BillBlevins.com :: Mostly about 2.4mR sailing

J-22 Worlds first day wrap-up

Before yesterday I couldn’t have said, “Well, I remember this one time when I was in a regatta that was so large that in one race we tied for 64th place with 42 other boats”.

Now I can tell that sailing story!

After waiting for the winds to build and settle in a somewhat straight direction, the race committee tried to get all of the 105 J-22’s heading towards the windward mark. A general recall and then a timing error on the second try delayed the race for 30 more minutes. We were in position to nail both of those starts on the pin end but that didn’t matter in the end.

The third try send all of the boats off without incident. We were one boat length behind a bunch of over-early boats that didn’t get caught and we were mid-line on the pin end side of the line.

After about 5 minutes, the wind went left and got lighter and we tacked to port and headed up the middle of the course. Wrong call!!

The middle went almost totally dead and we struggled with the steering and trimming in the light conditions finally making it to the top mark and then half-way down to the leeward mark before the breeze dropped to under 2 knots.

Finishing somewhere near the back of the fleet, we crossed after the time limit expired and joined company with a third of the fleet in the same predicament as us!

Race committee called it a day and then I had another “first” for my sailing career - being the 17th boat in an 18 boat tow line back to the harbor!

Today, the weather isn’t looking much better as far as sailing goes. Winds of 5-7 from the East (which means ‘no wind’ up here in New York). I hope we get another race in today.

Tonight, I’ll post photos and links to other blogs and report on what happens out on the water. Time to head to the boat!

Tags: j-22, j22, race, regatta, worlds

J-22 World Championships

I’ve never been in a race with 15+ OCS (on course side) boats and no general recall, but, I guess when there are 105 boats on the line, that isn’t many!!

Nelson, Mike and I went out yesterday and practiced with everyone. We had light and shifty winds and 3 foot seas, so there was a lot of bobbing up and down.

The winds died down to less than 5 knots right at race time after blowing all day from the North.

Not much fun for a practice race but probably the toughest sailing we’ll see for the rest of the week.

Today, for the first day of races we are supposed to see very light and shifting winds from SW changing to  NE so we may not even get a race in.

Here is the boat I’m helming: “Changes in Attitude” #1378, Bow # 82

Here is the results page: http://myyc.org/result

More updates to follow!

Tags: j-22, j22, race, regatta, worlds

2008 2.4mR Canadian Championships

We’re heading around to the other side of “the lake” this morning, pulling one of our 2.4mR boats and visiting with friends in Toronto, Canada. I’m going to participate in the 2008 2.4 Meter Canadian Championships on Saturday and Sunday.

The National Yacht Club is hosting the event and sailing is off the shores of Toronto on Lake Ontario.

Today is boat rigging day and tune-up sailing with local Toronto sailors and those of us who shows up early.

I’ll be posting photos and updates in the evenings.

Tags: 2.4mR, 2point4, canada, regatta

2008 Flying Dutchman Cannonball Regatta

Flying Dutchmans sailing, with crew hiked out and approaching the windward mark on Saturday, June 28, the first day of the 2008 Cannonball Regatta held at the Canandaigua Yacht Club in New York.

Tags: canandaigua yacht club, flying dutchman, regatta

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 Knots

Best 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).

Tags: 2.4mR, memorial day, regatta, sc-1, velocitek