Death by Tray it is !

We showed Amac the Eddie Izzard Death Star Canteen video on YouTube.  It is has been a while since Bear and I have seen it and we have had just enough to drink where it is really funny all 

over again.  If you like legos try this Death Star Canteen 

Happy New Year!!!

Getting close to the Aussie Nationals

Well amac and I have been lining up as much as possible and it appears that we are fairly close to each other when the Black Rock doctor is in.  I am praying for breeze on at the Nationals because that is what I have been setting my boat up for and training in.  There is starting to be a lot of chatter on who is going to finish where.  A Luka Damic supporter was nice enough to point out that no matter how well I finish I "technically" don't count, what ever..........

Rohan has made his predictions and from what I have seen I will have a hard time believing they are not spot on.

It is really good to have Bear back from the hobart.  Everyone here is super nice but having a friend who has gone through the deep stuff with you is very stabilizing and I was starting to loose it being alone over the holidays.....

Back in the bus

Spent a full day filling holes and drilling new ones in a perfectly good boat, along with tinkering with control mechanisms and linkages at Amac's house.  Other peoples equipment seems to be blowing up around me.  Amac has some theory that every thing he looks at he should reinforce because it is going to break. He is wrapping everything in sight with carbon tows or cloth it is kinda funny.  My solution for him was to just close his eyes, though I am starting to succumb to the panic.  I am going to give my boat a full look over tomorrow and maybe add a little carbon even though I have had some personal guarantees from Simon owen Smith that my stuff wont break.  Luckily it seems that I must be fairly gentle with my boat because of the lack of breakages.  If your gonna go for a crash don't try to save it just sit back and enjoy the ride.

This is one of the few times in my life I am cautious of going sailing because I do not want to break anything before a regatta that I don't even get scored in.  At least according to Luka Damic.  

Thanks to Alan Block of Blocksail.com for getting my last video up on Sailing Anarchy, I can't believe that 4000 people have watched the video in about 24 hours.  I have signed up to give reports from the nationals.  From what I have heard is it always blows 20, the chop is "not that bad" hah, there is lots of sharks, lots of flies, and really hot.  Wonderful 

Oh yeah it is supposed to be around 110 degrees F the next couple of days.

well I should try to get some sleep, been struggling as of late and it is too late to be making any more noise around the house working on moth stuff.

Heaven?

So no trip to melbourne, the mecca of moth sailing in my mind can be complete with out a visit to Amac's workshop and home.  Wether it is the good food and hospitality or the ability to make what ever your heart desires in his workshop it is one of the places to be.  After three days of struggling with some self induced mechanical glitches I have finally started down the path to reliability.  All it took was a little Spa Bond and listening to Amac.  He told me I was going to have a problem before I even went sailing with the new pieces I made, but I did not realize he actually had been down the same path before and was speaking from prior experience.  I can go to sleep praying for the Black Rock wind god to come in as clockwork tomorrow with the hopes of having a perfectly working boat.  Oh yeah I get to sleep in the KA bus in his back yard!

finished my first video

b-team action

Sweet Black Rock

Did a double session  today with Bear.  In the morning Amac came out and slapped me around a little, by the end I felt i was able to hold my own at least.  Bear was working on his gybes making his first full foiling gybes! No pictures but those will come.  In the afternoon the wind had picked up dramatically and I went on a 10 mile down winder, trying to work on control in hard downwind conditions.  The beat back left my quads throbbing, need to work on fitness.  

If a picture is worth 1000 words I think the one above should just about say it.  

Melbourne

We arrived in Melborne Yesterday, after a quick bite to eat. Rohan took us to the Bladerider factory.

Bear picked up his new boat mine does not come till monday.  Bear put on a custom part Phil got built for us.  I think Amac is a little jealous I told him it is gold.  The new piece is the one connecting the bell crank to the push rod.
 

Went sailing in the evening and raced in the Black Rock YC sunset series, won it flat out.  I did not know the course and had to slow down and let the lead 14 show me the way for the first lap.  It was amazing how much faster the Bladerider is than the 14.  I asked Rohan if the 14 guys were any good, guess they won worlds two years ago so they definately have game.  Had some huge pitch poles.  Made myself laugh good one time, After hitting the water I was protecting my head with my hands from being hit by the boat. When I opened my eyes it made me laugh how far I was away from the boat, at least 30ft.   Black Rock YC is an amazing place I wish places like this existed in the states.

Went to the Ronstan factory this morning and Rohan picked up some new blocks to try on the moth, then went down to Black Rock and rigged boats waiting for breeze. A light breeze eventually came in and bear took it to full advantage.  Bear got real time on the water coaching through the use of the Headzone helmet which has a radio built into it.

It was impressive to see how quickly his skills improved under a little expert coaching.   Eventually Amac showed up when the wind built and I took his boat out to goof off trying a little free style.  It is so nice not to be recognized :)

                                                                                                                                                                   

zhik gear

Bob, from Line Honors helped Bear and I get some Zhik gear.  I just checked it out and it looks pretty flash.  Cant wait to try it out.  T minus 10 hours and we are off to AUS.  I will try to get some pictures of the gear before we take off.

the good

I am a strong believer in karma, and most of the time it rewards me well.  There are definitely times where life bites me in the butt, though most of the time life is good.  We won the Melges 24  ACC champs last week.  This was a huge accomplishment for Chuck, Bear, Wally, Todd, and I.  We have been after a major Melges 24 win for quite some time now and to have it happen was a surreal experience.  I have always felt we have been one of the fastest boats on the race course but have not been able to fully capitalize on our speed.  This time we did not fail :)

After winning I was lucky enough to score a ride on WARPATH the Farr 40 for the Miami regatta this coming week.  As it turns out the owners will not be able to show up till Thursday so guess who gets to drive the boat for two days with a world class crew!  I was so excited I was trembling when I got the news, the level of talent is deep but with the crew that is on the boat I am very excited to go "grip it and rip it"  I cant thank Ed Reynolds of Quantum Sails enough for setting me up with such a great opportunity.  To get some quality experience on a Farr 40 which will be the boat for the next Canada's Cup.  

 T minus 16 days till Bear and I head to AUS, don't know if the Aussies are ready for the yanks but were coming so fair warning.........   

Bladerider vs Freighter

With the lack of anything on the water I have resorted to racing the freighters that go by the club. It is interesting how much of a "lee bow" effect there is from the freighters. In light air days you get about a 2 knot boost in pressure, in breeze more like a 3-4 knot boost. Lined up one yesterday perfect angle to race. Got in the lee bow puff and went a couple hundred yards in front of the freighter square in his path. Started to run out of the puff while about to go into a lee of an island, said a little prayer and gybed away cleanly without coming off the foil. Freighter was probably doing about 14-15 knots definitely would have run my butt over if I came off the foil. Probably should not do that ever again. Don't think they even saw me because they did not even blow their horn, or they did and thought I had it under control.

Going once, going twice, sold to Zack

Sorry for the lack of an update but, life has been a little crazy.

First Zack Maxam has bought my boat enabling me to pick up my new boat in Australia. I am sure it is only a matter of weeks before he has the hang of it. Hopefully Zack will be able to organize some west coast events that the class can travel to. There is also the chance of bringing the Worlds to the US and I think the west coast would be the place to have them. With Zack's help we could get a couple test events going at different venues to see which places work for the moth and which places don't.


New Personal Best Speed Record
Hit 25.3 knots on a blustery day on the Detroit river. It was fully on guessing 25+ knot puffs. The scariest moment of the day had to be coming into the channel DDW doing 20knots with no options but just go straight and ride it out.

The wind has been awesome as it always is in the fall but, since I have sold the boat and not delivered it yet I don't think I should be sailing it, in the off chance I break something. Have to say though every day I go out the more impressed I am with the boat. Since getting new foils mid summer nothing and I mean nothing has gone wrong with the boat. I worked 5 times as hard trying to keep a 49er operating properly. If you think you might like sailing a moth just sack up and buy one! It will be the best thing you have ever done. On that note Rohan told me that Brad Funk has also bought a boat. I am sure he will love how rewarding the BR is to sail.

I also had my first go on a A-Cat a couple of weeks ago. Ian Lindal's custom boat is a piece of art, I did not get a chance to line up in the moth against him but my gut tells me the moth is definitely faster through the water, I am not sure about relative angles though.

That's it for now, just over a month and the boys(Bear and I) will be off to AUS for a month of sailing with team BR. Just need a way to pay for it all.

Almost forgot check out blocksail.com

Week Off

The Melges Nationals was a crazy regatta, Lake St. Clair did it best to throw large shifts and big holes our way. After the first day we were sitting in 27th and were able to claw our way back to 8th by the end of the regatta. We won the Corinthian division but I wished that we could have come out a little better during the first day. Then we could have been a threat to get on the real podium. We got some cool gear from Brian Hutchinson of Hutchinson sports for the Melges which I am excited to use.

The club was crazy last week because a young lady drowned on sat night, with all the police and reporters it was not a fun place to be so I tried to stay away.






On Friday I flew down to Charleston Sc, for Liz and Mike's wedding which I had to stand up in. At the rehearsal dinner I found a moth hanging up in the restaurant, it must be a sign!



I don't think I have had more fun at a wedding. Though I have never been to a wedding where I got to go kite boarding all day Saturday with friends Karl and Seth. 25knots side off shore breeze, big beach and spectators. It was awesome, I am still very sore.



Flew home Friday to find perfect mothing conditions on the river and worked on my tacks. A couple of people have asked about the "dog bones" that I am using to connect the cunningham to the sail and mast. These are great no longer have to untie anything. Evenutally I will splice up some continuous control lines that run a little better than the stock items. New parts should come in this week: dagger board, front horizontal, gantry and stainless spare parts kit. Christmas in October! When Bear shows up again we will have two working moths(been sharing one). He is getting better and though there is no video evidence yet, I have seen him pull a foiling gybe. We are definitely getting a lot of use out of our boats we have now gone through three main sheets in between the two of us.





Oh well back to work and getting ready for the Melges Fall Championship on Lake Geneva, home of Melges boats. Sailing there is awesome with huge shifts and flat water gonna be a good weekend if I can only make it through the week :)

Sweet Saturn

Sailed the BYC distance race on the Melges 32 Saturn. I was very excited to get a chance to go sail with the Saturn guys. Even though the weather forecast was a little dicey at first, mother nature gave us a fine day of sailing. We started with the reaching spinnaker up and instantly the boat leaped forward to 14 knots. We had planed on getting lifted the whole way to the Thames River mark some 16 nautical miles across the lake but the wind held in direction and strength. We had to douse the reaching kite and put up the code zero. This was the first time I had been on a boat with a code zero that worked well and wow was it awesome. Wally Tsuha was kind enough to let me have a turn at the helm. It was a blast, reaching along at 14 knots all day long and a couple surges into the 15 knot range, the boat was so responsive and fast it is no wonder that they are selling like they are.


Picture of our big lead all of these boats had not made the final mark yet.

After starting an hour and forty minutes after the first boats we were the 6th boat to round the Thames River mark setting ourselves up for a 16 mile beat to PH1 across the lake. Within 1 hour of starting the beat we were now the second boat furthest up the race track. After making the turn at PH1 and putting up the sweet code zero we passed the first place boat within 15min, and never looked back. I cant thank the Wally and the guys from Saturn enough they definitely have a lot of fun on the boat and are just quality people.

Melges 24 Nationals are coming up fast, been pimping my Melges all Sunday since there was not enough breeze worthy to moth. 55 boats as of right now and the parking lot at Bayview is starting to show it. I can't wait it will be a full on war :)

Pimped the Bladerider too this weekend, made continuous control lines and put "Dog Bones, dude" on the cunningham so I do not have to untie knots to take the mast down, all of this is George Peet's technology brought from the Volvo 70 straight to the moth and Melges. I will have pictures tomorrow showing how to do this. Wind is picking up should be a good moth night.

Powerboat chasing

quick little video, more to come with some music. Footage curtesy of alan block

linky

second linky

Big Tuesday

The wind was blowing 20+ knots yesterday and snuck out early from work for a moth session before melges sailing. Pulled up to the junior sailing center to find epic conditions. 20 knots straight down the river cold air and warm water. This was the most breeze I have sailed in up to this point and made sure to check all the little screws on the boat so I did not have to deal with a breakdown. Don't quite understand why all the little fittings on the starboard side have a tendency to rattle loose.

Sailing was incredible, after being a little careful in my first couple gybes I started to send it as my confidence grew. Even pulled off a couple "foiling tacks", more like a touch and go but never really would come off the foils. The technique is really tricky. I had the best success when I would be hauling full speed upwind, take my back foot out from underneath the hiking strap(while doing the veal heel) and haul ass across the boat while turning almost ending up on new weather side with weather heel and the main still full on the old side for a split second. Very tricky and hit myself in the head with the boom numerous times. I also set a new person best for speed at 22.9 knots fighting a 2 knot current so no idea of how fast I was actually going through the water.

Also learned a couple of things that need to be on the boat, Rohan already told me to do it but I was lazy. First, need to cut down the length of the tubing that is used for the universal joint in the tiller since there was too much play for that much breeze and gybing was not a fluid act because of this. Second since I was using George Peet's boat and his bridle was too low. The made the main sheet too short, and it was very tricky to make the turn from downwind to upwind. When the battens had popped on the correct side I would have to over sheet to slow down heel the boat to weather and turn really quickly. Though it was interesting when I came out of a gybe with the battens not popped(tons of cunningham) it was much easier to make the turn since the sail was not drawing as much. After 3 hours of this i had to go in to practice on the melges for the upcoming nationals, lucky me :).

The wind was really piping up by this point and put the melges rig to full pull +26 caps +26 lowers and even dropped the toggle on the head stay one hole to get even more tension. We rigged the boat and dropped it in the water. Chuck was a little nervous about how windy it was and if we could make it out the harbor safely. That was almost the kiss of death, I went dyslexic started the motor and turned the fuel valve to off, gave it full throttle and sent it. The motor died right as we were about to make the turn and the wind pushed us up against the docks. We fended off and with the help of Dave S and Marc H I think. Pulled ourselves off the docks and realized the fuel valve mistake and sent it out of the harbor. Five minutes later main was up jib was out and we were rocking. Bore away and set the kite and had a good 5 min of fun before I wanted to round a channel marker and start practicing some windward leewards. Doused the kite turned upwind only to get blasted by a squall which tore the main from leach to luff only to stop at the window.

When I checked the GPS it only showed a disappointing 16.9 knots but once again we were fighting 2 knots of current so who knows how fast we were actually going. Before sailing I gave Chuck the disclaimer of there probably is only a 30% chance that we come in without a broken sail. After we took down the main we started the little Honda 2hp only to realize it did not have enough power to push us home, after about ten minutes of struggling the cavalry arrived in the form on Mike H and Perrin F in a junior sailing skiff to tow us in.

B Teamer

It is official I am now part of the Bladerider racing team as a "B teamer" though the goal is top ten I think I can do a lot better. All that I need to do is sail a ton :) and loose about 12 more pounds.


Rigged up the Melges 24 last night to start practicing for the upcoming nationals at BYC hopefully we can earn a good result on the Flyer. The regatta is a week and a half away but there will be a lot of good sailing to be had before the regatta starts. Today we are going to practice and winds look to be 20knots from the south. Might have to sneak in a quick Bladerider sail before the Melges practice to see if I can break my top speed of 21.7 knots.

Just got back from Beneteau 36.7 NA's what an experience. Sailing with Phil O'niel we ended up 22 out of 47 boats. Not really a stellar performance but only the second time we got to race the boat. Do to some negligence from a hired hand, we have only had about seven days in the boat this summer even though it was delivered at the beginning of June.

Buffalo Yacht Club was a great location and the food was great. The event was well run and we had a fun group of guys. In between the three O'niel's, Nathan H, Curt R, Marty M, Glen W, and Karl K. I don't think it would have been possible not to have fun.

It was a real shame to see Legend lose the regatta they had blinding upwind boat speed. I was really jealous of it. Tactics are so easy when you have good boat speed.

Only one of the three border crossing turned really bad which is awesome for me usually 1 out of 2 turns into a disaster.

Oh well only back to "work" waiting for the wind to pick up for some more moth sailing. Melges 24 Nationals coming up next week time to focus and practice.