Oh I am not worried about any rating if we come in 6th out if 5 we'll be happy. As far as we are concerned, finishing is winning.
2013 Sippy Cup
- Thread starter THECUSCUS
- Start date
- Status
Went up to Annapolis yesterday to scout around. We will probably stay at the Marriott on the water on the 1st and get up early to start toward the start line. I checked with the Marriott harbor master and I can tie up there for the night. I booked the room. (Recently got my lifetime Marriott Platinum so the room was free) Our biggest challenge is logistics of crew, boat and vehicles and trailer. I think we have a plan though.
Nice! Sounds like you have things under control and a good plan. I just hope the weather/wind works out for us. Thats a long sail in 5kts of wind! You can never really believe most of the forecasts for the upper bay until about 12 hours out.
Well I am sure you know that summer winds on the Chesapeake pretty much suck anyway. We can also be up there via iron genny and we might even look at hanging a spinnaker for the run up (I know we can't use it in the race).
We are going to look good if nothing else. Been washing and waxing 'Ohana last couple of days and working on team shirts too but that's if we can do it for the right price. We're thinking white hats with Navy polo's with Team 'Ohana on them and white shorts. Of course we have to make sure the Admiral has her stars on her hat.
We are going to look good if nothing else. Been washing and waxing 'Ohana last couple of days and working on team shirts too but that's if we can do it for the right price. We're thinking white hats with Navy polo's with Team 'Ohana on them and white shorts. Of course we have to make sure the Admiral has her stars on her hat.
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We found a local guy who does the embroidery and picked up some polo's at Khols for about $5 a piece after my wife's coupons. He will do it for like 10 bucks a shirt. Actually I found some power hats at Lowes that have LED's in the brim. The logo on the hat actually looks like a sailboat. I use one regularly but it may be part of the "uniform". The one below is close to the one I have
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Well it's over, Jim (THECUSCUS) smoked us. We lost sight if him and whimsey shortly after the start when it got dark. The boat behind is never caught us and we overtook another about 3 hours in but they were in the big gulp class, they had no bow lights and made an odd tack. I wondered if they were dropping our but we couldn't see them because their lights were out.
Once we made the 1/2 way mark, we had a starboard tack straight shot to the finish. We thought we could hold it to the end. Our Garmin had us with an estimated finish around 6 until about 330 am when the wind just died and changed direction. The last 6 miles were tough but we finished at 9:05 am.
I forget when Jim finished but I think it was in the 6:00 hour some time.
None the less we had a great time and look forward to next year. Really those of you near by should join us.
All I know is my butt is killing me!!!! 14-15 hours (counting pre-race ad post race time, I need to come up with better seating!!!!
Once we made the 1/2 way mark, we had a starboard tack straight shot to the finish. We thought we could hold it to the end. Our Garmin had us with an estimated finish around 6 until about 330 am when the wind just died and changed direction. The last 6 miles were tough but we finished at 9:05 am.
I forget when Jim finished but I think it was in the 6:00 hour some time.
None the less we had a great time and look forward to next year. Really those of you near by should join us.
All I know is my butt is killing me!!!! 14-15 hours (counting pre-race ad post race time, I need to come up with better seating!!!!
Awesome! with all the thunderstorms and wild winds, I was a bit worried. On Saturday there were bands of storms moving across the Bay only about 5-10 miles north of Rock Hall. We went out on Sunday with some friends on their Catalina 36 and anchored out for lunch at Magothy River near the Bay Bridge. Going out, it was blowing 14-15 kts from WNW. Coming back it was blowing 22kts with 3-foot waves. I'm glad you did not have to try sailing into this all the way up the Bay!!! Congrats on finishing.
No, I'm guessing most of our winds were WSW or SW at 8-10 mph until that early morning change to nothing. We did get rained on trying to squeak that last miserable mile in on Saturday Morning.
You should have joined us!!!
You should have joined us!!!
If I told my wife we should participate in a race requiring a 15-hour stay on our boat, she would divorce me before I could ask "Are you interested, Honey?"
My son, on the other hand, could be persuaded in the future...
Ahh tell her it's a 3 hour race and go with the old "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" plan.
No you better just have your son or a couple buddies join you.
No you better just have your son or a couple buddies join you.
The race, as viewed from Miss Adventure. The start was under SSW winds of 11-12 knts, with a gorgeous sunset for all to view. Big Gulp boats crossed the start at 19:10, followed by us Sippians at 19:20. First across was Whimsey, followed by Miss Adventure, Ohana and Pegasus in that order. We were right behind Whimsey for afew of the short tacks until we both cleared Turkey Point. We took a long port tack towards the western shore, while Whimsey went long towards the Eastern shore. Ohana and Pegasus were behind us in sight. In middle of the Bay, across the mouth of the Sasafrass River, we passed 2 boats from the Big Gulp fleet ( as seen in my video). We were dualing with Ice Flow, on opposite tacks for awhile, until we got onto the same tack and out pointed them. As their bow light faded, we seemed to be all alone. The winds were steady and once we made our "turn" off Worton Point we were on a starboard tack to Rock Hall. At about 0300 the GPS had us at the finish alittle after 0400, and the wind died! We began moving at less than 2knts, and were only about 4 miles from the bridge. Still no sign of any other racers. I suddenly started hearing wha sounded like a Mexican guitar ballad. How could this be in the middle of the bay? Was I that sleep deprived? No, one of my crew spotted a sailboat off our starboard bow, drifting in the light air, sails all luffing, all deck & cockpit lights on, and music blaring. As we sailed by, we caught the distinct odor of steak on the grille! We were tired and hungry and were tempted to beg for some. He fired up his engine and stayed close by for awhile, before falling off towards Love Point. The bridge now looms ahead, but with light wind changing between south and west and current against us, the best we could do was stay parallel to it, while waiting for an opportune wind to shoot under it. Around 0530, we made our move to go under the center span. No big ships in sight! We are now in the center of the channel, between the 2 bridges, and look behind and see a huge oil tanker heading south. Big decision here.....me, a sailboat moving at about 1.5 knts in shifty air......him, a huge tanker moving at least 10 times my speed and needing to occupy the space I'm in shortly. If I fall off and get out of the channel, he can go by, I tack and head for th finish buoy. Good plan.......or so I thought! He comes under the bridge, slows down and starts to head out of the channel on my side, which causes me to fall off even more. Now we look toward the bridge, and like in th old westerns, and see a line of sailboats making their way towards th bridge! Our competitors have arrived! There is one coming under the center span now, who is it? Can't be Whimsey, too tall a mast, it must be a Big Gulp boat. The tanker I past us now, we tack and head for the mark, but we are too low now. We tack again, after the Big Gulper, goes by ( the Saber 425), and get above the mark, windward of the gulper. We tack, then he tacks, both heading towards the mark. We get ther first, by about minute., we record our time and look up to see Whimsey coming under the brige! The wind has picked up slightly, which is not helping to eat up her 17 minute handicap over us. She head above the mark, tacks back towards it. We,re glued to our gps, watching the seconds tick by all too slowly. The wind is shifty, she falls off too low on the mark, and has to tack again.......we're really biting our nails now! Suddenly a good gust blows through and Whimsey charges across the line.........but was it fast enough? Yes!! They were only 15 min 30 sec behind us, and were allowed 17min. So for the third year in a row, Miss Adventure got there first, but got second place. Curse that tanker, he cost me the Sippy Cup! Lol. Can't wait until next years race!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=RuLaQ5--VM4
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=RuLaQ5--VM4
I might as well give my take...
We started Thursday afternoon from Richmond because I didn't want to have difficulty with the trailer and if I did, I had time to deal with it. We made it to Annapolis and spent the night. The plan was to leave the chase car at sandy point but when they arrived, they found out they couldn't leave a car with no trailer so we headed to Havre de Grace in both cars. We rigged the boat and put her in and tied off. Then we took both cars back to Annapolis and left the van and trailer and biggies back in the chase car. Time was now short so we provisioned at a 7-11 which cost more than we planned.
We got back to Havre de Grace with time to spare, or so we thought. We fueled up and headed out for the 5-6 mile motor to the start line. Turns out the upper bay there is shallow and we had to detour south. It took longer to get there but we finally did by the time they were calling role. We rigged the boat with what turned out to be the wrong jib. We should have went with the larger. Oh well.
We started 3rd as Jim said and never caught any if them until we passed ice flow who had no bow lights. We lost sight if them when they tacked and we lost visual of their stern light. We passed them on a tack and went within 50' of them. We let them know the light was out. We had good runs on a port tack, better than we did on starboard tacks. Soon we left them behind and watched behind us for the last boat who had a tricolor masthead light. At this point we were all alone and just kept running and soon we didn't see them any more.
We had some barge traffic near Pooles island. The captain was very kind. He passed us on the port side and turned in front of us with warning and we took his stern. I asked if he had seen any other sailboats behind us and he said he had not in the hour he had been on shift. We thought maybe ice flow and the other had dropped out.
We made the turn and had a starboard tack line to the finish (maybe 19 miles to go). As we sailed along we had the GPS giving us about a 6:30 am finish. As Jim said, around 3-3:30 the wind pooped and we floundered. We really struggled as the GPS kept updating our finish time. When we got a few miles out the wind really petered out. Jim was already there and it took about 3 hours to go the last 3 miles. Finally we switched jibs. I was going todo it earlier but wasn't comfortable making the change in the dark.
We crossed the line at 9:05:00 am and fired up the iron jib to get back to sandy point. We arrived to find out our trailer tires were flat when we loaded the boat. It seems the tires were hot when we put in and the beads must have leaked. We aired up and the tires held. Glad that's all it was.
I couldn't get the macgregor bump to take and I hate the bow bouncing. It occurred to me that since the bow wasn't in the crotch, I took the bow stop out and made a make-shift bow support. This helped a lot. If anyone else has this problem, this seems like a good alternative.
All in all we had a great time. We were aft heavy and need to work that out. My keester is sore for sure. I need better visions for such a long sail.
Next year, we'll do better. If nothing else we looked like a team.
We started Thursday afternoon from Richmond because I didn't want to have difficulty with the trailer and if I did, I had time to deal with it. We made it to Annapolis and spent the night. The plan was to leave the chase car at sandy point but when they arrived, they found out they couldn't leave a car with no trailer so we headed to Havre de Grace in both cars. We rigged the boat and put her in and tied off. Then we took both cars back to Annapolis and left the van and trailer and biggies back in the chase car. Time was now short so we provisioned at a 7-11 which cost more than we planned.
We got back to Havre de Grace with time to spare, or so we thought. We fueled up and headed out for the 5-6 mile motor to the start line. Turns out the upper bay there is shallow and we had to detour south. It took longer to get there but we finally did by the time they were calling role. We rigged the boat with what turned out to be the wrong jib. We should have went with the larger. Oh well.
We started 3rd as Jim said and never caught any if them until we passed ice flow who had no bow lights. We lost sight if them when they tacked and we lost visual of their stern light. We passed them on a tack and went within 50' of them. We let them know the light was out. We had good runs on a port tack, better than we did on starboard tacks. Soon we left them behind and watched behind us for the last boat who had a tricolor masthead light. At this point we were all alone and just kept running and soon we didn't see them any more.
We had some barge traffic near Pooles island. The captain was very kind. He passed us on the port side and turned in front of us with warning and we took his stern. I asked if he had seen any other sailboats behind us and he said he had not in the hour he had been on shift. We thought maybe ice flow and the other had dropped out.
We made the turn and had a starboard tack line to the finish (maybe 19 miles to go). As we sailed along we had the GPS giving us about a 6:30 am finish. As Jim said, around 3-3:30 the wind pooped and we floundered. We really struggled as the GPS kept updating our finish time. When we got a few miles out the wind really petered out. Jim was already there and it took about 3 hours to go the last 3 miles. Finally we switched jibs. I was going todo it earlier but wasn't comfortable making the change in the dark.
We crossed the line at 9:05:00 am and fired up the iron jib to get back to sandy point. We arrived to find out our trailer tires were flat when we loaded the boat. It seems the tires were hot when we put in and the beads must have leaked. We aired up and the tires held. Glad that's all it was.
I couldn't get the macgregor bump to take and I hate the bow bouncing. It occurred to me that since the bow wasn't in the crotch, I took the bow stop out and made a make-shift bow support. This helped a lot. If anyone else has this problem, this seems like a good alternative.
All in all we had a great time. We were aft heavy and need to work that out. My keester is sore for sure. I need better visions for such a long sail.
Next year, we'll do better. If nothing else we looked like a team.
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The trip back up the Bay on Sunday morning started good, with a nice 10-15 out of the NW. It was a beautiful morning and I was thinking it was going to be a nice sail home.........boy was I wrong! Almost to Love Point, the wind shifts more towrds north and picks up. Then there was extremely confused seas with 3-4foot waves. We took in sails and decided to motor, because for time reasons we needed to go in as straight a line as we could. Ever notice when ya gotta be somewhere, the weather never cooperates. So we're blasting headlong into wind & chop, the 2 of us in the cockpit are soaked, my wife below is calmly stating that water is coming in the windows and under the top hatch. She is keeping things dry by toweling up the drips. Then at around Tolchester, this huge ********* power boat cuts across my bow about 2 boatlengths away. This creates a huge wake 90 degrees to the waves, which leaves us momentarilly rolling and pitching like crazy. He looks back from up on his bridgedeck while I salute him with both fingers! So, its getting late afternoon and I know I don't have enough fuel to make it all the way, so I go into Fairlee Creek for fuel. It was exciting with the wind and current pushing me in, but we did it no problem with our 9.9hp engine. We contemplated staying there and getting a slip as it was real calm in there and the tiki bar on the beach looked real inviting. But work on Monday was calling, so it was back out we went. We pounded on for awhile and decided to duck on into Still Pond to eat some dinner, put on dry clothes and wait for the soon expected wind change. Around sunset we went out for a look see and the bay was calm, so went motored on for the next 3 hrs and pulled in the slip at midnight. Another Sippy Cup under our belts, we look forward to next years race!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyZLeqtWQQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxmXCZptdGs2pmE20QGEj6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyZLeqtWQQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUxmXCZptdGs2pmE20QGEj6A
We had these guys about half talked into next year until you told the story about your return trip. Haha
Doc, I was on the Bay on Sunday. Another boater in the marina with a daughter my son's age offered to take us to his fav. mooring on Magothy River in view of potential high winds. I thought 15 kts was not too bad, but I wanted a ride on his Catalina 36, so we accepted (and our kids are buddies, anyway). We sailed at 10 AM and made it to the mooring about 12:30 PM. On the way back we were reading wind of 22kts gusting to 27 kts and, like Cuscus said, waves 3-4 feet. We buried the rail on that Catalina (full main and 150 genny), and I was really worried about you guys after seeing a Benetau 40 powering North and jumping the waves with half it's hull exposed.
I have NO clue how you even made it home that day. I've gotten sea sick after about an hour of that roller coaster, but held it in and did not embarrass myself. But the Sun was beautiful and at least it was (kinda) warm...- Status