C22 Windless Wednesday

Both Melissa and John could not make it.

I had lined up a couple of adult dinghy sailing school students to come out, but no one showed up.

Rita and I headed out together with a full main and #1 genoa.

Little to no wind.

Ocne we got to the race course, I went below in the cabin, and many of the racers thought that Rita was out single handing!

Race Committee postponed for half an hour, and abandoned the race.

Lovely Rita at the tiller in a dress no less!

GPS was not not working, so no track.

ACE Lake Ontario 300

Looking forward to competing in the Lake Ontario 300 this weekend.

• Me
• Michael
• Kris
• Jenny
• Ashleigh
• Mark
• Christine

The race is 300 nautical miles, starts on Saturday morning, and will take 3 days to complete

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Check out the website: http://loor.ca/lake-ontario-300/

Be sure to follow our progress on the Yellow Brick race tracker.

http://loor.ca/lake-ontario-300/event/race-tracker/

C22 Series 3 Race 1

John could not make it, so I again recruited Tina to sail with Melissa and I.

Forecast was from 12-16 knots from the SW.  Melissa and I discussed what sails to put up and in the end we decided on the full racing main and the #2 genoa.  Once out on the water, we determined that this was a great combination because we needed the sail area to punch through the waves.

We turned the motor off and sailed to the start line, but found we could only make 3 knots into the waves from the SW.  The first start warning signals had started and the GPS said that we were 12 minutes from the start, so I got the motor going again so we could get there.  Turned the motor off when our start sequence was going, and we were still going to be late by a couple of minutes!

Our start happened and 5 boats were over early, so the race committee did a general recall.  We all cheered; I have never been happy when a general recall happens, but we were elated, and nailed the next start on  port tack on the pin end.

On a starboard tack, we had to pound into the waves, so we cracked off the sheets slightly for more power.

Winds did lighten, so we were glad on our sail selection.

There was definately more wind offshore, but also more waves.

We finished just behind Fly Buoy who crossed us on starboard tack at the finish line.
We finished fourth on corrected time.

Tina on the helm on the way back in

I did NOT get another amazing sunset shot.

Trip Odometer: 10.00 miles
Avg Speed: 4.0 knots
Moving Time: 02:30::00

Google Earth Track

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C22 Series 2 Race 5

Melissa was on vacation, and John came out for the first time this year.  Also picked up a co-worker of Chris Mace named Tina who wanted to come out racing.

Winds were forecast for 6-8 from the SW.
Full main and #1 genoa.

John on the helm, me and Tina on the sheets.

On the race course, we had 6-8 knots be from the SE, so the race committee set the course to 6 short.

We were well below the boats in the first start at the start line, we headed away on a beam reach at close to 5 knots. After a couple of minutes we tacked to time the approach to our start.  WELL, didn't the wind completely die and shift 90 degrees, Would could only muster 2 kntos of boat speed close hauled and were 6 minutes late to start!  I could just hear Melissa say that we should be closer to the start line if she was out!

The first leg was tack, knock, tack, knock, tack, knock all over the place!

On the 3rd leg, the winds were nothing, and we spent some time with no boat speed.
We reached out to get some wind before the leward mark, as we saw all the other boats parked at the mark.

Tina leaned was a DFL was.

DFL finish

Yet another wonderful sunset

Cockpit selfie

We ended up finishing 8th!

Still good enough for a 3rd place flag for series 2!

Trip Odometer: 7.11 miles
Avg Speed: 2.9 knots
Max Speed: 6.1 knots
Moving Time: 02:27:00

Google Earth Track

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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

Google Earth Track

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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

Google Earth Track

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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!