2009 stuff
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12.07.09.....Congelatio
HHSA put the frost in frostbitten yesterday, by not cancelling their 5th frostbite race after the early winter event we had on Saturday. Major props to them (and to the crew of Cadence II for dominating their class, NS > PHRF100, at the club's November-Decemeber series of 6 races).
Below, Trevor Harney makes an attempt to get the deck clear, but as it turned out, the wind and waves did a more efficient job of wiping the snow and ice off the boat. Ratting around in a Laser while wearing a drysuit in these conditions is hardcore, but so is dragging your butt to the boat early Sunday morning after a snowstorm to race with temps in the high 30's, double-digit breeze and a cockpit full of slush. (Photo: Carl Schaefer).
Another take on cold-weather sailing, a week or so earlier in the season, is Ralph Hutton testing a new junk rig on a metal canoe. I have a metal canoe and it's a box of pain in temps less than 50 (F). Cute rig and nicely done! Better a blue tarp on a junk sail than on some forlorn, unused cruising boat buried deep in the weeds at a boatyard. (Photo: Carol Hutton)
Reminds me of doing the St. Pete NOOD regatta a few years back when the winning boat inthe Wavelength 24 class had a TyVek® genoa. Those guys were smokin' in the light Tampa Pond breeze.
So, when someone builds a nice looking rig out of non-traditional materials, we say go for it!
Although....we might wonder how we'd go about introducing a little bit more draft, forward, on this beast and maybe some foam padding on the gunwhale to help cushion the hike when the rig gets powered up.
Next thing you know, you're sliding boards in the Int. Canoe Class!
12.03.09....A Christmas Present for Yourselfs (And No, it's Not a 5o5)
If you're sick of your leadmine, that's eating boat-units like a toxic-asset laden Mega-bank sucking on the Federal teet, then you are undoubtedly honkering for a small sporty. Just think, no more yard bills, no more killer maintenance bills, pricey sails, costly crew T-shirts, etc.)
And yeah, you've read about the 20-40 boat starts for Vipers and Melgii and U20s. And you're thinking what fun it would be just load up the stattion wagon with 2 other crew & their gear and an easily towed <20 footer to head off to Florida or The Gorge or whenever for an affordable 3-5 day event. No getting gouged on Travellift fees and jacked up regatta slips, you ramp launch the thing and have blast in a decent sized OD fleet.
Here's a chance to steal a cool sporty from Peter Ross Yachts, as some hectic business demands have forced Peter to abandon his i550 build and let it go for a lowly 25 boat units (that's $2,500 to you in Terre Haute).
Contact Peter via his website (link above) and send him a deposit. I'll even help you drive the damn thing back to the Chesapeake. And yes, it will measure in..........maybe.
11.20.09....Any Questions?
....ah, yeah, a couple.
More shots of the A scow on the Magothy. They got this puppy powered up in the breeze that was leftover from the NE'ster that rumbled thru last week. Special thanks to Tommy Price for the photos!
1) What keeps these things upright? They are only lightly ballasted and not that beamy, so here they are in 8 kns of breeze with the kite up and no one really hiked out. How is that possible?
Tom P. writes:
"For one thing, it's a big thing - at nearly 40' it is a big dinghy. With 7 crew you have over 1200 lbs of active ballast. Speed gives stability but the window is fairly small. It is an apparent wind machine - almost iceboat like. In 8 kts it was certainly possible to get the apparent wind too far forward. You certainly trim to the telltales and luff, NOT the wind on the water! In a breeze, you aren't going to sail too tight a reach (though you will be trimmed for one). There's a
significant spinnaker sheet load on the ratchets - no winch- and trimming is sometimes a 2 man job! On gybes, there is a LOT of sheet to pull! Also the main is a big, easily handled thing and is never cleated. A dump on that and you have control - unless the end goes in the water! Vang release is good. Upwind, the main blades out well. The jib has to be actively played as if the main is eased, with no semblence of forefoot in the water, the jib will pull the bow off - thereby repowering the main leading the downward spiral to a swim!"
Question number two: if something (like the prod retraction gear) goes south forward of the jib tack hardware, who the heck crawls up there, below deck, to fix it? Someone who's really skinny with long arms, we guess?
Question number three: is that a tiny rudder or what?
Anyway, keep an eye out for the Big A around Gibson Island. They'll be out this Saturday, weather permitting.
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11.16.09....Fun Clubber, Cheap
Let's face it, in this economy, small is beautiful. A bunch of folks are bailing on their 30+ footers to race something a lot less expensive to campaign, that doesn't need half a yacht club to crew.
This little Evelyn 26 is NO LONGER FOR SALE!
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11.03.09...Bringing an A Game
Tom Price, an MRSA racer who owns the Hobie, 33 "Chaos," sent us these pix.
It's an A Scow, owned by Dr. Bart Griffith. The boats are definitely rare in these parts, but hugely competitive fleets are common in the upper midwest where they race in tideless venues on flat water.
Tom says, "The A scow arrived 3 weeks ago and we got her rigged pretty easily. It's actually quite a nice boat. Re-decked with the new layout and with a carbon rig. (no perm backstay). We will try to sail her next weekend. Wonder how to get it back right side up if we dump it? We will take it for daysails and try to also take it to Oxford, Balto and the Chester for demos and to race log canoes. It is a Melges with welded alum backbones. It's a 38', 1800 lb, 1200 sq ft spinnaker. We are still figuring it out."
Okay, I freely admit to knowing absolutely zilch about these things, other than the fact that a major shit-storm rocked the fleet a few years back when a guy named Brad Robinson started building A Scows and as it turned out, they were noticeably faster than the Melges scows. No big deal except that form that point on, anyone who had a Melges boat was suddenly a lot slower than Brad's "VictoryByDesign" boats. So, a huge rift went thru the A Scow fleet which finally resulted in the class being slpit in two. Melges One Design and an "open" fleet that accepts all boats that measure in to the box rule.
In terms of how these things are sailed, how they are built and what the hell all those straps and poles are, inside the hull, I have no idea. If they are hiking straps, shouldn't they be going fore and aft?
We hope to get down to G.I. to see this beast soon and answer the biggest mystery of all, what in the name of god keeps these things upright? They are relatively unballasted, and I'm sorry but 900 pounds of crew weight won't even keep a J24 on her feet in 22 kn of breeze, let alone something that carries this much sail area and a 1,200 sq foot kite.
Whatever. It should be a total hoot seeing this beast blasting along on the river, next season. And if the Andrews 28 shows up next spring, there should be some interesting new toys on the Magothy in 2010.
Thanks to Tom for sending us the news and we hope the Dr. and his crew have an absolute blast on this thing!
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10.27.09....Light Air Harbor (Leukemia) Cup
Ah, that's "light air," relatively speaking. We still saw something like 25 at one point, but compared to last year, it was a cake walk.
The RC helped (or hindered, depending on your particular perspective) by setting a slightly bizarre course that was pretty much a parade route. If we tacked once, I don't remember it. It was pretty much DW start, port pole, chute up, jib up, port tack, kite up port pole to the finish line.
I think we jibed the kite twice. Maybe.
The guys on the Melges 24 must've loved it, because I think they beat us by 14 minutes, corrected. Not having an upwind leg to waterline those guys slightly screwed us, but hey, what the hell, sometimes it just goes that way.
All-in-all, finishing a 17.2 nm race in a little over 2 hours is fun, though. I think some of us on board were wishing it had been the usual journey, up the west side of Kent Island, pass Love Pt., up to Swan Pt., back across the Bay to the Craighill Light, downstream again and back out the river to the mark off Bodkin and then up the river to finish.
But maybe it was a good thing the RC got us off the water by 4 pm, as I got absolutely drenched walking to the car in Canton, which caused my cell phone and car key to become suddenly non-functional. Apologies to the residents along Boston Street for my car alarm's blaring for awhile. Visibility was crap for about 15 minutes, which could have made a bit of an issue if there were a lot of racers finishing in the Inner Harbor during the deluge, so I'm saying maybe it was smart on the RC's part to have most of us tied up by 3:30 pm. Benefit of the doubt, and all that.
Below are some photos, Results are here.
Very happy to report that all the multi's remained rightside up. Not happy to report that the tri that my two good buds, Trevor and Kevin, were on lost their rig. No one was hurt, thank goodness, and our condolences to Russ and high hopes he gets the boat back in good form soon.
Left, is Tim Layne's Reynolds 33 "WIld Card" in pre-start mode (which, we repeat, remained upright)
Headed downhill on "Incommunicado," with Ray Racine in a T-shirt, which is typical Ray. What else would you expect with a guy from Vermont?
The Corsair 31 "Temple of the Wind" blasts by us near the Harbor Tunnel brickhouse.
Getting rolled by the mutli's has become one of pleasures of Upper Bay distances races. We dig it. It usually doesn't last long.
Horses for courses, "Fitness Resource" rumbles by at speed. We've always thought of "Fitness" as sort of the Clydesdale of multi's, but on Saturday they were in thoroughbred form, as they corrected over the multi fleet and almost reeled in Tim Lyon's massive Corsair tri (right, 100/001). Congrats to David Ness and the crew of "Fitness" on winning the nine boat Mutli fleet, eight of whom finished the race.
Looked gnarly approaching B'more harbor, but this line didn't deliver anything more than 20.
Finishing well up in the Harbor is always a grin. Schock 35 "Blinding Fury" finds a last gasp just before finishing, off Tide Point.
some breeze data from 3 sources:
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10.20.09....R.I.P. Captain Lee
NPSA sailors, and plenty of other folks from Havre de Grace to Cape Henry (and beyond), were saddened to hear that H. Lee Allers, Jr., aka "Captain Lee," passed away on Tuesday Oct. 20th.
Captain Lee was one of the founding members of AYC (member number something like 28) but he spent a lot of his "retiring years" racing out of Old Road Bay on Will Burton's Tartan 27 "Windlassie."
Lee raced Wednesday nights well into his late 80's! WE SHOULD ALL LIVE AND RACE SO LONG!
NPSA gave Captain Lee their "Lifetime Sailing Award" at their banquet last year. To say that the presentation was touching is a vast understatement.
The family is having a memorial service at Church of the Redeemer, on Sat. Nov. 20th, 5603 N.Charles St. at 10 a.m.
Sail on Captain Lee, we will sure miss you.
(left, Willie yacks, while Lee prepares to tack. Photo courtest some kind soul at NPSA)
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09.24.09....Women Drivers!
We've always liked clubs that throw a little something different into the season's mix, such as a pursuit race or a shorthanded event or a casual distance race. MRSA does it as well as any club with their season-ending, 3 race, "Female Skipper" series.
This year 6 boats competed in the "Pink" Fleet, aptly named for the choice of Class Pennant (see photo, left). And, this year, to no one's great surprise, the perrenial favorite "Incommunicado" fairly dominated the series with a crushing, 2-1-1 cluster of scores.
The folks on "Inc" were kind enough to have me on board for the last 2 races and I have to say, the women on "Inc" can drive!
Our only issue was making sure we could actually get someone of the female proclivity on board for each race, because, from the rather extensive list of "Incs" potential female crew, the month of September seems to offer up a fairly formidable list of obstacles to their participation. Between work, late summer vacations, kid's sports, and the usual barrage of early fall maladies, sniffles, etc., we were lucky to have a woman driver for each race!
This last race was crucial to our doing well in the series, so, always willing to go the extra mile to support a good cause, I had borrowed an attractive (and quite flattering) wig to don if we were unable to muster an XX chromosomer. No one would guess there was actually a guy under all that hair, so either way we were, as they say, "good to go."
But to the huge relief of everyone involved, our Go-To-Girl "Fast Christine" showed up ready to rock and, despite a recalcitrant diesel and a rather short-handed crew, we made it to the line with time to spare.
We did a few things right and Christine drove like a banshee. We missed getting the gun by a half minute or so, but we easily corrected over everyone and that sealed the deal for the series bullet.
Hats off to MRSA for a great season and for sponsoring a cool final series that always brings on a lot of laughs and shakes things up a bit. And major props to our two women helmsmen...excuse me, helms-per-beings, Christine and Yvonne. Yvonne was killer in a heavier air slugfest the week before, in which Inc scored another bullet.
Left, the rearguard offers of a ton of support for our intrepid skipper.
Please note: no snakey-wake here, a testimony to Christine's unfettered concentration in the face of adversity!
"Boondoggle's" Mike Morgan, looking stylish in a UMBC Sailing Team shirt, shifting gears a few seconds into a close start.
"Boondoggle" chose something a little more demure and, perhaps, offering a bit more windage, for their class flag.
They need to know: rose colored bras are fast and pink thongs are even faster!
09.23.09....Kind of Blue
Thursday nights at HdG are done and it feels weird not to be grinding up I-95 at rush hour to race.
HdG proved itself to be amazingly lucky with breeze and weather in general....20 races scheduled, 20 races in the books.
The star fleet grew a bit and at one point, there were 8 boats in their start (photo, left).
J24's stayed pretty consistent, with about a dozen boats out over the course of the season, and a solid 8 or 9 every Thursday.
I haven't looked at the numbers, but each year the PHRF fleet up there seems to be larger.
Clearly HdG is doing something right. Considering the size of the venue (as defined by where a keelboat can go, safely), the geography (lots of land effect on the course makes for a challenging course) and the lack of immediate proximity to large population centers, one might think it would be difficult to maintain a racing fleet there. Yet, racing flourishes...go figure.
09.21.09...Old School
I met Steve Kaufman up at Block Island Race Week earlier this year, and he was telling me about his boat, "Evelution."
"Evelution" is a custom one-off that Bob Evelyn built to campaign, among other venues, in the old SORC series. The SORC series was pretty much the ultimate American race event, second only to the America's Cup, back in the hayday, well before the introduction of the IOR rule (and into its demise). 1973 was probably the biggest year but then entries started to slowly die off each year thereafter, due to a number of factors, the month-long time commitment included.
I remember the first day I walked out on the pier at SPYC (St. Pete Yacht Club) in 2005 with Tom Schock, and Tom was reminiscing about the old SORC days, saying that basically anyone who was anybody was there for at least part of the event, if not for the whole series.
Anyway, the story goes that Bob E. was approached to design and build a boat that would be competitive in IOR One Ton class, and cost was not to be an object. I distinctly remember the term "bags of money." Or a "bag of money." Whatever. It wasn't cheap. In fact, it turned out to be a very expensive one-off.
And it did well, but there was a problem with the owner's line of business, that may or may not have had something to do with smuggling. Anyway, to make a long story short (a lot of which I have forgotten) is that the IRS finally seized the yacht and then it made its way to the Coast Guard and eventually it ended up being sold (at auction?) to Steve K.
Apparently he also got something like TWENTY EIGHT SAILS with it. Sails dating back to the late SORC days. Things like an old Sobstad Genesis string sail jib. And a bunch of rags that went straight to the dumpster, as there were, according to Steve, various nests and dwellings in the bags that were indicative of ground-dwelling mammals having set up housekeeping. Can't really blame them. So, with 28 sails give or take a few that went straight into the garbage, it stands to reason that a new owner is going to want to hoist a bunch of them and see what shakes out, so to speak. Here are some shots of Steve sailing "Evelution" with the kite and a blooper up.
I got into racing in the mid-80's, pretty much well past the peak of IOR, so I don't have a clue as to how to trim a blooper and I could feel like I've lived a full and rewarding life if I go to the grave without ever having trimmed one, but I could swear they are to be carried a little lower, almost with the foot dragging in the water and the luff a lot more open. But what do I know...far be it from me to advise Steve about a sail I've never trimmed on a boat I've never seen.
But good on him for giving the old blooper a go. It looks nice and full in this shot where they are headed ~DDW with the main trimmed board flat and sheeted in hard. This is up in very western Long Island Sound, near City Island, and those parts. Another shot of "Evelution" sailing upwind on an earlier outting, is below.
These are cool old boats and I'm glad they are being maintained as a part of racing history, boats like "Carrot" and "Kiva" and others scattered up and down both coasts and the Lakes.
I'm not saying I'd want to do a heavy-air distance race on one, but for the nostalgia and a weeknight race with a reaching leg or two, it's a cheap way to get a bunch of folks on the water on a big, comfy, proper yacht.
09.17.09 Rock On
We were surprised, when talking to someone last week, they hadn't seen this video. If you are one of the few remaining sailors on the planet who haven't seen this, take a few minutes. My favorite part comes at about 1 min. 30 sec. into the video.
There are a couple of companion vids that further explore the madness.
09.09.09 Simply Shocking
We don't know much about this, other than what was reported here, but Ted Diehl, who races his Allied Chance "Windemere" extremely well, sent us these photos of this Catalina that struck some low lying power lines (something like 110 gazillion volts) and burnt to the waterline right behind his home on Bear Creek. Word has it the owner and his crew escaped serious injury. We are very glad to hear that.
(all photos: courtesy Ted Diehl)
09.09.09 Shocking Disregard for Decency
Anyone who's ever raced a Catalina 30 might say these guys are on to something.
09.09.09 Shocking Display of Cooperation
(left, Chris Tulip donates his body to the "Pterobyte" cause by riding the lawnmower into Jabin's)
In an unprecedented display of generosity and cooperation, the Weather Gods bestowed a hundred and sixty + boats with something they least expected for this years addition of Annapolis Drift Week: breeze
Yep, for those of you who decided to forgo the event this year because of it's well-earned reputation for crappy breeze and god-awful powerboat wakes, all we can say is: "You missed it!"
(PHRFA1 boats in a clean start, Day 1, Saturday morning)
Okay, Day 1 wasn't exactly thrilling, with a squirrelly but fairly steady 5 - 9 kn NNE'er serving up challenging conditions, especially coupled with a south setting ebb that never seemed to slack for all 3 days of the event. Toss in the requisite number of Rodneys driving their Clorox bottle reverse-sheer, double-cabin, full- displacement monstrosities thru the courses and you had, at times, what seemed to be Normal ARW Conditions.
But days 2 & 3 were great, with the RC's getting in the full compliment of 3 races on Sunday.
My ride was Jim Baldwin's Evelyn 32-2 "Pterobyte," and while we were pretty much in learning-curve mode (Jim just started racing the boat this season after an extensive, and we mean EXTENSIVE refit), we had a very good time and for me, personally, it was terrific to establish connections with these great guys from Va who race the boat out of Deltaville and FBYC.
("Ptero" gleaming and looking fast for ARW)
Our finishes were not terrific, but we were often in front of the mid-fleet A3 boats and occasionally were in front of one or two of the top three A3 boats. Then we'd find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot by finding a big hole, or the breeze would hand us a 30 degree shift to the wrong side. Stuff like that. And what the hell is it with the current? We were way south of Thomas Point Light (we nicknamed our circuit "Bloody Point Race Week") and thru 3 days of 7-8 hours on the water, we never saw the flood tide. I think the Fall Line has shifted to south of Solomons, because the current only seems to ebb in the bay, off Annapolis. That sorta makes it a river?
Race management also served up a bit of a stinker: they eliminated the option of doing circles for ALL infractions. So, when we were set into an offset mark, we could not spin a circle to exonerate and took a rather hideous scoring penalty, in what would have been one of our best races. It's not like the jury is still out on that decision (eliminating on-course exoneration)...there was a lot of criticism of this provision which was inserted into the SI's at some point. We'll see if they ever resuscitate this clusterfark in the future. Otherwise, at least in our circle, the RC work was quite good. Thanks to the South Fleet RC for providing 3 days of great racing.
(above, looks clean for this PHRF A2 start at -1 second, but the X-flag says otherwise)
Such is life. In A3, the number of clueless, barging hacks was somewhat amazing. I mean, come on folks…this is a fairly prestigious local regatta. Leave your b.s. Wednesday night PHRF tactics at home, read the damn rule book and don't come reaching in on the line, fouling other boats and causing collisions. Everyone knows who I'm talking about, here, and if you don't know who it is, it's probably you.
09.09.09 Our Annual Rules Rant
("Pterobyte" crew identifies one more act of clueless asshatry)
As a smooth segue from the last paragraph, above, it has been leaked to nbayracing that a certain commodore from a certain club had to send out a warning to a certain crew that their flagrant abuse and disregard of the RRS would most decidedly result in a suspension if they don't soon get their shirt together and clean up their idiotic act.
ALSO: I would like to take this opportunity, right now, to remind people that intentionally calling out a confusing, or deliberately misleading hail, such as "starboard" when you are on port tack, is a Rule 2 violation of the RRS. If you don't believe me, I'd suggest you look at Case 47 in the casebook.
RULE 2 people, read it again. Incorporate it into your being, your very soul, your bodily essence.
8.30.09.....Black & White Night
Just some black and white shots from Wednesday Aug 12th on the Magothy. Nice night!
8.23.09....Quirk Central
(Left, this massive piece of convection, approx 40 miles offshore, and the one pictured below, meandered slowly by, leaving a nice clear spot for an evening race in Charleston Harbor. Big thanks to the SC Weather Gods!!!)
A neat part of doing the “Other People’s Boats Thing,” is getting to a variety of different venues around the bay, and, for that matter, the East Coast.
I get a kick out of all the little quirks and challenges different race venues serve up., especially for weeknite races. Annapolis has its famous Wed nite finish off the AYC clubhouse with the finishing leg thru the mooring field and a full-bore, brakes- on, screeching halt before the Spa Creek bridge.
Havre de Grace has legs thru a mooring field, too…and, as often as not, a mid-leg barge sitting on the rhumb line.
North Point has a treacherous rock hidden somewhere near the starting line and BCYA has all manner of issues that stem from sharing the course with tugs and container ships, including their 5 blasts and you’re gone rule.
I had the opportunity to sail a Wednesday nite race sponsored by CORA when I was in Charleston SC this past week, and I think the Quirk Factor rates pretty high for their venue. For one thing, people who think Long Island Sound has plenty of current might be astonished at the kind of tidal flow you get in Charleston harbor.
But by far the most bizarre thing about Charleston’s Wednesday nite fleet is their starting area…instead of an RC boat, the far end from the pin is Charleston Yacht Club’s pier!
This pretty much annihilates the problem of the most common (and annoying) weeknight hack move, “The Barge”.
But anyone trying to line up a conservative “boat end” starboard tack start is going to have to do some on-board physics, because with up to 6 kn of current ripping past the CYC pier, the chances of pulling it off successfully are slim.
(Left, our J105 in pre-start mode, the arrow points to the starboard end of the starting line...truly no where to hide!)
Still, CORA’s weeknight races are very popular with approximately 40 boats showing up weekly. The whole scene is reminiscent of NPSA’s Wednesday Night races (when NPSA was in its hayday): very, very laid back, with an enormous variety of racing type-forms, from a small Melges 24 fleet to a considerable number of late 60’s, (lots of overhang) designs.
I had a blast on a J105 with a crowd of considerably younger (by decades) folks who were very generous to have hosted me. Major thanks to the crew of “Absolutely” for having me on board last week!
(Below, a J24 start in Anywhere, USA....although this one has a severely truncated Start Box. Storm to the west took 6 hours to wander past, way inshore)
8.07.09....Breakaway
What if.
What if people in the fastest growing continguent of performance sailing (small sportboats, or just plain SPORTBOATS) finally got sick of their local PHRF OA (organizing authorities, such as PHRF of the Chesapeake, New England PHRF, etc).
What if they got tired of the PHRF OAs scratching their heads, trying to decide what to do about them, e.g., how to rate them, whether they fit under safety & distance racing constraints (lifelines, sinks, berths, potties, etc) and whether or not they should even race against leadmines with similar ratings.
What if they acquired a critical mass whereby they could say, "screw it, we're done with PHRF," and started their own independent racing associations, governed locally but with a national OA that had the authority to ride herd over a fairly specific set of Portsmouth numbers for both production boats and one-offs?
A fantasy?
Maybe. But we're thinking it's more of an eventuality. Here's a quote from Tim Reiter, who owns Watershed Boats (for all intents and purposes, the entity that owns the license and supplies the plans and parts for the i550 sportboat):
"The genre is growing faster than any other segment of the sailboat world. The Australians have been sorting this through and are further along in realizing that they needed to create an association that deals specifically with the sport boat type as different from keelers and Dinghys.
It has been suggested that the sportboats abandon phrf and adopt Portsmouth numbers. I am all for this. I think that the PHRF and USSailing bodies have too much inertia in protecting the status quo of their feifdoms to be beneficial to our needs, which are best described as an open invitation to innovation, participation and inclusion."
What does all this mean? It basically means that, when the Melges 20's and Vipers and Open 6.5's of this world get enough numbers in their areas to race OD, they won't give a rat's rear-end about a handicapping system.
But until then, if someone who owns a small sporty wants to go out on a Wednesday evening or a weekend and race, they would not be set up as pariahs by the local PHRF OA.
With strong local and national Sportboat Associations, they could petition their clubs to score a distinct fleet on Portsmouth, or they can start their own local clubs and designate someone in their fleet as weekly RC on a rotating basis to start & score their own races, as a lot of clubs already do for PHRF racing.
The oldschoolers can bitch about this as much as they want....but nbayracing.com doesn't throw this out as a plea. We're saying it's an eventuality. It isn't really "what if."
It's more like "what will."
We'd certainly be interested in helping facilitate any initial efforts to get a sportie association started in this part of the estuary.
7.30.09....Finished
(left, we get the pre-race low down on ALIR)
We had Olde Home Week on the J24 last Thursday evening, as our former bowman, on hull 4201, Midshipman Evan Berthold, came by to sail with us (6 up on a 24, good times!)
Evan is tactician on the USNA boat “Zaraffa,” and we got a chance to talk to him about the recent “Around Long Island Regatta” (ALIR) that got some ink in the sailing press last week. “Zaraffa” is a Reichel/Pugh 66 (and the name means “giraffe” in Turkish).
Approx 60 boats entered, only 9 finished.
"Zaraffa" was one of the nine that finished....and that earned them a first in class.
This is a race that starts on a Thursday afternoon, off Rockaway Point at the west end of Long Island, just up the atlantic coast from NYC. The breeze was from a predicted low that was kicking up a bit of pressure from the ENE quadrant…that makes Long Island’s south shore a lee shore.
Put a big pressure gradient off the LI coast, kicking in a wave train onto shallow coastal waters, and you can imagine the sea state on the Atlantic side of the island.
The carnage other boats suffered was significant, and it is rumored that Coast Guard SAR ops were bumped into high gear when the Tartan 3700 “Lorelei” began taking on water (a reported 2 feet on water, below). Between “Lorelei” and other boats issuing distress calls, the CG and NYPD scrambled 3 helicopters Thursday night.
Evan says the anno was pegged in the mid 40’s (until it finally left the boat and read “3 kn” for the rest of the race) with the strongest breeze coming in after midnight. Almost the entire crew experienced a bit of seasickness, yet they persevered. At times the boat was suspended in mid-air, after crashing through backless waves, and the boat would then bury her bow up to the mast.
Zaraffa rounded Montauk at 7:40 a.m. Friday morning and finished off the Glen Cove breakwater around 8:30 that evening. In typical Long Island Sound fashion, the wind gods giveth, and the wind gods taketh away…apparently it got pretty light as the race progressed into Friday.
Oh, and not to be overlooked, the USNA’s Navy 44 “Swift” won their class, too. With the 2nd they took at BIRW, a nice season so far for the old Luders design and the Middies and their coach who sail it. GO NAVY!
(right, Mids celebrate at the awards ceremony, Sea Cliff YC. Photo courtesy Tom on the SA Forum)
(left, USNA's Navy 44 "Swift," earlier this summer at Block I. Photo nbayracing.com)
7.25.09......Wrong tool
If you bring a knife to a gun fight at Screwpile you are going to get hosed.
Big Time.
(some sterns we got to know pretty well...."CarribeanSoul," John Anderson's "Swell," and the longtime SPLC fixture, "Big Time.")
Or, maybe even get hosed by “Bigtime.”
That’s what happened to us at SPLC this year, although it wasn’t just Michael Rajacich ’s aged Cal 33 “Big Time,” but a whole host of C/D boats like John Anderson’s Catalina 27 “Swell,” and the slightly turbo’ed Mac 30 “Carribean Soil,” and, for that matter, pretty much everyone else in the C/D fleet.
We just got our butts handed to us, plain and simple.
Why, then, was it still a blast? Because 3-4 days of racing and post-race mayhem at Solomon’s Island is about as good as it gets on the East Coast. Okay, Block has the Oar and Newport is Newport, but for sheer down-home good times and summer weather and racer-friendly natives, Screwpile is top flight in my book.
Imagine going to a WaWa near a giant military base somewhere else in the country and having the smiling counter-help say, “You going racing today? Well, then GOOD LUCK, darlin’ ” (a far cry from the surly grunt you usually get in America’s Sailing Capitol). And, after a lengthy post-race session, trying to address some boatspeed issues, we headed out for dinner. Went to a few places and were too late, sorry, kitchen closed. But a great ribs spot, "Boomerangs," came to the rescue, told us to come in anyway and graciously fed us, never flinching a bit on smiles and service.
That’s what I like about the south.
SPLC entry numbers were down a little bit, this year. In a bad economy, I guess that’s to be expected, but from every fleet, the people I talked to said the racing was tight, the race management was good if not excellent (even with just one race on Day 2 in the North Fleet) and the breeze was, if not stellar, certainly adequate and definitely challenging.
A historic occasion, SPLC had its first-ever Sportboat Class start. Seven sporties made the trip, including a few Antrims, a couple of Esse’s and Brian Jones’ one-off beauty, “Problem Child.” The Finot Open 6.5 got some attention, too, although they seemed to be just learning the boat and the light air did not appear to hit the boat's sweet spot.
(the Finot Open 6.5, left, and Brian Jones "new" BC27, "Problem Child" )
For us, Day 3 seemed to offer some salvation. We had worked through the boatspeed issues and were becoming pretty competitive, getting to the top mark in the first third of the fleet in one race (before instantly losing 5 boats in a hideous tactical/communication misunderstanding) and the best part was racing tightly with 4 of the "like-boat" vessels in our class, another Merit 25, a J24, a Kirby 25 and a Tanzer 25. To me, if you have to race PHRF, at least Screwpile usually gets you into a fleet were you can find some very fun competition. If you aren't having fun, then why the hell are you even out there?
Somehow, Screwpile never fails to deliver.
(good times in slow boats...another Merit, the Kirby, a J24 and an S2 7.9 all converge on the leeward mark, on Day 3. The RC got in 3 races on Gettaway Day, first time I've ever seen that at SPLC)
7.09.09......Groundhog Day
Another incredibly gorgeous Thursday night in HdG.
I believe that, like the breeze, weekly weather patterns can get in phase during the summer. I remember a few years back when there was a relentless stream of terrific Monday and Tuesday nights, but Wednesdays evenings were awful for a solid month, month and a half.
We seem to be in a groove on Thursdays at HdG.
I love getting shots of the stars going off before we start. They sure are interesting boats...
Pre-start Thurs. July 9, in a breezy HdG.
Star stuff...pretty technical in terms of tweaks, the jib leads and vang track, for example.
7.05.09....Super Models
We'll be adding a link and doing a little piece on this soon, but for now, check out Garry F. Cerrone's page of models he has made (and also sold) at: http://www.gcdesigngroup.com/chassemaree_13.htm
Garry shows these at the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery on the City Dock in Naptown and you should see these things in person. The level of detail is astounding (maybe even a little scary). Cheggittout. 
7.03.09....Stay Hungry
As miserable as we were a week ago at Block, when it was cold and we tanked in a race and someone on the boat blew chunks and then it rained and everything was just not going well, for some insane reason we look back at that and say, "well that sucked, but I'm still glad I did it."
And, for all the times things go completely crappy and you screw up a race, or the weather makes you miserable, there are nights when everything clicks and you get beautiful condits and a decent enough breeze and you make all the right moves and win the race going away.
A night like that came along last night, and we can look back and say, "nights like this are why we race sailboats."
It might be that the experience away at Block made us come back hungry for a well-sailed Thursday night J24 OD race. It might be that we came back sharper, more focused, more practiced and more finely honed.
Or it may have been just dumb luck that we were always in breeze, always on the lifted tack, and always in clean air. I honestly don't think that's it, though. I'm going to stick with the hunger-thing. You get your rear-end handed to you a few times at an away venue and come home and break bad on your weeknite competitors. It has happened a few times in the past, like after racing at Screwpile. Somehow things seem simpler and clearer when you get back from an away event and you are back on your home waters.
The secret is maintaining that level of clarity and focus. The secret is: stay hungry.
(left, Tom Schwartz, Andy Winger and Mike G. scope out the breeze and the finish line on the aptly named J24 "Just Right," while the closest competitors in the OD fleet round a mark back by the RR bridge.)
(left, 6 stars go off on an incredibly beautiful thursday night in HdG)
6.27.09.....Block Island Fog Week
I think the concept behind Block Island Race Week is something like: a summer vacation on a remote island with a lot of good racing.
The good racing was there, but the summer vacation steadfastly refused to show up.
A welcome mat that's bolted to the floor might be considered sort of a "tell" that there might be wind. There was wind. And fog. And rain. And cold.
How can that be fun?
Not sure, really, but it was. If you get to Block, it's crucial to arrive with a certain appreciation of the reality: it is mid-June in New England on an island sitting out in the Atlantic Ocean.
vs 
According to Bob Evelyn, who has been racing at Block Island since the early-mid 70's, this was the worst weather he’s seen in the last 3 decades. So, if you go to Block in 2011, forget the fantasies of racing in a 12 kn seabreeze in a post-solstice deluge of sunshine. It could happen, but probably won’t.
vs
We had a preview of the entire week’s gloom on the way over from CT. I was helping deliver a J120 over from Essex and a little past Race Rock Light, we hit an oily ocean swell and some significant fog. It was eerie being out in Block Island Sound with intermittent schools of 4-5 foot long dogfish doing something weird on the surface…swarming? We hit a few of the slower ones. More on that later.
The next day was Sunday and would have been a practice day that we sorely needed on my ride, Ed Tracey & Tim Polk’s Omega 36 “Incommunicado,” but conditions conspired to keep us locked in…namely: a gale warning and a Cambria 46 that kept everyone inboard of it from exciting the docking area. We’d pay for that lack of a practice day, later.
The next day, Day 1 of BIRW, the RC decided it was a good idea to send all of us out for Block’s famous Round The Island (RTI) race. It was honking and the sea state on the Atlantic side was “lively, to say the least” (a favorite Adlard Coles expression). But, it was a hoot even though we screwed the pooch pretty mightily. Due to bad timing, and some other nuances of sailhandling, we developed a massive forestay wrap (kind of a theme for days 1 & 2) and we let the LS-10 “Lunatic Fringe” get by us, which landed us a spot off the podium in 4th.
Crap.
(left, the Coasties J120 struggles out of a wave trough)
Tying up, after the race, was also a bit of a challenge.
The Abbott 33 "Pirate" suffered a loss of rig on their approach to the finish line.
(left, lads aloft after the RTI race carnage)
The next day it was still honkin’ and in Race 1 our old friend Mr. God-awful Forestay Wrap made his appearance once more. This time it was so bad, we had to retire from the race.
Did I mention we hadn’t practiced?
Uber mensch that Ed is, he gave us a very, very, low key pep-talk and we sorted out some timing issues and the next thing we knew, we were back in the hunt, with 4 – 3 – 1 – 1 finishes in the next 4 races.
(Tim and Ed with the Rolex sponsored Day 3 First Place pickle dish; our 15 year old trimmer Ryan gets a T2P interview; we watch it all a few hours later in the tent...life is good!)
Going into the Last Day, we were in third and primed for a podium finish. But we literally lost the last race in the fog. I mean we REALLY lost the race in the fog.
Somehow we finagled a 6 out of the mess we made from sailing past marks, hitting marks, and making a bunch of sailhandling gaffs due to not having enough time to set up properly, once marks were located. Oh and, yeah, it was foggy. I think minimum viz was down to approx 100 yards by the time we finished.
Racing in 8 – 14 kn in thick fog is something I’ll not soon forget.
Anyway, the 6th plucked us out of 3rd and we ended up 4th overall.
Respectable, but not as satisfying as a podium spot. However the two bullets for Day 3 and a hefty pickle dish for Incommmunicado meant some redemption was earned from Inc’s disasterous go at BIRW in 2005, when they lost their rig.
As we were saying Saturday morning, upon departure, we had some good days and we didn’t break anything. Sometimes that’s enough to ask for!
(left, for all the cloudiness in the sky, the water clarity certainly tried to compensate. You don’t get 7-8 feet of visibility in the Chesapeake by late June, that’s for sure)
The golden rule of all vacations is: the day you leave will be the best weather-wise.
Here, the sky opened up to reveal this modest little chateau on the north end of Fishers Island.
The northern 2/3rds of Fishers is pretty exclusive and if you are a mere mortal, you can't get throught the gate.
Yes, the entire 2/3rds of this fairly large island are gated. New York has some pretty weird islands....it gets even stranger on Plum, a few miles south of Fishers.
Oh yeah, and one more word on the sharks...this, from the Storm Trysail Club's press release after the RTI race,
"Ramrod, the Farr 40 owned by Rodrick Jabin (Annapolis, Md.) caught a four-foot sand shark on its keel, which might have seemed the most unusual happening save for the fact that several other boats experienced the same thing. “We were going 12-16 knots downwind, then all of a sudden we were doing 11-13; we had to back down to shake him free,” said Ramrod’s mast man Matt Weimer (Annapolis, Md.)."
Dorothy, we aren't on the Severn anymore.
6.05.09.... Another 2 - 20 Night of Wind
At left, Tim Polk does a great job of concentrating on keeping the boat moving (in a non-existant breeze) instead of thinking about saving a lot of money by switching to GEICO.
A great thing about getting to sail in a bunch of different weeknite venues (the upside of not currently campaigning my own sailboat) is getting to see a bunch of different designs out on the courses.
The chute with the googly eyes is set on Geoff Schneider's Nightwind 35, "Nightingale."
The Nightwind 35 CB is a Bruce Kirby design (pretty obvious when you see the boat's lines beam-on). Kirby (whom most people know probably owns the record of Most Production Boats Ever Built because of the success of the Laser-with more than 182,000 built, worldwide....I dunno, maybe the Sunfish has sold more) designed the boat in 1979 and hull number one hit the water in 1980. Somewhere between 13 and 15 hulls were produced.
It was designed as a centerboarder, but weighs in at almost 6 tons, approximately 1,500 pounds heavier than a J35. 1,100 pounds of the three-quarter ton difference is due to increased ballast on the Nightwind. Upwind sail area on the two boats is virtually identical. There's a vast difference in ratings, the J35 owes the Nightwind 51 seconds per mile.
According to Wikipedia, Bruce Kirby still keeps a Nightwind at the family dock on Long Island.
Nearby T-storms sucked all the punch out of the NE gradient breeze....things looked bleak, prestart.
"Nightingale" finds a little breeze as it fills in from the left side.
The left paid big dividends...meanwhile we, on the right, needed a bail-out.
Hobie 33 "Chaos" finds a lot more breeze at the finish.
6.05.09....Nap 2 Newp
Annap to Newport Race is going on right now and you can track it here
We would not be opposed to seeing the Sunfast 3200 do well in this, the one we got to climb all over after Harbor Cup last October.
It seemed like a neat ride with a lot of potential and as far as we can tell, it's the smallest vessel doing the A2N this year.
Looks like fast fun ride down the bay, today, but tomorrow looks somewhat less promising...it might be a long slow ride to Rhode Island.
We're hoping everyone gets in safely!
5.31.09.... Big
Some pix from Thursday at HdG.
Above is B & B Taylor's Wauquiez Centurion 40, "N-Titled 2." We have to hand it to these peeps...trying to nose a big horse like this around a short course such as HdG's Thursday night circuit in 10-15 with just 4-up is a handful, even when it's non-spin. (We were just 3-up on the J24 and it was a workout).
It's a pretty boat but seems a little incongruous among the Hunter's and Laser 28's and Soverel 27's of HdG's NS fleet.
Nonetheless, we say hats off to them for plunking down the coin for such a beautiful ride, and best of luck on the race course. It's one more unique vessel at a Thursday Night venue that offers everything from starboats to...well....40 foot cruising boats!
And, btw, the proper way to pronounce Wauquiez? is here (Voh'kee-ay)
5.29.09 JUMP START
If you're thinking about getting into the i550 game (and let's face it, who isn't...something like 10 plan sets sold in the past 2 weeks!) then here's a way to jump start your build...Peter Ross of Peter Ross Yachts has this one up for sale! It's a bit of a departure from the usual i550 because it doesn't have a coach roof, but it's not the only one built like that....the boat's designer Chris Beckwith is also building a flush deck model.
To say that Peter is an exactling builder would be a bit of an understatement. This hull should be stiff and fast! (you'll have to talk to Peter directly about whether or not it'll measure in) Shoot him an email at:
pross at prossyachts dot com
5.15.09... Sporties, 19th century style
I ran across these 2 shots while cleaning out some files on another laptop. I can't give photo credits because I have no idea from where they came.
Look at the prod on the one on the left. Tell me these guys didn't get some horsepower out of these turbo'ed gaffers back then. I guess these are pretty close to what would be considered a sportboat, back in the 1890's.
It's funny how the advent of cheap mass-marketed sailboats after WWII turned the concept of sailing more toward having a home on the water, rather than something that was a gas to sail and race! Obviously, there were some boats with more of a strictly racing purpose that came out of production shops in the 50's, 60's and 70's, but for the most part the emphasis was on cruising with a grudging nod toward "speed."
But maybe, after living thru a crushing economic depression & coming home from a world war, guys had had enough excitement. Maybe the plan was just to chill out a bit on a boat with a bedroom and a kitchen. Whatever the motivation, the tendancy toward racing platforms demanding a little more athleticism (and paying off with a lot more excitement) sort of got derailed there, for a few decades.
The good news is we're back on track, with a vengance.
5.11.09.... Chill
(left) Post race debrief in the Magothy last week...the garb doesn't exactly conger up the word "summer."
People were griping pretty fiercely about the temps in Annapolis for the J24 Worlds, and I don't blame them.
I mean, come on, it's May. The teams from down south were especially vocal.
It seems like the past few springs have been colder than normal by a large margin of error. I'm sure there is glut of empirical data that would back up the above statement.
Weather happens and it should not be confused with climate. Climate is long term, weather is today, tomorrow and yesterday. That having been said, this weather is making weeknight racing feel more like frostbiting.
We caught a break at HdG lastThursday...we got there early to step the mast, tune the rig and get the rest of the boat ready to race. Things looked ugly at HdG and furthermore, the racing that day at Naptown for the Worlds had been pretty bad..I think they got in one light-air crap-shoot on an otherwise cool, gloomy, afternoon. But, like a miracle, things cleared up at race time for us,and a decent little SW'er filled in for twice around the course.
Sometimes things just work out , and the next day in Annap, they finally got a full race card in on the last day of the event. You gotta have a little faith, is all.
And, also, never get me started on the topic of environmental alarmism.
Before and after....3:00 pm and 1820 hrs:
Some more shots from HdG of no particular importance:
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5.06.09 HdG Connections
A nice shot from Becky Damore at Sail22.com and we appreciate her letting us use the image, in that it's pretty timely for us.
The boat (bow #30) is "Hedgehog," at the J24 Worlds of, course, happening down the road a piece, in a venue not being particualrly well appreciated on Tuesday and today (Wednesday) as "America's Sailing Capitol." Annapolis has served up a giant can of cold condits and very little pressure, the RC only squeezing in one race in the past 2 days.
Ian Southward's "Hedgehog," seen here on her way to winning the first race of the 2009 Worlds, has HdG's Max Skelley and Chris Crockett on board. Everyone knows who Max is and everyone who races in the 24 fleet at HdG knows who Chris Crockett is, as lord knows we've seen enough of his stern throughout the years.
These guys currently stand in 7th place in an unbelievably deep fleet of 79 boats, and that's with a Z flag penalty and a race to toss, so they are definitely still in the picture. There has been some serious scoring inversions with just 3 races in the bag and every boat in the top ten has a finish of 16th or worse. To me, that says there are a lot of teams competing who brought some serious game to Naptown for the Worlds. When a team like Mike Hobson's "Meltimi" is sitting at 37th, you better believe there is deep talent setting up shop off "R2." Mike beat Culter , the Twins, Ingham, Parker and some other heavyweights in an East Coasts some years back. Looking at the results from Day 3 with "Millenium Falcon" in 45th place almost makes me glad we didn't qualify!
So, we on Tom Schwartz's hull 4201 will schlepp up to HdG tomorrow night to race the boat for the first time this season, after some massive winter projects have been completed and the boat is just about ready to splash (hopefully by 5 pm). Fx is for some breeze, which, after the Star Wars non-event, and a light affair on the Magothy last week, I will definitely appreciate. I hope we see the 15-25 they are talking about. Even if Chris Crockett's light blue hulled "Crockadero" won't be showing us the way to the next mark.
Again, thanks to Sail22, L.L.C for letting us use some of their images. In fact, check out the blurb, below, on one more thing they are doing to promote our sport.
5.06.09...By Whatever Means Necessary
For the 5 years nbayracing.com has been in existence, we been some cranky sumbeeches about the electronic interface with all things racing .
Things like slow reporting of results and crappy coverage of big-time events really frost us.
On this site, we've extolled the virtues of things like LZ's YachtScoring and Sailing Anarchy's On The Water coverage, which have brought us a good deal closer to the racing, along with massively better access to the information we all want concerning big regattas.
Now sail22.com has joined the fray, by posting instant messages on Twitter, from close, "on the water" proximity at the J24 Worlds. Hey, it ain't ESPN, but it sure as hell is better than nothing.
They also send pix to a Flickr account and provide links to the pix on the Twitter messages. Pretty damn cool and a real boon to we poor desk jockeys, who either didn't qualify or who have had Life interfere with our being in Naptown for the Worlds.
So cheers to Sail22...we hope they get tons of positive feedback and heaps of new business from their efforts at the J24 Worlds!
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5.05.09...AYC Goes Live
We've always taken a puerile delight in ragging on AYC (because of old greivances and slights that are too boring upon which to elaborate).
But we have to give them major props for their new webcams!
Now you can watch the Wednesday Night Races finish from the comfort and convenience of your own couch! With fresh nachos and cheap drinks! How cool is that?
And, in an unparalelled act of generosity & noblisse oblige, they're allowing us to watch (brace yourself) without even having to be MEMBERS!
So, a golf clap for AYC, they certainly deserve it for this endeavor. Come on, now...polite applause.
(above) J24 Worlds participants head for the annex after a day of brisk anchoring. Image frrom AYC Spa Creek Camera. There is also another camera facing out Spa Creek toward SSA and David Taylor. SLick!
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5.2.09...Historic
In our relentless (some might say "obsessive") quest to the get the racing world into sportboats, at least for round-the-bouys stuff, we give you another glimpse into a event taking place on the other side of the planet.
The Bay to Bay Race, which takes place on the waters of Queensland, a few hours north of Brisbane. This is a race for trailable (or, as we Yanks would say, "trailerable") sailboats and it's one of the most popular sailing events in Australia.
And no wonder. It's a two day race through waters that look like this, below, with an overnight stop at "Garry's Anchorage" which is on Frazier Island. Frazier Island is the world's largest sand island.
This is an aerial shot from Google Maps. Just right and slighty above center, there's a white speck...that's a sailboat for scale.
Today (which is pretty much tomorrrow in Oz) marks a special day in history, e.g., the start of the Bay to Bay Race 2009, when, for the first time, two i550's squared off against each other: Andrew Clauson's "Tokyo Trash Baby," the first i550 on the planet, vs. John Quern's wasabi green "Baby Faced Assassin."
The bad news is: early reports say that John's i550 lost its rig!
More on this later here.
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4.13.09........OUCH
If you didn't catch this on Sailing Anarchy click here to see what becomes of a somewhat soggy J30.
It isn't very pretty.
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4.04.09......Breakfast at the AP Hotel
It's been a long winter and if you've forgotten what AP over Hotel signifies, it's "Races not yet started are postponed. More information ashore."
That was all she wrote, for CBYRA's Star Wars regatta, this past Saturday. By noon we were done, all races abandoned due to high wind speeds.
You certainly can't blame the EYC PRO. Racing in puffs consistently in the 30's with a few blasts up near 40, would have been one thing in July. In early April, with a bunch of rusty sailors, most of whom had very little or zero experience in the loaner J80s, with water tempertures in the low 50's, cancelling all racing was pretty much of a no-brainer.
Not to mention there were thirteen $500 damage deposits at stake. Think a few of those deposits might have gotten eaten up pretty quickly in those conditions? I don't think I've done a race, ever, in windspeeds above 30, where something didn't get broken.
So, while there was dissapointment, there was very little grumbling (I might even suggest, none whatsoever) when the RC said we're done for the day. Even though, for the last couple of hours, a lot of us had been watching the Opti kids out in front of EYC having a blast in the big breeze.....
....at least it looked like the ones who were not completely terrified were having fun.
It's hard watching a bunch of 10 year olds having a blast while you are sitting on the EYC deck wishing you were out there, too. But, dId I mention the 500 dollar damage deposits on the borrowed boats?
We also got to witness a 5o5'er getting launched out of SSA. Looked like a blast and they had a big old RIB following them closely all the way out the river and I would assume all the way back in. What a great day for practice on a 5o5.
So, while people were ripping it up out on the river, the hoist went unused and the 80's sat there, forlornly, at the dock and we made the best of it.
Killing time by grabbing a nap on a park bench is nice on a Saturday morning, but it ain't racing. Besides, I didn't even have a proper hangover to make it all worthwhile.
But no one got injured and no boats got all beaten-up and no one lost their 500 dollar damage deposit, so all-in-all, it was a pretty good day on the water. Or near the water. Close to the water. Not on it.
Not this time.
Heck, it's only April.
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3.29.09........RUST NEVER SLEEPS
We have CBYRA's "Star Wars" coming up, this Saturday (raced round-robin on loaner J80's), and it was decided that a practice session out of JPort on one of their J80 rentals would be a good idea.
Turns out, it was a very good idea.
(Note to self: trying to cheat out an A-sail gybe by bailing early to get to the weather rail a.s.a.p., and not helping the trimmer by running the lazy (now "working") sheet all the way aft to get the entire sail past the headstay is SLOW when the g.d. thing wafts through the fore-triangle and ties itself into a Gordian Knot around the tuff-luff)
At first the day looked a little sketchy, but all the forecasts were in alignment that the fog would disappear by 10 am and a bulding southerly with a big, all-day righty, was in store.
By 11 it was obvious that the southerly was sleeping off a hangover and might not show up until afternoon. We could all understand that, but then, at about 11:20 or so, the fog dissipated and the breeze finally staggered in, a little raggedy at first, but, after a while, getting comfortable with a solid 10-14 and building to 16-18, from the (YAY!) south. Anyone who's ever sailed the Chesapeake (or anywhere else) when the water temps are in the low 40's knows that a south breeze brings incredible temperature swings, back and forth, from 52 to 75 in a matter of seconds. Personally, I love that. I love it when the breeeze feels cold, some clouds go overhead and darkens the course for a 30-40 seconds, and then the sun pops out and a warm finger of much hotter air finds its way down to the surface and all of a sudden it's summer for a few seconds.
The down side is you do end up flinging off clothes and putting them back on again, trying to find the proper mixture of layers.
We were fortunate in being able to tune against another 80 that had Chris from Annapo JPort on board as a coach. These guys were fast, but we felt like we had decent boatspeed, considering how little time most of us on board had spent on 80's. We weren't always spot-on with timing on our sets and douses, but there was a definite tendancy toward group improvement ( kaizen) and we didn't feel like total J80 newbs by the time we did our last couple of sets (although, on our last douse we spent some time on a Quest for Seafood).
Speed drills, some DW work, a few start sequences and some much appreciated Ibuprofen the next morning...not too shabby, considering it's still March!
For a slightly more exciting tale, of sailing a J80 on the west coast, click here. Pretty amazing story (with a happy ending) including a post (#25) from one of the sailors involved .
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3.23.09.....SMALL STUFF
Snakes, Planing.
We've been bludgeoning people over the head for months (years) about how small sportboats are going to be the way of the future (finally) for buoy racing.
Check out today's headline story, "Get Bitten," on Sailing Anarchy about the Coral Reef Regatta, and then click on over here to have a look at the small sportboat presence at this year's Charleston Race Week.
An incredible 35 Vipers are entered, and the Melges 20 and 24's make up another 43 entries. Throw in the 3 SB3's and that's more than 80 small sportboats, over half the number of entries in this record year of participation at CRW!
Major props to Justin Scott, the Viper640 class president, for the absolutely amazig job he's done of showing off the Viper at different venues and promoting the class successfully. (photo courtesy of Justin Scott, www.viper640.org )
Camp Op
For folks up in the N.E. corner of our lovely state, who might be looking for something for the kid-bobs to do this summer, other than watch 15 hours of TV a day, might want to click HERE to get the particulars on the North East River Yacht Club's junior sailing summer program.
Looks like fun!
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3.11.09
I took this shot today out a window of our building, at work.
You know what they say, "when the redtail hawks begin to munch on squirrels, can spring be far off?"
I think this is definitive proof: spring is in the air.
R.I.P., Rocket J.
3.11.09
17 Days...
OK, we've been laying low and suffering through this retched thing called winter. I know that "weather" isn't the same as "climate" but this winter has brought us more than 1,500 record lows across the nation and over 1,100 record snowfalls (source: wbal.com). Al Gore can go chew on a sausage, as far as I'm concerned.
But: in 17 days we start practicing for CBYRA's annual "Star Wars," hosted by EYC and raced round-robin on a bunch of J80's. We'll have some stuff on that (the event is April 4th) and then go into club racing at various venues up here, etc.
So, yeah man, let's get it started! We hope the weekends are warm and dry for those folks who are getting ready to splash soon. Until then, we'll be plugging along on the i550 build. See you on the water, soon, I hope.
Shooting for as brilliant a finished product as John Q's boat in Australia, but his raises the bar a bit, especially with the brake lights!
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2.4.09.....Put this on your calendar 
and then sign up! It's Friday May 22, starting at the usual spot off the Severn. This would be a hoot double-handed!
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2.3.09
Will the Dinosaur please leave the room...please?
An Open letter to our beloved PHRF of the Chesapeake:
Guys: it’s time.
It’s time to get rid of the stupid penalty for using both A-sails and Sym sails on the same PHRF cert in the same season.
Really. It’s arbitrary, it’s outdated and it does nothing to foster competitive racing. In fact, if anything, it fosters less competitive racing.
Here are some PHRF OA's (organizing authorities) around the country who have seen the light, moved out of Jurassic Park, and stopped nicking boats 6-9 points for hoisting a legal, measured in A-sail:
PHRF New England,
PHRF SoCal,
PHRF NB (Narragansett Bay),
PHRF Lake Erie, PHRF Lake Michigan and Lake St. Clair.
I've talked to at least 4 people in the last few years who have approached their local PHRF officers here on the Chesapeake, from Baltimore to Deltaville, about getting this idiotic policy changed so that they can move into the realm of 21st century sail design, without incurring a penalty....and the PHRF officers are intransigent. Their attitiude is something like, "We hear this every year and we've decided to stick with what we have." Read: "Every year some kook wants to make more work for us so instead of actually analyzing the pros and cons of the issue, we just say 'no' basically simply because we can."
And people wonder why PHRF fleets are dying?
Honest to god, the only rationale I've ever heard a PHRF officer use for denying this simple revision is "we don't want to start an arms race." Like PHRF has ever given a rat's royal red arse about an "arms race"....seeing as how many restrictions they put on PHRF skippers being able to update any part of their inventory, whenever the hell they want....e.g., ZEEE-ROW....a big zilch.
So now, when you are forced to race against that Antrim 27 or that Hendo 30, because the demise of PHRF racing has so many unlike boats lumped into one fleet, don't even think about popping an A-sail on that reaching leg, where the asym would be a huge help...don't do it unless you are prepared to take a 6 second hit or you are willing to say syonara to your entire Sym sail inventory for the rest of the season.
Ya know, in a crappy economy, maybe a few of the lofts would be thankful for an increase in A-sail builds. Maybe North and Q and Skelley and UK should be the ones lobbying PHRF Ches to revise this moronic policy. Maybe the local reps and the PHRF board would listen if the lofts got on their backs.
Because they sure don't seem to be listening to anyone else. But, hey...they're on your side because they don't want you to have to get involved in an arms race.
Thank god for One Design.
Evelyn 32-2 "Remedy".......A-sail built by Halsey-Lidgard
and Evelyn 32-2 "Phaedra" doing the Sym-sail limbo.
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1.18.09
Winter's Majestic Beauty Dept.
Our bud and long-time NBAYRACING contributor "Searoom" sent us a bunch of shots of iced in North Point boats. Just a little pictorial spread on how much we love and appreciate winter in these parts....gosh, isn't it grand?
Someone got some spiffy new flopper-stoppers for Xmas! These babies really reduce roll in a seaway and when these guys go bumping the bottom for Norfolk Spot next June, the amount of chum leaving the cockpit should be significantly diminished. It's also good to see Survival Suits coming in more fashionable colors this season!
Below, bubbler vs non-bubbler. We're thinking bubbler wins this one.
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1.18.09
Ptero Land
Another Evelyn has landed in the Southern Bay, this one being the storied Evelyn 42, "Pterodactyl," now owned and brought to the Chesapeake by Gene Thayer.
"Pterodactyl" joins the other "Ptero," Evelyn 32-2, "Pterobyte" owned by Jim Baldwin and campaigned out of Deltaville.
So a trip down the bay for Black Seal Cup, or the distance race coming back to the bay, this summer, down to Hampton Roads, could get interesting if you are going to be racing against either of these 2 still-very-competitive and relevant designs from the mid-80's.
We've been a big fan of Evelyn designs here at nbayracing (since we've owned one) for their low-cost raceability and their value as terrific club racers. Okay, maybe not so much their build quality, as a lot of the boats need some TLC, mostly in terms of needing stiffening after 25+ years of hard racing. Yet, with a little bit of blood, sweat and tears, an ailing Evelyn can usually be brought back to an amazingly competitive level.
For those who'd rather forego the sweat equity, as far as we know, the hugely successful and superbly refitted E 32-2 "Remedy" is still for sale up in Mystic, Connecticut. Contact John Fries at UK/Halsey Mystic for details.
note the keel mod on "Pterodactyl"...the P.O. did a bunch of upgrades and mods and "Ptero" was a known quantity on the Great Lakes, sometimes doing back to back Mackinac races....a nice way to spend the month of July it sounds like, to me.
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January something 09...another cold, dark stupid day in stupid winter.
Happy new year and all that. We'd like to say that we're excited about the new year and all the great stuff that nbayracing is going to "feature" in the coming 12 months, but you know that's B.S., because most likely it will continue to be a bunch of recycled, stale news, augmented by the editor's oblique and often clueless takes on local racing.
But you'll keep coming back, because, let's face it, there's no where else to go, as far as local, above the bridge stuff is concerned.
So, like I said, Happy freakin' new year. Right.
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January whatever.
Bog turtle and Indiana Bat (swear to god)
I hate to be a total downer but it looks like these grotty little bastards are all that stand between NPSA (and the rest of the Patapsco) having a nice place to enjoy life (such as it exists) and having a big ass, godawful life-altering LNG plant screwing up the river and whatever enjoyment we can eek out of it from time to time, when we aren't working 19-hour days to raise the fealty we owe to the Government so that it can continue to dominate our lives, make horrendous decisions and wreak havoc with what used to be called "common sense."
Without these critters standing in the way, look for a LNG plant on your nearest corner. Let's hear it for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and here's the story in Pravda, who for once seems to give a rat's red ass over an issue that actually affects people, instead of their usual obsequious nonsense, which consists of sucking up to our Great State's One-Party politicians.
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12/14/08
MORE ON THE i550
Even for most of the die-hards, frostbiting is over, at least for the big boats. Just about everyone we know has yanked theirs for the winter.
So, other than finalizing plans for Key West and watching the Vendee and the Volvo on the internet, there isn't much to do except work on boats from inside a heated basement or shop, or in this case, build one outside on days that are tolerable, which have been few and far between, lately.
You can go here to see how the Baltimore effort is progressing (or NOT progressing, from time to time), but also near the top of that page there are links to other U.S. builder's blogs that do a pretty nice job of documenting the progress being made elsewhere.
The discussion about the "where and when" of a 2009 i550 Nationals in still in progress.
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12/5/08
ECONOMY SIZE
The economy continues to tank, but more and more i550's pop up in various states of build, some getting very close to completion.
We are psyched that, as far as we know, at least 160 plan sets, template sets and kits have gone out to various folks around the planet.
With the cost of running big boat programs escalating and the amount of discretionary income plummeting, we're telling people to dive in, buy the plans, or a kit, and get busy building. It's a fun project and, if you've never built a sailboat, a great way to approach the boat-building learning curve. There is a ton of info readily available to walk you through the myriad steps of the build, and there's a terrific community of active builders who are blazing the trail, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and then publishing their build histories on the internet.
Go to the class site at: http://www.i550.org/ , register and check out some of the stuff on the fourms...it's a lot less combative than SailingAnarchy and completelty devoid of porn, so it's work safe! Okay, maybe not the HATS thread....
When a new Melges 20 comes in at $47,000 all up, we are thinking the i550 makes an enormous amount of sense. Here's a boat you can put on a trailer, ramp launch and hoist new sails for $6 - 8 K...and in a few years race it One Design. Or, get busy real soon and race it one design next summer (2009) at the first annual i550 North American Championship (location To Be Determined).
This might be the economic stimulas package your racing habit needs.
______________________________ MORE STUFF FROM 2008 at nbayracing.com/2008.htm ____________________
