ACE Sail with Durk

Durk from Performance Sails was in Ontario for Thanksgiving, and was at the club measuring boats for new sails.

We decided to go out for a sail.

• Me
• Mike Cullen
• Durk Steigenga
• Mark Backman
• Dave Sandford

We went out with a #4 and full main with 26 knots of breeze from the west.

Got the boat going real well.
Very wavy, we all got wet.

Durk took the helm on the way back.

Coming in the harbour at 8.7 knots

Trip Odometer:  8.81 miles
Moving Average: 7.9 knots
Max Speed 11.6 knots
Moving Time: 01:06:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20151013.kmz

CS34 Demasted

Beautiful sunny and warm day.

Rita convinced me to get the boat ready for haulout instead of scrambling during the week.

We started  by taking the sails off:

We got them folded and put in a dock cart.

Proceed in removing

• stack pack
• halyards
• reefing lines
• topping lifts
• furling line
• vang
• boom

Took a couple of hours.

Went over to the mast crane, and got a pump out.
Took about an hour to get the mast down.

Stickless heading back to the dock

Spent some time cleaning up the mast; will move to the mast racks later in the week.

In the meantime, Rita was busy cleaning the exterior.  We cleaned up the dinghy; man it was filthly with green slime from being the water.  Got the outboard off.  We tied the still inflated dingy on the foredeck.

Sails were loaded in the car.  I am going to have sailmaker Durk replace the UV strip on the genoa, and fix the battens on the main.

All I really need to do before haulout is get the dodger/bimini canvas off.

ACE Shark Delivery

Whitby Yacht Club has purchased three Sharks from National Yacht Club.  They will be used for the adult sailing school, and also used for race instruction.  The idea is to have a fleet of Sharks at the club (this makes seven Sharks at the club).

Boating Education director Steve arranged to have a couple sailing instructors and three members of the junior race team to come out to deliver them back.

10 of us went on the GO train to Union Station:

This stop Union Station

We took the Porter shuttle to the Island Airport Terminal and walked to National.

Also included in our purchase was the entire contents of the "Shark Tank", sails, booms, cushions, gas tanks, and misc hardware.  The kids loaded the entire contents into Steve's truck.  We also loaded the three cradles for the Sharks on a trailer.

Group shot with cradles on trailer.

L-R Great White, Predator, Hercules

The kids rigged the three Sharks, and got them ready to sail.

Since we had tons of skippers and crew for each boat, I decided to use the opportunity to deliver ACE back to Whitby Yacht Club for winter storage.  WYC Shark sailors Andrew and Jeanette agreed to come with me on ACE.  We had a nice lunch in the NYC clubhouse.

NYC Shark Chair Ken took some time to familiarize the kids with the boats.  He was very helpful and knowledgable.  Ken took us to the local gas station to get some fresh fuel (gas for the boats, and subs for the kids)

Commodore Berry drove Steve's truck with the trailer back to WYC.

We pushed off a little after 1:30pm, but really didn't get out of the Harbour until after 2pm.  Winds were light 7-8 knots from the south, right where we needed to go around Toronto Island.  They tried to sail around the island, but I think the winds were I think above the height of the Shark masts.  We could get ACE going between 5 and 6 knots, but the Sharks could only do 2-3 knots.

It is 28 miles from NYC to Whitby.  At 2-3 knots, it would take a LONG time to make the journey.  Wanted to get everyone home and docked before dark.

There were some problems with the motors on two of the Sharks (Great White and Hercules).  They would start, but stall out after a while.  Probably just gummed up carburators and/or filters.

Ken took his Shark Pnendor out to tow Great White around the Island:

Andrew on the helm

In the meantime, Predator towed Hercules.

Just past the Leslie Street spit, we said good bye to Ken, and tried to sail for a while.  ACE had no trouble doing over 6 knots, but the Shark's not so much.   Predator resumed towing Hercules, and we hooked up a long tow line on Great White.  We could do between four and five knots under sail towing Great White.  After a while the winds were dropping, and swung slightly to the west, allow us to fly a chute:

6.63 knots towing a Shark!

Thanks Andrew and Jeanette!

We towed them for over 10 miles.  When we got past the Pickering Nuclear Plant, the winds/waves were building, and we were starting to round up; regularly going over 8 knots.  We had lost sight of the other two, so it was time to drop the tow.  Great White was able the sail the final 5 miles.  We went back to escort the other two home.

Heading back to Predator and Hercules

They were sailing along just fine!

Steve was cheating with the motor

It was starting to get dark, so we sailed to Whitby under Main and Genoa, and were regularly doing between 9 and 10 knots!  We went into Whitby Harbour, and dropped our sails and went back out to tow Hercules in.  It was getting windy (maybe 20 knots) and wavy.

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Coming back with them in tow, the Shark was bouncing all over place, and waves were breaking over the open transom of ACE.  We docked safely at visitor's dock and got the boats organized.

We arrived at 8:20, and it was very dark.

The kids on the race team did a great job on Hercules!

Mission accomplished

• Sharks delivered
• ACE delivered
• Shark cradles delivered
• Shark tank parts delivered
• Race team kids sailing a keel boat for the first time

Was a great day, but a long one.

Trip Odometer: 36.19 miles
Moving Average: 5.2 knots
Max Speed: 10.3 knots
Moving Time: 06:56:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20151010.kmz

Click for bigger

CS34 Fall Regatta

The Whitby Yacht Club's Fall Regatta, was re-scheduled from last weekend, when we had nasty weather with 35 knot winds.

Could not get crew, so at the skipper's meeting I recruited Steve Moffat from the club.  Steve has been crewing for years on a C&C 38 called Frenzy.  He also has crewed for Dave Sandford on Skana.

Steve and I went out to the race course on big Still Time (CS34).  The first thing we did was drop the dodger forward to get it out of the way.  The second thing we did was take the bimini canvas and frame off.  Completely different boat.

Winds were as high as 20 knots, and as low as 8 knots from the south.  Lumpy out there, so you needed to crack the sheets off for close reach power to get through the waves.

Race 1: 5 Short

The 135% genoa is in decent shape, but the UV cover has shrunk causing a big hook on the leech of the sail: SLOW.

Race 2: 5 short

In the 2nd race, we had a terrible start, but had a good race.

Race 3: 6 shortened short

In the middle of this race, we noticed a batten had poked a hole in the batten pocket and was sticking out about a foot. Between races, we furled the genoa, started the motor, dropped the main, and fixed the batten.

Race 4: 6 shortened short

The last race was out best race, and we finish 4th of six boats.

We came near to last in all races, but had fun.

There are three things I have learned:

1. That when you type "miles" with your right hand over one position, you get "nukes"
2. Still Time is NOT a racer
3. Steve Moffat is good crew

Thanks for coming out with me Steve.

Trip Odometer: 24.45 miles

Moving Average: 4.5 knots

Moving Time: 05:28:00

Track not posted because it is a mess of data points.

CS34 Moonlight Cruise

The club does a moonlight cruise every Friday before a full moon.  Full moon was Sunday.

We had four boats go out:

• Still Time
• Bananas
• Pro Patria
• Illusion

Winds were 12-18 knots from the east and supposed to swing to the NE (and did).

The plan was to sail to Oshawa harbour entrance and back (maybe 6 miles each way).

Rita and I went out with our sailing friend Jenny

We went out with a reefed main and full genoa.  It was a little lumpy, and it was difficult to beat towards Oshawa, and we just went out into the lake on a close reach and back.

The moon was awesome.; thanks for coming Jenny!

Trip Odometer: 7.42 miles

Moving Average: 4.2 knots

Moving Time: 01:45:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150925.kmz

C22 WYC Stonehaven Cup Race

Last race of the year counting towards overall.

Could not round up any crew, so I went out single handed.

Winds were supposed to be 6-8 from the NE and diminish after noon.  We purposely started the race an hour early to avoid this.

Course was set to windward leg from Mark 9 then west to Moore's Point off the Picking Nuclear Generating station and back.  If the winds died, Tanker would move to Moore's Point mark and finish the race there.

Oddly, the wind filled in at 6-7 knots from the south.

Close reach to the west, then beam reach back.  Easy sail.

Finished 5th of 6 boats, not too far behind in corrected time.

Sailed way into the channel!

Trip Odomter: 15.47 miles
Moving Average: 3.5 knots
Moving Time: 04:21:00

Track:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150920.kmz

CS34 Commute to Work

Dockmate Scott and I work for the same company, building, and floor in Pickering at Liverpool and 401.

We looked at the weather yesterday (sunny and hot) and decided we would commute into work by boat. I emailed, and arranged for a slip at Fairport Yacht Club on Frenchman's Bay.

Met at the club at 8am, and left the dock shortly after.

Only 2-3 knots of wind, so, we didn't bother with the sails, and motored the entire way.

We pulled into our slip, and called for a ride from one of our co-workers.  Otherwise it would have been about a 20 minute walk to our office.


Trip Odometer: 8.52 miles
Moving Average: 6.3 knots
Moving Time: 01:21:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150918-1.kmz

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We got a ride back from work to the boat at 4pm.
We took a tour over to the west side of Frenchman's Bay:

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Wind was on the nose at 4 knots, so we motored back.

Trip Odometer: 9.88 miles
Moving Average: 5.4 kots
Moving Time: 01:22:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150918-2.kmz

Click for larger