Blossom Time Regatta Day 1

Wow what a day out on the water today.  With rain in the forcast and a cloudy sky the fleet headed out with very light winds out of the South.  There were 27 boats competeing in 4 different fleets which allowed the RC to groups boats with much closer phrf ratings than we normally see on a race night.  We got off 3 races today for all fleets and had pretty steady winds of about 5-7 knots out of the South for most of the day.  The usual dangers were lurking with a few holes closer to the middle of the course.  The Eastern shore seemed to pay the most today with only one beat allowing the boats closer to the West to make gains.  We sailed 3 solid races in fleet 1 and were very fortunate to turn in 3 bullets for our efforts.  Shadowfax topped fleet 2, Le Papillon topped fleet 3 and Flatchat Too for the 525.  We are hoping for very similar sailing conditions for tomorrows race.

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A3, 2013

Well as many of you noticed tonight I have decided to retire the J80 and more ahead with a Melges 24 program.  Michel and I had a wirl wind week with a drive down to Vancouver to take delivery of hull number 275 and take it back home to sunny Kelowna.  We finished rigging it only an hour before the start of tonights race.  We had very fluky winds tonight and the first start ended in a general recall for fleet 1.  We got put to the back of the starting sequence still 15 minutes away.  By the time our starting sequence was underway more of the breeze had dissappeared and we were left floating near the startline.  The course was going to be CPEADC.  We had a poor start and got gassed quickly as we floated towards the start line.  The mark rounding at P was a total sh*t show with a bunch of boats floating inchs from each other within the 3 boat length circle.  The biggest cowboy maneuver of the night came from Shadowfax who approached the P mark with somehow good speed and decided to try to barge their way inside all the the remaining right of way boats.  We also got hit by a port tack boat from another fleet who for some reason or other seemed happy to make no attempt to avoid us despite our hails.  The reaching leg from P to E was another interesting one.  We had the kite up and were quickly overtaking an unnamed boat to windward and as expected they luffed us about 60 degrees off course, no big deal.  When we slipped below them, however, and tried to sail our proper course of a beam reach to the next mark rounding, they refused to remain clear and insisted on only sailing their proper course.  We, as the leward right away boat, had to fend them off to windward to avoid contact.  I will include the actual rules here for your reference..

ON THE SAME TACK; PROPER COURSE
If a boat clear astern becomes overlapped within two of her hull lengths to leeward of a boat on the same tack, she shall not sail above her proper course while they remain on the same tack and overlapped within that distance, unless in doing so she promptly sails astern of the other boat. This rule does not apply if the overlap begins while the windward boat is required by rule 13 to keep clear. 

Proper Course A course a boat would sail to finish as soon as possible in the absence of the other boats referred to in the rule using the term. A boat has no proper course before her starting signal.

 We were having some spinnaker rigging problems also and lost the ability  to trim it in, which unfortunately caused us to have to douse the kite around the E mark to rerig the kite.  Once we finally got the kite re hoisted all of the evening difficulties were quickly forgotten.  Let's just say the boat hauled some serious ass!  We quickly covered the remaining distance to what was now the finish at A mark and finished much closer to the two lead boats then we had anticipated.  It will be a little bit of a learning curve on the M24 as it does have a few unique characteristics but wow what a ride.  See everyone this weekend for the annual Blossom Time Regatta at the KYC.

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J80 For Sale

I Currently have my 2002 J80 Hull number 481 for sale.  It is in exceptional condition and definitely well above average for it's year.  It has been a fresh water boat for the last 4 years and had seen very little use before that time.  The hull was recently (spring 2013) professionally redone to ensure a slick racing bottom.  Hull was fared to perfection, epoxy barrier coat and VC17 finish.  The boat has never been damaged and still shines like new.  All running rigging continually updated with all new sheets/halyards within the last 2 years.  Brand new (spring 2013) Honda 2.3 outboard motor.  Sail inventory includes 2011 North carbon 3dl main, and jib with matching AirX AP 600 kite all in excellent condition.  Also has older class main and jib with an old practice class sized kite.  North 150 kevlar genoa.  Never used Ullman drifter.  Boat has Harken genoa tracks installed.  Velocitek Prostart GPS/race timer.  Hall QuickVang boomvang.  Raymarine depth finder.  Brand new APS spin launch bag.  Mainsail, jib and tiller Sunbrella covers.  Includes matching Triad tandem factory trailer also in excellent condition and ready to travel.  She is a very stable and quick example by Jboat.  Asking $33,000 CDN.  Boat is located 3 hours East of Vancouver, BC in Kelowna BC.  Call Marc at 250-212-9950 or email woody1199@gmail.com See http://www.oksailing.com/sailboats-for-sale/ for more details.

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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