Boston to Isles of Shoals

Our sailing vacation was delayed three days due to a storm but we finally set sail on Monday June 29^th (9am). We motored for a couple of hours and were then able to put the spinnaker up and achieve a steady speed of 6 knots. We rounded Cape Ann and looked around anchorages in Rockport but decided to head on north. Again out came the spinnaker and we had a nice sail to the Isles of Shoals arriving at 7pm. We considering keeping going to Cape Elizabeth given the wind was still supposed to be good until about midnight. But since this would mean arriving in the early hours we decided not to exhaust ourselves on the first day.  We have tried to a pick up a mooring ball here before but they have always been taken. This was our lucky day with about 10 available.

Climbing the mast

http://l-36.com/mast_climbing.php

We delayed the beginning of our sailing vacation because of a storm that is going on today. I didn’t fancy the prospect of the winds gusting to 50kts, 10 ft seas or just sitting out the day in a marina so close to the beginning of the trip. Instead we stayed home and attending to the never ending list of boat jobs.

Recent accomplishments include clearing the head holding tank air vent of a blockage. Yes, you guessed what it was. When I came home I was banished from being near family in case of contamination.

Yesterday I decided to go up the mast to check out some items. I have been meaning to do this for a year or more and purchased a ATN mastclimber. I don’’t want Yolande to have to try to winch me to the top. However, when I tried last year I wasn’t strong enough and I don’t like heights. Recently I have been going to the gym and am much stronger so I decided a vacation day was a good opportunity to try this. So up I went.

Although going up is relatively easy I found coming down to be more difficult. After waking early this morning I researched online and found a site on L-36.com where Allen Edwards has researched 6 methods forunassisted ascent and descent. It’s a great site where many issues related to sailing are discussed and today I ordered the GriGri system. After vacation I will try it and will report back.

Does the race committee get paid by the hour?

At 8:01:51pm as we finished yesterday’s Wednesday evening race we asked Carl, on the race committee boat, whether he is being paid by the hour. 30 minutes earlier as we watched many of the race boats heading back to the marina we decided that we were getting the most enjoyment from these events: why are they in such a rush to finish? As you can tell we got value for money and finished last. But it was a great evening.

This week winds were projected to be ~4kts but thankfully we had a good sea breeze of 10-15kts at the start of the race. We had a crew of four – Joe, John, Yolande and myself and we quickly got into the groove.  We have now sorted out how to do a start. Well, if there were no other boats. Timing is all sorted out. However, I have to remember that there are other boats, not just to avoid but to contend with at the start line. Again we were pushed up at the start which slowed us. 

Our course was a simple two laps around a windward-leeward course starting near the airport and heading to a mark near the Courageous sailing pier. We get simple pleasures out of the race. We held a long starboard tack and had several boats have to dip behind us. As we prepared to round the windward mark Joe was out on deck in charge of the spinnaker. We did a nice turn around the mark, jibed and raised the spinnaker as we furled the genoa. It worked! I looked around seeing other boats that had rounded the mark way before us still having problems with their spinnaker. We got something right. As we headed down to the leeward mark we were catching up on another boat – Uncle Joe. We took down the spinnaker meters from the mark, unfurled the genoa, rounded the mark and over took Uncle Joe! Now the reason is that they were having spinnaker and headsail issues. But still it felt like a slight victory.

On the second leg we were sailing for a while neck and neck with Uncle Joe but then they gradually pulled away. Pure boat speed wins at this point. Our second windward leg was really effective. The timing of the crew was on, and I had been tracking our course and you could see the second leg was much better. We rounded the windward mark, spinnaker up, genoa in – poof and Prairie Gold pulled away.

We finished well and then we couldn’t get the spinnaker down as it was caught in some unknown manner near the top of the mast. I threatened Joe that he would need to head up the mast when back in the marina – where is Rudy when we need him. But we decided to jibe the spinnaker and see if this helped. Problem solved.

We motored back to the marina and I showed Joe how to attach the fenders so that they won’t fall in the water. Splash – I dropped the fender. Time to practice a man-over-board drill. At least we left the fun stuff until the race was over.

We still don’t know if Carl gets paid by the hour!

NEWS UPDATE
I just identified how to make gains in these races - compete and finish.
The Spring series is over and the results are in - we came in 6th out of 10.

Wednesday June 17th Evening Race - well crawl might be a better term

What a difference a few weeks can make to the wind. In May there was a dismasting, last night we wished we could have doubled our sail to displacement ratio because the winds were so low. But on to the good stuff. The course was scheduled to be two laps from near Battery wharf out to Red buoy #12 at Logan airport and back to the start mark. We started with light winds ~8kts and it was only going to get worse. With the light winds we stayed close to the start line and had a perfect start with most of the boats in our class crossing the start line near simultaneously. Quickly we could see why we have a good handicap since we slowly slipped back in relation to the rest of the fleet.

We had a crew of four who have all sailed before on Prairie Gold and you could tell because everyone was working well together. Tacking was crisp and we were getting 3-4kts of boat speed – for a while. But, we were against the current and the wind was dropping – 8, 7, 6 kts.  Fortunately we had another slower boat we were contending with which was fun. As we approached the Red buoy mark we had two tankers to contend with and then it was to spinnaker time.

Morgan and Joe went out on the deck and had configured the spinnaker and they hoisted her as we rounded the mark. Yolande was in the cockpit using all seven arms she magically grows to control genoa inhall, genoa sheets, spinnaker halyard and spinnaker sheets. Then to top it all I asked her to furl in the mainsail (and we are still married)

It was a well coordinated spinnaker hoist that was synchronized with furling the genoa up. Probably the best spinnaker hoist to date. But the wind kept dyeing 6, 5, 4 kts. Since we were know running with the wind the apparent wind was even lower. We were making 1-2kts boat speed at best. Although we were cursing the current on the windward part of the trip,  now we were thankful. With the current in our favor we were making 2kts over ground.  If it had been against us it would have been time for the anchor, a beer and wait 6hours for the current to turn.

The race was shortened to one lap and we finished. If there had been two laps we were thinking we might need to cancel Thursday’s meetings, and turn on the bbq to make dinner and midnight snacks.

The racing is getting better, even if the winds are getting lighter. The crew is learning all elements of the boat and I can stay at the helm and enjoy their running around taking care of things.

Constitution Yacht Club Spring Regatta

Winds were light and we motored out of Boston Harbor towards Nahant for the Constitution Yacht Club Spring Regatta. With three on board we had room to move around but would we have enough hands for coordinating three sails? Fifteen boats were scheduled to be in the race and we had the second to worst PHRF rating. At least in this race there would be a boat we could sail with. Two courses – a short and longer course – were used: the short for group C and the longer for the faster groups A and B. Group C set off first. We realized that although we stayed on starboard tack we were heading to the less wind preferred side. As we tacked and headed out on a port tack in search of wind we were now mixed with groups A and B who were on starboard tack. We had to keep tacking to get out of their way and we lost a lot of time. With a heavier boat our speed drops in light winds.  We rounded the windward mark with inches to spare. We quickly performed a jibe set to get the spinnaker up. Well, when I say quickly I should probably say, methodically. Our goal was to get the genoa in, then the spinnaker up. Goal achieved.

As we returned to the leeward mark we changed sails and immediately set out on a port tack to where we knew the wind would be. At this point the slower boat had retired from race 1. 

At the completion of race 1the three of us were happy with our performance but could see areas for improvement. On race 2 the wind was so low which was to our disadvantage. Our competing boat changed headsail and had fewer problems than in race 1. We performed two laps and beat them across the finish line but they probably got us on PHRF handicap.

In our third race we really went for it with simultaneous head sail changes. As we jibed around the windward mark we raised the spinnaker on the outside of the genoa while we were furling the genoa in. One person on deck was coordinating the spinnaker. Two people in the cockpit taking care of steering (no autopilot allowed), furling the genoa, releasing the genoa sheet, raising the spinnaker halyard and adjusting the active and lazy spinnaker sheets. Somehow they achieved it.  The third race was definitely our best – we had the timing, and had all come up the learning curve. It was satisfying to look back and see 6 boats still on the race course when we had finished (5 were from a different class but in races 1 and 2 they had already finished by the time we crossed the line).

At the end of the day CYC held a party for the crew in the regatta. A nice event to start to meet the racers. A crew member from another boat came and asked us. “Are you Prairie Gold? How did you fly a spinnaker with only three crew?” That was quite a satisfying comment and great way to end the day.

Waiting for the start