Sailing

Sailing — No Comments
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!!

memorial-day-regatta

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).

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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.

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26
May 08

Sunday Afternoon Race #1

race one

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!

Sailing — 1 Comment
25
May 08

Sailing Practice Track on May 24, 2008

Google Earth Track

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.

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24
May 08

Our 2.4 Meters Have Spots

Getting Our Measurement Dots

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!)

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20
May 08

Canandaigua Lake 2.4 Meter Sailing

Note the relaxed position with his arm resting on the side of the cockpit! (Photo courtesy of Pam Bettencourt)

Bill trying to catch up with Tracy sailing her 2.4mR on Canandaigua Lake. (Photo courtesy of Pam Bettencourt)

(Photos courtesy of our friend Pam Bettencourt)

Thanks for the photos Pam!

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20
May 08

Still… “one of the prettiest boats on the Potomac”

Sabrina

Tracy and Bill sailing Sabrina in 2003

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!

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17
May 08

CYC Race Committee Volunteer Training

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”.

Gadgets / Sailing — 2 Comments
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!

Gadgets / Sailing — 2 Comments
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.

Gadgets / Sailing — 1 Comment
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!!

Sailing — 1 Comment
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.

Rants / Sailing — No Comments
4
May 08

North Sails One Design will probably hate me for this

Our sail loft
Applying our new sail number in my living room: 161 and 162, Photo by (Bill Blevins)

 

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.

Photography / Sailing — 4 Comments
3
May 08

No, I Didn’t Buy a J-24, Today Was J-Daze!

2008 J-DAZE J-24 Regatta

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 J-24 Regatta

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 J-24 Regatta

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!

Sailing — No Comments
2
May 08

Both 2.4mR boats are on the hard

Unloading the 2.4 Meters

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!

Sailing — 3 Comments
22
Apr 08

Tracy’s first sail in the 2.4 meter

Tracy sailing her 2.4mR

Tracy sailing her 2.4mR (Photo by Bill Blevins)

I took my first sail in one of our new 2.4 meter sailboats.

As soon as Bill cut me loose from the dock, I went into panic mode. My hands were busy adjusting the sails but I had no control of the boat and was doing circles between the docks.

Bill yelled, “Go over there (pointing out in the middle of Canandaigua Lake) and we will meet you (in our Skeeter “chase boat”)”.

I said, “I would if I could figure out how!”

Bill finally yelled to me, “use your feet, use the rudder” and then it hit me that I wasn’t steering the boat at all! Once I remembered that the right pedal moved the boat right, I started to calm down a little. I figured out how to move in the direction I wanted.

Bill and our new CYC friends ran over to the chase boat but had a little trouble getting it started. But at least by now I could maneuver myself over to them and ask what was going on.

They finally got the chase boat started and I made a few laps and rounded a couple of marks and by that point was ready to end my trial run.

It was only a few minutes of sailing but it seemed much longer to me and I was tired! I tied up to the Skeeter and they pulled me back to the dock.

I’ll get better and more confident in the boat in my ability to sail it after a few trips out.

Sailing — 3 Comments
20
Apr 08

International 2.4 Metre Shakedown Cruise

2.4mR first sail

International 2.4 Metre Shakedown Cruise (Photo by Tracy Blevins)

Tracy and I headed down to the yacht club this morning after a big breakfast and got one of our new boats out in the water. I sailed it today just in case there were kinks that needed to be worked out.

Sure enough, when we made the turn into the parking lot, we could see three guys intently studying the hull and rigging and the controls inside of the boat. These things sure do get attention!

Tracy helped get the sails on the boat while I mounted the new cockpit spray cover with some marine goop and a couple of screws. I put in the keel drain plug and then donned a fleece jacket and my spray top and we were ready to go. One of the club members came over and gave us a hand with the lift.

The whisker pole ring on the boom immediately broke. Tracy ran to the truck and grabbed some tape and we just bound it onto the boom. I have no idea how I’m going to get the loose line inside of the boom to do the repair but for now, the boat works, just no whisker pole practice. I’ll study the boom for the other boat and try to come up with a solution before we do any racing.

We raised the sails and Tracy gave me a big push away from the dock and I sailed away. After an hour or so I headed back to the dock and we lifted out the boat and put her away for today. I have notes on things that still need to be ironed out.

Sailing was pretty straightforward. The boat handles nicely. It took about 10 minutes to get used to steering with pedals – you push your left foot down and the boat turns left and vice versa with the right foot. Having been a tiller sailor for years, this initially seemed backwards, but it didn’t take long to get used to it.

John Kruger from Gavia Yachts emailed last night to say that the “extra” cam cleat that we found (and I blogged about in an earlier post) was for the semi-automatic adjustable seat. Very cool. They thought of everything with this boat! I need a longer line for this adjustment though, because I am 6′ 2″ and I think I need to sit as far back as possible. With the seat back as far as the adjustment would allow, my knees were comfortable, but they were right at the underside of the console. Sitting back will probably take care of that little problem.

The jib luff was never as tight as I would have liked, but before I cut off the extra line running inside of the hull from the downhaul to the cockpit controls, I wanted to see how it worked. I had taped the loose end to the forestay, but didn’t leave enough slack to pull the jib downhaul all the way into the deck.

The stock vang is odd. I may have to shop for dingy vangs with different swivel shackles. I may try to flip it around too so that it is adjusted up on the boom rather than at the base of the mast. I may try that next week one night when I go out.

The ride is not dry, but it wasn’t terribly wet either. The bilge filled up 3 times during the hour sail, but I was actually quite dry. The newly designed cockpit cover works well. Most of the water that entered the boat came through the holes for the stays and jib twings. Only one or two rogue waves got me. Had I had on my dinghy pants I would have been totally dry. I was wearing my “big boat” spray pants and they aren’t quite as dry as they were several years ago. I have a pair of Gill dinghy pants on the way and they should be here next week.

I dropped my little Garmin eTrex GPS under the seat as soon as I got in the boat but with so much going on during this first sail, I didn’t bother standing up to try to locate it. I have no idea how fast I was going. It felt pretty fast! (I have a Velocitek SC-1 on the way too and that should be here next week.)

All in all, it was a great day! Fun, windy and wet. Now if we can get the other boat out so I have competition!

Tracy shot video and photos today. The photos are over on Flickr and the video is posted on YouTube.

Sailing — 1 Comment
20
Apr 08

2.4 Metre newbie rigging questions

It would be cool if someone could post a comment with close-up photos or a link to photos showing how they rig the tack of the jib on their 2.4mR, another showing how the shock cord for the whisker pole is run and one showing a close-up on how the vang attaches to the mast and boom.

I have the whisker pole rigged like the description on the International 2.4 Metre site. Close-up photos would help though as I’m sure there is a much more efficient way to attach these things than the way I’ve got them set up at the moment.

When we visit with all of the experienced sailors at Nationals in June, I know we’ll see lots of variations of how to do these things, but seeing photos sooner would be even better!

Sailing — No Comments
20
Apr 08

Frappr map of locations of 2.4 meter sailors

Sailing — No Comments
19
Apr 08

View of the cockpit of a 2.4mR

Cockpit view of a 2.4 Metre Sailboat

2.4mR cockpit (Photo by Bill Blevins)

We went to the Canandaigua Yacht Club today and set up one of our boats.

A busy weekend is planned next week at the club where they rent a huge crane to lower all of the larger boats into the water, and we have to keep clear, so we could only get one set up today. The other is lonely up on the hill behind the club. We’ll get it in the water in a couple of weeks.

The 2.4mR did draw a lot of attention from the folks there setting up their big boats.

We managed to squeeze in to use the lift to get the boat off of our trailer while the guys were out on the lake working to set the mooring buoys for the summer.

We met a lot of nice people.

One of them said, “Ya’ll don’t look handicapped”.

I’m sure we will get that a lot. The 2.4mR is the current official boat for singlehanded racing for disabled sailors because within the class rules, they can substantially modify it for their disabilities as long as it doesn’t break the 2.4mR rule and they can measure equally with the other class-legal boats.

Our goal is to get a few more people educated about how great these boats are and get them out on the water in their very own International 2.4 Meter!

We’re going sailing tomorrow. Check back for the full story on our first adventure on the water!

Sailing — 4 Comments
18
Apr 08

We have twins! Two Norlin Mark III sailboats!

Picking up the boats

Tracy and I bought two 2.4 meter one-design sailboats! We ordered them last fall from John Kruger at Gavia Yachts. The builder finished them earlier this year and we drove over to pick them up in Ohio last week.

We’ll document our adventures on this site with blog posts and photos.

Fishing / Sailing — 2 Comments
15
Jun 07

NuHull boat cleaner is simply amazing


I’ve been messing with boats for over 17 years. I’ll spare you the full story and just say that if you have a boat with stains on the gelcoat, NuHull is the only cleaner you need.

I’m rarely 100% satisfied with anything. This stuff is amazing. Before I could wipe off the spray, the stain had already disappeared.

The cleaner has a slight rotten egg smell and you need to wear a pair of rubber gloves.

I ordered a gallon jug online and used about 15% of it cleaning a stained white hull on a 20 foot boat and the full job took about 30 minutes. Last week, I spent 3 hours trying to clean the hull with other marine and household cleaners, scrubbing while laying on my back getting soaked in the process.

If you order a bottle of NuHull, you won’t be disappointed and I bet you won’t go back to regular cleaners for your boat.

The instructions also talk about diluting the solution in water and using it for all type of cleaning situations. I’ll give that a try at some point and report back on that as well.

One note – rinse your driveway really well if you are on pavement because if not, you’ll have a large clean spot underneath the area where you were working.

Sailing — 2 Comments
21
Apr 07

I went sailing today

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Went sailing today, originally uploaded by sailorbill.

Took my RC Laser out for a sail today on the Erie Canal behind the house here in Fairport, NY. The water is not all the way back to normal summer height, but it has been full enough to sail this winter when there was no ice on the top. Not much wind today.

Sailing / Work — 1 Comment
26
Dec 06

RC Laser sailing in Alabama

Remote Control Laser

RC Laser sailing in AL

I checked my RC Laser on my Delta flight last Friday night and sailed it for the past 3 days on Lay Lake in Alabama. Winds on Saturday were very light, giving me a first chance to get the hang of all of the controls and rigging on the boat.

On Chrismas day, winds were in the low 20′s with gusts to 30. The flattened “C” rig did great! The effects of the sail trim seemed more pronounced with the small sail and big wind. What fun!

Now I just have to figure out how NOT to turn the boat into a submarine going downwind in that heavy air!

Sailing — 1 Comment
18
Dec 06

Crocs Islander


Crocs, originally uploaded by sailorbill.

I’m not sure I’d wear my new Crocs Islanders on the wet deck of a boat because they are super-slippery on wet floors and pavement, but man, they are comfortable!

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