B1, 2012

I am starting to feel like Kelowna has moved to the south end of lake Okanagan.  Today was the fourth week in a row with strong breeze.  Conditions were much more manageable however, only hitting 15 knots a few times over the course of the evening.  We were happy to welcome Belazs to our boat.  He will be joining us in the pit and brings a solid sailing background to our crew.  On tonight's course we were served SAPCXCF with a steady 10-15 knots out of the South.  We had a good clean start just a little below the favored pin end, unfortunately giving J and Ghost Rider just enough room to slip in to windward.  We held a steady pace on the first beat managing to match the lead boat's speed rounding 3rd just ahead of ShadowFax.  Rounding the offset mark at A we went for the hoist but had a little difficulty on the set.  We gybed as quick as we could but had traveled considerably downwind forcing us to sail as high as possible with the kite all the way past Sutherland Bay.  Once we cleared the shallows we could finally bear off to a more comfortable angle and again rounded the P mark 3rd.  We sailed a solid race for the remainder but unfortunately, with no further spinnaker legs, we did not have quite enough get up and go to make many gains on the larger genoa flying boats.  We crossed the finish 3rd behind the usual 2 suspects but due to the large amount of reaching tonight do not hold out high hopes for stellar results.  We were very fortunate to have Aaron Leskosek onboard with us tonight.  Together with Alan Barnes they offer the only club based coaching available.  Much can be gained by having a very experienced set of eyes on the boat and big gains can be made with crew work by using their service, I think very highly of them and recommend you call them at 778-931-1444 to take advantage of what they offer.

m

A4, 2012

Another crazy night for big winds in the Okanagan. What started out as 3 knots out of the North quickly turned into 15 to 20 out of the South during the pre start. One of our biggest challenges was sail selection. With a forecast that called for calming breeze into the overnight we decided to go with our biggest headsail, a 150 genoa. We had a clean start maybe just a little late with good speed but once again an overpowered boat all the way upwind. The breeze was all over the map with huge direction changes and lots of big puffs out on the course. We rounded A mark and went for the spinnaker set. Due to our heavy air kite blowing up on last Wednesday we were down to our .5 oz one and I decided to take a conservative approach and call for the douse. As it turned out it was the right call. Ghost Rider and TBD were the only ones flying their kites down to D mark and it cost them quite a bit of time. We made up all of the distance lost due to our quick set/douse and rounded a short distance back. It was a long beat back to the finish with the genoa out and the crew was constantly working to keep the boat balanced. We finished about 1 minute behind the race leaders GR and about 30 seconds behind TBD. A quick glance over our shoulders we could see Pentameter close behind who most likely got us on corrected time. There is another new boat in A fleet to welcome to the start line, a Martin 242. Sorry I didn't get her name but I will try to notice it next week.

M

Canaccord Cup 2012

Congratulations to the two Santana 525s who tied for first place to share the honors of winning the 2012 Canaccord Cup.  John Sharples on Flatchat Too and Gillian Hayward on Shazam.  A strong performance by Danny Foster on Shadowfax who topped fleet two by a single point.  Fleet 1 honors went to Craig Berg on Wicked who also took home the gold by a single point with the top 4 boats all within 4 point, a very close grouping indeed after 9 races.  Ray Adams was the leader of fleet 3 also by a single point.

Crew Needed Canaccord Cup

We are still looking for crew for this weekends regatta.  If you are interested email me at woody1199@gmail.com with your info.

Marc

A3, 2012

Wow these heavy wind Wednesday nights are starting to get expensive.  We managed to blow up an old kite last night on the run from D to C mark but still had a great time.  It was a Northerly 15 pushing 20kts with big rolling waves out of the North that made for some great surfing conditions.  Our course for the night was SPCDXAF and we were the first to start.  We got buried on the starting sequence and had to claw our way out of a second row start but still managed a decent beat to the P mark.  After rounding P we jib reached for a few minutes towards D mark before deciding to throw up the old kite.  We started off great on starboard jibe surfing down some big rollers with the waves and the wind just off our stern.  The trouble started for us after jybing over to port.  The wave angle made it very difficult to avoid a broach every time the stern got lifted out of the water with each passing wave.  I have lots of twist on the main to depower it but we did eventually broach which is when we lost the kite.  It took forever to get the mess of spinnaker shrapnel back in the boat but we did manage to clean things up and head back upwind.  We held on for a 5th place finish.  I never thought I would be praying for lighter winds for next week but perhaps something about 10 knots might be a good compromise.  Oh ya, for sale, one white and blew slightly used spinnaker.

m

A2, 2012

What do you do when the winds are blowing a steady 20 knots out of the South West all day?  Go sailing of course, and that's exactly what the fleet did today.  After some discussion of cancelling the race due to high winds it was decided to proceed with a course of SAPDXCF.  We unfortunately found ourselves shorthanded with only a crew of 3, so we knew we would be working very hard to keep the boat heading in the right direction tonight.  There was a massive pin end favor to the line with everyone stacking up as close to the pin as they dare.  We tried a luffing start right on the line just below the crowd but unfortunately got to within a couple feet of the line and did not leave enough room to accelerate prior to the gun.  For the first 10 minutes or so of the race we were having speed issues.  I just could not figure out why we were moving like a 4knot.s.b until I looked back and saw that we were still dragging our outboard through the water.  What a rookie move!  This helped tremendously and our speed went from about 6 to 9 knots in no time.  We managed to close the gap on race leaders Ghost Rider, J, and Fitz and rounded the P mark 4th.  We had a good beat in heavy air with the boat often overpowered on the way up to D.  Just before reaching D mark we blew our jib halyard.  Not a good time for this to happen.  The bow was dragged downwind and it took a lot of time luffing into the wind to get it re hoisted and start sailing back in the right direction.  The rest of the race was sailing relatively straight forward and we once again managed to shave off the distance to the next boat ahead of us, Fitz.  I estimate it will be a battle for 3rd place between them and us on corrected time and should come down to only a few seconds difference.  From way back were we were it looked like Ghost Rider and J sailed a great race and had their windward rails stacked with enough bodies to crew a small regatta.  Well done everyone for weathering the high winds tonight without any apparent carnage.

m

A1, 2012

So close, yet so far.  That about sums up our experience last night for the opening race of the regular season.  Once again very light winds out of the South ranging between 1-4 knots would be on tap for tonight with a course of SACA.  A somewhat pin end favored had most of the fleet bunched up and eating lot's of dirt.  We setup with clear air and blasted off about mid line with no one to leeward of us and Fitz just to windward.  We ran as close to shore as we dare and tacked over to port having to duck Fitz in the process.  We quickly tacked back onto the starboard layline just behind Shadowfax and prepared for the offset mark rounding and spinnaker set.  On the run downhill we had pretty decent speed despite the very light conditions and managed to pass J and Fitz leaving only Ghost Rider just off our bow.  We rounded C right on their transom and continued on Port for a few more seconds to get a lane before tacking back to starboard and starting our chase back to A mark.  A critical moment for us was when Ghost Rider tacked near the red mark and just barely crossed us.  We continued playing the East shore on starboard tack and got into a huge lift.  Looking back over our shoulders we knew it was the right more as anyone daring to venture further out was greeted with almost no wind conditions.  We managed to lead the fleet by a considerable margin all the way to the last tack.  We tacked over to port just South of the yacht club while J and Fitz continued a little further along the Eastern shore.  This was our critical mistake of the night.  We had to sail a header back toward the finish while they enjoyed a lift for a few more minutes before flipping and heading back out towards the finish.  They both finished within seconds of each other about 4 boat lengths ahead of us.  It was very painful indeed seeing a hard earned lead vanish over the final 1/4 mile but that' just how it goes.

Marc
(photo courtesy of Joanna K)