Kotuku is heading south this weekend for Winter Vashon. Only 7 aboard as a couple of us are begging off for Janna's 40th Birthday party. Go Kotuku, Go, Go Kotuku say Savai and Talia. Email Al if you want a ride, as he has room for a couple more!
Also, more RTC photos here: Lee Youngblood Photos
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Great Photos from Round The County
https://picasaweb.google.com/100094681587997126638/111112RoundTheCounty
Great work by Sean Trew, who does some seriously good photography!
Great work by Sean Trew, who does some seriously good photography!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Ben's RTC Article on Pressure Drop
A nice photo series/write-up here
Results are here
Apparently 6 boats broke the all-time course record this year, with Braveheart setting the fastest ever elapsed time. Well done!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Another Kotuku kind of weekend...with a little help from Al. Again.
Round The County is my favorite weekend of racing of the year. I love the fact we get to race around spectacular islands, party with interesting people, and race against great competition. for two days straight. It doesn't hurt that we have a wizard aboard with a penchant for finding acorns just when we need them, either.
If you don't get the reference, let me just refresh your memory. Last year Al's "even a blind squirrel finds a nut" call that sent us through the Peapods and out into our own personal wind, allowing us to finish at the top of our fleet despite the fluky conditions was something he thought was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. Except he managed to find a couple of walnuts this year.
The first was at Turn Point. After blasting north from the start, with good boat speed (we thought) we rounded Patos and headed down Boundary Pass in good position, with the usual suspects close around us (Karma, Vitesse, Bravo Zulu, etc). We thought this looks just fine. Until we noticed Zulu, up ahead at turn point--couldn't even see her but she had her AIS on. It turns out she rounded Patos 7 minutes in front of us.
Guess this might have lit a fire under Al, because we got to Turn Point and instead of rounding wide to stay out in the wind, we tacked in. Right into sloppy, confused water, rips, and shifty wind. But the tide and the shift paid huge. Not sure, but it looked like we made up about 5 minutes right there. The beat to the finish also favored us, and we ground back another minute, finishing exactly one minute behind them and correcting over them by two minutes. So much for day one--except for the football in the bar, the fantastic salmon burgers, the toasty warm barge, and the fact that I got to sleep with 7 of my closest friends. (Close being the operative word with 8 guys on a small boat)
Day two started with a bang. And three collisions, two over earlys and a lot of swearing at the race officials. We didn't have our best start either. Al nearly uttered profanity himself. I heard at least one loud "Sheesh," which in Al-speak means we have just committed some heinous act of boat handling, judgement, or both. But we didn't hit anyone or anything, didn't run aground, and came out OK because nearly everyone else had a worse start than we did.
The breeze was up on the outside, and we had a great kite reach-jib reach-kite run down to Salmon Bank and on around Lopez. Lots of trimming, grinding, dumping of the main, and hard work to keep the boat on her feet and rolling. Fine job of crew work--these are guys who perform well when the wind is honking.
Meanwhile, our friends on Zulu went wide outside and we stayed close to Cattle Pass (lumpy). Going the right way even though it was hard work was enough to neutralize their obvious speed advantage, but they came in quickly and in no time were to weather power reaching away from us. Meanwhile Karma had apparently attached a tow rope to our transom, and was proceeding to drop into big waves behind us and surf up to our beam. We all know how much I love a dogfight, but Al was having none of it and forced me repeatedly to leave them alone. In fact he appears to have learned his lesson about watching me closely, because every time I would try to creep up he would say "no, not that notch, the one way over there", or "no higher than that hump" or some other very large, unmistakable landmark very far away from where the competition was going. As the breeze lightened he seemed to want me to sail lower and slower to boot.
But Al was right. the other boats sailed one after another into the lee of Blakely. Meanwhile we separated. And when they were shifting to jibs and beating slowly to the finish, we were power reaching outside with the A3, being lifted up to the finish. For the second year in a row, we would save enough time to finish ahead of faster boats and force the crew of Kotuku to go looking for that big silver cup with our our name on it. It should have Al's name on it by now, don't you think?
A big thank you to Al, Chris, Brian, Matt, Eli, Kenyon and Somerset who sailed almost flawlessly. It wasn't an easy weekend but you were fast, consistent, and fun to sail with. Honorable crew mention to Janna, Talia, and Savai who have put up with me being gone for 22 of the last 25 days. Thanks for the support!
If you don't get the reference, let me just refresh your memory. Last year Al's "even a blind squirrel finds a nut" call that sent us through the Peapods and out into our own personal wind, allowing us to finish at the top of our fleet despite the fluky conditions was something he thought was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. Except he managed to find a couple of walnuts this year.
The first was at Turn Point. After blasting north from the start, with good boat speed (we thought) we rounded Patos and headed down Boundary Pass in good position, with the usual suspects close around us (Karma, Vitesse, Bravo Zulu, etc). We thought this looks just fine. Until we noticed Zulu, up ahead at turn point--couldn't even see her but she had her AIS on. It turns out she rounded Patos 7 minutes in front of us.
Guess this might have lit a fire under Al, because we got to Turn Point and instead of rounding wide to stay out in the wind, we tacked in. Right into sloppy, confused water, rips, and shifty wind. But the tide and the shift paid huge. Not sure, but it looked like we made up about 5 minutes right there. The beat to the finish also favored us, and we ground back another minute, finishing exactly one minute behind them and correcting over them by two minutes. So much for day one--except for the football in the bar, the fantastic salmon burgers, the toasty warm barge, and the fact that I got to sleep with 7 of my closest friends. (Close being the operative word with 8 guys on a small boat)
Day two started with a bang. And three collisions, two over earlys and a lot of swearing at the race officials. We didn't have our best start either. Al nearly uttered profanity himself. I heard at least one loud "Sheesh," which in Al-speak means we have just committed some heinous act of boat handling, judgement, or both. But we didn't hit anyone or anything, didn't run aground, and came out OK because nearly everyone else had a worse start than we did.
The breeze was up on the outside, and we had a great kite reach-jib reach-kite run down to Salmon Bank and on around Lopez. Lots of trimming, grinding, dumping of the main, and hard work to keep the boat on her feet and rolling. Fine job of crew work--these are guys who perform well when the wind is honking.
Meanwhile, our friends on Zulu went wide outside and we stayed close to Cattle Pass (lumpy). Going the right way even though it was hard work was enough to neutralize their obvious speed advantage, but they came in quickly and in no time were to weather power reaching away from us. Meanwhile Karma had apparently attached a tow rope to our transom, and was proceeding to drop into big waves behind us and surf up to our beam. We all know how much I love a dogfight, but Al was having none of it and forced me repeatedly to leave them alone. In fact he appears to have learned his lesson about watching me closely, because every time I would try to creep up he would say "no, not that notch, the one way over there", or "no higher than that hump" or some other very large, unmistakable landmark very far away from where the competition was going. As the breeze lightened he seemed to want me to sail lower and slower to boot.
But Al was right. the other boats sailed one after another into the lee of Blakely. Meanwhile we separated. And when they were shifting to jibs and beating slowly to the finish, we were power reaching outside with the A3, being lifted up to the finish. For the second year in a row, we would save enough time to finish ahead of faster boats and force the crew of Kotuku to go looking for that big silver cup with our our name on it. It should have Al's name on it by now, don't you think?
A big thank you to Al, Chris, Brian, Matt, Eli, Kenyon and Somerset who sailed almost flawlessly. It wasn't an easy weekend but you were fast, consistent, and fun to sail with. Honorable crew mention to Janna, Talia, and Savai who have put up with me being gone for 22 of the last 25 days. Thanks for the support!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Whipped at PSSC
Don't know why it happened. Saturday we couldn't do anything right. Maneuvers were slow, boat speed was inconsistent. Sunday we handled the boat better, but boat speed was so awful that we were all alone at the back of the pack.
No wind, but still managed to blow up the light #1. Pinched when we should have footed. About the only good news was that the Seahawks won. Light air is hard on me--the crew tried hard, the boat was unloaded and the bottom supposedly clean, and we got slaughtered.
Back to the drawing board now, though. Getting our butts kicked has made us humble, and hungry. We will work harder to get the boat prepped, and the crew dialed in early. We will foot religiously in the light stuff. We will start more aggressively, and praise clean air above all else.
Now for the good news: the weather was nice and we didn't break anything. The crew had fun together and a few of 'em even got riproaring drunk Saturday night. Perhaps the skipper should have joined them!
Jan's gorgeous photos are here:
http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/PSSC-2011/19447849_9snxCR#1522040979_msZdhgP
No wind, but still managed to blow up the light #1. Pinched when we should have footed. About the only good news was that the Seahawks won. Light air is hard on me--the crew tried hard, the boat was unloaded and the bottom supposedly clean, and we got slaughtered.
Back to the drawing board now, though. Getting our butts kicked has made us humble, and hungry. We will work harder to get the boat prepped, and the crew dialed in early. We will foot religiously in the light stuff. We will start more aggressively, and praise clean air above all else.
Now for the good news: the weather was nice and we didn't break anything. The crew had fun together and a few of 'em even got riproaring drunk Saturday night. Perhaps the skipper should have joined them!
Jan's gorgeous photos are here:
http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/PSSC-2011/19447849_9snxCR#1522040979_msZdhgP
Friday, October 7, 2011
Just Entered Pacific Cup...
Small entry, big event. Finally paid the fees to enter the race, and got 3 confirmation emails back from Pac Cup within the hour. Guess that does it...
Friday, September 23, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Star and Bar Report--my post in the pressure drop forum
Well, the first fall regatta was a hell of a lot of fun. With lots of boats (12?) and a good mix including the 109s, the quick little guys (J-33, D30, Soverel) the furniture racers (Dehler 39, Centurion 40s, and us) plus lots of well sailed lead mines, we had a great fleet for the breeze. The Davidson 30 Dangerous When Wet was clearly the boat to beat in the light stuff. Unfortunately when the wind picked up they peeled their primary winch off the deck. Done for the regatta, but I hope they get it fixed soon as that boat will be a real handful in the PNW in normal conditions.
Absolutely was the class of the fleet all weekend. But when the breeze built Kotuku has a waterline thing, and a Farr thing that makes her tough on the old IOR boats, especially down wind. We snuck by Absolutely a couple of times in drag races to the finish, including a photo finish in the last race on Saturday where boat boats finished beam to beam, one good roll from doing damage to our not-so-lovely 80s era spinnakers and boats. Good fun though.
Sunday started with a bang for us, as we rounded down on the way out to the commitee boat. Who needs coffee? Wake call has just been served. We ended up going with a reefed main and a #4 and that worked for us, as we got out ahead of the fleet and stayed there. 2nd race started like the first, but then went light as they sent us to the hamburger mark. Not ideal #4 conditions and we had managed to cross our halyards, so we were hosed. Got it sorted at the windward mark and our tactician (Al Hughes) found a hero shift for us inside that let us slip through to the front of the pack.
After 7 races, we thought we had a 2.5 point lead on Absolutely. So we sailed fairly conservatively and tried to hang with them. Unfortunately they are faster, a lot faster in the 12 knot stuff. Boats that gybed out early found a bit more win eventually, and we watched helplessly as Corvo, What a Tripp, and Shoot the Moon went scooting in front of us. Absolutely needed to put 4 boats between them and us, and they did. Shit.
Luckily for us, help arrived in the form of a Big Red boat, who was not about to be left out of the fight. Shoot the Moon had sailed an incredible race, and actually corrected over Absolutely to take the final bullet. Leaving us the win, by a half point. Go figure.
Great racing though. SYC team did a wonderful job, and I look forward to PSSC and Grand Prix. Keep the fleets big, the lines short, and the racing interesting. The fall season has started!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Let's get set for the Fall Season
For those of you who took the summer off to go cruising, it is time to get back in the swing of things. Kotuku spent the last two months of summer recovering, cruising, harvesting seafood, and trying to swallow the racing bug. Burp. Nice try. It's back...
Race calendar is to your right. Lots more good stuff coming, like Star and Bar in a couple of weeks, buoy racing at PSSC where we aim to improve on our dead last finish, and of course the Grand Prix. Oh yeah, Round The County, where Al will try to find another magic nut (lead us, oh blind squirrel, through the Peapod Rocks again!)
Race calendar is to your right. Lots more good stuff coming, like Star and Bar in a couple of weeks, buoy racing at PSSC where we aim to improve on our dead last finish, and of course the Grand Prix. Oh yeah, Round The County, where Al will try to find another magic nut (lead us, oh blind squirrel, through the Peapod Rocks again!)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Team Kotuku Wins the VanIsle 360 with Grit, Luck, and Funny Hats
Foolishly, we served notice to the fleet on leg 1 that even after doing a 720 for fouling Cinco de Mayo we could come back and win with a combination of good boat handling, decent speed, and solid tactics. We were newbies, and didn't realize that winning the early stages doesn't do much more than make sure that the faster boats cover you once they get ahead. And so the battle begins...
Leg 2 started well, but ended up being our worst finish, mid-fleet and looking at the stern of California Girl (2nd slowest boat) as we reached back to the finish after missing the shore lift. Sometimes the middle doesn't pay. Consistency does though, and one stinker was enough for us. We would find ways to stay on the podium until the last race and except for legs 2 and 3, we would lead the overall point total until the end.
Legs 3 and 4 we were increasingly breezy upwind bashes through the top of the Strait of Georgia and the bottom of Johnstone Strait. Back and forth we found ourselves trading tacks with Kiva, Opus, Rubato, and many of the faster Div 2 boats. We finished 2nd and 3rd after fine results by Kiva and Rubato who both seemed faster than we are upwind in a blow. Masts broke, sails blew out, and keel bolts loosened for others, but Kotuku took care of us. And we took care of business and stayed in the hunt.
On the long, grueling outside legs, we dug deep and found a level of focus and consistency that none of the other boats could match. We might miss a shift or get stuck in a hole--it happened to everybody, most more than once. But when the sun rose, again and again Kotuku seemed to find herself near the front of the pack, taking line honors twice more before Night Runner came on form as we all knew she would. Sometimes slower boats would correct over us, but we kept the other race leaders in our sights and fought for leverage over the top boats and gradually built a point lead until by the last race, we had a 50 point lead over our closest competitor, Rubato. I believe it was in Uclulet that we broke out the wigs and hats. (Photos coming...)
Leg 9 showed that while we don't have Night Runner's downwind speed, Kotuku is no slouch off the wind. And we were really glad to shake out the nylon after carrying the kites around for 3/4 of the way. After a solid start and an early surfing match that we eventually conceded to The Old Brown Boat Who Can, we ended up finishing 3rd. For us, it felt like vacation for most of the run down from Uclulet to Victoria, where we had speeds in the 12s at the beginning and end of the leg. We actually gave up a place to Rubato with a spinnaker change through Race Rocks, figuring it was better to be third with all our sails than have to fight again tomorrow without a light air kite. A wise decision, as it turned out.
And in dramatic fashion, leg 10 proved that when the going gets tough and the night is long, Kotuku does not quit. We finished first over the line despite multiple re-starts and current gates that left our closest rivals well behind us. And that was how we won the VanIsle 360.
We finished first in Division 3, and it looks like we were the high point boat for all classes for the entire regatta. (I think we were the only one tracking this as it turns out. Sorry Tom and Terry, they only gave out divisional trophies, and shortest overall elapsed.) Still, not bad for a bunch of oddballs, eh?
If I haven't said it yet, the boat is good, but the crew won this race. I'd like to thank Becca, Trent, Eli, Garth, Chris, John, Stu, and a special thanks to Al for getting the boat up there, bringing it back, and making sure we were pointing in the right direction. Our teamwork and sail handling was rock solid. Our tactics were consistently excellent. But most of all we had a great time. Not sure quite how it happened, but Team Kotuku forged itself into a tight-knit, easy-going, fun loving family that could be consistently focused on the race course. Thank you one and all for the great time, and the great results!
One last note: This race is a logistical nightmare. Without the continuous work of our shore support team, this result would not have been possible. A big thanks from all of us to Tom, Marie, Talia, Savai, Solomon, Barry and Amy.
And most of all, thank you Janna for organizing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, wrangling, and just plain making this crazy dream come true. As those who know you can attest, your support regularly makes
Big Hairy Audacious Goals Happen.
I love that about you.
Thank you!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Deep disappointment from a 5 year old...
Apparently Talia has been reading Trent's emails about our ability to win the Ballard Cup. With the Cup on the line in the last race of a 5 week series, we needed a bullet or to beat Delirium by 2 places and she knew it. Needless to say we didn't, and I have been hearing about it ever since.
We had a nice mid-line start with good boat speed, and we were able to go right to get into the beach when we wanted to and cross the heavy hitters in our fleet at the same time. We rounded first, failed to jibe inside, and watched Delirium leg out underneath us in the stronger shore breeze. Damn.
Spent the rest of the race trying to reel her in. With Bob Pistay and new sails aboard, they weren't giving us many breaks. We are faster uphill, and closed the gap, only to round the leeward mark behind them again. The boat felt sticky and slow all night. Hoists were slow too, but only part of the problem.
Ended up 2nd across the line, 3rd on corrected. Delirium wins the series, we take second. Sorry, Talia. We will try to get our boat speed back so we can bring home some shinier stickers.
We had a nice mid-line start with good boat speed, and we were able to go right to get into the beach when we wanted to and cross the heavy hitters in our fleet at the same time. We rounded first, failed to jibe inside, and watched Delirium leg out underneath us in the stronger shore breeze. Damn.
Spent the rest of the race trying to reel her in. With Bob Pistay and new sails aboard, they weren't giving us many breaks. We are faster uphill, and closed the gap, only to round the leeward mark behind them again. The boat felt sticky and slow all night. Hoists were slow too, but only part of the problem.
Ended up 2nd across the line, 3rd on corrected. Delirium wins the series, we take second. Sorry, Talia. We will try to get our boat speed back so we can bring home some shinier stickers.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
2 days, 2 sails, 2 people, 2nd Place Overall
Race To The Straits is Epic. It can be big air, no wind, sloppy seas, and great sailing. All in one day. Fix what broke, tidy the boat up, head for the party, sleep if you can, then repeat.. For a 34 mile course each day, we often pass through the Puget Sound convergence zone. This year it meant a downwind sleigh ride with speed over ground in the low teens, aided by 3 knots of current. Then, wham, no wind, then a howling northerly. Some interesting sail changes for boats that had them--Janna and I do this race NFS (without the big colorful kites) because it keeps it fun, and keeps us from yelling at each other. And I have to say, learning how to use a jib on a pole is an interesting challenge.
We had a great race. Janna proclaimed it her best race ever. Interesting because last year we were first in class and this year we were second in class and second overall. But the sailing and the competition were both better. Saturday we were leading the pack and amongst the race leaders before falling into the Marrowstone Abyss, where we puttered along in 3 knots of breeze while being overtaken by the smarter, faster, and luckier. Still managed a 3rd in our class, so we felt we could at least go to the party.
The next day we had a decent start and a good line past Marrowstone, slipping tight under the lee of the cliffs there and getting ahead of Pegasus and battling with our friends on better light air boats (Summer Light, an Express 34 and the Olson 30 Lunch Box). We got a little to full of ourselves and held the shore too long before jumping across. Had to battle back from behind Pegasus, but we know the Whidbey Shore pretty well and hugged the beach, slipping by them at Bush Point on the inside by brazenly repeating the move we used on them at Marrowstone. After that it felt like we were match racing with Pegasus, who sailed brilliantly but we kept them just off the transom around Double Bluff, and Point No Point. But they were just a little better than us in the light stuff and were able to break cover off of Jefferson head in spite of our efforts. Maintaining a tight cover double handed for 5 hours was fun and all, but when the wind got really light, we just shrugged and said "there they go." Next time we will not give up so easily...
The next day we had a decent start and a good line past Marrowstone, slipping tight under the lee of the cliffs there and getting ahead of Pegasus and battling with our friends on better light air boats (Summer Light, an Express 34 and the Olson 30 Lunch Box). We got a little to full of ourselves and held the shore too long before jumping across. Had to battle back from behind Pegasus, but we know the Whidbey Shore pretty well and hugged the beach, slipping by them at Bush Point on the inside by brazenly repeating the move we used on them at Marrowstone. After that it felt like we were match racing with Pegasus, who sailed brilliantly but we kept them just off the transom around Double Bluff, and Point No Point. But they were just a little better than us in the light stuff and were able to break cover off of Jefferson head in spite of our efforts. Maintaining a tight cover double handed for 5 hours was fun and all, but when the wind got really light, we just shrugged and said "there they go." Next time we will not give up so easily...
Good fun, great photos, and a great race. Truly one of the best races of the year in the Pacific Northwest.
Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157626563676597/
(Thanks Jan, for getting out there and taking such great shots!)
A good write-up by Ben Braden is here: (not for the faint of heart...)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
What a long, strange trip it was
No one likes Southern Straits. It is long. It is cold. It blows like stink. It doesn't blow at all. The litany of reasons not to do the race goes on and on and on. Still, this is an iconic race in the PNW because it demonstrates the best and worst of sailing up here. And so north we go. 95 miles to win, lose, or quit. This year tested our will and our skill once again.
In stark contrast to last year, where it was blowing in the high thirties on the way out to the start, we left the harbor at West Van in glassy conditions and the weather report was for more of the same. John and Becca had a long but pleasant delivery up, and Eli, Trent, Alex and I spent what seemed like forever in traffic. So getting the whole crew (along with Terry, our token Canadian) together on the boat and headed out to the line felt like a decent accomplishment in itself.
There was a light breeze out of the east at the start which switched around to the west about 5 minutes before our horn. We changed strategy from a spinnaker bear away to a light beat to windward and managed to avoid the cluster of chaos at the committee boat with a clean start more or less on time, with Astral Plane (J-109) just to leeward of us.
We beat slowly out the channel, holding the middle of the course, fighting to keep our lanes, and trading tacks mostly with the slower boats as the better light air boats slipped away from us. Eventually we chose the north side of the straits, and pressure built along Bowen Island to perhaps 10 knots. This caused a painful shift from the light #1 to our medium/heavy #1, with one bad tack thrown in for good measure. With only 7 people aboard, we were a little shy on crew, and sail changes were rougher than we are used to these days. A few more boats slipped by us, and some fervent swearing was heard in the back of the boat. Sorry folks!
The good news was that with the right sail combination up, and pressure finally up to Kotuku's preferred range, we started to engage our fleet again, and before long we were passing Rubato, and then Kiva, and the C&C 115s. We continued to do well on the beach, and over the course of the afternoon we could finally see the leaders again, mostly close to shore and working the north side. The part of the fleet that went south and west early got further and further behind.
Alex did a great job of forcing us to keep Kotuku's nose down and her boat speed up as the wind speed eased off in the afternoon. We actually did the first leeward end-around on Cu N Mara, a C&C 115, but it was a move that we would use again and again along the course. Good sailors don't pass to windward, apparently, if the the breeze is less than 8 knots and they are driving cruising boats. By the time we got to the first mark, Ballenas Island, we were in a mixed fleet of big and little boats. Even though it was dark--or perhaps because it was dark--it felt like we were in the middle of things as boats large and small went slipping by with their red or green lights indicating whether they were concerning, or whether they were just out with us enjoying the meteor showers.
"All hands on deck, we are rounding" calls Alex. Sleepy hands pile out of bunks as we hoist the Finger and begin to work downwind. I plot a rhumbline course for Entrance Island and we begin to show the fleet that while Kotuku may be sticky in the light stuff, she is dangerous downwind in any conditions.
We found ourselves passing big boats, (Beneteaus, Aerodynes) small boats (Olsons) and at one point getting rolled in the most awesome fashion by Strum, a modern 50 footer that somehow tangled with a flea--a french ultralight that thought they could hang with the big dogs tried to take them up. Or not. Some words were exchanged, and Strum disappeared in the dark, never to be seen again. What a fun run!
Dawn found us beating slowly up to Halibut Bank, having lost a couple of places to our fleet on a bad sail change in a big header that caused us to go from a spinnaker reach to a head sail that we could not seem to get up in the dark, tired as we were. Mojo (J-109)and Havoc (33' sport boat) ahead of us and Kiva too had slipped us past. Damn, work to do.
I could see that the boats ahead were being set massively low of the island, and so we fought to stay high, and still be fast. Kiva got below us, and we slipped by her and when we rounded we were on Havoc's heels and Mojo was just starting to leg out on the 22 mile reach to the finish. Then it went light, ultra light again.
The good news was that we could see our competition. Even Manana and Diva, the leaders were on the horizon. Ptolemy, the other Express 37 who had been way ahead was just to ahead and to windward. The C&Cs were not far behind us. And Dominatrix, the X-119 that Brandon and I once made an offer on was off the stern. Just not far enough.. Astral Plane, who we had struggled to stay close to in the daylight, was nowhere to be seen. (They packed it in and headed home under power, succumbing to the pull of a warm bed and some actual boat speed)
My vote was to stay high and protect the north, where I thought the wind was likely to come from. Alex was driving, although we were swapping helm regularly throughout the race with one of us navigating and the other driving. We found thin lanes of air that allowed us to protect our lead on Kiva, but Merlin came up on a hot tack in good air underneath us and cleaned our clock. Icon went with her, and we followed slowly behind them.
Mojo, who had been sailing low but directly at the finish came up suddenly and decided to try and roll us to windward, but Alex had seen enough. We rolled up our sleeves and got into a fist fight. With me trimming the kite, and John trimming the main, we somehow managed to have enough up when we needed it to close the door on them. Once, twice, three times, four times they tried to go above us. Head faking, swooping under us, rushing, threatening us with the long prod and their huge red kite. Never more than a pole length or two from our stern. But we were fired up and fighting and Alex was on them with every move. Between scraps he sat slumped casually over the wheel like he was tired and oblivious, but shifted gears fast as a cat when they powered up for a run at us. Finally they gybed away and I handed the sheet to Eli, my arms were Jello. And that was the last we saw of them, as their gybe out put them into bad current and our rear view mirror.
We finished at 12:56PM, after 26 hours of constant racing. Yes it was slow, we probably never saw hull speed. But it was sustained racing for 95 miles. I can't remember a race where we were head to head with such good competition, in such challenging conditions, for so long. We finished a few (70') boat lengths behind Neptunes Car, proving that this was truly a race to remember.
We finished 4th of 14 in our class, behind a J-109, an Express 37, and that C&C 115 that clobbered us in the final leg. We corrected over Ptolemy, and beat the rest of the class boat for boat even though we were slow boat in the class. We were 8th of 34 for the medium course race. Not a podium finish, but nothing to be ashamed of either. Every crew member contributed to our effort. Terry and Eli were relentless trimmers in the physically demanding work of fighting big sails in light air conditions. Becca's lasagna evaporated, as did her eggs and 7 of the 8 cinnamon rolls that she managed to cook before we ran out of propane. Trent kept us on course and pointed at the mark, and fought sails up and down the mast at all hours. And John trimmed main for pretty much the entire race without a break. Alex was Alex, and if this report doesn't make it damned clear, that man can sail.
Exhausted. Exhilarating. Worth every minute. We'll be back, in spite of good advice to the contrary.
In stark contrast to last year, where it was blowing in the high thirties on the way out to the start, we left the harbor at West Van in glassy conditions and the weather report was for more of the same. John and Becca had a long but pleasant delivery up, and Eli, Trent, Alex and I spent what seemed like forever in traffic. So getting the whole crew (along with Terry, our token Canadian) together on the boat and headed out to the line felt like a decent accomplishment in itself.
There was a light breeze out of the east at the start which switched around to the west about 5 minutes before our horn. We changed strategy from a spinnaker bear away to a light beat to windward and managed to avoid the cluster of chaos at the committee boat with a clean start more or less on time, with Astral Plane (J-109) just to leeward of us.
We beat slowly out the channel, holding the middle of the course, fighting to keep our lanes, and trading tacks mostly with the slower boats as the better light air boats slipped away from us. Eventually we chose the north side of the straits, and pressure built along Bowen Island to perhaps 10 knots. This caused a painful shift from the light #1 to our medium/heavy #1, with one bad tack thrown in for good measure. With only 7 people aboard, we were a little shy on crew, and sail changes were rougher than we are used to these days. A few more boats slipped by us, and some fervent swearing was heard in the back of the boat. Sorry folks!
The good news was that with the right sail combination up, and pressure finally up to Kotuku's preferred range, we started to engage our fleet again, and before long we were passing Rubato, and then Kiva, and the C&C 115s. We continued to do well on the beach, and over the course of the afternoon we could finally see the leaders again, mostly close to shore and working the north side. The part of the fleet that went south and west early got further and further behind.
Alex did a great job of forcing us to keep Kotuku's nose down and her boat speed up as the wind speed eased off in the afternoon. We actually did the first leeward end-around on Cu N Mara, a C&C 115, but it was a move that we would use again and again along the course. Good sailors don't pass to windward, apparently, if the the breeze is less than 8 knots and they are driving cruising boats. By the time we got to the first mark, Ballenas Island, we were in a mixed fleet of big and little boats. Even though it was dark--or perhaps because it was dark--it felt like we were in the middle of things as boats large and small went slipping by with their red or green lights indicating whether they were concerning, or whether they were just out with us enjoying the meteor showers.
"All hands on deck, we are rounding" calls Alex. Sleepy hands pile out of bunks as we hoist the Finger and begin to work downwind. I plot a rhumbline course for Entrance Island and we begin to show the fleet that while Kotuku may be sticky in the light stuff, she is dangerous downwind in any conditions.
We found ourselves passing big boats, (Beneteaus, Aerodynes) small boats (Olsons) and at one point getting rolled in the most awesome fashion by Strum, a modern 50 footer that somehow tangled with a flea--a french ultralight that thought they could hang with the big dogs tried to take them up. Or not. Some words were exchanged, and Strum disappeared in the dark, never to be seen again. What a fun run!
Dawn found us beating slowly up to Halibut Bank, having lost a couple of places to our fleet on a bad sail change in a big header that caused us to go from a spinnaker reach to a head sail that we could not seem to get up in the dark, tired as we were. Mojo (J-109)and Havoc (33' sport boat) ahead of us and Kiva too had slipped us past. Damn, work to do.
I could see that the boats ahead were being set massively low of the island, and so we fought to stay high, and still be fast. Kiva got below us, and we slipped by her and when we rounded we were on Havoc's heels and Mojo was just starting to leg out on the 22 mile reach to the finish. Then it went light, ultra light again.
The good news was that we could see our competition. Even Manana and Diva, the leaders were on the horizon. Ptolemy, the other Express 37 who had been way ahead was just to ahead and to windward. The C&Cs were not far behind us. And Dominatrix, the X-119 that Brandon and I once made an offer on was off the stern. Just not far enough.. Astral Plane, who we had struggled to stay close to in the daylight, was nowhere to be seen. (They packed it in and headed home under power, succumbing to the pull of a warm bed and some actual boat speed)
My vote was to stay high and protect the north, where I thought the wind was likely to come from. Alex was driving, although we were swapping helm regularly throughout the race with one of us navigating and the other driving. We found thin lanes of air that allowed us to protect our lead on Kiva, but Merlin came up on a hot tack in good air underneath us and cleaned our clock. Icon went with her, and we followed slowly behind them.
Mojo, who had been sailing low but directly at the finish came up suddenly and decided to try and roll us to windward, but Alex had seen enough. We rolled up our sleeves and got into a fist fight. With me trimming the kite, and John trimming the main, we somehow managed to have enough up when we needed it to close the door on them. Once, twice, three times, four times they tried to go above us. Head faking, swooping under us, rushing, threatening us with the long prod and their huge red kite. Never more than a pole length or two from our stern. But we were fired up and fighting and Alex was on them with every move. Between scraps he sat slumped casually over the wheel like he was tired and oblivious, but shifted gears fast as a cat when they powered up for a run at us. Finally they gybed away and I handed the sheet to Eli, my arms were Jello. And that was the last we saw of them, as their gybe out put them into bad current and our rear view mirror.
We finished at 12:56PM, after 26 hours of constant racing. Yes it was slow, we probably never saw hull speed. But it was sustained racing for 95 miles. I can't remember a race where we were head to head with such good competition, in such challenging conditions, for so long. We finished a few (70') boat lengths behind Neptunes Car, proving that this was truly a race to remember.
We finished 4th of 14 in our class, behind a J-109, an Express 37, and that C&C 115 that clobbered us in the final leg. We corrected over Ptolemy, and beat the rest of the class boat for boat even though we were slow boat in the class. We were 8th of 34 for the medium course race. Not a podium finish, but nothing to be ashamed of either. Every crew member contributed to our effort. Terry and Eli were relentless trimmers in the physically demanding work of fighting big sails in light air conditions. Becca's lasagna evaporated, as did her eggs and 7 of the 8 cinnamon rolls that she managed to cook before we ran out of propane. Trent kept us on course and pointed at the mark, and fought sails up and down the mast at all hours. And John trimmed main for pretty much the entire race without a break. Alex was Alex, and if this report doesn't make it damned clear, that man can sail.
Exhausted. Exhilarating. Worth every minute. We'll be back, in spite of good advice to the contrary.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Southern Straits Annual Yacht Race - Easter Weekend - West Vancouver Yacht Club, Canada
Here is the list of competitors so far. Some good boats for us to race against!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Tom and Talia Bring us a Second
OK, so you won't see Tom Cawrse or Talia Cawrse Esarey on the crew list all that often. But on a shifty day like Saturday's Blakely rock benefit Regatta, youth and experience are a potent combination. With a combined age of less than 75, they average out in the middle of the normal Kotuku crew range. Except that Tali just turned 5.
Against my better judgement I entered Kotuku in the Blakely Benefit Regatta after my mom said
"Sure we'd like to go sailing." Janna's folks were game too even though their daughter was up on Whidbey Island for a 4 day writer's conference.
So after realizing that it wasn't going to rain too hard, and after racing back to the house to get the dacron #2 because the #1 was in the sail loft we loaded up the girls from 2 to 67, plus the dads from well, let's just say old to older, and headed out to the race course.
We got a nice conservative start with decent boat speed, crossed the line first with Eye Candy above us sailing higher and faster. (It was light, and this was a family race for God's sake!). We tacked and crossed the fleet resolved to follow Eye Candy. Turns out even with Tom driving well and us tacking furiously we just didn't have the power in the light stuff to stay with them. We sure did miss having the #1...
We rounded Blakely Rock second, which was nice for a change, and proceeded to sail into a monster hole.
Pretty much the entire fleet caught up to us under spinnaker while we flopped around with our "windseeker" (aka the #2). Luckily the wind died for most of them at West Point, and we had a hard slow beat back against tide and light fickle breezes. But we got there, drifting across the line more than an hour after Eye Candy crossed. Tom drove most of the way, but Talia did a couple of the final tacks to the committee boat, and we crossed the line with three generations of sailors smiling and exhausted. We all slept well last night.
Best part of the evening was when Burke texted us with the pleasant news that the family effort, while not pretty, was good enough for 2nd in our class. That was a nice bonus, appreciated by all. Except Talia of course. "Second again Dad, can't we do better?"
Where does she get that anyway?
Against my better judgement I entered Kotuku in the Blakely Benefit Regatta after my mom said
"Sure we'd like to go sailing." Janna's folks were game too even though their daughter was up on Whidbey Island for a 4 day writer's conference.
So after realizing that it wasn't going to rain too hard, and after racing back to the house to get the dacron #2 because the #1 was in the sail loft we loaded up the girls from 2 to 67, plus the dads from well, let's just say old to older, and headed out to the race course.
We got a nice conservative start with decent boat speed, crossed the line first with Eye Candy above us sailing higher and faster. (It was light, and this was a family race for God's sake!). We tacked and crossed the fleet resolved to follow Eye Candy. Turns out even with Tom driving well and us tacking furiously we just didn't have the power in the light stuff to stay with them. We sure did miss having the #1...
We rounded Blakely Rock second, which was nice for a change, and proceeded to sail into a monster hole.
Pretty much the entire fleet caught up to us under spinnaker while we flopped around with our "windseeker" (aka the #2). Luckily the wind died for most of them at West Point, and we had a hard slow beat back against tide and light fickle breezes. But we got there, drifting across the line more than an hour after Eye Candy crossed. Tom drove most of the way, but Talia did a couple of the final tacks to the committee boat, and we crossed the line with three generations of sailors smiling and exhausted. We all slept well last night.
Best part of the evening was when Burke texted us with the pleasant news that the family effort, while not pretty, was good enough for 2nd in our class. That was a nice bonus, appreciated by all. Except Talia of course. "Second again Dad, can't we do better?"
Where does she get that anyway?
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Spring Race Results
South Sound Series
2nd In Class, 6th overall (out of 94 boats)
Center Sound Series
Currently 4th
Coming up next: Ballard Cup 4/18, then Southern Straits 4/22
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Great Day Except for the Wind
The last South Sound Series race was a bit different than the others. Lots more sun for one thing. We woke up to the sounds of the Tantivity crew rafted next to us falling all over our icy, slippery deck. Hmmm, that was not in the forecast...Wonder what else the weather gods have in store for us?
The delivery down was good fun. Got out and underway before the rain squalls hit. It was my first singlehanded trip on Kotuku and I really enjoyed it. Normally I prefer to have a friend along, but I was hardly lonely as the porpoise and eagles were out, the water was full of bait fish and the 20 mile slog in the rain passed pleasantly with me gawking, noting wind shifts, and puttering pleasantly.
Janna met me at the dock in Gig Harbor. She hustled down just in time to catch a line as I rafted up next to Duke, a Catalina 36. We had a really nice dinner at the Tides Tavern where we watched the Huskies beat Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Basketball tournament and then retired back to Kotuku where we had the "race" heating system installed. (A couple of terra cotta flower pots over the stove burners.) No idea it would freeze overnight, but slept nice and cozy with beers in our bellies.
Al, Stu, Scott, and Charlie showed up after breakfast. Brad, Burke, and the others we thought might show......didn't. Turns out it was just as well because it was very, very light day.
The start was pure chaos management. Something we aren't bad at, as it turns out. With a knot and a half current running down course and about 3 knots of apparent wind, we didn't want to be late, but didn't want to be early either. We threaded through the crowd at the milling around the start on starboard, got to the pin end and flopped over on port to try and negotiate a thin line across the fleet to clear air. We crossed, only ducking one or two boats and found ourselves windward and bow out on most of our fleet, with just a couple of boats ahead of us.
That soon changed, as we missed a big shift that the guys behind us caught, and soon the better half of our fleet was ahead of us. Not to be outdone, we then caught a monster shift going the other way, and put the two J-Boats (a J-92 and a J-105) in the rear-view mirror. Lest you think this all happened quickly, let me clarify that this happened after about three hours of slow tacking in a fading Northerly. The same un-forecast one that started at 3 knots.
We noticed before long (a couple hours later) that the boats behind us had spinnakers up. Wait a second, the boats ahead of us have spinnakers up. We had been monkeying around with the #1, the drifter, and "screw it, I am pointing the boat at the mark" tactics. Then Zip, up went the kite, down came the drifter, and off we went. For about a half mile. Which was exceedingly painful, at 0.21Knots. I love the South Sound.
Finally, desperately we found a finger of the northerly wind and were able to drop the kite and gradually pull away from the boats behind us. 2 knots became 4 knots, and we were sailing. Interestingly, the boat that managed to hang with us was a Beneteau 10M(also a Farr design I think). After they slipped by us on a bad tack too close to shore where I pinched for too long before tacking out, I realized we had better get our heads back in the game. Newer, lighter, and very close to us on handicap, I quickly realized sloppiness might be painful. To make matters worse they had their sprit extended 6' in front of their bow, making crossing them a real gut check on the close tacks we were swapping with them.
I shouldn't have worried. Stu and Al called a masterful last series of tacks with a couple of pretty lee bows and we parked them behind us for good. Shame on them for bothering us while we were wallowing in light air misery. Just to seal the deal, Al called for the A-sail at the last reach to the finish (they shortened the course at Blake Island) and we beat them by a couple of minutes with our vaunted A3 hauling the mail. As I luffed up to shoot the pin as we crossed I nearly threw Al off the bow.
Just one of those days I guess. Sorry Al.
The delivery down was good fun. Got out and underway before the rain squalls hit. It was my first singlehanded trip on Kotuku and I really enjoyed it. Normally I prefer to have a friend along, but I was hardly lonely as the porpoise and eagles were out, the water was full of bait fish and the 20 mile slog in the rain passed pleasantly with me gawking, noting wind shifts, and puttering pleasantly.
Janna met me at the dock in Gig Harbor. She hustled down just in time to catch a line as I rafted up next to Duke, a Catalina 36. We had a really nice dinner at the Tides Tavern where we watched the Huskies beat Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Basketball tournament and then retired back to Kotuku where we had the "race" heating system installed. (A couple of terra cotta flower pots over the stove burners.) No idea it would freeze overnight, but slept nice and cozy with beers in our bellies.
Al, Stu, Scott, and Charlie showed up after breakfast. Brad, Burke, and the others we thought might show......didn't. Turns out it was just as well because it was very, very light day.
The start was pure chaos management. Something we aren't bad at, as it turns out. With a knot and a half current running down course and about 3 knots of apparent wind, we didn't want to be late, but didn't want to be early either. We threaded through the crowd at the milling around the start on starboard, got to the pin end and flopped over on port to try and negotiate a thin line across the fleet to clear air. We crossed, only ducking one or two boats and found ourselves windward and bow out on most of our fleet, with just a couple of boats ahead of us.
That soon changed, as we missed a big shift that the guys behind us caught, and soon the better half of our fleet was ahead of us. Not to be outdone, we then caught a monster shift going the other way, and put the two J-Boats (a J-92 and a J-105) in the rear-view mirror. Lest you think this all happened quickly, let me clarify that this happened after about three hours of slow tacking in a fading Northerly. The same un-forecast one that started at 3 knots.
We noticed before long (a couple hours later) that the boats behind us had spinnakers up. Wait a second, the boats ahead of us have spinnakers up. We had been monkeying around with the #1, the drifter, and "screw it, I am pointing the boat at the mark" tactics. Then Zip, up went the kite, down came the drifter, and off we went. For about a half mile. Which was exceedingly painful, at 0.21Knots. I love the South Sound.
Finally, desperately we found a finger of the northerly wind and were able to drop the kite and gradually pull away from the boats behind us. 2 knots became 4 knots, and we were sailing. Interestingly, the boat that managed to hang with us was a Beneteau 10M(also a Farr design I think). After they slipped by us on a bad tack too close to shore where I pinched for too long before tacking out, I realized we had better get our heads back in the game. Newer, lighter, and very close to us on handicap, I quickly realized sloppiness might be painful. To make matters worse they had their sprit extended 6' in front of their bow, making crossing them a real gut check on the close tacks we were swapping with them.
I shouldn't have worried. Stu and Al called a masterful last series of tacks with a couple of pretty lee bows and we parked them behind us for good. Shame on them for bothering us while we were wallowing in light air misery. Just to seal the deal, Al called for the A-sail at the last reach to the finish (they shortened the course at Blake Island) and we beat them by a couple of minutes with our vaunted A3 hauling the mail. As I luffed up to shoot the pin as we crossed I nearly threw Al off the bow.
Just one of those days I guess. Sorry Al.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Kotuku Qualifies for the Dyneema Experience Challenge!
For those of you who haven't heard, Kotuku qualified for the Dyneema Experience Challenge. According to the website, that means they will be sending us lots and lots of high-tech rope for the boat.
Interestingly, one other boat from Seattle qualified, Terremoto. Scott and Susan Burbank also rallied their social network and earned themselves some new line. A third boat, one of the Canadian 6 meters from Victoria also qualified. Well done for the PNW!
for full details check out the site: http://dyneemaexperience.com
We are still waiting for full details, but there is an additional prize of a trip for two to Alicante and some time aboard a really swoosh race boat (TBD) there. When we know more, we'll post it here.
Thanks again everybody for your support. We are looking at dates for a big salmon BBQ on Blake Island to say thank you to all our crew, aboard and online. Couldn't have done it without you!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Center Sound Series Summary
Wanted to update folks who haven't been racing with us on the results so far.
Our class looked to be very interesting, but got even more interesting once they combined the J-109 one design fleet with the heavy displacement boats in class 4. J-109 Tantivity is real competition, and the crew of Absolutely and Different Drummer are always going to be tough. Shoot the Moon, the J-35 Tahlequah, and Illusionist have also proven to be a real challenge to beat.
So where are we after 2 of the 3 races? 4th of 14 in race 1, 7th of 14 in race 2. 5th of 14 overall, with 3 of the 4 J-109s behind us. Not bad, not great. Need some serious redemption in race 3. Let's all hope for a big blow, shall we?
Race #1 was a bit of everything. Light going really light following by big shifts and us being the winner of some, and the loser on others. We sailed well, and scored OK against a tough fleet. Zero to Hero to 4th, with tactics, luck, and light air work being the big keys to success.
Race #2 we measured in a new UK carbon tape drive main. Battens weren't perfect, and we took a 6 sec/mile rating hit but the sail was a nice improvement in the light stuff. Put a long, slow rip in the Russian kite when we couldn't keep it filled in a jibe and then put the prod through it when we sheeted on. After grinding our way back to contact with the leaders, the wind piped up to 15-20 we struggled to change gears uphill and lost them again. We finished overpowered in 20+ knots with the #1. Nice problem to have, looking back at it. The old main was really shy, and led us to carry the #1 longer than we should have. Finished 2 minutes out of 2nd place. (Others would say we finished 7th). Let's hope we can figure out a way to make up the difference in the last race, eh?
Our class looked to be very interesting, but got even more interesting once they combined the J-109 one design fleet with the heavy displacement boats in class 4. J-109 Tantivity is real competition, and the crew of Absolutely and Different Drummer are always going to be tough. Shoot the Moon, the J-35 Tahlequah, and Illusionist have also proven to be a real challenge to beat.
So where are we after 2 of the 3 races? 4th of 14 in race 1, 7th of 14 in race 2. 5th of 14 overall, with 3 of the 4 J-109s behind us. Not bad, not great. Need some serious redemption in race 3. Let's all hope for a big blow, shall we?
Race #1 was a bit of everything. Light going really light following by big shifts and us being the winner of some, and the loser on others. We sailed well, and scored OK against a tough fleet. Zero to Hero to 4th, with tactics, luck, and light air work being the big keys to success.
Race #2 we measured in a new UK carbon tape drive main. Battens weren't perfect, and we took a 6 sec/mile rating hit but the sail was a nice improvement in the light stuff. Put a long, slow rip in the Russian kite when we couldn't keep it filled in a jibe and then put the prod through it when we sheeted on. After grinding our way back to contact with the leaders, the wind piped up to 15-20 we struggled to change gears uphill and lost them again. We finished overpowered in 20+ knots with the #1. Nice problem to have, looking back at it. The old main was really shy, and led us to carry the #1 longer than we should have. Finished 2 minutes out of 2nd place. (Others would say we finished 7th). Let's hope we can figure out a way to make up the difference in the last race, eh?
Monday, February 21, 2011
Toliva Shoal: Al's report
Brad and Al did the delivery down on Friday and had the boat tied up next to OYC by 1700 after a 6.5 hr motor down from Shilshole. Not much wind and a little rain but not bad and the forecast was good for the next day.
The morning dawned clear and cold with a northwesterly breeze. The decks particularly on the shady side of the boat were icy and many lines were frozen. A little bucketing of salt water helped thaw things along with the rising temps. The rest of the crew arrived early and ready to go with a car staged at TYC just in case... With the fearless leader absent along with a number of other regulars we had to sort out some new roles for almost everyone. Heading out for the start the assumption was 1 Heavy and it was teed up by the new foredeck crew of Matt, Katie and Kenyon. While hanging around the starting area it became apparent the wind was rising as gusts were in the low 20's After watching the cruising class start we decided to switch to the 3 and boy are we glad we did. Start was definitely average with being late at the favored boat end but with clear air. It didn't take long for Kotuku to assert herself sailing higher and faster than the competition we assumed the lead before reaching Boston Harbor. With the ebb tide working against with the wind, now steady 20 knots a real steep chop built along Dana Passage but progress was good. Rounding Johnson Point we were up into the class ahead of us and settled into a beam reach to the Nisqually daymark. We stuck with the 3, although the A3 would have been better for sure. We decided with the somewhat green bow hands not to test our luck or the sails trying a sail change. Rounding the daymark set up a long beat to the Toliva Shoal mark. This was the windiest and roughest part of the race with lots of lumps, bumps and spray. The crew did well though and we arrived at the mark with none of our class in sight. The tide just started flooding at the mark and we misjudged our layline and had to throw a couple more tacks in. We took our time setting up the Rainbow kite and carried it down towards Eagle Island and the first wind convergence area. Switching to the 1 carried us through to the other side passing a couple more boats by sticking very close to the Eagle Island shore. We went to the A3 for the next run to the end of Drayton Passage. Then it was back to the 1 for the close reach back to Johnson Point, before setting the Russian for the run home. One jibe near Hartstene Island and then harden up for the beam reach after Dofflemyer Point to the finish and the gun for our class. Crew worked well particularly Brad tending the main up hill working in sync with Al driving. Stu kept us in good lanes with the tide and wind and then took over for the drive home. The new kids on the bow did well with only a few glitches on one set and the gybe but pretty damn good for no practice. Scott did his usual good job in the pit and Eli did most of the trimming up and down. Eli also provided tons of good grub and OYC were great hosts for Brad and Al Friday night and Sat morning.
After finishing just after 1600 and a favorable tide setting up for a return, we scrambled first to find a fuel dock open and the nearest was Boston Harbor about 8 miles from Olympia. A call confirmed they were open until 1800 we diecided to quickly drop the crew at the dock and have Eli and Al head off on a return trip. They made it to the fuel dock and got 10 gallons to assure they had enough for the return. 15 minutes later they were off and made it to Shilshole at 2300 hitting nearly 12 knots at the Narrows and not hitting any flotsam on the trip. It was a beautiful but cold trip with a nearly full moon.
Thanks Boss and crew for a memorable Saturday, Al
Editorial Comment: Good boat, great crew, nice conservative tactics. Sounds like a winning formula to me!
A Kotuku Kind of Day
A beautiful day in the South Sound, and a race result we can be proud of. Who's the big guy driving in all the photos though? Looks like he knows what he is doing!
Scott will be providing a full write-up shortly. Once again there was a nice write-up on pressure-drop, so here it is in the interim. Thanks again to Ben and the folks at Pressure Drop for being the best source of race news in the PNW.
http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?1136-Bluebird-Sailing-in-the-PNW-Toliva-Shoals-2011
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157626098429374/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrm_olympia/sets/72157625970998029/show/
Scott will be providing a full write-up shortly. Once again there was a nice write-up on pressure-drop, so here it is in the interim. Thanks again to Ben and the folks at Pressure Drop for being the best source of race news in the PNW.
http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?1136-Bluebird-Sailing-in-the-PNW-Toliva-Shoals-2011
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157626098429374/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrm_olympia/sets/72157625970998029/show/
Monday, February 14, 2011
Kotuku is Accepted for the VanIsle 360
They cashed our check, so we are heading north for our biggest race yet. Join us in Nanaimo on June 4th for the race round the Big Island, PNW style. Plans are already forming up, so talk to the boss, get the time, and come join us for a great 2 weeks of stage racing around Vancouver Island.
More details here at: www.vanisle360.com
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pressure Drop Write Up with some nice photos of us
Guess we were third in class, and 3rd overall. Nice to be wrong! Great write up from Ben Braden, who sailed on BZ.
http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?1071-Iceberg-A-Bruce-Kinda-Day
http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?1071-Iceberg-A-Bruce-Kinda-Day
Dyneema® Experience Team - Profile
Here is the contest link again, in case you missed it. (Crew, if you ain't "crew" what are you?) Come on, sign up!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Iceberg Regatta: A fun ride with a small crew
7 of us did the Iceberg Regatta on Saturday. Really six line pullers + my dad, who is still recovering from some pretty serious health issues. All of us had a great time, in spite of the lousy weather forecast for rain and light air. Turns out it was pretty dry, and we had enough breeze to get us around the course. Dad was quite impressed with how we handled the boat, and didn't even grumble about having us stuff acres of dacron on his head repeatedly as we swapped spinnakers.
We started pin end which was heavily favored if you wanted a starboard approach. We did, and managed to fend of the competition (Muffin, Bergen Viking, Kowloon, Idefix) for clear air near the pin. We got the obligatory "Nice start, Asshole" cheer from the Muffin, and others who were late but flopped over onto port quickly. The real winner was Bravo Zulu, driven by Ben Braden. They chose the port tack and did well with it, carrying the tack all the way to the mark. We tacked once close to the breakwater and then were hot on their heels, extending on the slower boats and staying higher and faster than the J-35.
Had a decent mark rounding, and planned to set the A3 when we rounded but were slow doing it. When we finally did, we had the tack line led wrong, requiring a lot of effort by the crew to get it re-led. This distracted us somewhat from being able to hold the hot sail angle we were on with the reacher, and ended up dumping the kite a couple times because we weren't as focused as we needed to be. Note to self: got to communicate in advance what we need to do to keep the kite up on a puffy reach--trimmer, driver, and main need to be really quick to stay ahead of the boat. Mostly driver needs to talk more, but main has to dump early and everybody has to work together with a lot of focus.
Leeward mark rounding was a thing of beauty as we fought off the J-35 above us, sailed higher and faster than Tuesday, and rounded the mark in clear air. The run was deeper than the A-sail wanted to go, so I called for the Russian. Got the Audi (our smallest kite) instead, though it set nicely and the assy douse was perfect . Both bags are blue, North bags, and now say Russian and Audi on them in large bold letters. The J-35 and Bravo Zulu ran away from us at this point, although they later said nice things about the peel.
Our final beat back to the finish was OK, we gained back most of what we lost on the J-35, but BZ just kept running. Worse, when we finished we noticed that Kiwi Express was only about 8 minutes behind us. Turns out they corrected over us by 11 seconds to take 2nd, leaving us 3rd across the line and 3rd in our fleet. (4th overall for the regatta.) We happily accepted a small pint glass at the sloop that evening with 3rd place on it and really didn't mind the ribbing we got from the other boats for our somewhat visible slip ups. Live and learn. Don't make the same mistakes twice. But is good to be on the podium, and in the hunt.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. We sailed pretty well, but a couple of little mistakes cost us the 2nd place. The folks on Bravo Zulu are great competition for us, and we need to set our sights on faster boats if we want to continue to improve. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Results are here: http://www.styc.org/race_info/Iceberg%20Race/2011/race1.htm
We started pin end which was heavily favored if you wanted a starboard approach. We did, and managed to fend of the competition (Muffin, Bergen Viking, Kowloon, Idefix) for clear air near the pin. We got the obligatory "Nice start, Asshole" cheer from the Muffin, and others who were late but flopped over onto port quickly. The real winner was Bravo Zulu, driven by Ben Braden. They chose the port tack and did well with it, carrying the tack all the way to the mark. We tacked once close to the breakwater and then were hot on their heels, extending on the slower boats and staying higher and faster than the J-35.
Had a decent mark rounding, and planned to set the A3 when we rounded but were slow doing it. When we finally did, we had the tack line led wrong, requiring a lot of effort by the crew to get it re-led. This distracted us somewhat from being able to hold the hot sail angle we were on with the reacher, and ended up dumping the kite a couple times because we weren't as focused as we needed to be. Note to self: got to communicate in advance what we need to do to keep the kite up on a puffy reach--trimmer, driver, and main need to be really quick to stay ahead of the boat. Mostly driver needs to talk more, but main has to dump early and everybody has to work together with a lot of focus.
Leeward mark rounding was a thing of beauty as we fought off the J-35 above us, sailed higher and faster than Tuesday, and rounded the mark in clear air. The run was deeper than the A-sail wanted to go, so I called for the Russian. Got the Audi (our smallest kite) instead, though it set nicely and the assy douse was perfect . Both bags are blue, North bags, and now say Russian and Audi on them in large bold letters. The J-35 and Bravo Zulu ran away from us at this point, although they later said nice things about the peel.
Our final beat back to the finish was OK, we gained back most of what we lost on the J-35, but BZ just kept running. Worse, when we finished we noticed that Kiwi Express was only about 8 minutes behind us. Turns out they corrected over us by 11 seconds to take 2nd, leaving us 3rd across the line and 3rd in our fleet. (4th overall for the regatta.) We happily accepted a small pint glass at the sloop that evening with 3rd place on it and really didn't mind the ribbing we got from the other boats for our somewhat visible slip ups. Live and learn. Don't make the same mistakes twice. But is good to be on the podium, and in the hunt.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. We sailed pretty well, but a couple of little mistakes cost us the 2nd place. The folks on Bravo Zulu are great competition for us, and we need to set our sights on faster boats if we want to continue to improve. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Results are here: http://www.styc.org/race_info/Iceberg%20Race/2011/race1.htm
Friday, January 28, 2011
OK, let's win some new rigging! If you are here, please take the time to sign up and Follow Us on the Dyneema experience site. Just click the link below and then there is an orange tab that says "Follow Us" on the boat below. Let's get busy!
http://www.dyneemaexperience.com/profile/kotuku.htm
http://www.dyneemaexperience.com/profile/kotuku.htm
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
New Race Dates
Need more racing? Me too. So we are adding a couple of dates:
Sat. Jan 29. 9:30 departure. Let me know if you can sail on short notice.
Sat. Feb. 19 Toliva Shoals. Back by popular demand, Kotuku tackles the South Sound, notorious for its light wind.
After that, the Center Sound Series starts up and the racing will be fast and furious right up until VanIsle. So let's get the boat out and start getting ready!
Sat. Jan 29. 9:30 departure. Let me know if you can sail on short notice.
Sat. Feb. 19 Toliva Shoals. Back by popular demand, Kotuku tackles the South Sound, notorious for its light wind.
After that, the Center Sound Series starts up and the racing will be fast and furious right up until VanIsle. So let's get the boat out and start getting ready!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Duwamish Photos from Jan
Here are some of the shots of us that Jan and Skip captured over the weekend. According to them, we are photogenic. Ha! (Apparently the graphics on the side of the boat help.)
Nice start sequence, with us flopping over to port after rounding and the competition a tack behind us.
Approaching the first mark. Dump it, Scott, dump it!
The gentle beat.
A bad start to a good race
The good news is that he was in good spirits, and was more worried about missing the upgrade for his work trip next week than the possible affects the boom may have had on his good looks. We hope the nose mends nicely, and that the upgrade can be moved over to his next flight if he has to postpone it.
Trent, you get high marks for your pain tolerance, and your sense of humor. And Eli, you get Wingman of the Year award, thanks from all of us for taking care of Trent. We felt better about going out and racing knowing that you were with him.
As far as race results go, don't hold your breath. 3 days later and nothing posted. We finished in the dark, and they didn't get our sail number or anyone else's. The race committee called this morning, and I gave them our recorded finish time, but they are still trying to sort this out. So here is a quick summary.
After a killer start at the pin end (good call Stu!), we lead the fleet down the course with the A-sail flying off the new custom mini-prod. It proved to be a powerful weapon in the 10-12 knots of wind we had. By the time we reached Alki we were showing our transom to the J-35s and C&C 115s, who started 5 minutes in front of us, and who owe us something like 12 sec/mile.
The beat across to Blakely Rock with the two J-35s hot on our tail was an interesting one for me. The wind was starting to go lighter and lighter, and it felt like they were pointing higher and sailing faster but we tried to work every puff by taking an extra bite to windward and managed to hold them off by the skin of our teeth, tacking round the rock with Absolutely not far in front of us and the two Js pressing up on our transom. Our fleet was no where to be seen at this point. If only the wind had held...
A couple of miles after we rounded it went really light. For a couple of hours we drifted, watching the Olsons re-appear and coast by us on the outside while we struggled to make headway along the coast. Eventually we were able to set the A-sail again on a very close reach. This allowed us to gain back some ground on the Olsons, but we couldn't carry the a-sail long enough, and we were back to a light upwind beat to the finish, just behind the last Olson, who we owe 15 seconds a mile to.
Not a great result for us, but it was good sailing, it hardly rained at all, and our crew work was rock solid in spite of being short handed. Well done, all of you. Can't wait to show Trent and Eli the new weapons though, so get healthy and we'll get back on the water.
Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157625664288151/
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Duwammish Head Drifter?
Personally I am planning for a drifter. The Sailflow and forecast models don't agree, but everybody sees the possibility of a convergence zone. Where, you say? Here...
Prior to posting this we had a nice, full crew with most folks jumping on the boat at Elliott Bay. Now, not so sure...
Prior to posting this we had a nice, full crew with most folks jumping on the boat at Elliott Bay. Now, not so sure...
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