Wednesday race - 40 boats, spinnakers, halyard up mast

It was a fun evening full of surprises. Wednesday’s race was a rumble where several yacht clubs come together to race. Rather than 10-15 boats, as is normal in our Wednesday evening series, there were 40. Prior to disembarking I realized I had forgotten the course information, thanks to Julia and Yolande for getting it to me. We headed out to President’s Roads providing instruction to the newcomers to Prairie Gold – fast learners. We started to hear radio traffic on the race VHF channel but were a little confused about starting marks and exact course. Thank goodness we got the paper printout to sort it out.

We took a couple of tacks and it was countdown to the start. We initially made a really good approach, right on time to the start line but as we approached the committee boat a leeward vessel pushed up to prevent us getting to the start line. Its totally allowable but a little frustrating for us novices. However, it’s a good way to learn. Won't make that mistake again. We quickly turned around to avoid a collision and jibed and started. That was a good test for the new crew: an unexpected fast jibe and flawlessly executed.

We therefore started at the back of the pack and set off close hauled from Deer Island towards Spectacle Island where we were to round a green buoy. Getting there was uneventful. At this point of the race we were at the back of the first pack, and the even faster boats in the next group to start had not yet got to us.

But life was to get interesting. We had to raise the spinnaker with Rudy and Sean having never used it before. We set the lines and I hoped that the instructions had been received, digested understood……We rounded the windward mark and performed a conservative sail hoist. First we rolled in the genoa, then hoisted the spinnaker. She inflated and you could feel the boat accelerate. We sailed on a broad reach and jibed a few times, dropped the spinnaker, pulled out the genoa and rounded the leeward mark and headed back up on lap 2 of 3. Now all forty boats were mixed together. What a fun time. At one point on the second lap we passed port-to-port with another vessel and we joked that we were so close that we could hear the crew on the other boat breathing.

But the real excitement was still to come…..

We sailed nicely to the windward mark and intended to do a more aggressive spinnaker hoist. The command was given to hoist the spinnaker and the shackle came undone and the halyard went up the mast without the spinnaker. I quickly turned to plan B. In the meantime one of the very fit crew (see code at the bottom of this entry) together with another crew member’s assistance quickly climbed a few feet up the mast and grabbed the halyard and we were back to plan A. It was quite a sight! We hoisted the spinnaker, accelerated on a port tack, then timed the jibe to give us one long starboard tack (and right of way) to the finish line. I say the finish line but this was still lap 2 of 3. However, the committee boat decided that certain groups should only do 2 laps because of time. Of course our scratch sheet was at home and we just guessed that we were in a slow group so would only need to do two laps. As we crossed the line, we got a whistle which was good news as it showed we had indeed finished.

Now it was time to bring the spinnaker down and have yet more excitement. My intention is to always stay in the cockpit to give instruction. Since the purpose of these races is for me to teach others to sail and to enjoy the experience I feel I need to be there. However, the snuffer wouldn’t come down and I knew what the problem was. But since we were running out of water - Deer Island was getting close - I handed over the helm and left the cockpit and moved the snuffer sheets around the forestay. As we began dropping the snuffer the halyard was loosened. A brief moment of panic, but not a problem, just a wet spinnaker. All was recovered quickly and its just another learning experience. Now I will have to go back to Prairie Gold tonight to dry the spinnaker. Oh darn it, back to the boat. Oh, if I have to J

We sailed back to Constitution marina and I handed the helm over to crew to enjoy the controls. Joe and Sean did a nice job. Next time we will get Anne and Paul to the helm. At our slip we were joined by Ineke, Yolande and Julia with food and drinks.  Lots of great things happened: we were competitive, but had a fun time. All the crew learned lots and had a fast learning curve. And, as always, lots of laughter and good memories.

Skipper Phil: Crew: Rudy, fitness extraordinaire; Paul, mainsail trimmer; Anne Traveller coordinator; Joe, jibe fast winch controller; Shaun, spinnaker saver.

TRips 20 and 21 of the season - lots of spinnaker work

We try to pack in a lot of sailing that is facilitated by being able to walk home from work and straight over to the marina. This weekend we set out on Saturday with no particular destination. With winds from the SW we headed along the north shore for 18nm all under assym spinnaker, then turned and tacked back in building winds to home. Overall we put in a day of 40nm. On Sunday we knew the weather would turn bad so we head out early. We chased another sailboat around spectacle and managed to pass her as we jibed around the red buoy between spectacle island and long island.

We are practicing in all different conditions with the spinnaker – what’s the best and most efficient way to hoist….. Today we had her rigged and sitting on the port side, as we generally do, ready to sail on a starboard tack. But we were on a port tack. So we hoisted the spinnaker while on a port tack and let the chute lay against the genoa. We pushed the spinnaker in the chute around the forestay, rolled up the genoa and opened up the spinnaker. It worked very nicely. We sailed out into Presidents Roads, then jibed and headed down the Nubbles to George’s island. We managed to sail at 55 degrees off the wind with the spinnaker flying as we came through the channel.

We are definitely getting the feel of the spinnaker: we have sailed with her a lot in the past but now I am testing many conditions, ways to hoist, quick ways to dowse etc. so that I can give instructions to the crew on race day. It’s a pity they weren’t out with us this weekend. Without practice race night might be a disaster. But nothing ventured nothing gained.

Wednesday night races

Prairie Gold has entered the Constitution Yacht Club Wednesday night races! Buoyed by our success in the New Year’s day race I decided to give the Wednesday evening races a go. We have now entered two races and have learned that the winds are really blowing in May 2015.

Our first race was quite something. Winds were gusting over 30kts apparent as we were lining up for the start. We realized that although we are a cruising boat, our furling headsail and main was a great advantage. The racing boats had no option to change sails nor to reef, but we did. About half of the boats didn’t even try spinnakers, ourselves included. And for us that was good. We started upwind with deeply reefed main and reefed 135 genoa. After several tacks we rounded the windward mark and then sailed butterfly downwind. Of course, unlike other boats we could now sail with full 135 genoa and main.

But back to the start – In January on New Years day I screwed up the start. Tonight we nailed it – well nearly. We were third over the start line and at top speed. We tacked up wind and had many rail dippers. It was fun to tack and use starboard tack to block other boats out. Now I say it as fun to tack, but the crew were making comments about not needing to go to the gym tomorrow.

Of course we finished last – our PHRF rating is so far worse than the other boats. But we only finished last by a whisker - well we finished last.  Can’t wait to see what our adjusted time is.

But unfortunately there was drama on the high seas. One boat dismasted! Fortunately, no one was injured. Another boat lost her sheets, they snapped in the high winds. But we finished! I guess we achieved our objective not to be last in all races.  The racing boat Shout nearly lost two of their crew overboard. They had their spinnaker out and nearly broached sending crew towards the harbor waters.

In our second race, last night, there was an element of nervousness on the docks because the winds were pounding again. At the startline everyone called in to the race committee boat that they would sail without spinnaker. We counted down to the start of the race and we crossed the starting line first. That was our first victory.

Quickly we were being caught by faster boats but for a while we were holding our own given our slower boat speed. The finish was quite exhilarating since the racing boat Eagle was hunting us down and as we turned the last mark to head up wind to the finish line she came to our side. We trimmed and got every 100^th of a knot out of Prairie Gold that we could. We finished together. One of our crew suggested that we should have extended our bowsprit so that we would have crossed the line before Eagle. (I didn't mention that Eagle started behind us in a different class of boat. So although we finished together she got around the course in a shorter time. But let's wait for the handicap adjusted times.)

It turned out that the winds died down and were very patchy in the evening. Maybe next time we will take our assym spinnaker out.

Installation of a bowsprit

We fly our asymmetric spinnaker frequently and normally attach the tackline on the anchor roller. Of course this leads to tangled lines on the anchor during gybes. In the heart of winter I decided to cheer myself up by ordering a bowsprit from Catalina Direct, that is manufactured by Selden.

There were three major steps to installation:

Attach an adapter to one of the anchor rollers to hold the bowsprit.

Attach two padeyes to the deck for attachment of the inboard end of bowsprit – one for the retracted position and the other for the extended position.

Couple the inboard adapter, which connects to the padeyes, to the bowsprit with pop rivets.

Most of the process was simple except for two steps. Drilling through the stainless steel anchor holder (used three bits for that) to attach the outboard adapter and then attaching the pop rivets. You might ask why the latter was so difficult. I have learned that hardware stores only stock pop rivet guns for rivets up to 3/16th of an inch. The rivets that come with the bowsprit are ¼ inch rivets. I tried to support local stores by driving around and getting a rivet gun locally but finally broke down and ordered from Amazon.

This afternoon I had the fun of inserting those rivets.

Beneath are some pictures of the assembled device. It will be a lot of fun to sail with. I am not sure we will go any faster but at least we look the part.  

 The bowsprit installed with a soft shackle (see previous post) and a block for the tackline

A close up of the outboard adapter with four bolts holding it to the anchor roller.

Soft shackle attachment of sheets to headsail provides superior performance

In my last post I showed the process of making soft shackles. Today I was able to connect our two new eye spliced sheets to the head sail via the soft shackle and then take Prairie Gold for a test sail. From now on there is no going back to bowlines to attach sheets. When one tacks with the soft shackle and eye spliced sheet there are no knots to get caught on the shrouds. I was out solo today and was able to tack in apparent winds up to 25kts with ease and the sheets came through so fast it was not necessary to use a winch handle to tighten the sheets.

I am so impressed with soft shackles I have added three more: one for a block for the tackline and two for blocks for the sheets of the spinnaker.

Here is a picture of the sheets and soft shackle while sailing. The shackle is red and I have added a velcro strap (lavender) to keep the knot at the clew of the mast. At this point I haven't cut the ends of the dyneema line since I have been waiting to put a load in the knot. Just accomplished that, so now its time to cut the loose ends away.

Soft Shackle Construction – take home message – get the right line!

Having seen the virtues of soft shackles I decided to make rather than purchase for a price of about $35 a piece. We recently spliced eyes in the end of our sheets and would like to be able to rapidly attach and detach the sheets from the sails. To achieve this we tested a purchased soft shackle and it worked really well. I looked online, watched videos of how to do this and decided it was time to try it. Last night 6mm line arrived and the task was impossible. It’s necessary to feed the line inside the cover of the line (see pictures beneath) but I had the wrong line. I couldn’t sleep and in the middle of the night found a post that stated the specific line to use “Amsteel BlueDyneema AS-78 single braid 3/16 inch”. Importantly there is no core to this line, only the cover, which provides the strength. This line only costs $1.08 per foot at West Marine. Having purchased 30 feet this morning I went ahead and tried again. First attempt was a success. There is a great website that takesyou through the process with a good explanation and a calculator to pre-determine how much line to cut, and where to feed the line.

I have now quickly made two of these soft shackles and will attach to my headsail once the wind is a little lower.  To make a soft shackle of 2.65 inch diameter requires 41 inches of line which costs only ~$3.60. It takes 10 minutes to make and I will use them extensively.

A quick warning – don’t get colored line since the dye comes off very quickly.

Beneath is a sequence of the pictures of making the shackle.

 Feeding the line through the inside of line

 Open loop at the end of the spliced line

 Make a hole through the central line

 Feed the cover through the central core

 Pull tight

 Tie a diamond knot - I then tensioned it and will leave the loose ends attached until the knot has been under serious working load. Then the loose ends will be cut off.

The knot feeds through the eye and the cover is pulled over the core to tighten down onto the knot. With the line working loads up to at least 5,600 lbs are possible.