So those of you who have a training partner. Give it a go, let me know if you also enjoy chasing another boat around in circles. Maybe we could have the unofficial moth dog fighting championships this January in Australia.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
New Moth Drill
Sitting here in the frigid north dreaming about warmer days, I was thinking of fun things to do when I get to go sailing next. George and I always joke that we are like fighter pilots on our moths, and after thinking back about the cafeteria at WPNSA during the worlds I am sure there are many other moths sailors that feel the same way. Recently George and I have started playing follow the leader. Where the goal is to shake the other boat off your tail. Why not take it a step further and have a "dog fight" it could be really fun and good for boat handling. In the "dog fight" the right of way rules still applying, especially no hunting! Two boats could "engage" by coming at each other on a reach. After the initial cross the two boats would either try to tack or gybe to change direction and get after the other boat. Foiling tacks would be the equivalent of gaining altitude and potential energy since you would gain distance to windward. If successfully pulled off I bet this would be a heck of a lot more entertaining than watching a match race.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Lights Camera Action
So I now have 4 cameras for filming moth stuff.
each of those films at 30 fps at 512x384
One Sanyo Xacti E2
60 fps at 680x480
for general Amac antics
On a side note I was cruising the Zhik site looking at the gear and stumbled upon the Zhik team page. The moth team consists of Scott Babbage, Matt Belcher(who will be missed), and Luka Damic. After clicking on Luka's profile I noticed he got 3rd in the Australian Nationals last year. I understand that I did not count in the Australian results but for the overall I could have sworn I got 3rd.
This year there should be more internationals coming with Andrew Brown, Arnaud, Simon Payne, and myself. Since I have not heard anything about the Australians changing the not counting internationals rule I am thinking of ways to either warrant the entry fee or make a side competition.
Simon suggested that we should expedite our Australian citizen application so that we could could count, in one of the more hotly contested regattas of the year. That would be the ideal solution but I am not sure we can make it through all the red tape in a matter of three months.
Another thought I had was to video tape the whole event from my boat and put American flags on top of all the Australian boats. If the videos made it to the web it would look like a 4 boat regatta with a whole bunch of American flags flying around the water....
A third idea for the internationals was to have our own competition of who can drive a top Australian farthest back in the fleet, Sort of like a multiple team match race. Since this would be unofficial, and I think it best that we provide prizes for ourselves. Perhaps some libations at a local bar reliving the new Australian swear words that we could learn during the day if we were to do such a deed.
I really hope the Australian Moth Class lets people who have traveled from halfway across the world count in their national championship. It would be the right thing to do.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Videos
Flying High
I am soon to improve my video taking and publishing, with two months of Mothing coming up in AUS expect a lot more videos soon!!
Wow- I just cannot believe how time flies
I have been really lazy about updating the blog and feel bad about that, but at the same time I have been fighting the good fight every chance I could. I have been to the US Moth Nationals, Glacier National Park, Melges 24 Traverse City Invitational, Beneteau 36.7 Nationals, and US Melges 24 Nationals.
US Moth Champs, Cascade Locks Oregon:
Let me start out with the US moth champs in Cascade Locks. This place is basically heaven on earth and it was good to see Simon and Rohan like it as well. We ate pizza at the local bar, listened to a talented Jack Johnson knock off, and in general had a good time. The sailing was awesome – we saw everything from a dying easterly to a full-on westerly. I set a new personal best speed at 27.1 knots and tried out a new spoon system for my wand, which seems to be the best wand I've had yet.
Here's a quick rundown on what I've been doing with the wand. For a while now, I have been going longer wand with flex. Now that I've put the spoon on, I'm going shorter with a very rigid wand and it seems to have a very positive response. The boat will fly at exactly the right height and will come down fast when it gets too high. On the down side, the spoon is a weed rake and in marginal foiling conditions it is a BIG drag if there is any weed around.
The racing was so fun. I was very lucky a couple times, and was able to pull straight bullets for the regatta. It was very impressive how much everyone else had improved. Even though they were not right on my heels, the next 5 boats seemed to be in a constant dogfight for the 2-7 spots. It was awesome to see, and with Charlie and Hans coming to AUS this winter I am sure that the bar will keep getting higher in the States. The moment of the regatta for me was in the very first race, going bow to bow with Morgan Larson. I nearly wet myself in laughter after hearing about the carnage that happened behind me after he ducked.
At the end of the regatta I was fortunate to take out my favorite moth crew and go for a little two up sailing. Mr. Clean made the picture notorious and I still get a lot of comments about it. I think with a little more practice Simon and I will have to throw down the gauntlet and see if we can beat Paris and Sterling Henken in some double handed racing.
Glacier National Park:
WOW!
To all the internationals that are coming here next year to sail the worlds, take an extra week off, drive up there and see what has to be the most spectacular piece of road ever! I had the pleasure of having a navigator on the way back to Michigan and was very very happy I was able to convince her to spend a couple of days there. We went hiking, white water rafting and sightseeing. I’m going back after Worlds no doubt.
Traverse City Invitational Regatta, Traverse City, Michigan:
After hurrying back from Montana, I literally drove straight to Traverse City to defend the regatta we won last year on USA 660 Flyer. This time was different, only two of the five people had ever sailed with anyone else on the crew beside myself. It was going to be a little bit of a learning experience on USA 12 “Don’t Panic”. Brian Poppert, the owner, did a great job setting up the boat and after Day one we had an almost untouchable 13-point lead on second place. Lucky for Paul Hulsey and his crew on the Hoodlum it was not untouchable and they sailed an awesome last two races on Sunday to take the victory by one point. I was happy to see such a good bunch of people succeed on their new boat.
Beneteau 36.7 US Nationals, Chicago, Il (Natalie J):
This event was all about fighting the good fight. One week before the regatta we had our primary trimmer and the bow guy bow out. Nearly catastrophic, but this event was all about getting Pops on the water and we pushed through. We picked up some people, Patrick McMath, Bob Hillier (from Line Honors), and the one and only Mr. Clean. The first hurdle during the regatta was weigh in, Paul Hulsey came in 10 lbs heavy! The little bowling ball! Alan and Paul were the last two to weigh in and they had to do it the morning of the regatta, we had allotted them 403 lbs. Should have been no problem but when Paul stepped on at 10 lbs heavy the panic started to hit. I sent them to the truck, told them to crank the heater and tried to get them to puke. In the mean time I was stalling Janet Baxter at the scale, trying to get the boys every minute I could. 40 min later they came back and tried again. We were still one pound too heavy. Alan pulled some zen budda trick and bounced up and down a couple times, stepped on the scale and by some miracle was one pound lighter!!! Amazing does not quite do it justice, and how Phil was able to keep his cool while half the crew was running around messing with weigh ins was another little miracle.
The racing was fun we had better boat speed than last year but still not up to the top boats pace. There were two races that we should have won which would have pushed us into the top 6 but it was not to be so we will have to practice and try for next year - which will be on our home water at Bayview Yacht Club.
For me the best part of the regatta was to see how the establishment in the Beneteau 36.7 class screamed bloody murder at the sight of Mr. Clean, it was like he was sun light and they were vampires. By the end, the people who had any sort of good head on them warmed up to him and the ones that were dumb did not. Their loss, he is a great friend of mine and when you take the time to realize he is only telling it how it is (armed with a hand grenade with the pin already pulled) you can start to appreciate him a little more.
Melges 24 US Nationals, Charleston, SC (USA 757, “Simplicity”):
This was the third time I had sailed with Simon Strauss, and the first time in the new boat – nicknamed the Boeing Boat). Simon has committed to make a serious run towards the Worlds next year in Annapolis, and with that kind of commitment he might as well be the pied piper for me. Our team consisted of Becky Damore, Rich Core, Jane Delashmutt, Simon Strauss, and me. Day one blew 15-25 knots and it was tons of fun. Tightened the piss out of the rig, dropped the leads back and went racing! At the end of the day we were in the lead by two point and we were a Corinthian team! Note the word “WERE,” - after a couple beers enjoying our good first day, I got the dreaded e-mail from ISAF requesting a clarification on my Category 1 classification. Next thing you know, we are kicked out of the Corinthian class. Day two we extended our lead on the fleet and now were winning the regatta by 8 points after a day of light and current-dominated conditions. Day three would be only two races. We had an average first race but still held the lead by a point. The final race – a five legger - we sailed smart for almost the entire race. Had we finished at the final leeward mark we would be National Champs, but we got caught out on the wrong side on the final beat, and ended up finishing two points behind first place Full Throttle and one behind Team Barbarians. One beat away from being a Melges 24 National Champion - guess there is always next year. We didn't go to win the Corinthian title, but now that ISAF has reviewed me and reinstated my amateur status, it's only fair for the Class to award Simon with the Corinthian National Champion trophy. They said they'd planned to do that, but we're still waiting.
>
International Moth Update:
I have been avoiding the Mach 2-Bladerider mess for a while, I think it is only good for the moth class to have more competitive, easy to purchase boats, and we have to remember that we're in a development class. Obviously the timing was right for Amac to make it happen - good on him for doing it. The level of competition in the class is just going to keep going up and up and everyone from boat designers to boat builders to sailmakers will have to work hard to stay in the game.
If anything, this development will be good for team Bladerider. Resting on your laurels is not the way to stay at the top, and the new competition should motivate them to do that. Personally, I'm really happy with my Moth right now. We'll see what TOP-manufacturing cooks up, but for now it is an X8 for me. Oh, yeah – I'm coming to AUS in November for basically two months and I am bringing more Americans, so it should be a barrel of laughs at all the major Aussie regattas ;)
Another word on Moths and sponsorship: I really don’t want to do anything that makes me a Category 3 sailor. The mess in Charleston reinforced the fact that there's no point in doing something that jeopardizes my Cat 1 status for a little cash.
US Moth Champs, Cascade Locks Oregon:
Let me start out with the US moth champs in Cascade Locks. This place is basically heaven on earth and it was good to see Simon and Rohan like it as well. We ate pizza at the local bar, listened to a talented Jack Johnson knock off, and in general had a good time. The sailing was awesome – we saw everything from a dying easterly to a full-on westerly. I set a new personal best speed at 27.1 knots and tried out a new spoon system for my wand, which seems to be the best wand I've had yet.
Here's a quick rundown on what I've been doing with the wand. For a while now, I have been going longer wand with flex. Now that I've put the spoon on, I'm going shorter with a very rigid wand and it seems to have a very positive response. The boat will fly at exactly the right height and will come down fast when it gets too high. On the down side, the spoon is a weed rake and in marginal foiling conditions it is a BIG drag if there is any weed around.
The racing was so fun. I was very lucky a couple times, and was able to pull straight bullets for the regatta. It was very impressive how much everyone else had improved. Even though they were not right on my heels, the next 5 boats seemed to be in a constant dogfight for the 2-7 spots. It was awesome to see, and with Charlie and Hans coming to AUS this winter I am sure that the bar will keep getting higher in the States. The moment of the regatta for me was in the very first race, going bow to bow with Morgan Larson. I nearly wet myself in laughter after hearing about the carnage that happened behind me after he ducked.
At the end of the regatta I was fortunate to take out my favorite moth crew and go for a little two up sailing. Mr. Clean made the picture notorious and I still get a lot of comments about it. I think with a little more practice Simon and I will have to throw down the gauntlet and see if we can beat Paris and Sterling Henken in some double handed racing.
Glacier National Park:
WOW!
To all the internationals that are coming here next year to sail the worlds, take an extra week off, drive up there and see what has to be the most spectacular piece of road ever! I had the pleasure of having a navigator on the way back to Michigan and was very very happy I was able to convince her to spend a couple of days there. We went hiking, white water rafting and sightseeing. I’m going back after Worlds no doubt.
Traverse City Invitational Regatta, Traverse City, Michigan:
After hurrying back from Montana, I literally drove straight to Traverse City to defend the regatta we won last year on USA 660 Flyer. This time was different, only two of the five people had ever sailed with anyone else on the crew beside myself. It was going to be a little bit of a learning experience on USA 12 “Don’t Panic”. Brian Poppert, the owner, did a great job setting up the boat and after Day one we had an almost untouchable 13-point lead on second place. Lucky for Paul Hulsey and his crew on the Hoodlum it was not untouchable and they sailed an awesome last two races on Sunday to take the victory by one point. I was happy to see such a good bunch of people succeed on their new boat.
Beneteau 36.7 US Nationals, Chicago, Il (Natalie J):
This event was all about fighting the good fight. One week before the regatta we had our primary trimmer and the bow guy bow out. Nearly catastrophic, but this event was all about getting Pops on the water and we pushed through. We picked up some people, Patrick McMath, Bob Hillier (from Line Honors), and the one and only Mr. Clean. The first hurdle during the regatta was weigh in, Paul Hulsey came in 10 lbs heavy! The little bowling ball! Alan and Paul were the last two to weigh in and they had to do it the morning of the regatta, we had allotted them 403 lbs. Should have been no problem but when Paul stepped on at 10 lbs heavy the panic started to hit. I sent them to the truck, told them to crank the heater and tried to get them to puke. In the mean time I was stalling Janet Baxter at the scale, trying to get the boys every minute I could. 40 min later they came back and tried again. We were still one pound too heavy. Alan pulled some zen budda trick and bounced up and down a couple times, stepped on the scale and by some miracle was one pound lighter!!! Amazing does not quite do it justice, and how Phil was able to keep his cool while half the crew was running around messing with weigh ins was another little miracle.
The racing was fun we had better boat speed than last year but still not up to the top boats pace. There were two races that we should have won which would have pushed us into the top 6 but it was not to be so we will have to practice and try for next year - which will be on our home water at Bayview Yacht Club.
For me the best part of the regatta was to see how the establishment in the Beneteau 36.7 class screamed bloody murder at the sight of Mr. Clean, it was like he was sun light and they were vampires. By the end, the people who had any sort of good head on them warmed up to him and the ones that were dumb did not. Their loss, he is a great friend of mine and when you take the time to realize he is only telling it how it is (armed with a hand grenade with the pin already pulled) you can start to appreciate him a little more.
Melges 24 US Nationals, Charleston, SC (USA 757, “Simplicity”):
This was the third time I had sailed with Simon Strauss, and the first time in the new boat – nicknamed the Boeing Boat). Simon has committed to make a serious run towards the Worlds next year in Annapolis, and with that kind of commitment he might as well be the pied piper for me. Our team consisted of Becky Damore, Rich Core, Jane Delashmutt, Simon Strauss, and me. Day one blew 15-25 knots and it was tons of fun. Tightened the piss out of the rig, dropped the leads back and went racing! At the end of the day we were in the lead by two point and we were a Corinthian team! Note the word “WERE,” - after a couple beers enjoying our good first day, I got the dreaded e-mail from ISAF requesting a clarification on my Category 1 classification. Next thing you know, we are kicked out of the Corinthian class. Day two we extended our lead on the fleet and now were winning the regatta by 8 points after a day of light and current-dominated conditions. Day three would be only two races. We had an average first race but still held the lead by a point. The final race – a five legger - we sailed smart for almost the entire race. Had we finished at the final leeward mark we would be National Champs, but we got caught out on the wrong side on the final beat, and ended up finishing two points behind first place Full Throttle and one behind Team Barbarians. One beat away from being a Melges 24 National Champion - guess there is always next year. We didn't go to win the Corinthian title, but now that ISAF has reviewed me and reinstated my amateur status, it's only fair for the Class to award Simon with the Corinthian National Champion trophy. They said they'd planned to do that, but we're still waiting.
>
International Moth Update:
I have been avoiding the Mach 2-Bladerider mess for a while, I think it is only good for the moth class to have more competitive, easy to purchase boats, and we have to remember that we're in a development class. Obviously the timing was right for Amac to make it happen - good on him for doing it. The level of competition in the class is just going to keep going up and up and everyone from boat designers to boat builders to sailmakers will have to work hard to stay in the game.
If anything, this development will be good for team Bladerider. Resting on your laurels is not the way to stay at the top, and the new competition should motivate them to do that. Personally, I'm really happy with my Moth right now. We'll see what TOP-manufacturing cooks up, but for now it is an X8 for me. Oh, yeah – I'm coming to AUS in November for basically two months and I am bringing more Americans, so it should be a barrel of laughs at all the major Aussie regattas ;)
Another word on Moths and sponsorship: I really don’t want to do anything that makes me a Category 3 sailor. The mess in Charleston reinforced the fact that there's no point in doing something that jeopardizes my Cat 1 status for a little cash.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Clean Water
* Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Raw sewage floating in the harbour and
on
the beaches of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC), which annually
hosts
sailing regattas for its 3,000-strong members, has put a stop to any
swimming or sailing. Beaches in the Jumeirah area have also been
affected.
According to the management at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC)
sewage
and faeces has been a problem at the club for the last three months. --
Read
on: http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10247543.html
on
the beaches of the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC), which annually
hosts
sailing regattas for its 3,000-strong members, has put a stop to any
swimming or sailing. Beaches in the Jumeirah area have also been
affected.
According to the management at the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club (DOSC)
sewage
and faeces has been a problem at the club for the last three months. --
Read
on: http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10247543.html
Thursday, September 4, 2008
my favorite blog
since chris is not posting here is a good one for you all. Unfortunately you have to read dinghy anarchy on Sailing Anarchy to really value it.
Doug Lord's Blog
Doug Lord's Blog
Saturday, August 2, 2008
4 weeks living the dream?
Dalton was kind enough to give me a little motivation to write on the blog. It has been a little hectic since worlds so I have not have been too motivated to write an update.
I guess I should start with Moth worlds. First congrats to John Harris. They finally let us sail in the last two days and it was good. The first day I struggled with my boat speed as I went out with the big sail and the powerful mast. Not really the right combination in breeze and my results showed it, barely hanging on in the top ten. The second day I went with the MSL10 and the flexy mast and what a difference. Was in the lead at first weather mark of the two races I got to sail. In one race Amac blew by me on the reach leg like I was standing still and in the second race I hit the leeward mark in a rules situation and felt compelled to do a 360. After that I was not able to sail the last race since I had a flight to make and unfortunately had to carry a letter score. I was happy with my worlds experience, my result did not show my speed but there is always next year on home turf. Where I am sure there will be none of the BS.
I hurriedly packed up my boat I had one quick beer with the W.A.G.S and was off. Drove to the top of the hill where my helicopter was waiting for me to take me to the airport. Took off and watched the last of the Moth Worlds from the air.
When I got to the airport I found out that the plane was three hours late so I could have sailed the last race, bugger! That was only the start of my woes at the airport. Went to check in, and the check in lady took my passport played with it a little and got her nail under the laminate. Before I could recognize what was going on she peeled the thing apart! Then proceeded to tell me how this one was no good and how I could not fly today. I would have to go to the embassy tomorrow and sort it out. I don't think I have words to describe how crushed I was. I pleaded with her superior to at least check me in and let me take my chances with immigration, I must have been close to groveling at one point but finally she checked me in and all I had to do was repair my passport. In a little bit of a panic now I went to all the stores I could find in the airport buying stationary supplies to attempt to glue my passport back together. I found a bunch of places with paste, but was really looking for superglue. In the last possible store I found it, and now was in business. I found a little space and set up my book bag and computer as a blind and proceeded to glue my passport back together. It was good enough to make it through 3 different sets of customs. After clearing customs in Toronto at 1 am in the morning Blake Griffin(thank you!) was waiting outside to take me to Port Huron to make the start of the BYC Port Huron to Mackinaw race.
I arrived at the boat to see the boys had fixed all of the leaks we had in the previous race. Phil O'niel IV had done some great work with the EBay electronics shopping and we now had a new computer with a remote tablet display working again!
The BYC race was fast, after starting in a torrential downpour. There was 2A running for a while followed by Code 0 reaching at 13 knots, then finishing up with a 80 mile close hauled leg... Little of everything, we sailed the boat really hard and managed to get a second. This race was scored in IRC and at this point I did not quite realize how badly our IMS N/M 46 Natalie J rated under this rule. The Wooton(aka Wu-tang or won ton) a custom Rodgers 46 won our division and there was nothing we could do to hold onto them. In the end a 26 hour trip to Mackinaw, not bad for not having any really good weather. After the race was over I got to sleep for the first time in three days and was happy to be back in Michigan.
Left the Island quickly and went into hiding for a couple days to prepare for the 100 anniversary Chicago to Mackinaw Island race that started the following weekend. For as easy tactically the BYC Mac race was the Chicago was totally different. Got the start I wanted so as to set us up for getting east quickly, but unfortunately all that happened was that we parked. It must have been about two hours before we got the boat moving. So I traded about 7 miles of northing for about a half mile of east leverage, great!!! Felt fairly certain I was going to be fired at that point but, Phil still had a little faith and we got the boat rocking. We did not know exactly where our competition was, but I was fairly certain they were to weather close hauled pointing at a mark that was 300+ miles away. Our response put up the Code 0 give up 20 degrees of height but gain leverage and VMC setting ourselves up for the lift that should occur if we could make it to the Michigan shore by morning. Riding the lifted sea breeze reaching all day versus the boats in the lake who would be light air running. When dawn broke we were able to pull up the tracking and discovered we third farthest north boat, we were also the slowest boat in our class so this put us in great shape. All day long we were the fastest boat in the position reports gaining distance on the fastest boat in our class the Talisman(aka taliban). Towards the end of the day we got as close as 2 miles. They owed us about 2.5 hours at this point so all was good.
Late afternoon and it was time to get off the shore before the sea breeze went to bed. The next big choice was whether to go inside or outside the Manitou Islands. We had never gone outside to the west before and my routing kept saying it was the right thing to do with the forecast for breeze filling from the Northwest. I was itching to go outside since we have lost at least two of these races going into the Manitous. Tall Islands to the left big dunes to the right. The thought of going into that passage with a dying breeze just makes me cringe. When Doc(Phil O'niel III) was asleep his son(Phil IV) and I sent it out in the lake so the only real option was to go around the outside. Later that night a couple storms rolled through and with everyone else on deck i though it was a good time to sneak a small nap since once again I had not shut my eyes since the beginning of the race.
I was woke up around 30 min later to Doc yelling at me something along the lines of "You're F'ing insane!" I remember thinking, yes and what is your point? As I was trying to beat back the cobwebs and become alert. To his credit he was questioning how we were going to make around the North Manitou Island and south of South Fox Island. I had never looked at the detailed chart but rather the C-map Chart which does not show water depths. I had been on board when another boat had burned us by doing this very same move and knew it had to be possible. I just did not realize how big some of the shoals we had to navigate were. Phil IV on the tablet myself on the helm, we made our way through just fine and once again were reaching when all of our competition had to be sailing close hauled. Too bad Doc was sleeping at 4-5 am when we were ducking through the big hills in spotty fog.
The two MVP's at this point were Glen Watson with his portable expresso maker and Curt Roselle(little bastard). Without Glen's constant supply of high test caffeine and navigation, i would have definitely lost the path. Curt was huge when he drove for about an hour when Phil IV and myself were struggling. I forgot to mention that the whole race had been I.F.R. and with only three drivers it was easy to get off course quickly when you were chasing a hard to see apparent wind angle.
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful with a small parking lot under the Mackinaw Bridge we were able to finish right behind the leaders in our class and correct out over them by hours..
IRC Nationals Harbor Springs Michigan
Delivered the 46 down to Harbor with Chris Balliet, when I pulled up I was reunited with my Moth and my truck! Chris Williams drove the truck from Newport where it had been since the Bermuda Race and brought his moth along. Along with George Peet we were all sailing on the 46 for IRC nationals. It is amazing how IRC penalizes the things on a IMS boat that make it hard to sail. We ended up second and hopefully we get to upgrade the ride now!!! Praying for a 52.
Sailed the moth with Chris and George during the week after big boat sailing and we had a pretty good audience. I took some people out for rides and let some other people demo my boat. It was just good to be back in fresh clean water again!!
My truck needed $1000 repair for the universal joints on the front end... oh well have to pay to play.
t minus one week before the gorge trip, trying to fix all the wear and tear on my boat and build some new bits to try.
I guess I should start with Moth worlds. First congrats to John Harris. They finally let us sail in the last two days and it was good. The first day I struggled with my boat speed as I went out with the big sail and the powerful mast. Not really the right combination in breeze and my results showed it, barely hanging on in the top ten. The second day I went with the MSL10 and the flexy mast and what a difference. Was in the lead at first weather mark of the two races I got to sail. In one race Amac blew by me on the reach leg like I was standing still and in the second race I hit the leeward mark in a rules situation and felt compelled to do a 360. After that I was not able to sail the last race since I had a flight to make and unfortunately had to carry a letter score. I was happy with my worlds experience, my result did not show my speed but there is always next year on home turf. Where I am sure there will be none of the BS.
I hurriedly packed up my boat I had one quick beer with the W.A.G.S and was off. Drove to the top of the hill where my helicopter was waiting for me to take me to the airport. Took off and watched the last of the Moth Worlds from the air.
When I got to the airport I found out that the plane was three hours late so I could have sailed the last race, bugger! That was only the start of my woes at the airport. Went to check in, and the check in lady took my passport played with it a little and got her nail under the laminate. Before I could recognize what was going on she peeled the thing apart! Then proceeded to tell me how this one was no good and how I could not fly today. I would have to go to the embassy tomorrow and sort it out. I don't think I have words to describe how crushed I was. I pleaded with her superior to at least check me in and let me take my chances with immigration, I must have been close to groveling at one point but finally she checked me in and all I had to do was repair my passport. In a little bit of a panic now I went to all the stores I could find in the airport buying stationary supplies to attempt to glue my passport back together. I found a bunch of places with paste, but was really looking for superglue. In the last possible store I found it, and now was in business. I found a little space and set up my book bag and computer as a blind and proceeded to glue my passport back together. It was good enough to make it through 3 different sets of customs. After clearing customs in Toronto at 1 am in the morning Blake Griffin(thank you!) was waiting outside to take me to Port Huron to make the start of the BYC Port Huron to Mackinaw race.
I arrived at the boat to see the boys had fixed all of the leaks we had in the previous race. Phil O'niel IV had done some great work with the EBay electronics shopping and we now had a new computer with a remote tablet display working again!
The BYC race was fast, after starting in a torrential downpour. There was 2A running for a while followed by Code 0 reaching at 13 knots, then finishing up with a 80 mile close hauled leg... Little of everything, we sailed the boat really hard and managed to get a second. This race was scored in IRC and at this point I did not quite realize how badly our IMS N/M 46 Natalie J rated under this rule. The Wooton(aka Wu-tang or won ton) a custom Rodgers 46 won our division and there was nothing we could do to hold onto them. In the end a 26 hour trip to Mackinaw, not bad for not having any really good weather. After the race was over I got to sleep for the first time in three days and was happy to be back in Michigan.
Left the Island quickly and went into hiding for a couple days to prepare for the 100 anniversary Chicago to Mackinaw Island race that started the following weekend. For as easy tactically the BYC Mac race was the Chicago was totally different. Got the start I wanted so as to set us up for getting east quickly, but unfortunately all that happened was that we parked. It must have been about two hours before we got the boat moving. So I traded about 7 miles of northing for about a half mile of east leverage, great!!! Felt fairly certain I was going to be fired at that point but, Phil still had a little faith and we got the boat rocking. We did not know exactly where our competition was, but I was fairly certain they were to weather close hauled pointing at a mark that was 300+ miles away. Our response put up the Code 0 give up 20 degrees of height but gain leverage and VMC setting ourselves up for the lift that should occur if we could make it to the Michigan shore by morning. Riding the lifted sea breeze reaching all day versus the boats in the lake who would be light air running. When dawn broke we were able to pull up the tracking and discovered we third farthest north boat, we were also the slowest boat in our class so this put us in great shape. All day long we were the fastest boat in the position reports gaining distance on the fastest boat in our class the Talisman(aka taliban). Towards the end of the day we got as close as 2 miles. They owed us about 2.5 hours at this point so all was good.
Late afternoon and it was time to get off the shore before the sea breeze went to bed. The next big choice was whether to go inside or outside the Manitou Islands. We had never gone outside to the west before and my routing kept saying it was the right thing to do with the forecast for breeze filling from the Northwest. I was itching to go outside since we have lost at least two of these races going into the Manitous. Tall Islands to the left big dunes to the right. The thought of going into that passage with a dying breeze just makes me cringe. When Doc(Phil O'niel III) was asleep his son(Phil IV) and I sent it out in the lake so the only real option was to go around the outside. Later that night a couple storms rolled through and with everyone else on deck i though it was a good time to sneak a small nap since once again I had not shut my eyes since the beginning of the race.
I was woke up around 30 min later to Doc yelling at me something along the lines of "You're F'ing insane!" I remember thinking, yes and what is your point? As I was trying to beat back the cobwebs and become alert. To his credit he was questioning how we were going to make around the North Manitou Island and south of South Fox Island. I had never looked at the detailed chart but rather the C-map Chart which does not show water depths. I had been on board when another boat had burned us by doing this very same move and knew it had to be possible. I just did not realize how big some of the shoals we had to navigate were. Phil IV on the tablet myself on the helm, we made our way through just fine and once again were reaching when all of our competition had to be sailing close hauled. Too bad Doc was sleeping at 4-5 am when we were ducking through the big hills in spotty fog.
The two MVP's at this point were Glen Watson with his portable expresso maker and Curt Roselle(little bastard). Without Glen's constant supply of high test caffeine and navigation, i would have definitely lost the path. Curt was huge when he drove for about an hour when Phil IV and myself were struggling. I forgot to mention that the whole race had been I.F.R. and with only three drivers it was easy to get off course quickly when you were chasing a hard to see apparent wind angle.
The rest of the race was fairly uneventful with a small parking lot under the Mackinaw Bridge we were able to finish right behind the leaders in our class and correct out over them by hours..
IRC Nationals Harbor Springs Michigan
Delivered the 46 down to Harbor with Chris Balliet, when I pulled up I was reunited with my Moth and my truck! Chris Williams drove the truck from Newport where it had been since the Bermuda Race and brought his moth along. Along with George Peet we were all sailing on the 46 for IRC nationals. It is amazing how IRC penalizes the things on a IMS boat that make it hard to sail. We ended up second and hopefully we get to upgrade the ride now!!! Praying for a 52.
Sailed the moth with Chris and George during the week after big boat sailing and we had a pretty good audience. I took some people out for rides and let some other people demo my boat. It was just good to be back in fresh clean water again!!
My truck needed $1000 repair for the universal joints on the front end... oh well have to pay to play.
t minus one week before the gorge trip, trying to fix all the wear and tear on my boat and build some new bits to try.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
