Part #2 Day #2
Upon finishing, furling the sails and pulling into the harbor I hailed the harbor master (college kids, some real cute ones to!) asking for information on what side the gangway would be if I was nose in, the gal (cute one did I mention that) put me on stand by, after about 10 minutes of holding with the stern to a stiff breeze in the middle of the harbor, she comes back on and tells me to wait until the giant power boat is finished fueling and then pull into the fuel dock (wind blowing off the dock), I obliged after all, what else was I to do!
Comes to find out they gave the assigned dock to another boat in the madness of the earlier thunder storm and the fuel dock become my overnight home, yep right next to the diesel pump and pump-out vacuum.....yuck! and no power to boot, they did give me a refund less $10 for the online booking fee which I did a week prior to the race, but she was just too cute to argue with.
I am an early riser and the next morning I had the distinct pleasure of sipping my coffee (batteries on an inverter are a beautiful thing) and watched the cloudless sky turn from the early morning glow to a full fledged gorgeous sun rise. After a couple of hours the neighbors (all the other race participants) started to stir, Charles the gentlemen on the other side of the fuel dock, a long time racer of a Soverel 27 came over to offer me compliment on the Sapphire and provide me some insight as to my course adjustments. He was out next to us the prior day and he watched me tack to head out further into the lake where he went closer to shore, as we sat in chains I watch them slowly creep away and eventually out of sight.
We chatted about how challenging the out bound leg was and he offered me some advise on today's return leg as it will be equally as challenging but not due to high winds and rain but rather from light winds which are predicted to shift about 45* throughout the day as then indeed did, will have to thank Charles next time I see him at the club.
It turned out to be a beautiful day and the Sapphire surprised me at the speed using the jib & main she was running 3.5 to 5.2 kts with an 6 - 8 kt wind on a reach (running close to shore as suggested), but as the winds shifted they tapered off for a while and our speed dropped to 2.3 to 3 kts, we finished the 15.6 mile run (as the crow flies) in just under 5 hours.
All day long I was tweeking the sails to squeeze a 1/10 more out of her, some applied with success some not so, watching the apparent wind meter I was constantly adjusting the jib to either flatten or belly the shape, adjusting the jib cars forward and back to see what effect it would have on the sail shape and how that related to speed, what I found was as the wind moved closer to a broad reach I would move the jib car forward to help tension the leach and as the wind shifted to the nose I would move the car back to control the belly on the lower 3rd of the sail.
We passed at least (5) boats along the way, which is really a wonderful feeling as I know we didn't win the pickle, some old time story about finishing last apparently at the PHYC. When a boat finished last they were award the pickle burgee which they flew on the next race, kind of an incentive I guess.
Well, that's my story and I am sticking to it! SAIL BOAT RACING IS AWESOME!!!!!
Upon finishing, furling the sails and pulling into the harbor I hailed the harbor master (college kids, some real cute ones to!) asking for information on what side the gangway would be if I was nose in, the gal (cute one did I mention that) put me on stand by, after about 10 minutes of holding with the stern to a stiff breeze in the middle of the harbor, she comes back on and tells me to wait until the giant power boat is finished fueling and then pull into the fuel dock (wind blowing off the dock), I obliged after all, what else was I to do!
Comes to find out they gave the assigned dock to another boat in the madness of the earlier thunder storm and the fuel dock become my overnight home, yep right next to the diesel pump and pump-out vacuum.....yuck! and no power to boot, they did give me a refund less $10 for the online booking fee which I did a week prior to the race, but she was just too cute to argue with.
I am an early riser and the next morning I had the distinct pleasure of sipping my coffee (batteries on an inverter are a beautiful thing) and watched the cloudless sky turn from the early morning glow to a full fledged gorgeous sun rise. After a couple of hours the neighbors (all the other race participants) started to stir, Charles the gentlemen on the other side of the fuel dock, a long time racer of a Soverel 27 came over to offer me compliment on the Sapphire and provide me some insight as to my course adjustments. He was out next to us the prior day and he watched me tack to head out further into the lake where he went closer to shore, as we sat in chains I watch them slowly creep away and eventually out of sight.
We chatted about how challenging the out bound leg was and he offered me some advise on today's return leg as it will be equally as challenging but not due to high winds and rain but rather from light winds which are predicted to shift about 45* throughout the day as then indeed did, will have to thank Charles next time I see him at the club.
It turned out to be a beautiful day and the Sapphire surprised me at the speed using the jib & main she was running 3.5 to 5.2 kts with an 6 - 8 kt wind on a reach (running close to shore as suggested), but as the winds shifted they tapered off for a while and our speed dropped to 2.3 to 3 kts, we finished the 15.6 mile run (as the crow flies) in just under 5 hours.
All day long I was tweeking the sails to squeeze a 1/10 more out of her, some applied with success some not so, watching the apparent wind meter I was constantly adjusting the jib to either flatten or belly the shape, adjusting the jib cars forward and back to see what effect it would have on the sail shape and how that related to speed, what I found was as the wind moved closer to a broad reach I would move the jib car forward to help tension the leach and as the wind shifted to the nose I would move the car back to control the belly on the lower 3rd of the sail.
We passed at least (5) boats along the way, which is really a wonderful feeling as I know we didn't win the pickle, some old time story about finishing last apparently at the PHYC. When a boat finished last they were award the pickle burgee which they flew on the next race, kind of an incentive I guess.
Well, that's my story and I am sticking to it! SAIL BOAT RACING IS AWESOME!!!!!
