First Solo Race

On Sat August 29 I raced solo for the first time ever. The race was the MS/burton cup, which is one of the longer races. The course goes around big island, but also loops into 3 of the bays. The winds looked very light and I was not sure if we would race with 2-3 knots of wind. I talked to the crew and we decided they would not drive all of the way out and maybe not race. My plan was to work on the boat with some new rigging if the race was called. In the end they did have the race.  Three of the racing clubs on the lake took part in the cup. There was a lot of boats out there even with the light wind.  I got a good start ahead of a number of boats, slowly some pulled away from me, and by the first leg there was a group of 4 of us. I was starting to pull ahead two of them. By the second leg, I was losing ground on one boat. On the last leg, 2 of the boats bailed. Leaving myself and Seeker and, despite having a good lead, Seeker slowly started to catch me. At a few points the wind dropped to 0.0 knots and the boat stopped moving. With the power boat chop and no wind I wanted to quit. A few times the boom jibed from the power boat chop. About this time the race committee was telling us we had 1 hour left in the 5 hour time limit. It looked like it would be close.

As we got close to the finish line Seeker pulled a head of me. As we finished, Seeker was 6 sec ahead of me and our boats were overlapped.  This is after 4 hours 47 min 11sec grrr. We did have an extra 12 plus min. to finish. That part was fun.

I was really tired as I headed back the club.  I docked the boat and got everything ship shape and put away. When I pushed the boat off the dock to go to the mooring ball, I heard a pop, and hyper extended my good knee. I knew it was not good. It has been sore past few weeks.  I plan to see the Dr on Monday. My guess is I will miss a few days work.

I had planned on sailing in the PHRF rumble in the bay as well as the C series race the next day, but can't get on and off the boat, let alone get out to the the mooring ball.

Late Summer Update

We have been racing most weekends for the past 3 months or so. I also have been racing on the same boat that I raced on last year on Thursday nights. Racing 3 days a week has been keeping me busy. We have races planned until Oct 23 plus there is one race in November, but we will see if mother nature allows that. Most races we are the last boat to finish in our fleet. Because we have been showing up and racing we are in 6th place of 22 boats that have raced on Sundays this year, with 4 or 5 races to go. Last weekend was the last race of the woman's series races. The winds were a little higher and we ended being the only boat to show up in our fleet so we took the gun (or 1st place) with Lori at the helm with a crew that included myself and another friend Laurie. I affectionately refer to them as "Team Lori."

We have a bunch of longer distance races coming up over the next few weeks. Normally races last about an hour, but these will probably last 2-3 hours with a time limit of 5 hours. One of the things I realized this year is when I initially set up the mast position, it was too far aft (or back) and it effected how the boat sails. I re-rigged the mast once and will probably do that again in the coming weeks, to see if that will help with the weather helm on the tiller, along with boat speed and heeling. For the most part the boat has been working well all Summer. When we pulled the boat out of Lake Minnetonka to go to the Apostle Islands in July, the rudder paint seemed to be coming off and some of the bottom paint had worn along leading edges of the boat. So there will need to be some touch up next Spring, and possibly re-doing the whole rudder...again.

During one of the women's races there were three short races crammed one after the other in a couple of hour period of time. The very first one we decided to put Jane at the helm. She has not been at the helm much at all, let alone during a race with really light wind. We ended up having the entire fleet waiting for us to finish, but we finished. Overall she did a great job, despite my tension on the board. One of the more social events that the club has is a "nightcrawler" race. We meet at the club in the early evening on the Saturday closest to a full moon, and the boat that returns last, wins. The 4th of July ended up being a nightcrawler event, and Excelsior has a large fireworks display out on the lake. It was a lot of fun sailing around in the light winds, watching the fireworks, under sail. There were hundreds of other boats on the lake. After sailing back to the docks, we spent the night on the boat.

We've had a number of race days with little to no wind, and so race officials will typically cancel those races. However, they did not cancel one weekend when they probably should have, and we, along with all the other boats in our fleet, ended up abandoning the race. There wasn't enough wind to push us anywhere, and ended up just bobbing in the water. This past Sunday we had quite the opposite wind, with gusts in the upper 30 knots and sustained winds in the 20s. That race was cancelled. Sometimes they will do a "heavy air" race, if there's enough boats willing to sail. On Sunday, there were about 100 people standing outside when they asked for a show of hands of people willing to race. There were only 2 or 3 hands raised, and mine was not one of them. The only other reason a race will be cancelled is because of the potential of thunderstorms and lightening. Rain is not a reason for cancellation, and luckily we haven't had to get wet this year.

We have not gotten out nearly as many times with friends this year as we'd like, but are hoping to in the next month or so before it gets too cold. We also haven't blogged much this season because we've been racing so much. Hope to do more writing as the season winds down.

The Winds of Insanity: my first time racing

I got the chance to participate in an actual sailing race today at the Wayzata Yacht Club. Before I share about that experience, I'd like to say that belonging to a yacht club is so very not-me. I wish they called it the Wayzata Sailing Club, or The Place with Docks and Sailboats. The word yacht, paired with club, makes it sound snobbish, which I am not, nor are the members of this club from what I can tell. Serious racers, however, they are.

Today the wind held steady at around 18 knots, with gusts over 20 knots about every 5 minutes.  This was way outside of my comfort zone. Typically I enjoy sailing the most when the wind is around 6-8 knots, which allows for a leisurely pace and food and beverage aren't spilled.  With a calm wind, nobody has to make sudden shifts to account for tacking or jibing.  Conversations can be heard over a light wind, nobody has to cling for dear life to the lifelines, nobody is needed for "rail meat," and nobody is scared they will fall off the boat.

There's wasn't time for a photo today, but this was from last weekend on Mother's Day. See how the boat was pretty much flat? And how the jib (front sail) was kind of flapping in the wind? That was not the case today.

I knew what I was getting into today, and was given multiple outs, without shame and judgement (thank you Donavan).  I decided that if a whole entire sailing club with lots of rules and experienced people deemed it safe enough to be out on the lake, then it was safe.  I also trusted that Donavan would turn around if it felt like a bad idea to either one of us.  A third factor in my decision to race in the Winds of Insanity (yes that's a Princess Bride reference, thank you very much) was that we had a good friend as crew. He's experienced and calm, and exactly who you want to have as crew on a windy day. Thank you friend!

We were a little late to the starting line because the wind was bitch-slapping us around. That basically continued the entire race. The wind was really loud, and the sails slapped all over the place. I couldn't even hear half of what Donavan was saying the wind was so loud. It was a short race course, and I guess there was only about a fourth of the amount of boats racing as there normally would be if the weather was better. My job was to adjust the jib, and then to sit on the high side (rail meat) to act as ballast. I realized that I would be more effective if I weighed more, and am actively considering increasing the amount of cheese cake and ice cream I eat. There was a sprinkle of rain here and there, and mostly cloud cover, but it was warm enough. In our class, which is called PHRF II (I've asked and nobody even knows what those letters stand for), there were only four boats.  And we came in..... 4th!!!!  I was just happy that we finished.  Actually, right before we crossed the finish line, one of the race officials motored up next to us and told us that the weather was moving in, and that they were ending the race. They said they "got our time" and we should head back in immediately. Afterwards, at the dock, they explained that they added 20 seconds to the time when they told us the race was done, and called it good.

I thought I would be more scared today, given that I don't like heeling over much at all. But I seem to have gotten over that fear. Today was irritating more than anything because it wasn't relaxing or enjoyable sailing in those wind conditions. It was exhausting. Afterwards, all the club members hung out, chatted about the race, and had some beverages. I was told that today's wind was about the worst it would get, since they would cancel a race if the wind was much over what it was today.  So I'll keep racing, as long as the wind is calmer.

1st race sorta

I raced our boat for the first time today. The Wayzata Yacht Club started the season with a tune up race today, and the real races start this week. I came in 2nd in my fleet, but there was only two of us. Of the 13 boats that raced today, I was dead last. I had one crew member that I had never sailed with before, and he had only been a on a boat a few times. So I was teaching as best as I could as we raced. At the end of the day we both had a good time and we are ready for more.   2 classes and 2 races this week coming up.

ready to race ???

Over the past month or so we have been working on  the boat with 50 plus hours working on the bottom paint and some other smaller repairs. We got the boat in the water on the 17 of April and was the first boat on the mooring ball. Some boats were in their slips before that. With some help from others, we had our first sail on the 18th. Since then I have been doing both classroom and on-the-water training, with a couple more to go. Sunday will be my first race as skipper. It is just a tune up race, and Lori and Jane might join me.  Starting on Thursday I will crew again on the same boat that I raced on last year.

We are ordering shirts for us and some of our friends who plan on being our racing crew. We should have them by the first real race on May 17. The meet up group is working well so far. If we know you and are a friend of ours, and you would like to sail with us, please join, here is the link MN-Sailing-with-Friends . We are looking forward to the new sailing season.

One of the things I have finally got fixed was the syncing issue with the instruments. I was able to get the instruments to talk together and display the same information.  I have been working with Garmin all last year.  One of the solar panels quit last June. I found out that was still under warranty, and will have replacement next week. I worked on the outboard motor, and when I changed the water pump, discovered that 3 of the 6 blades had broken off. So after replacing the part, the engine works much better now. I forgot to fog the motor at the end of the season last year, so it was running a bit rough. I added new gas with seafoam, than ran it some, then let it sit for a hour, and that fixed the problem.

Heading back after the race

I got a photo of some of the fleet heading back to the club after the race yesterday, great day but light winds. I did get a newer main sail last week and am very happy with it. The boat is ready to head to Lake Pepin  next week.

Racing Sails and Autopilot

I have been racing for the past few weeks at the Wayzata Yacht Club on a few different boats. It's exhilarating to be in the middle of the lake with 100+ boats all going in different directions at each other. My plan is to race there every Thursday night through the Summer. This past Thursday I crewed on a boat that came in first in our fleet. The boat owners invited me back next week. One of the technical skills I have been working on is sail trim, and taking what I learned from racing, and using it on our boat.

Me trimming the main on Blue J  photo by Mark Puariea Photography

Last Sunday Heidi and Troy went sailing with me on the St. Croix. We sailed most of the way to Stillwater before turning back into the wind, about the same time the wind picked up to 14-16 kts with gusts to 20 kts  and we beat our way back home. One of the things I noticed is my main sail is old and stretched out and needs to be retired. I have been looking around to see what is out there. If I order a new sail I am looking at the end of July before I would get it. So I checked with a friend who has same boat as ours, and although she did not have a extra sail, she gave me the name of someone who has a 2 year old sail that has not been used, at a fair price I am going to try and contact them this weekend.

I added the new autopilot, an Autohelm Series ST1000 Plus last week, but it may need to be remounted to get it working better. It does not turn on one side as much as the other. One of the Winter projects I did was to mount the solar panel in a permanent location, but now it is not charging right.  Not sure if it is the panel or the controller. I hope to get the bugs worked out before we head down river to Pepin in two weeks. I'm frustrated with this stuff, but I'm sure I'll get it figured out.

Racing ???????

Yesterday I went to the Wayzata Yacht Club for a On-the-Water Seminars on racing. I was asked if I want to go out  Clay and Pia on one of their boats Blue J . It was great to get out on someones else's boat and do some learning. I was able to get a small sample of what racing might be like. I think it is something I could really get in to. I sent in my membership today for crewing. I hope to get picked up as a regular crew member on one of the boats. They do race Thursdays,Saturdays and Sundays My plan for now is to race this summer on Thursday and spend my weekends on our boat in Afton.

Blue J

Sailing on Blue J