So little wind

We started the Rogue season of Wednesday evening races last night. These races are more relaxed in pursuit style and start between pier 6 in Charlestown and a daymark across the channel. It’s on an honor system, no race committee. As the slowest boat in the fleet we were off at 6:18:03. Unfortunately at the start line the true wind was 3 kts and the tide was against us.  We made a great start, even if it was slow (its much easier when you are not jockeying for position with other boats).  But then a big barge came behind us and we had to tack away to the edge of the channel to avoid it. Now the faster boats were starting and soon over took us.

Winds increased (up to a roaring 6kts) as we sailed and the crew – Rudy and Yolande – did a great job of spotting wind holes and we took the tactic of staying near the north side of the channel until we could make one last tack over to green buoy #13 that is on the southside where there was little to no wind (2kts). The ploy worked and we made significant ground on the other boats that had headed to the south side of the channel early.

We rounded the green mark and headed to red 12. Well we slowly drifted at 0.5kt. Now the current turned in our favor but the highest wind was 3kts. It was an hour and a half into the race and only one boat had turned and deployed its spinnaker and set sail for the finish line. Yes, Shout was in the lead. She is an amazing boat that seems to be able to sail under the breath of her crew. But even she was having problems. We too were having our own problems – thirst. We decided to turn on the iron genny and head home. Well the sunset was beautiful and the beer was very tasty. Congrats to the hardy crew that finished the race/drift.

Third

We entered a race over near Marblehead yesterday and managed to do pretty well despite not knowing the course. Prior to the race there were limited instructions with nothing about the course. We sailed out at 7:30am arrived in good time for an 11am start. We asked for course details over VHF, but received no response, checked the website for the race (again) on our smart phones but still found nothing. We noted down symbols displayed on the race committee boat thinking they might be meaningful. There was confusion about which fleets would start at what time since conflicting information was provided. Also to somewhere with a hearing issue B, D and G fleet sound very similar so that added to the confusion. But we had our eyes on another boat that we knew was in our fleet and we also knew that it was a boat from the local fleet. Hopefully they would understand the course.

We followed it to the start and then used it as a course guide. We literally had no idea what the course was. Worse still there were two courses, one each for different fleets. We kept our eye on a boat we knew and rounded the first mark. We could now use this first piece of known information to scan through information online and the codes on the back of the boat and we managed to piece together what we thought to be the course.

On the downwind leg we flew the spinnaker and passed the boat that we used as our pilot boat. We rounded the mark and headed up wind amongst boats that were on two courses. A few miles later we saw the fleet splitting, but which was our course? We made our decision and saw one boat ahead of us. All others were on another course. To make things worse, one of the symbols should have sent us on yet a different course. But since these were local racers we trusted their course selection better than ours.

It was a beautiful day with winds 10-20kts, bright blue sky. We finished with boats behind us and came in third on corrected time.

It was a great day on the water. Next time we race in that area we will learn more about how they decide and display their courses. It’s the first time in this year’s racing that this has happened. Learn something new every time.

We then sailed under spinnaker back to Constitution marina and totaled almost 50nm in the day. A great way to end the weekend.

Finish Strong

Yesterday evening was the last of the CYC evening races in the Boston inner harbor for the season. There was a good turnout for the race although winds started low (6kts) and were predicted to drop soon.

Danielle, Morgan and Yolande joined me on Prairie Gold for the race. We set up for a port tack start circled and came toward the line at good pace. Unfortunately all but two boats in our fleet were on starboard tack, so we had to turn hard to port to change our tack as we were crossing the line. As a side note, the next division all started on port tack, clearly the preferred approach for the course.

Low winds on a cruising boat spell disaster. As the winds dropped to 2kts we were wondering whether we would make it to the finish line. At one point we calculated 18hrs to go. We slowly clawed our way tacking along a small line of wind. When we were about a quarter of a mile from the turning mark, the wind grew to 6kts and turned to come from the south. We turned for the finish line and were able to sail on a beam reach with the assym spinnaker. Winds grew to about 10kts and we were now making 6kts and catching the other boats.

We came across the line in an unequivocal last place position. With the handicap adjusted time although we came last we were really close to the rest of the fleet. Handicapping is done on time over distance. Thus when speeds are low, and the faster boats pull away they have a distinct advantage since there is no handicap adjustment. No complaints, we are doing well.

Its been a great season, having learned lots but most importantly, shared jokes and laughs with good friends. A couple more weekend races to go.

Black smoke and low rpms

On Saturday I headed out for a solo sail and just after I got the mainsail set I noticed black smoke coming out the exhaust. Yikes. So began a weekend of troubleshooting. I quickly put fenders back out and prepared to dock bow in since I wanted to minimize maneuvers in the marina. Came in bow first at low speed in the hope that if the engine shutdown I could make it into my slip and wouldn’t hit the dock too hard. Fortunately, the engine didn’t quit on me and docking was fine, although I must say I impressed myself with my speed estimate.

Now began a weekend of troubleshooting. I got on to Mr. Google and began searching. Here are the symptoms:

Max rpms in forward 2.2k, in reverse ~3k, in neutral >3k some black soot or un burnt diesel in the exhaust.

Eric, who does boat cleaning and waxing, was working on the boat next to me. He offered to dive to see if there was anything on the prop. Prop was clean which was confirmed by the ability to turn the prop manually with engine off and in neutral.

I changed primary and secondary fuel filters. They looked clean, but a new set wouldn’t hurt. No change in performance.

Perhaps the fuel injectors were dirty. I purchased some seafoam fuel additive to clean the cylinders and injectors. No change in performance.

Maybe one injector was bad so I measured the temperatures of the 3 cylinders. All the same and the engine sounds fine.

Rick who works on boats in the marina dropped by and spent time helping me diagnose.

Back to Mr Google. It seems that the only option remaining is that the exhaust mixing elbow was clogged with carbon. The mixing elbow is also referred to as the Achilles heal of the Yanmar 3YM30 diesel engine. I tried to take it off but didn’t have the right tools. Time to call in the troops

I spoke to several people in the marina to find a diesel mechanic – they are hard to come by. Howie in the marina office suggested calling Steve’s shop in Charlestown which repairs Yanmar’s. I spoke to Brian on the phone and he said likely an injector or mixing elbow problem. Within 24h he came to the boat and confirmed the mixing elbow was at fault and replaced it.

Looking forward to going over tonight to give her a test drive and to race in the final Wednesday evening race of the year.

Thanks to all for your help and advice. It’s a great community in the marina.

4th

Prairie Gold is still racing. Yolande and I were away for two weeks but we left the keys with Morgan, Danielle and Joe so that they could continue the races. You may remember that each season’s race position is impacted by the numbers of races one completes. Our strategy, in addition to going out and trying, is to enter all to help us move up the leaderboard. In both of the two races while I was away the crew got Prairie Gold out racing and finished (still awaiting results). In the last they were persistent and despite drifting for 45 minutes, were able to find wind to finish. It was great to receive text message updates while in Australia and then Japan from the finish line and during post race libation. Thanks for taking good care of Prairie Gold and getting out and racing.

Last Wednesday evening only Joe and I were able to make it to the race. We were tracking windspeeds online from the airport station and could see winds gusting to 20kts. Regardless we put the spinnaker on the deck and rigged her ready to go. The course was #1 twice around which is from near Battery wharf to green #13 (world trade center) back down to a mark near courageous sailing. We had a great start in which we couldn’t have got closer to the line without a penalty. Two other boats had a similarly good start and we were off. We held our position well and it was good to have J boats next to us, at least for a while.



We rounded #13 and came downwind initially with the genoa. Quickly we decided we had to try the spinnaker. Woohoo, we were flying. A great downwind leg, followed by an excellent upwind leg. We were in the thick of it and came downwind fast, very fast. As we finished we were slightly behind Eagle and Uncle Joe and finished ahead of another boat! We look forward to seeing the times since our handicap should help us tremendously.

We have come along way in 1 season with our core crew really clicking and understanding what to do and importantly, when to do it.

Back at the dock other crew were congratulating us on a great race especially with crew of two. We might be at the slow end of the fleet, but we have big hearts.

We sat and realized we were sweating profusely – it was warm out, but we had a serious workout getting Prairie Gold around the course. Next morning I am sore – was it the previous day's gym session or the race?

RESULTS ARE IN: We came fourth in our B fleet division based on corrected time. Several boats were disqualified, some retired, perhaps because of the high winds, and we were able to beat Charisma 2 on corrected time. High winds are where we excel given that it helps with our heavy displacement boat. We also beat Uncle Joe and Eagle from Fleet A. We look forward to the return of Morgan and Danielle to the crew this week and to our final Wednesday evening race.