Someone should give Twitter some money and let them beef up their servers!
May, 2008
30
May 08
Wal-Mart Launches Free Classifieds
Wal-Mart launched free online classifieds powered by Oodle. Huge win for Oodle in the partnerships column!
30
May 08
“My other Hot Rod is a 2.4mR” sticker
“My other Hot Rod is a 2.4mR” sticker, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
The little round sticker on the back of my Skeeter ZX20 Bay fishing boat says, “My other Hot Rod is a 2.4mR”.
26
May 08
2008 Memorial Day Regatta
On Memorial Day, I went out and raced with the “big boats” at the Canandaigua Yacht Club in the 2008 Memorial Day Regatta. These little one-design 2.4 Meter sailboats weren’t really designed for racing 14.6 miles against J-24′s, Ensigns and Sharks!!
I got great start and then it slowed down for a while – through the first two legs actually.
I made it out to the course really late and as the 5 minute gun was going off I checked in for the race.
I forgot to lock down the shrouds and since I was reaching behind the line, I didn’t noticed until about 30 seconds after the start when I hardened up to windward. I reached down and popped in the leeward bracket on that starboard tack and was planning on tacking over to snap in the other side but I noticed that if I did, I would be tacking in front of several Catalina 25′s. I had committed at that point and was in irons and luffed up to fix things. From then on I playing catch-up for the rest of the day.
I did get some early wind and managed to cross ahead of several boats on the first upwind leg. By the time I sailed several miles and rounded the upwind mark, the wind died. I ate my lunch on that first reaching leg, drifting across the lake toward the next mark.
By this point, everyone was gone and the wind had clocked way to the right and everyone in front of me was close-reaching towards the downwind mark. I was way too late to get the new wind to catch up, even though I was sailing pretty good once it came down the lake to me.
The rest of the race was a reach because the wind kept clocking all afternoon.
I learned a lot about the boat today. I had plenty of time (3 hours, 40 minutes) to try everything.
I didn’t have any problems but I did hear a really loud pop once when I hauled in the backstay. I turned around and it looked like it was still there so I kept going.
The winds were between 3 and 9 mph during the race. There were occasional stronger puffs that lasted a couple of minutes. I stayed surprisingly dry.
I crossed the line last. I had heard the Race Committee call out to the “crash boat” to see if they were within sight of “the little 2.4″. At that point, I was rounding the second reaching mark with nice wind and was on my way down the final 5.5 km of the race. The race committee stayed on station and clocked my time.
“Thanks RC. I appreciate you waiting for me and my little boat“!
Here are the stats from my SC-1 computer:
2008 Memorial Day Regatta
Canandiagua Yacht Club
Canandaigua, NY
Total Race Distance Sailed : 26.890 Km / 16.71 Miles
2.4mR #161 – Bill Blevins
Total Avg. Speed : 3.86 KnotsBest 2 second run = 6.88 Knots (7.1 meters in 2 seconds)
Best 10 second run = 5.67 Knots (29.2 meters in 10 seconds)
Best 60 second run = 5.35 Knots (165.1 meters in 60 seconds)Best 100 meter run = 5.53 Knots (102.3 meters in 36 seconds)
Best 500 meter run = 5.16 Knots (504.8 meters in 190 seconds)
Best 1000 meter run = 5.09 Knots (1,000.1 meters in 382 seconds)
Here is a link to a .pdf of the results file posted on the CYC site. (Since we haven’t picked names for the boats yet, the scorer assigned mine a temporary name of “Rocket” sounds fitting for the boat, but not reflective of my sixth place finish time.)
No photos today. Got a really late start and didn’t take my camera (or anything to drink).
26
May 08
Race Track Image from GPS Export
Bill & John’s Race Track, (Uploaded by Bill Blevins)
John Landry and I took out the two 2.4 Meter sailboats and we both ran SC-1′s for the race and I compiled the data to make the image of the course. Very light winds and you can tell from the tracks in the image that wind shifts were frequent.
26
May 08
Sunday Afternoon Race #1
Sunday afternoon Race #1, (Photo by Tracy Blevins)
Tracy took this photo of my little 2.4 Meter sailboat in front of two Catalina 25′s on the downhill leg of the first Sunday afternoon race of the season at Canandaigua Yacht Club . Very shifty and light winds allowed for practicing all points of sail on each of the legs of the triangle course. I did manage to get the gun but I haven’t seen the results yet for the handicaps. Fun!
25
May 08
Sailing Practice Track on May 24, 2008
Sailing Practice Track on May 24, 2008, (Google Earth)
This is the track export from the Velocitek SC-1 and viewed with Google Earth. With no place to go, it seems like I just sailed around in circled. The winds were very puffy and shifty and I’d say constant at 10 knots with gusts over 20 on occasion. This export function is new to me and this is the first time I’ve used this feature. Once the device is used in a race, the computer automatically will divide the tracks into separate races and then it can export data on each race in HTML. It shows things like wind direction and speed over periods of time from “best 10 second run” to “best 500 meter run” based on average speed. Still playing with this one. Stay tuned.
24
May 08
Our 2.4 Meters Have Spots
Our 2.4 Meters Have Spots, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Gene Hinkle drove up from St. Petersburg, FL this week to deliver boats in Rochester for Canadian customers and today he stopped by the Canandaigua Yacht Club to place measurement marks on the hulls of our 2.4mR sailboats.
Gene is the official measurer for several international sailboat classes including Sonars and 2.4 Meters. He had to make due with a tape measure today since his new templates are over in Qingdao waiting for him to return before the 2008 Paralympic Games begin later this year.
Thanks a million Gene!
(P.S. – I’m glad you connected with Dave Troyer about “Krugerrand” too. That was cool!)
20
May 08
Canandaigua Lake 2.4 Meter Sailing
(Photos courtesy of our friend Pam Bettencourt)
Thanks for the photos Pam!
20
May 08
Still… “one of the prettiest boats on the Potomac”
I’m happy to report that “Sabrina”, our former 1966 Alberg 30 #158 is still actively sailing and racing under the helmsmanship of her new owner Dana Shafie and he is blogging about their sailing adventures. They hail out of the Washington Sailing Marina in Washington D.C.. Dana’s blog reports that Sabrina is still “one of the prettiest boats on the Potomac“.
I can’t argue with that!
17
May 08
CYC Race Committee Volunteer Training
CYC Race Committee Volunteer Training, (Photo by Bill Blevins).
Tracy and I attended a race committee volunteer training course this morning at the Canandaigua Yacht Club. It was pretty much like all of the other RCs we’ve worked with in the past except for a cool computerized horn system that automates the audible signals with the timing sequences. It has a nickname which is slipping my mind at the moment.
“Ollie”?
Maybe. I think it was “Ollie”.
14
May 08
Velocitek SC-1 and Mac OS X Leopard
I managed to get the Velocitek SC-1 working on my MacBook Pro running OS X version 10.5.2 after a whole lot of effort!
Parallels 3.0 running Windows XP wouldn’t work. I tried for several hours.
I did get the Windows OS to see the units via the USB ports using Parallels and the Velocitek Control Panel software did see each of them too but the firmware update only ran to about 85% before throwing an error. Many attempts either didn’t start because of an error or it only made it to 5% before quitting. Most didn’t even attempt to start without the error message popping up.
Here’s what worked.
Today I installed VMWare Fusion for OS X and reinstalled Windows XP.
Everything went smoothly until I got to the point of doing the firmware updates. The control panel software started throwing errors and that was if it could even get started (again)!
I tried and tried everything I could think of and here is what worked:
- Turn off the Velocitek Control Panel software
- Unplug the SC-1 from the computer
- Remove the batteries
- Put the batteries back in
- Plug the SC-1 back up to the computer
- Start the control panel software
- Run the firmware update
I did this twice with two units. Only in this specific order would the firmware upgrade work but I finally got it.
I was determined to make VMWare play nice with the SC-1′s and now I’m wondering if I just didn’t give Parallels enough trial and error effort.
Anyway… tonight, I used it to map my trip home from work (max speed was 32 knots).
Again though, when plugging in the unit, I had to remove the batteries, then put them back in before plugging in to the computer and starting the control panel software to download the track.
I’ll post again after the first use on the boat, possibly Saturday afternoon. I can’t wait!
11
May 08
Sailing with a waterproof video camera
On Saturday, Tracy and I took out our 2.4 Meters and I chased her boat around Canandaigua Lake trying to line up at least one interesting shot with a new Oregon Scientific ATC2K waterproof video camera strapped to the boom. After an hour of shooting video, I came up with three minutes that might be worth watching.
9
May 08
The most boring YouTube video – ever
Don’t bother watching this video.
More gadgets!
I picked up an Oregon Scientific ATC2K waterproof video camera on Amazon.com and tested it on the way to work this morning.
Hopefully… I’ll post sailing video on Saturday if all goes well!!
6
May 08
Shuler’s Spindle shown in Wayne’s World movie cut down
UPDATE with photo by Andrew Westel from MySuburbanLife.com on an old post I did on Berwyn’s “Spindle” sculpture by Dustin Schuler:
Passing cars paused at a stump of cement in the middle of Cermak Plaza Sunday afternoon, seeming to pay tribute to what used to stand in that spot — Berwyn’s Spindle sculpture, which was abruptly torn down Friday night.
While some of the city slept, construction crews removed the piece of art that had become an icon in the city during the past two decades it stood in the plaza. Since Friday’s removal of the of art, someone scrawled a makeshift epitaph for the piece — “gone baby gone” and “see ya” — on the concrete block in which it once stood. (Read the full story and take a poll here).
Other interesting details can be found on the SaveOurSpindle.com site including links to an apparent spoof EBay auction (that has already ended) and a video of a guy who has a tattoo of the “Car Kabob” on his stomach.
4
May 08
What are your 2.4 Meter sailing necessities?
What do you take out on the water with you when you sail your 2.4 Meter?
I see the NOR for the US Nationals recommends a VHF. That makes sense. I will be able to hear my over-early recalls.
I assume most sailors take water or some sort of beverage if they are out there for a while. What about lunch?
A length of rope for emergency towing is required. I hear wearing a life jacket actually helps with the comfort level of the seat and I’d take that anyway.
What about a Praddle? A red protest flag? A whistle?
Do you leave the lifting harness in the car or stuff it behind the seat? What am I missing?
Where does all of that stuff go? Post replies on this site by leaving a comment using the link below.
4
May 08
North Sails One Design will probably hate me for this
With the exception of a few oddball spinnakers here and there, for the most part, I’ve always raced with North Sails. There wasn’t even a second of hesitation when asked if I wanted North to build the sails for our two new boats when I ordered them last Fall.
I’ll be sailing with these four North Sails that you see in these photos for quite a while too, mainly because I just spent a lot of hard-earned money on everything and can’t afford to just “try” another brand. So, because I’m going to be using them, I should get to rant a little…
(That’s where the headline about North One Design hating me comes in because it must suck to be a merchant these days and forget your customer may be one of more than a million bloggers today!)
Preface: This is mostly about one vendor but I have other rants building up about Layline (mast track mounts for my GPS – backordered, oh yeah, and the GPS), IntensitySails.com (emergency paddle – backordered), Team One Newport (Gill dinghy pants – backordered), the Sailing Anarchy Store (shirt – status unknown), and West Marine ( batteries – not sure either) all of which have orders somewhere between me hitting the online “Submit” button and my front door.
This post is getting long already, so let me get to the point…
When I order a NEW main sail, I expect to get an unused, dirt-free, brand new main sail and NOT a sail that LOOKS new but has the old numbers “158″ peeled off leaving dirty glue shaped like a “158″ on the sail! This particular main requires a “162″ and those shapes don’t cover all of the glue spots. Too boot, I used existing lines drawn in ink to lay on the new numbers and apparently, the old sail had smaller numbers, so now I have to remove both sides and re-adjust! What a pain.
Furthermore… it shouldn’t be up to me to force fit “custom made” 2.4 Meter cockpit covers from your one-design shop onto my boats and leaving me to file down the clips to make them fit!
Test these things for 2 minutes and look at your orders before you ship them from your lofts in Sri Lanka.
The extra service will make your customers will think you are great because everything works and is exactly what they ordered, rather than leaving them to imagine that the “company” is trying to just shave a buck!
The sails did come in two really nice sail bags!
–
UPDATE: To be more balanced and fair with North Sails about this rant, I should add another detail.
When we saw the covers didn’t fit, we were contacted by a North representative. He offered to ship new buckles for the covers. I didn’t want to think about finding someone to cut off the old ones and sew on new clips so I didn’t reply to the email right away. (We don’t sew.)
The next evening, Tracy mixed and matched three of the six straps and got one cover on the boat. I replies back to the guy and said to hang tight and the next time we were at the boats, we worked on the six remaining clips until they all snapped. I replied back that “it was all good”, thanked him for the offer, but declined the replacement buckles.
That was last week. Today was the first day we unpacked the second main sail and saw the ink marks and glue residue.
UPDATE 5/14/08: The Layline order showed up yesterday.
3
May 08
No, I Didn’t Buy a J-24, Today Was J-Daze!
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I took the Skeeter out this morning and photographed the first few races of the 2008 J-Daze J-24 Regatta that is being hosted by Canandaigua Yacht Club this weekend on Canandaigua Lake in Canandaigua, New York.
(I secretly wondered how many times Canandaigua could be used in a sentence. Now I know.)
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I watched the first few starts and they seemed to have about 35 boats on the line. I measured steady winds at 11 mph with some puffs to 14. (The racers will say it was much higher.) It was a perfect day for racing with an occasional sprinkle of rain but the predicted storms held off until the evening after racing was finished.
Everyone looked like they were having good times – even the folks that ripped a headsail on someone else’s rigging – The collision was near the bottom of the course as the boat that rounded and was heading back upwind on port tack and tried to thread the needle between a whole lot of boats coming downwind.
That’s racin’!
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I may try to wet the hull on my 2.4 Meter tomorrow and see if I can pace on the outside of the race course with J-24s. More storms with heavy rain are moving through this evening but tomorrow is looking like it will be another great day.
All of the small versions of the photos and a slideshow are posted over at flickr.com and I’m going to give Pam and John (Albatross J-24 #3024) a disk with the full-sized images if anyone wants a print from the higher quality photo.
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Feel free to leave a comment and tell about the Saturday afternoon races, the party, Sunday’s races and the results!
2
May 08
There aren’t any fish in this spot
My friend Howard Owens and I went fly fishing on Sunday on Irondequoit Creek in Perinton, NY. We didn’t catch anything, but we had a good time. The fishing report from the morning records the water at 59.5 degrees (very warm) and almost muddy. We’ll get ‘em another day!
2
May 08
Put a Weiner Dog On Your Site
My friends Chris and Karl think that everyone who has a site should be connected in some tangible way, other than by just using a link, by sharing an image of this particular “weiner dog”.
So, if you can, put a weiner dog on your site by using the code on that site to add the creature.
2
May 08
Ice Cream Sandwich Sunday
Dessert on 4/29/08, (Photo by (Bill Blevins)
Not every post is going to be about sailing! The site title includes the word “Mostly”.
I have a photo blog of the dessert creations I make occasionally.
Enjoy and try a few of these concoctions!
2
May 08
Both 2.4mR boats are on the hard
Both 2.4mR boats are on the hard, (Photo by (Bill Blevins)
Last night while waiting for what I thought was the season opening skipper’s meeting, I unloaded and rigged both of our 2.4 meters. This photo was shot at the Canandaigua Yacht Club parking lot before it got dark. The meeting I attended (for all of 2 minutes) was for “Fleet Captains” and not for what I read as… “Captains of all of the boats racing in the fleet this year”. We need one other 2.4 Meter to qualify as a fleet, and then I’d still need to be voted a Fleet Captain!