Temerity cranks across the Pacific in one of the most frustrating Long Pac's in history ! Go David.
Temerity cranks across the Pacific in one of the most frustrating Long Pac's in history ! Go David.
David and Temerity Rock! Smarts, persistence, patience, seamanship, and I suspect just plain stubbornness rules the day. :-)
Thanks guys!
For a light air race, it got kind of exciting at the end.
http://sfbaysss.org/forum/attachment...1&d=1437024296
I saw the TWS hit 37 kts in a gust, not something I need to see again.
Congrats David!, great race! I agree with your comment about the last 100miles, Lightspeed saw 34k gusts and got a little out of control at times with double reefed main and #3.The rollers from the north were our problem as Lightspeed was balanced sail wise but those rollers just keep knocking us sideways. I have been through that dammed spot 5 times now and find it my least favorite spot on earth..congrats again...Rick/Lightspeed
I didn't take many pics, but here they are, along with a vid of the AP working
http://temerityracing.org/2015/longp...togallery.html
Here are some notes I provided to Lat38 for possible use in their writeup of the race.
PRE-RACE
I did not agonize over the weather reports or do any formal routing. I did look at GRIBS, COAMPS, and SailTactics.com in the days before the start, and they all gave me the general idea that the North side of the rhumbline would be favored, though the first few days would be slow. That was fine with me, I don't enjoy getting my ass kicked, and I knew that my old school, big overlapping jib rig did well in light to moderate air.
THE START
I was uncharacteristically aggressive at the start, and nearly fouled someone on a port-starboard crossing. Very unlike me! Funny that almost everyone else was also being as agressive, even though it is such a long race. I made pretty good time on the way out, and was able to see much of the fleet on AIS. Though I saw some boats drop out, and I thought they might be going into stealth mode. Or maybe I was having radio issues.
ON THE WAY TO 126 - 40
Just a really slow crawl. I tried to stay as North as practicable. After the first day, I could not raise anyone but Domino on radio (he was about 10 nm SW of me) , even though two other boats were within visual range. I also lost all my AIS targets, except the Class A signals from big ships. I wound up at the touch line at very nearly the rhumbline lattitude, which was really just a coincidence.
THE WAY BACK PHASE I
Light air for a while from the SW. From the earlier forecasts, it should have veered N. by this point but it didn't. Then it did, and I jibed. Sunday was super warm and bright, clear skys, and wildlife sitings (whales, mola mola, dolphin). By this point I had not had any info from the rest of the fleet in days.
THE WAY BACK PHASE II
Monday afternoon the wind build and the quartering seas got steeper and steeper. The AP was working hard. I had just installed a new AP the weekend before the race and had not given it a real test. I doused the spin as the short/steep sea state was getting to be a little much, and went back to running with the #1 genny. That was fine, but the seas got rougher and rougher, and then the bracket I had made for the AP failed. I knew my other AP was not up to that sea state, so I had to hand steer. This was in the late afternoon. I had about 60 nm (?) to go. I thought I could just tough it out for a 0300 arrival. The wind was now about 20 kts. As darkness fell, the wind just built and built and the seas got really nasty. Also, the wind was so far behind me (more WNW than NNW) that it was hard to say deep enough, and I was regretting the angle I had chosen. I thought a jibe would be too expensive to VMG. So I decided to go bare headed. I luffed up, and used the working AP to hold me to the wind (it was fine for that). Now the wind was in the mid 20s. This is when I also should have reefed the main. But nooooo. I regretted this deeply as it got really dark, the seas got super steep and the wind moved into the 25 - 30 kts range , sometimes blowing up to low 30s and even showing 37 kts on a couple of occasions. This was around midnight.
END GAME
Finally, the wind slowly tapered down (to low 20s) as I got past Duxbury. Also it was a huge relief to see the city lights illuminating the clouds and providing a visual reference to help my steering. My earlier route would have taken me right across the Potato Patch, but I reconsidered that choice given the seas and the ebb tide I knew was building, so I headed more south to intercept the shipping channel. Coming into the Golden Gate, I started noticing the ebb, which was not making the waves too bad but was killing my groundspeed. Near the bridge, I could see the water moving in the 5 kt ebb, and the wind dropped to the mid teens from the West. With a boat speed of 5 - 6 kts, I was barely moving; a fiasco of one. A crewed boat would have re-set the spin to power through it, but I was too beat. Working through it added about an hour to my time, I think. Finally I crossed the line and got the gun. I was very grateful to hear the voices of my friends on the race committee, who were up so late (or early) to welcome me home.