D5, 2012

Tonights race ended the regular season of Wednesday night racing at the KYC.  It was anything but a typical night's race with chaos all around the race course.  We had between 2 and 15 knots of wind out of the SW to NW.  The course was SADAF but the D mark seemed to be located way down the race course close to Bear Creek.  The first start for A fleet was a general recall but at least half of the boats did not acknowledge it and raced all the way up to A mark and back before realizing.  We started right at the pin with about 10 - 15 knots of breeze and quickly tacked away in search of clear air.  Rounding A mark we went for the gybe set and wrestled with the kite all the way North along the right shore as the wind slowly worked it's way W to NW.  We got into a tricky situation with Shadowfax just North of Sutherland Bay.  We were both flying kites as the wind shifted far right and were quickly running out of water along the shore.  The only way to douse the kite was a risky floater drop.  Our rock star crew managed to get the kite back on board without shrimping and running it over and we sailed on a close reach up to D mark.  We were well out front for the D mark rounding a hung on to that position almost all the way back to A mark until the wind totally died and caused massive fleet compression from behind.  All three fleets were how floating at the A mark waiting for the breeze to fill back in.  We finally rounded and did a bear away set barely managing to fly the chute all the way to finish.  The RC must have been losing their mind trying to score everyone at the finish as about 30 boats all crossed the line within 3 minutes of each other.  It was an awesome summer for racing with much better than average wind conditions and not one single rainy day on the water.  We will switch to Sunday racing as of this weekend with a NEW START TIME of 10am.  Check the OK Sailing forum section for the new sailing instruction posted as of today as well as the year end results the the entire regular season.  Congratulations to the J29 TBD for a first place finish followed by Pentameter, Ghost Rider and just 3 points behind, Litonya.  This will be my last post for a few weeks as we will miss the first couple of Sunday races.

m

D4, 2012

The wind Gods were not quite as generous tonight as they had been for the past several weeks.  We were given about 5 to 7 knots out of the North with very hot conditions and plenty of sunshine.  Nights like this make it obvious for everyone just why we all chose to live in the Okanagan.  The fleet stacked up and we won the pin end, we were right on the line at the gun but unfortunately a huge starting error cost us dearly.  There was a recall signalled on the start and the manner it was signalled indicated a general recall.  What we heard was the start horn followed immediatly by 2 more blasts which indicated a general recall.  We could not see the flag at the RC boat due to all the traffic off of our starboard hip.  We started to spin around and prepare for another start.  As we approached the line we could now see the individual recall flag flying and knew we were in trouble.  Although we were very certain it was not us over early I elected to restart and finally start racing.  The course was SDAF in a drying breeze.  We slowy clawed our way out of the basement and managed to finish 4th about 8 seconds behind the Soveral (sp?) 26.  Only one more race of the regualy season next Wednesday!  One further note, there may be a change to the start time for Sundays.  They were conducting an informal pole to determine if a 10am start would be acceptable to most.  I believe it has to do with availability of a RC for Sundays.

m

Commodores Cup 2012

Results now available on OKSAILING. Congrats to Danny Foster for cleaning up this weekend with only 13 points overall. Nice job.

J80 For Sale

Our J80 Litonya is offered for sale right here in the Okanagan. She is a very well maintained 2002 hull number 481 build right in Newport RI. Sail inventory includes 2011 carbon fiber North main and 101 jib. 2011 AirX 600 North class kite. Older but still serviceable practice kite. Very good condition 150 genoa. Original Dacron class main and laminate jib. Almost never used Mylar drifter. All running rigging is less than 2 years old. Honda 5 hp outboard motor. Velocitek Prostart. Factory Triad trailer in very good shape with excellent tires and brakes. For more info and photos contact Marc at 2502129950. Asking $34000

D3, 2012

Our lucky streak of great sailing conditions continues even through the dog days of summer for 2012. We are down to only 2 more races after tonight for the regular season and will be switching back to Sunday afternoon racing in a couple of more weeks. Tonight had a Westerly breeze of about 8 to 10 knots and offered quite the challenge for the start. Due to several missing marks after last weekends center of gravity wake board fest we were given course SDADAF for tonight. We were right on the line for the start and popped the kite right away but got pinned under the M244 who were having some trouble setting their kite. We had to take their stern and sail above them before getting clean air and really starting to move. Looks like Danny F had the best start quickly making gains as the windward boat. Russel Bertram made a guest appearance at the helm of GR tonight and did not disappoint the crew with a solid performance. Things stacked up pretty much as would be expected for this late in the season with J and GR out front followed by the O30 and us crossing fourth. What a beautiful night with temperatures well above 30 and water temps above 20 there was not a chill in sight. I have come to the conclusion that a new boat will be in order for next season so our beloved J80 Litonya will be for sale at the end of this season and replaced with a Melges 24 for next spring. If you or anyone you know might be interested in the 80 please contact me as I would really like to see her stay in the area. More details to come.

M

D2, 2012

It was a picture perfect summer's night in the Okanagan for a sailboat race complete with an awesome airshow provided by the Canadian Snow Birds.  We had lot's of sun, hot tempretures and a SW wind gusting up to 15 knots.  Our main course for the evening was SADXCAF.  We had a crap back row start and had to fight our way out of the cellar on the first beat to A mark.  Most of the boats headed back to shore but we saw better pressure out in the middle and regained a little dignity climbing several spots for the windard mark rounding at A.  We were rigged for a gybe set however I did not like the angle and pressure near the South end of the course so I elected to hold off on the hoist to see what would happen with the wind direction.  GR got themselves into a bad position with the kite up just to leward of us and to windward of the M242.  Every time they would try to roll out from under us the would hit our dirty and get reeled back in.  They also had to remain clear of the M242 who were the right away boat.  We could see the look of frustration in their eyes.  In hind site I should have flown the kite on this leg but being left with only 1 light air kite for the rest of the season I have grown a little conservative.  We did pop the chute on the leg from X to C as the winds were a little more out of the South on the North end of the course.  We were hoping to make up a few points on Pentameter and GR but considering they actually beat us across the line there is not much chance of that.  Only 3 more races of the regular season so every point counts.

m