breaking one boat, it was time to try the trip again on Still Time.

I had called ahead to Mark and Peter and they prepared the boat:

• filled water tanks
• removed standup paddle boards from aft cabin
• prepped mainsail
• removed dodger covers
• borrowed a spared 20L can of diesel fuel

We transferred everything from Skana to Still Time.

Mark and Peter

Leaving the dock

Left the dock just before 6pm.

Four sailors were about to face the elements.  The forecast was to 20+ knots of wind from the SW with gusts in the low 30s.  Everyone got their fowl weather gear and life jackets on.  We hoisted a double reefed main in the harbour.  We completely flattened it: major reef outhaul pressure, halyard pressure, and the vang on HARD.

Double reefed main

Once out the channel, we unfurled the 110 jib and were flying along on a close reach out into the lake.  Very wavy, but managable.  We purposely moved the jib cars back to flatten the bottom of the head sail and spill wind out the top.  We skipped along at close to 6 knots.  We wanted to head offshore to avoid a lee shore later, so we headed about 4 miles into the lake with ZERO VMG to Toronto.

Once we tacked to the west, we could only muster between 2 and 3 knots of boat speed into the wind/waves, so I put the motor on @2,500 RPM to keep our speed up between 5 and 6 knots.

Crazy wind and waves!  The boat just handled it!  
We had waves breaking over the bow and covering the dodger!

We used the autopilot set to sail to a wind angle of 35 degrees.

We were overpowered in the 30+ knot puffs, and would feather the boat into the wind with the autopilot to keep her on her feet.

Our baby stay detached: split ring broke, so we hove to and fixed it.  Good thing we didn't have to tack after that because the lazy sheet was run inside the baby stay. THAT could have been a disaster on a lee shore!

A while later, a couple of the crew were feeling seasick.  Going below was not an option, so we hove to again, and got some water and meds.  While hove to, we were drifting east at close to 4 knots!

We covered the 14 miles as the crow flies (sailing probably 20 miles with tacks) in about 4 hours.

I made the decision to pulling into CBYC at 10pm.  Did not want to spend another 4 hours to get to Toronto in these conditions.

Twas a good decision.

Getting into the CBYC channel in the dark was a challenge.

No photos.

GPS track from Chart Plotter:

CS34 Whitby to Toronto on Skana

Boys weekend to Hanlan's Wall in Toronto.  This is the fourth year we have done this trip.  Normally, I would usually go with WYC friend Chris on his Albin 41 trawler called "Wanderer".  However, Chris already had the boat in Toronto for the week.

I sailed with Dave on his CS36 Merlin called "Skana".

We got to the club at the crack of 10, and left the dock by 10:30.

Ready to depart

Winds were 12-18 knots from the SSE: just aft of the beam, so we furled out the head sail and were skipping along at over 5 knots.  Just past Pickering, the winds swung to the SW, so we motor sailed close hauled to keep our speed up.

The plan was to meet WYC sailors Mark and Peter at Cathedral Bluffs Yacht Club at around 2:30pm, and head into Toronto.

Dave and I got to within 1 mile of CBYC, and we heard a sharp quick grind from the transmission.  We no longer had forward or reverse propulsion.  Getting into CBYC is a challenge because of the shifting sand bars and narrow channel markers of the entrance.  We DID NOT want to try this under sail.

We decided to sail back to Whitby.  On headsail along with 15 knots winds on our rear quarter, we sailed the 13 miles in 2 1/2 hours (averaging over 6 knots).

We got our shore crew (Mark and Peter) to mobilize the WYC workboat.  Once we were close to them in the harbour, we furled the jib and were towed to Dave's slip.

Thanks to Rick, Kevin, Mark, and Peter!
We were safely docked by 4:45pm.

I made the decision to head to Toronto on Still Time.

No GPS track.

CS34 Sunday Sail with Jenny

Haven't been sailing on the 34 in a couple of weeks. so we called our friend Jenny to come out for an afternoon sail.  Jenny used to be a part owner on race boat ZAMBONI.

Rita and Jenny raised the main in the harbour, and we unfurled the jib out once clear of the traffic at the harbour entrance.

Winds were 6-8 knots from the SW, warm and sunny, 25+ degrees C.
Waves were 2-3ft (a little lumpy), so we headed west on a close reach to almost Ajax.
Boat speed was between 4-5 knots.

We tacked back east and pounded into the waves, so our boat speed was between 2-3 knots.
We didn't care, and sailed almost to Oshawa Harbour before turning downwind to Whitby.

Nice afternoon on the water!

GPS tracking Navionics is messing up on phone.

Trip Start: 3:01pm
Trip End: 5:56pm
Trip Duration : 02:55

No distance or average speed or track.

MUMM36 ZAMBONI AYC Ahmen Race

We continued our commitment to do as much racing as we can before the end of the season.

Ahmen series race 5 hosted by AYC, is a short day race around marks in Humber Bay.

When Mark and I got there, the boys had moved ZAMBONI over to the shore for a pump out and leave some of the heavy weather sails on shore:

We also washed down the decks, and vacuumed out the bilges.

Going out we passed another CS34 called Empty Pockets:

Lots of wind (12-13 knots before the start) so #2:

When we got out to the start area, the committee boat was another CS34 called Pagan from AYC:

Same colours as Still Time

We had a bad start misjudging the wind, and started about one minute late (there weren't any boats behind us!).

Winds were light 5-6 knots from the NE, making it a downwind start, so we hoisted Big Blue after crossing the line.  

The first mark was a mess, as we had three boats converging, including an another boat from the previous start that was on our hip restricting our ability to manouver.  The next leg was a close reach, so we had to do a gybe followed immediately by a headsail hoist and spin douse.

 

The boat pulled nicely with a full main and light #1: we passed several boats in our fleet catching up to the leaders.  

We saw that wind was dying inshore, so we stayed offshore and were leading the fleet with 1.2 miles to the finish.  Wind lightened to under 4 knots, then died completely.  

Very frustrating race with winds swirling around.  Hoist spin; raise headsail; douse; repeat.

We saw Tal Wolf's Aloha 30 Knot Faster with new owner Lisa:

Lisa has sailed on ZAMBONI with us several times.

Winds filled in nicely from the NE but were were the last to get it and finished DFL:

AHMEN 5 - Start 5: (Spin 1) Fleet - 09/18/21

Start: Start 5, Finishes: Finish time, Time: 12:00:00, Course: 503, Wind dir: SW, Ave wind: 5

Rank	Fleet	Boat	SailNo	HelmName	Club	Rating	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Points
1	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Carpe Ventus	253	Denys Jones	NYC	79	12:00:00	14:37:39	2:37:39	3:05:52	1.0
2	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Infringer	52321	David McFadgen	MCC	64	12:00:00	14:37:29	2:37:29	3:11:39	2.0
3	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Act II	54367	Trevor Bender	MCC	63	12:00:00	14:40:14	2:40:14	3:15:25	3.0
4	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Xoomer Xpress	146	Adam Farkas	NYC	63	12:00:00	14:43:44	2:43:44	3:19:42	4.0
5	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Hooligan II	52919	Bruce Pierce	MCC	39	12:00:00	14:35:51	2:35:51	3:20:26	5.0
6	Start 5: (Spin 1)	Zamboni	29206	Kris Davis	NYC	42	12:00:00	14:46:57	2:46:57	3:33:16	6.0

Sorry no GPS track!