SF5, 2013

It was a wild and crazy finish to the Spring Fringe series with this Sunday's race.  We had incredibly unstable wind conditions ranging from W to Se and 5 to 15 knots.  The posted course was CBPTCEC.  It was a fairly organized starting sequence for a change.  We arrived at the starting box early, ran the line several times and figured out our starting strategy.  We hit the line just a little late about midline with Bad Dog just to windward and slightly behind.  There was a pile up of boats closer to the committee boat end of the line and as it turned out they were closer to better pressure and quickly took the lead.  Approaching the windward B mark we were still on Starboard while many of the lead boats had tacked onto Port onto what they hoped was the layline.  There was a large lift for the Starboard boats which helped us close the gap quite a bit for the mark rounding.  This is where things really started to get interesting.  We did a bear away set because of the way the kite was rigged and threw in a quick gybe onto Port as soon as we could.  This however put us further downwind than the boats that pulled off a proper gybe set.  The winds continued to turn more Westerley and we quickly found ourselves sailing very high angles with the kite in strong winds, not cool.  That combined with the quickly approaching shallow water by the red can forced us to douse the kite and jib reach the rest of the way to the pump house.  We were doing very well with just the white sails and hot on the heals of J and Pentameter.  We got to witness 3 incredible broaches approaching the pump house.  The first to spin was Blur.  They were well ahead of everyone except Bad Dog on what looked like a Starboard tack when a big puff out of the South spun them around like a cork screw and laid them on their side with sails a flapping.  They laid there for a bit before shaking it off and showing massive speed directly for P mark.  The other wipeout we witnessed up close was a little scarrier.  We for closely following the J and Pentameter duo approaching P mark when J lost control rounding up and coming very close to putting a rather large hole in Pentameter.  Henry had to take some evasive action by also purposefully rounding up to stay clear of J.  We rounded with J and Pentameter and slowly worked our way to being directly to windward of J on the reach to Traders Cove.  In was a physically tiring beat from T back to C with very shiftly breeze and difficult conditions.  Rounding C on our way back to E is what cost us good positioning in the race.  We once again did a Set/Gybe and stayed right with J for the first third on the leg.  They made the right decision to douse and harden up to a layline position for E.  We elected to gamble and try to hold the kite, going for speed, and hoping for the wind to back enough we would fetch the mark under spinnaker, never happened!  We had good speed but got blown further downwind.  After dousing and climbing back up to E mark it was obvious the strategy did not work.  The last beat back to C was a solid one for us.  We sailed hard and made steady gains passing Thunderstruck and closing in on Blur and J.  We crossed the line 4th just seconds behind Peter and seconds ahead of Aaron on TS.  It was an exhilarating day with many lessons learned on the race course.  Congratulations to the crew of Bad Dog on a first place finish for the Spring Fringe 2013 overall.  We will be out of town for this Wednesday so if anyone can volunteer to write the blog for this week please let me know.  Remember racing is now 6:15 pm starting this Wednesday night.

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SF4, 2013

Not one for the record books would be a kind way of describing this Sundays sailing conditions.  We had almost flat conditions for todays racing with zero to 3 knots the only steady breeze that might be found on the water.  The RC posted a full course in hopes of a building breeze but it was shortened to show just CEC when it was all over.  We had a good clean start in a couple of knots of wind and were holding our own against the genoa boats.  The breeze was a little better on the Eastern shore and boats like Blur and Flatchat made some huge gains playing the right side of the course.  It is very painful to be stuck in a massive glassy area and see someone squeaking by you in a small zephyr.  As the fleet floated Southbound towards the finish at C the wind started filling in from the South and grabbed the four boats closest to the finish allowing them to cross as the rest of us sat hopelessly motionless bunched up North of the line.  Only one more Sunday and that will wrap up the Spring Fringe series.  Expect lots of traffic and waves from all the stink pot powerboats that will be part of the Kelowna boat show next weekend.

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Charleston Race Week

Good luck to our very own Michel T who will be racing on board one of the 70 J70s this week down at Charleston race week. Looks like over 20 knots of breeze on this day one of their four day regatta. Good luck buddy and hang on tight.

SF3, 2013

Another Sunday, another great day to be out on the water racing sailboats.  Things looked doubtful from the start for good racing conditions today with rain and no wind in the forcast.  The weather Gods must have taken pitty on the sailors and instead delivered a gently 5 knot wind out of the North and no rain.  I think we are all finally getting the hang of this new start area as most of the fleet had arived at the new C mark starting zone at the correct time with the Committee boat ready to get things moving.  It was going to be an interesting course today with a reaching leg on the menu.  The course was CDBGCBC.  We had a little bit of a second rate start getting ourselves to the line about 10 seconds early and getting trapped between J and Danny F right on the line.  The boats stacked up near the boat end of the line had a definite advantage with much better pressure on the right hand side.  We found a lane and tacked into it heading for the right side of the course.  It paid off quickly and we manage to climb many positions and had a solid D mark rounding.  The second leg was the one that set the stage for the rest of the race.  Downhill it was J and Bad Dog on the left side, and us in pretty good pressure in the middle.  We thought we were doing ok untill we saw Peter on Blur rolling down the left side of the course like a freight train.  He managed to blow by us and J and rounded B mark hot on the heals of the much faster rated Antrim 27.  The next leg from B to G was a challenging one.  Not because of shifty winds but because of the very shallow water that exists around the red can at this time of year.  In order to approach the mark on starboard one has to sail to the North of the red can over the shallow water and hope for the best until tacking onto the layline  We did just this and surely narrowly avoided running aground.  The big Benneteau was not so fortunate and spent much of the morning parked in this exact same spot.  I would question the good sense of using this mark at these very low water levels.  Reaching from G back to C our boat came into her own.  We were the first to pop a chute and quickly passed Pentameter and Danny F with our kite us pulling quickly around the course.  It was an easy gybe around C heading back to B.  I dont think things changed much for the rest of the race.  We folled J's transom and did not quite have the horse power to make any gains in these light conditions.  Today was Peter's day and his crew onboard Blur did a fine job, easily taking home first place well done!

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Shazam Is For Sale

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The Santana 525 Shazam is for sale, please help us find her a new local owner. See the OKSAILING website sailboats for sale section for more info. Here is what Gill has to say about Shazam....
Fantastic and super fast Santana 525 for sale:
This sail boat is in great condition and lots or equipment upgrades have been made to her. Sails are in very good shape and comes with two full sets. The trailer is very nice, easy to tow and has the ability for the pads to be dropped down so you can work on the bottom. The Mercury, 4 stroke, 4 horse power engine is only two years old. This boat is in prime, ready to race and cruise condition!
Please call Gill at 250-491-981four or email me at ghaywardsmith@shaw.ca for further info. Asking $7800

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Spring Fringe 2, 2013

It was a cold wild wet race course today that really put the crews to the test this early in the year.  We had a cold North wind of about 10-15 knots with lots of big (for the lake) rollers moving down the course.  There still seems to be some confusion on the starting area and time.  We were hanging out where we thought the start was supposed to happen at the right time but still ended up having to sail fast to get to the new start area just as the 5 minute warning was sounded.  Hopefully we can all clear up this confusion soon.  I believe the start is always supposed to be at the new C mark at 10am but we will be keeping a close eye on the committee boat just in case.  The course was CEADAC and multiple fleet starts were now in effect.  We had a great start and held onto 2nd place on the first beat behind Bad Dog.  We had a good mark rounding at E and got pinned under J's wind shadow for much of the way downhill.  We gybed out about half way down the run and tried to put some distance between us and J but only managed to round the leward mark just on their heels.  Our upwind game was flawless and we managed to arrive at the windward D mark about 2 lengths ahead of J.  Unfortunately we shrimped the kite on the hoist and set us way behind.  We did get everything squared away and were once again headed downhill.  We had a good run back to A and rounded a couple of minutes ahead of the M242 and behind J once again.  We finished about 1 minute behind J at C mark and still just ahead of the Martin.  We will see how the results come out but I think today belonged at Aaron and the rest of the M242 crew.  They managed to hang with the faster rated boats and seemed to race a clean race, well done guys.  To the crew of TBA, next week!! :)

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Easter Surprise

Happy Easter everyone and welcome to the brand new sailing season.  This year has brought  about many new changes to the traditional Kelowna racing scene.  One of the biggest being the redesign of the racing course.  In an effort to make it a much more square windward/leward course the mark locations have been moved.  Yesterday was our first race around the new course and my first imperssions were quite positive.  The only drawback that I saw had to do with the starting setup.  It is my impression that the start can happen at any of the marks, depending on wind direction.  The only problem is that if the comittee boat arrives at the starting mark too late, the sailing fleet can not reach the prestart area soon enough to run the line and get prepared to race.  This happened to us yesterday.  The start was at the new C mark but we have just enough time to sail to the mark and get the course written down and were then immediatly into the starting sequence.  A little too rushed for my liking.  It was a spectacular day out on the water with a steady North wind of about 8 knots, clear blue skies and about 18 degrees, not bad for March.  The course was CDACAC and was definetly much more square than in previous years.  I also liked the fact that we were never racing close to shore with the dangers involved with very low spring water levels.  We had great boat speed and hung onto 2nd place behind Bad Dog down to the leward A mark.  We rounded just ahead of TBD and tried to hold our position directly ahead of them by a few boat lengths.  That boat actually managed to pinch up and sail through our dirt just beating us to the windward C mark.  As we started to hoist the kite the wheels quickly fell off for us.  We blew the shackle on the spin halyard causing us to jib reach all the way back to A mark.  A few expletives were let loose as we saw our hard fought position crumble and all the boats sail on past.  Lesson learned, always tape the spin halyard.  No excuses next time.  We are very happy with our precieved improvement in boat speed with a fancy new bottom job, and look forward to next weeks adventure.

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