Sailing

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22
Jul 10

First RC Laser Regatta was Learning Experience for Three CYC Members

Below is an article that is being sent to the Canandaigua Yacht Club’s newsletter for consideration for use in the Aug. 1 edition.

A group of members have now purchased three RC (remote control) One Design Laser sailboats and there are two more to be ordered (this week, hopefully) and a couple of other people considering the purchase. Shortly, we’ll be joining the North American RC Laser Class Association and forming an official fleet on Canandaigua Lake and racing at CYC. The current leading name is the Canandaigua Yacht Club Remote Control Sailing Fleet (if the club will have us).

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On Sunday, July 18, three sailors from Canandaigua Yacht Club competed in a “first of its kind” (for CYC) Remote Control Regatta.

Remote Control Laser Sailing

Sailing RC Lasers at Canandaigua Yacht Club

Skippers Jack Bennett (#05), Bill Blevins (#254) and Nelson Habecker (#54) competed using remote control one design Laser sailboats in a series of round-the-buoy races.

Frank Sacco served as the PRO and his boat, Dr. Heeks also hosted spectators, Larry & Nella Neeck. The boat was also the mobile racing platform for the three skippers. The course was set just South of the mooring field and marks were attended by a spectator boat.

Three races were run, although the final race was shortened due to the number of large spectator boats crowding the course which unfortunately blocked the wind for the small competitor boats.

Bennett’s racer seemed to develop a mind of its own, and on multiple occasions did penalty circles for no apparent reason. Mark-set-and-spectator-boat driver Gary Schmidt was sent to rescue the wayward craft a few times throughout the afternoon.

Habecker’s craft was on course for the gun and a bullet in the first race, but at the last minute, the skipper decided to ride a wind shift directly into the beam of the Race Committee boat which left Blevins clear to overtake from behind and cross the finish line first.

Two other races were completed but the results are still under review for various reasons, and thus are still deemed unofficial.

Informal races are planned for Sunday afternoons at the South end of the CYC waterfront, sometime around 4 p.m., or whenever the crews and boats arrive and feel like sailing. Additional regattas will be announced in the future. For more information on joining in on the fun around this exciting sailing opportunity, contact club members Bill Blevins or Nelson Habecker.

If you are interested in obtaining a RC Laser Sailboat, visit http://www.sailrclaser.com. The boats are available as a ready-to-sail kit that includes the boat, 3 sails, transmitter and travel bag. All that is needed to sail are double A batteries. Setup time is about 5 minutes from the bag to the water!

Everyone is welcomed to participate (with a RC Laser or any other RC sailboat) or just come out as a spectator.

We’ll bet you haven’t seen racing like this before!

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14
Jul 10

Racing By Myself on Canandaigua Lake

How can the only boat that starts a race end up in forth place?

I raced in Canandaigua Yacht Club’s 75th Anniversary History Regatta a few weeks ago, sailing my 2.4 Meter. The race was pretty neat. It took the fleet from the starting line in front of the club, down Canandaigua Lake and around marks that were set in front of all of the old locations of the yacht club in years past.

Canandaigua Yacht Club 75th Anniversary Race

View while sailing down Canandaigua Lake in my 2.4 Meter during the CYC 75th Anniversary Race.

Before the race, I reviewed the racing instructions. The document stated that we would have a windward start.

The morning of the race, I attended the skipper’s meeting. At the end of the meeting I asked the question about the starting line and if we were doing a typical start to windward. I was told, “Yes” we’ll be starting to windward with the first rounding mark “off of the mooring field in front of the club”.

Once I was out to the course, I watched the marks get set, the RC flags to go up, and then I noticed that most boats were tacking back and forth OCS (on course side) of the line.

I sailed around behind the committee boat, approaching on a starboard tack, hailed the PRO and asked about the starting line and if we were still going to windward at the gun.

“Windward start, round the pin and take a sharp left,” was the reply from the PRO or  ”Principle Race Officer”.

Cool.

With a minute to go to the start, I made my way on down towards the pin on a close starboard reach and waited. With 30 seconds to go, I was STILL the only boat behind the starting line and everyone else was on the course side coming right at me!

I’m not sure how many times I could have asked for clarification and in what other form I needed to check, so when the gun went off, I pinched up to a close-hauled course, crossed the line just after the signal, then reached off a hair and jibed around the pin end of the line, barely missing a couple of larger boats coming towards me in the opposite direction. At that point, I headed on down the lake behind everyone else.

No other boats started the race to windward, in the same direction as I did.

Everyone else reached across the line starting line in the OTHER direction, sailing on down the lake when the gun went off.

The rest of the race was uneventful. I managed to stay in about the middle of the pack of boats, not bad considering I probably have one of the slowest boats on the water and three legs of reaching isn’t my strongest point of sail.

I crossed the finish line between a couple of other cruisers and Ensigns and then decided – just to be safe – that I should round the committee boat and cross the line in the direction I started the race. After the technicalities were taken care of, I headed on in to shore for the after-race awards and party.

When I got to the clubhouse, I questioned the President of the club, who was on the committee boat for the start of the race, about the start. She said, “You were the only person who technically started the race.”

No one else had crossed the start line in the proper direction!

Awards were given out for all of the fleets. I was awarded the first in fleet for the cruisers. Then, surprisingly, my little 2.4 Mr had been calculated to be the first place boat overall – kewl!

Last night, (six weeks after the race) I got a call from the Vice Commodore. He let me know that the results had been disputed and I was being moved to 4th overall after the revision.

How can the only boat that started a race end up in forth place?

Photography / Sailing — 2 Comments
29
Aug 09

EF1 Tornado hits Canandaigua Yacht Club

Canandaigua Tornado, originally uploaded to Flickr by SailorBill.

Boats everywhere!

An EF1 tornado scored a direct hit on the grounds of the Canandaigua Yacht Club in Canandaigua, NY on Saturday afternoon, August 29, 2009.

There are trees down everywhere. Power lines were also down because the poles had been snapped in half.

Several boats were sunk in the mooring field with just the masts or a small portion of the hull showing. But the major damage was done in the parking area where “Shark Park” was a total mess. I don’t think I saw one Shark that was unscathed.

J-24′s were tipped off their trailers or blown across the lot.

The whole Vanguard 15 fleet was blown off the end of the parking area and most were in the water by the beach and underneath the North dinghy rack which landed on top of them.

The pavilion was off of the foundation and will have to be seriously repaired before it can be safely used again.

Wow! For a storm that reportedly lasted only 90 seconds, it caused a major mess. No one was hurt, so there is some good news.

Cleanup begins as soon as the insurance companies do their documentation.

More to follow… There is a post on the Canandaigua Yacht Club homepage with a note to stay away until Tuesday and to keep checking the site for updates.

I’ve posted damage photos on Flickr.

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5
Jun 09

Sunday Racing

You may need to get a free account at http://kattack.com to view these. It will be worth it.

When? Sunday May 31, 2009

Where? Canandaigua Yacht Club

Who? J-24′s Albatross (Blue boat) and Dr. Heeks (Red boat)

What? Sunday morning one-design racing!!

Here’s Race #1.

Race #2.

Race #3 (Note: Dr. Heeks veer off to Starboard on the first downwind leg. That was what sailors call a broach. Too bad there isn’t video or pixs!)

Fun was had by all.

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16
Feb 09

Velocitek SpeedPuck Video

Video review of the Velocitek SpeedPuck posted to YouTube by Stern Scoop.

Internet / Photography / Sailing — No Comments
9
Oct 08

Time Warner Cable “PhotoShow” live in Rochester

Time Warner has partnered with Roxio to use their PhotoShow program to allow the public to upload photos, create a slide show and then publish them on a local TV channel at no cost.

This free version also hosts the finished “show” for people like me to post to a blog like this test I that did today.

The site will also email the show to your friends and another option is to order the show on a DVD. Premium members (paying members) get additional slide show styles, borders, music, transitions, etc.

Neat. A few of my friends have already tried this out and I’ve received several invites to their shows on local Rochester channel 822. I had to try it out too.

Oh, don’t forget to click the button below the show above to turn on the groovy music (also free).

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21
Aug 08

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!

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20
Aug 08

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!

Sailing — 1 Comment
18
Jul 08

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.

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4
Jul 08

Olympic sailors comment on Quindao Algae

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3
Jul 08

Algae blooms at Olympic sailing venue

Algae Bloom for Olympic sailors

Quindao, China Algae Bloom at sailing site, originally uploaded to Flickr by beijingente.

China’s latest Olympics nightmare is a vast algae bloom that covers one third of the sea where the world’s best sailors are supposed to be competing in just over a month. Athletes call it “the blob”, “the carpet”, “the fairway”, and “the serious problem”.

Click here to read the full story on the Fox News site.

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30
Jun 08

2008 Flying Dutchman Cannonball Regatta

2008 Flying Dutchman Cannonball Regatta

2008 Flying Dutchman Cannonball Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)

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.

Photography / Sailing — 1 Comment
26
Jun 08

“GO” Fleet Sunset Start

Canandaigua Yacht Club GO Fleet start

Wednesday Night “GO Fleet” (Genoa Only) Start, (Photo by Tracy Blevins)

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25
Jun 08

Beautiful evening for sailing

Evening Sail

Tracy sailing her 2.4 Meter, (Photo by Bill Blevins)

Tuesday night after work, Tracy and I headed down for an evening on the water.

I plopped in the fishing boat while Tracy got her 2.4 Meter rigged.

We met at the lift and got her pointed towards the middle of Canandaigua Lake at about 6 p.m.

The winds were light and other than me, there weren’t many other powerboats out creating chop. We chased each other around for about two hours.

The wind dropped off as she approached the docks and she got to try out the “Praddle” for the last 200 yards. We met again at the dock and put the boats away.

It was a great evening for sailing and putting around in the powerboat.

There were 10 or so cruisers out reaching up and down the lake. You could see each crew straining as we (or they) passed by to get a look at the little sailboat being chased by a bright red powerboat.

The sun was setting as we packed up and headed out.

As we were leaving, vehicles pulling trailers full of Force 5 sailboats were pulling in to the camping area to prepare for the Force 5 US National Championships being held at Canandaigua Yacht Club later this week.

The restaurant and bar are apparently closed on Tuesday nights so we picked up carry-out pizza on the way home and pulled into the driveway at 9:30.

Perfect.

Tonight is the “GO Fleet” race series. “GO” stands for “Geneoa Only” (whisker poles aren’t even allowed) and I’ll be out there with the cruisers tooling around a triangle course a couple of times.

Tomorrow night we are meeting friends after work and taking out several of the club’s Sunfish sailboats and participating in the Thursday night Sunfish races. That should be a trip! I haven’t been on a Sunfish since I was in eighth grade sailing on Brandermill Lake in Chesterfield, VA.

Stay tuned, that should be a real story!

Sailing — 2 Comments
17
Jun 08

2.4 Meter Racing Start Video

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16
Jun 08

Alberg 30, #158 “Sabrina”

“Sabrina”, originally uploaded to Flickr by cmcsailor.

I found this photo of the new owners sailing our old Alberg 30 on Flickr.

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14
Jun 08

Mark LeBlanc Wins 2008 2.4 Meter USA Nationals

2.4 Meter Champion LeBlanc Heading for a swim

2008 2.4m USA Nationals champion Mark LeBlanc headed for a swim, (Photo by Bill Blevins)

Mark LeBlanc (USA #137) edged out John Ruf (USA #88) to take the 2008 USA 2.4mR Open National Championship. Both sailors ended up with 21 points after 11 races. I wasn’t around when it was explained how the tiebreaker was decided but Mark took home the Overall regatta trophy, the US National Championship trophy and the US Disabled National Championship Trophy. (Mark was also thrown off the dock for a short swim by two of the coaches after the races on Friday.)

I ended up in 12 out of the 17 competitors. I had a horrible day on Friday because I couldn’t use my backstay so my main was as flat as a pancake and I couldn’t get moving upwind. I have some boat modifications on my list of to-do’s this week!

The regatta was a great time and everyone here was wonderfully helpful and friendly. Tracy has recovered from whatever bug she had during the week. We are heading over to the Noroton Yacht Club now to pick up the trailer and get the boats home.

Photos are posted on Flickr and you can get them by clicking here. They are probably at a quality level for reprinting small images using Flickr’s order form but if you want the high quality pics, just email me and I can send.

Again, a great week of sailing. Thanks Roger & Brit and everyone else involved! See you in Toronto next month!

Sailing — 1 Comment
13
Jun 08

US 2.4 Meter Nationals Day 2 & 3

2.4 Meter Nationals, Sailing to the course

We are getting ready to head out into Long Island Sound for the final day of racing at the US 2.4 Meter Nationals at the Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT.

Tracy is going out on one of the coach boats (there are several Olympians here training for China and their coaches ride on the outside of the course analyzing every tactic for discussion with the sailor between races). She’s taking a camera with a long lens, so tonight I’ll post photos. Yesterday was very busy and I totally forgot I packed my little camera and my video camera!

I’m in 12th place now after 7 races, moving up one spot. I got the boat moving nicely in the final race of the day when the winds picked up and held steady for the whole race. I am not moving so fast in the light air compared to everyone else. I’m still working on that one. My goal yesterday was “good starts” and I hit 3 out of the 4 starts in good shape. I’m still going to work on starts today but I think sticking to the side of the course with the leaders may be my “Plan B” today.

The top results shifted since the first day with Mark LeBlanc in first with 18 points, John Ruf in second with 22, Bruce Millar has 23, Paul Tingley has 25 and he is tied with Jerry Wendt and in sixth is Peter Wilson with 26 points.

Sailing — 1 Comment
12
Jun 08

US 2.4 Meter Nationals Race 1-3 Photos

2.4 Meter 2008 Nationals

PhotoBoat.com has posted photos from the 3 races on Day #1. I also posted my photos on Flickr.

Sailing — 1 Comment
12
Jun 08

Today is Race Day #2 for the 2.4 Meter US Nationals

2008 US Nationals for the 2.4 Meter sailboats

You can steer a 2.4 mR with your feet too Gene! (Photo by Bill Blevins)

Someone should tell Gene Hinkel that rudder pedals are for steering your feet!

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11
Jun 08

2.4mR 2008 Nationals, Day 1

2.4 Meter US Nationals 2008 Day 1

2.4mR 2008 Nationals, Day 1 (Photos by Bill Blevins)

Day #1 of the 2008 US 2.4 Meter National Championships is in the books! WHAT FUN!!

Winds were light and shifty. I mean, very shifty! One race took us upwind towards the yacht club and for the next race we headed up Long Island Sound towards New York City. The race committee did a great job.

Our first race was canceled due to a severe wind shift – so severe that I was in the back of the pack one minute and next to the mark in front of almost all of the boats the next! The race committee did the right thing and canceled that attempt and called it a “practice start”.

I finished 6th in the “real” first race. Straightforward race and I sailed pretty well. I caught a nice lift heading upwind near the left middle of the course on the second windward leg and sailed in front of a number of boats.

Races 2 and 3 weren’t so good for me.

I chose to avoid a port-tack boat at the start and I didn’t protest, instead, tacked away and jibed all the way around then got off the line several boat lengths behind the whole fleet in bad air. I did catch up for a bit, making the second boat to round the second windward mark, but my tactics fell apart on the final downwind leg and I finished in 15th.

Race 3, I tried to squeeze in on the RC end of the line and got taken up and over the line early and had to re-round the boat end. I never recovered from that one and ended up 16th.

Overall, I’m in 13th place after 3 races.

Tomorrow, I’ll work on my starts!

I’ve met lots of really nice and helpful people. Having a great time. Tracy is here, sick, but doing better.

More to report tomorrow and many more photos that I’ll post after I get home.

The low point leaders after the first day are John Ruf (7 points), Jerry Wendt (15), Burce Millar (15) and Peter Wilson (15) and Mark LeBlanc (16).

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6
Jun 08

Two “Guns” in first GO fleet races

I sailed in the Genoa Only or “GO” series races on Wednesday night at the Canandaigua Yacht Club. The fleet was divided in half with my 2.4mR sailing in the “B fleet”. There was a Capri 22, a Catalina 22 and a Beneteau 210 racing with my group.

The winds were extremely light and there were only a few boats out. I earned both “guns” and after the results were computed, managed to get two first place finishes. The corrected results are posted on the Canandaigua Yacht Club “GO” Fleet site.

A Beneteau 210 gave me stiff sailing competition and actually cut me a few breaks in the first race which were much appreciated, especially not taking me up at the finish line at the end of the first race and pinching me above the pin!

The finish line for the short triangle is directly lined up with the reach mark so if boats are overlapped coming from that mark to the pin end of the line, I could definitely see problems!

The second race was shortened to a two-leg windward leeward course. I rounded the upwind mark behind the first boat, but loosened up the whole rig and ran down underneath him on the downhill leg which by that point had turned in to a very light broad reach. I worked my way to the windward side after getting clear ahead, continuing on to pull out a 90 second lead at the finish line.

Winds were so light by that point that the “crash boat” gave me a much appreciated tow back to the docks.

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1
Jun 08

Sunday June 2 Race Track

Open Fleet Race 2 Track

Race on Sunday June 2, 2008 Track

I got out on the water very early today. Winds were great, blowing at 8-12 knots. I sailed for about and hour before the harbor gun, signaling the beginning of the racing sequence and my start in 45 minutes.

I noticed a problem steering to the right so I headed towards shore and lighter winds, luffed up and looked inside of the rear hatch. A guide for the backstay had popped two screws through the fiberglass on the deck and the backstay control line, over the rudder post, was dragging on the right side of the rudder control cable. Poor design, or poor choice of mounting points for that guide if you ask me. The fiberglass where that guide was mounted was as thin as any on the whole boat. With that much tension on the backstay control line, I think I’ll fiberglass in a small wooden block and re-attach the guide with screws into the wood. Hopefully, I’ll not need to drill and bolt up through the deck.

The race started at about 2 p.m. (they don’t use GPS time here) and then the nice winds over the past 90 minutes, or so, dropped almost immediately to 4-6 knots for my race – though race committee recorded results as a 7-11 knots or “3″ on the Beaufort scale although I never saw one whitecap. I guess it was probably 7 kts. for the first couple of minutes of the race when they wrote down the information for the afternoon.

I had a nice beat up to the first windward mark, then things slowed down – a lot – with two very light reach legs, a slow windward leg and a really slow downwind leg followed by a short and slow leg upwind to the finish.

The course was a triangle and then windward and leeward legs with an upwind mid-line finish. The flags posted by the RC didn’t signal the mid-line finish but they said on Sunday’s they don’t use the square with the red “M” so I sailed what everyone else did and being in the back of the finishers made that choice easy.

Canandaigua Lake so far has been light and puffy. I hope there is wind here in mid-summer!

Here are the stats from today’s track as recorded by my Velocitek SC-1:

Sunday Open Fleet Race June 2, 2008
Canandaigua Yacht Club
Canandaigua, NY
Total Race Distance Sailed : 6.534 Km / 4.06 Miles

2.4mR #161 – Bill Blevins
Total Avg. Speed : 3.62 Knots

Best 2 second run = 5.27 Knots
Best 10 second run = 4.84 Knots
Best 60 second run = 4.59 Knots

Best 100 meter run = 4.68 Knots
Best 500 meter run = 4.18 Knots
Best 1000 meter = 4.04 Knots

I will link to the race results when they are posted. I think I came in 2nd.

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1
Jun 08

View from the cockpit of my 2.4mR today

Cockpit view from a 2.4 Meter

View from the cockpit of my 2.4mR today, (Photo by Bill Blevins)

Have you ever wondered what sailing downwind in light chop and 5 knot winds looks like from the cockpit of a 2.4 Meter?

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30
May 08

“My other Hot Rod is a 2.4mR” sticker

My other hot rod is a 2.4 meter

“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”.

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