What worked, what didn't

[AlanH]

I thought it'd be worthwhile for future TransPaccers to have a thread where we reviewed what worked and what didn't during the race, so here's my contribution:

Windvane: The Navik worked great until the paddle blew up. Lesson learned: despite the fact that the Navik steering oar is very difficult, if not dangerous to remove while underway, remove it if you're not using it for more than a couple of hours.

Autopilots: The Autohelm ST 2000 drove my Santa Cruz 27 just fine for many days, but I didn't stress it by having it drive with the chute up for very long (just a few minutes at a time). When the spinnaker was flying, I was driving....four to six hours at a time. It only drove through one round-up. It wasn't the most accurate course-keeping autohelm, it was probably half again more accurate than the Navik would have been, deep downwind. We gybed a LOT when the boat would get slapped around by a wave, or fall off a crest and round up. If you have a small boat and are on a budget, you'll get there with an ST 2000 or ST 1000, but you'll probably burn up at least one autopilot on the way and you'd better rig up something to ease the bazillion gybes you'll do. I had a preventer set with a small diameter line that would slip through the cam cleat I had it run through. The friction on the cam cleat would slow the gybe so it wasn't such a *Crash*, but that wasn't really a very good solution.

Autopilot Bracket: This was the most troublesome breakage I had. I had backups to the backups for autopilots, but no planned backup for the BRACKET. Big Mistake, and I had the McGuyver job from Hell for a couple of days until I found a spare stainless steel tang that I bent into an appropriate shape. My original bracket was something I fabricated out of medium-weight aluminum stock. It was fine for day races on the Bay but was not up to days upon days in the ocean. Next time....I won't skimp on the bracket and I'll carry a spare. Note to self...more hose clamps.

Solar Panels: I had two kyocera 40-watt panels (new), and two used Solarex 30-watt panels I bought off of ebay. These fed a Morningstar dual-bank charge controller. The Kyoceras were mounted on the stern pulpit, and one of the Solarex's was above the companionway, unfortunately too often shaded by the boom. The other solarex wasn't fastened down, I just brought it out in the cockpit when the sun was shining and tied it to a stanchion or the leeward winch cleat. This solar array provided all the juice I used during the race, since my generator died after running a grand total of 40 minutes. However, I was somewhat frugal with my SSB time, I stressed over low batteries a lot and monitored charge several times a day. It worked. On a more typical race where there was more sunshine, it would have been totally perfect. As it was, it worked out fine.

Sails: The spinnaker thong worked *great* even though I only flew that spinnaker three times and only used the thong twice. I am not the most aggressive racer and my goals weren't to burn up the course, so I would have really loved a "lower energy" (meaning MY energy) sail option for the last week of the race. Twin headsails would have been the ticket. If I ever do this again (NOT!!!!) I'll have a pair of 1.5 oz twins on the boat.

The high-clew #3 was sure nice to pole out when it got Really Windy (20 knots) and at the start where visibility was important. I bought it used and had Rooster Sails hammer a mess of grommets in the luff so I could lash it to the headstay in case the headfoil extrusion blew up.

Food: The MRE's rocked...Chefs 5-Minute Heater Meals. I didn't light an open flame on the boat once during the entire trip, and I LIKE that. OK, so I suffered without coffee, and I wish the heater meals were 25% bigger, but they were fine and I lost 18 pounds on the trip, which is great.

AVOID dried white peaches..... Don't ask.

Halfway Party it was a real mood-raiser. Wives, girlfriends and SO's prepare a halfway present box for your racer!

The SSB Radio..I know the Sat Phone vs. SSB debate will continue to rage, but now I've done it and I can say without hesitation that the SSB chat time, even if I was just reporting my position and then listening, was the highlight of my day. I looked forward to it for literally HOURS. I had some nice chats with Jim Kellam and John Hayward and The General and Dwight Odom, and they were worth the price of the radio and the hassle of installation, ten times over. You can not imagine the comfort, smiles, laughs, attitude readjustment and interest generated by hearing the voices of your competitors on the radio. I will NEVER forget Mark and Jim joking around with Rob about "practicing" fishing.

Does that sound stupid, and like it's not about racing? I don't care....I would never, EVER consider doing this race again without an SSB radio, I don't care how small the next boat is. GET THE RADIO.

Hope this was helpful!

[j_dirge]

gybing.

Did you try a two pole spin gybe?

Set the kite centered on two poles... steer thru and gybe main, remove second pole. Trim.

[AlanH]

gybing.

Did you try a two pole spin gybe?

Set the kite centered on two poles... steer thru and gybe main, remove second pole. Trim.

Believe it or not I only gybed the chute twice. Both were end-for-end'ers. One went fine with the 1.5 ounce in pretty light air, the other (in light air with the 0.6 oz AirX) wound up with a wrap that took me 40 minutes to sail out of. In retrospect I think I'd take a spinnaker net, but even a net wouldn't have solved the problem of my chaser line fouling the top of the headfoil at the drop...my first spinnaker disaster. I talked a lot about a net but never got my hiney in gear to make one.

The thing is, it takes SO long to drop the headsail, set up the lines and hoist the chute.....then when you're done, drop the chute, put everything away and re-hoist a headsail, that it's not worth it unless you fly the thing for a minimum of 4 hours, I'd say. 6 would be better.

I mean, I figure that flying the chute for 4 hours probably bought me an extra knot to two knots of boat speed, on average, in medium air. That translates to somewhere around 5-6 miles down the course in a 4 hour flight. If I waste 40 minutes untangling a wrap, there goes most of that 5 miles....poof. The rest of it disappears into the 20 minutes I'm sailing without a headsail during the hoist and 20 minutes during the drop. I'd normally think that going "bald" for 20 minutes during the drop was excessive, but I timed it twice and it really was 20 minutes between easing the pole forward and finally sheeting in the headsail. Note that I didn't have roller furling on AB. If I could have rolled up/rolled out the headsail instead of dropping it down the headfoil and bungee-cording it down on deck, that 20 minutes would have been cut in half, at least.

Lesson: Fly the chute for at least 6 hours and do whatever you can to avoid wraps....and have an autopilot that you can trust to drive the boat with the spinnaker up. I didn't have such an autopilot so I was driving by hand, and therefore limited by my ability to concentrate. I have to admit that while the chutes were up, it was fun, especially the day we played cat and mouse with a series of squalls. I got the experience of surfing down Pacific swells, going so fast that the bow wave was over the lifelines, the mainsail would blow-back to centerline, and the chute would blow back into the mast, and so I'm glad I did that. However, the truth is that every mile I made under the kite that day (6 hours) disappeared into unwrapping the wrap, the hoist and the drop. (I don't use a sock). Dream Chaser STILL made a mess of miles on me, by virtue of waterline. If I'd had a really good autopilot and could have kept the spinnaker up for 8+ hours, AND avoided wraps, it would have been a whole different story.

One more thing...

AIS: I borrowed a NASA AIS unit for the race. I had it wired to my Garmin GPS, and the unit got solid positions from the GPS. For an antenna I used my spare Shakespeare "suction cup" antenna....exact same antenna that Jeff on Hecla used. It was suction-cupped down to the cabin top at night. The unit detected one ship during the whole trip, and that one came within about a mile and a half. I talked to the mate on the bridge. All the other ships that I could actually SEE were not detected. I think I might be missing something about the settings, but even the manual did me no good at all and I must have read it twenty times. Make sure that you know how to set up and use your AIS before you go, and DON'T TRUST IT to detect everything. That's my experience. Others may differ.

[Lightspeed]

Alan

Congratulations of a fantastic accomplishment…As a future Transpac want-to-be and desktop racer this year I can’t tell you how much I (we) enjoyed reading all the skippers logs…I was hoping to hear more when the competitors safely returned to their computers so many thanks and a very well deserved congratulations….

Rick/Lightspeed

[sleddog]

One thing learned the hardway this SHTP '08 Race was spinny nets are dangerous if you use a sock/snuffer. As was experienced, when the snuffer tube is raised to the masthead, it is prone to swing and pass through the top of the net. Once it passes through the top of the net, it will be difficult to swing it back out without lowering the spinnaker, snuffer, and net at the same time. A real rat's nest of line, net and nylon on the foredeck.
A possible solution would be for the top of the net to be made of light cloth, say 1.5 oz. nylon.
My experience with the "thong" was a bust. For proper use, you need to be running deep (AWA>150) to tension the thong. At that wind angle (DDW) FLEUR, with its leaddog IOR hull shape, would roll rail to rail, slowing the boat 1 knot. I ditched the thong after 8 hours of spinnakering agony. Lesson: "Thongs" are boat specific and need to be practiced with well in advance.

Just my 2 cents.
~sleddog

[AlanH]

One thing learned the hardway this SHTP '08 Race was spinny nets are dangerous if you use a sock/snuffer. As was experienced, when the snuffer tube is raised to the masthead, it is prone to swing and pass through the top of the net. Once it passes through the top of the net, it will be difficult to swing it back out without lowering the spinnaker, snuffer, and net at the same time. A real rat's nest of line, net and nylon on the foredeck.
A possible solution would be for the top of the net to be made of light cloth, say 1.5 oz. nylon.
My experience with the "thong" was a bust. For proper use, you need to be running deep (AWA>150) to tension the thong. At that wind angle (DDW) FLEUR, with its leaddog IOR hull shape, would roll rail to rail, slowing the boat 1 knot. I ditched the thong after 8 hours of spinnakering agony. Lesson: "Thongs" are boat specific and need to be practiced with well in advance.

Just my 2 cents.
~sleddog

The Generals wrap was a sight to behold. A nightmare. I echo Skip, I would now, never use a sock AND a net at the same time. I, personally have had little experience with spinnaker socks, but have heard many horror stories. Since I have a smaller boat that I can wrestle down the chute with, I don't use a sock.....thus the net would still be an option.

Also, after hearing of the Generals nightmare, I have decided to forever store my lazy halyards at the base of the mast or out at the shroud bases, and not lead them forward to the bow pulpit where a nasty chute wrap could ensnare them, leaving me halyard-less..

Sleddog, in fact I was running pretty much about 150 the night I defied the Gods and actually flew the 1.5 ounce spinnaker all night under autopilot. It was blowing 12-15 that night with moderate seas. The pole was to starboard, the block through which the thong line runs was on the slotted toerail one or two slots aft of the pulpit to port. I had that thing cinched down *tight*. It worked! I was stunned.

The other time I used it was during a succession of squalls, about four of them, one every twenty minutes. I think I have never been so wet. Anyway, I just went into the first squall at again, about 150 like you suggest, (terrified of gybing) with a port pole. The thong block was again on the toerail, this time on starboard, two slots behind the back of the pulpit. The line was cinched down as tight as I could conveniently make it. I got through the first squall, exiting stage left, only to discover that in fact this was not a squall, but rather a long line of them, probably 15 miles long. So for the next 90 minutes it was squall, squall, squall. I just left the thong on the whole time, even through the few minutes when I was in the back of each squall in light and shifty air, and drove through it all figuring that when it was done, my t-shirt and shorts would have gotten a good washing.

Ankle Biter, being a Santa Cruz 27, is happy as a clam under spinnaker.

I have to admit something....I'd never practiced with the thong before I hoisted the 1.5 ounce with it during the race! In retrospect, man oh man was that stupid! I like the thong, but do not think it's a substitute for twins.......ah the boat budget!

I would like to hear from race veterans about the squalls. I only remember squalls at night in 1996, and wisdom says they really crop up only at night between midnight and early morning. But for much of this race I was dealing with squalls all day long. The beginning of the race was squall-less, and the last 4-5 days were "squalls at night and early morning only" (except for the last night when I got dumped on 3 x between sundown and "Midnight" Pacific Time. The rest of the night was crystal clear.)

Any thoughts/comments about the all-day-long-squall phenomenon?

[AlanH]

I'm suffering from TransPac withdrawal and self-medicating by writing too much on the forum. Time to shush up and hear what others have to say!

[j_dirge]

I'm suffering from TransPac withdrawal and self-medicating by...

Thinks its bad now?.. just wait 'til March/April of 2010 when "repeat disease" really sets in.. It will grow stronger with each day and then culminate in a peak of gut-eating envy as you watch the next fleet sail out the gate.

yooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu'll be back.

2012?

[BobJ]

What worked:

The ability to receive GRIB files via satphone was a big improvement (vs. weatherfaxes via SSB, which I couldn't get to work in 2006). I could define the weather area I wanted in my nav software (MacENC) and the software would create the e-mail request and send it via the Mail program. The GRIB's came back right away from SailDocs (sometimes even before I'd hung up the phone) and I could overlay them on the chart(s) in MacENC. This is cool stuff! On the positions/logs page of the SHTP site, you will notice the widely divergent tracks of the racers this year. I was able to sail a shorter, more purposeful course than some because of the good wind data I received.

Another navigation issue - I paid much more attention to my actual track on the GPS than to my magnetic heading per the GPS or autopilot. I was surprised how different these were. Again, I would have sailed a much greater distance had I not focused constantly on my actual track.

The AIS (NASA stand-alone type) was again a comforting thing to have. It was on constantly, set to 16 miles on the outer ring and 8 miles for the alarm. In my experience, the ships always call you back when you call them by name on Ch. 16. Otherwise they tend to ignore you. (The ship traffic was far less than in 2006 though - perhaps because of fuel costs?)

The SSB (Icom 802) worked better on transmit than in 2006 - apparently I had a good signal. I had taken apart the grounding strap connections and cleaned everything - the details are posted in another thread on this board. I agree with Alan that the check-in's and chit-chat add a lot to the SHTP experience.

The Code 0 worked well during the first part of the race when it was light. It's on a Facnor furler so it was easy to switch between it and the genoa (on the Harken furler) as the light upwind conditions changed.

The larger 9 oz. "entree only" Heater Meals were better than the "Chef's 5-Minute Heater Meals" I took in 2006. I wasn't still hungry after dinner. (Unfortunately I also didn't lose as much weight!)

Having a little inflatable dinghy was fun in Hanalei. I bought the smallest Achilles model (less than 50#) and just used it with oars. It was nice to be self-sufficient and even able to row others around a bit.

The electrical system with Link 20 monitor, solar panels, etc. was the same as last time and everything worked well. We had a lot of overcast so I used a bit more fuel than last time, but still less than 5 gallons.

Twin headsails. This time I used two #1's hoisted together in the twin grooves of the Harken furler. I used Yale "Loups" in each clew, which provided a nearly chafe-proof attachment for the pole jaws. I bought the sails used so I didn't care as much when I destroyed one of them. This happened when I had to heave to with a broken autopilot, and let things luff while I fixed it.

Big point here folks - my downwind VMG in the trades was better with the twins than with my biggest assymetric runner. I'm told that Skip Allan flew his spinnaker less than 12 hours during the race! I would guess my spinnaker-flying time was (edit) 24-30 hours total.

Oh and I agree with Alan - there were more daytime squalls this year.

What didn't work:

I was reminded again how important it is to CONTAIN/FIX problems before one issue affects another. Like other racers, I had some spinnaker problems early on which put extra strain on the autopilot components. They should have been able to handle it (a Raymarine replacement with NKE may be in my future), but I could have babied the autopilots more and they might not have failed to the extent they did.

I used a spinnaker net in 2006 and put it up initially this time (once I was in the trades). However, my spinnaker problems were entirely twists, not headstay wraps, so the net was ineffective in my case. The net also made it harder to switch between the spinnaker and the twin headsails (which were rolled up together on the furler but then covered by the loops in the spinnaker net). I had to take the net down before I could unroll the twins.

As I wrote in the log, I had more problems with the spinnaker snuffers (socks/sleeves) than in 2006. If it wasn't for the dodger being in the way (preventing companionway douses), I would not have used snuffers at all. Had I known I was shipping the boat home I would not have taken the dodger either.

After two times at this, I'm becoming convinced this race is won or lost early and at night. The top few places were determined within 3-4 days of the start. Two slow nights took me out of it early, just as in 2006.

Feel free to post questions - I (for one) would like to see more traffic on this board from other active racers.

[AlanH]

What worked:

The ability to receive GRIB files via satphone was a big improvement (vs. weatherfaxes via SSB, which I couldn't get to work in 2006).

Yes! Even I, twice managed to do this. I wish I'd done it one more time, I might have turned south-ish a day earlier and avoided my two slow days in the middle of the race. I used a very old pentium II laptop running Windows 2000. I had NO software on it except for the operating system with Service pack II and no patches beyond that. For a word processor I used WordPad. I had the free GRIB viewing software from SailMail. I just memorized the "formula" for writing the e-mail to sailmail and did it that way. It worked remarkably well. I did notice that I needed to charge the laptop and the stallite phone several times during the trip.

I could define the weather area I wanted in my nav software (MacENC) and the software would create the e-mail request and send it via the Mail program. The GRIB's came back right away from SailDocs (sometimes even before I'd hung up the phone) and I could overlay them on the chart(s) in MacENC. This is cool stuff! On the positions/logs page of the SHTP site, you will notice the widely divergent tracks of the racers this year. I was able to sail a shorter, more purposeful course than some because of the good wind data I received.

Another navigation issue - I paid much more attention to my actual track on the GPS than to my magnetic heading per the GPS or autopilot. I was surprised how different these were. Again, I would have sailed a much greater distance had I not focused constantly on my actual track.

The AIS (NASA stand-alone type) was again a comforting thing to have. It was on constantly, set to 16 miles on the outer ring and 8 miles for the alarm. In my experience, the ships always call you back when you call them by name on Ch. 16. Otherwise they tend to ignore you. (The ship traffic was far less than in 2006 though - perhaps because of fuel costs?)

The SSB (Icom 802) worked better on transmit than in 2006 - apparently I had a good signal. I had taken apart the grounding strap connections and cleaned everything - the details are posted in another thread on this board. I agree with Alan that the check-in's and chit-chat add a lot to the SHTP experience.

The Code 0 worked well during the first part of the race when it was light. It's on a Facnor furler so it was easy to switch between it and the genoa (on the Harken furler) as the light upwind conditions changed.

The larger 9 oz. "entree only" Heater Meals were better than the "Chef's 5-Minute Heater Meals" I took in 2006. I wasn't still hungry after dinner. (Unfortunately I also didn't lose as much weight!)

I gotta remember this about the 9 oz meals. Wait. I'm not doing this again.
Never mind.

Having a little inflatable dinghy was fun in Hanalei. I bought the smallest Achilles model (less than 50#) and just used it with oars. It was nice to be self-sufficient and even able to row others around a bit.

My stupid little $30 garage sale special....the oars cost me more than the raft did....worked great. It's roughly equivalent to the Sevylor "Fish Killer" model, minus the rod holders. etc. However, the niftiest *really* small dink there IMHO was Chris Humann's on Carroll E. I hope he tells us what it was, 'cause I want one.

Twin headsails. This time I used two #1's hoisted together in the twin grooves of the Harken furler. I used Yale "Loups" in each clew, which provided a nearly chafe-proof attachment for the pole jaws. I bought the sails used so I didn't care as much when I destroyed one of them. This happened when I had to heave to with a broken autopilot, and let things luff while I fixed it.

Big point here folks - my downwind VMG in the trades was better with the twins than with my biggest assymetric runner. I'm told that Skip Allan flew his spinnaker less than 12 hours during the race! I would guess my spinnaker-flying time was (edit) 24-30 hours total.

I looked at my logbook and figure that I flew the spinnaker like this:

mid-race, pre-trades, about 4-5 hours one afternoon, then all night (ten hours?)/ 1.5 oz chute

Quiet day, light wind about 6 hours one afternoon-well into the evening/1.5 ounce chute

One afternoon playing cat and mouse with squalls once clear of the High; 6 hours/0.6 ouce AirX

Another afternoon playing cat and mouse with squalls, couple of 14+ knot screamers; 5-6 hours/0.6 oz AirX

Total, about 30-32 hours. I'd have given my eyeteeth for twins during the last 3-4 days of the race. I could have put up the #3 and the "high clew #3" on opposite sides of my headfoil, but I have visions of the strain opening up the plastic extrusion and peeling the foil clean off of the headstay.

Oh and I agree with Alan - there were more daytime squalls this year.

Feel free to post questions - I (for one) would like to see more traffic on this board from other active racers.

One other thing I didn't mention before was charging the laptop. I wrote long blog updates, they took me an hour to compose. Between 6-7 minutes to boot up the PC, an hour to write the blog entry, 5-6-7 minutes to connect to iridiums gateway with the satellite phone, 3-4 minutes to send mail, 5-6 minutes to download mail (make it ten if there were gribs) I needed to charge my laptop every 3 days, approximately. If you're on a solar-panel-only budget, this is a significant drain on your batteries.

I used a West Marine 400 watt inverter, clipped to one house 12v battery. I plugged the laptop charger and the sat phone charger into the inverter. An hour on the inverter would give me a 70% charge on the laptop or fully charge the sat phone....never tried both at the same time. It would also take the house battery from 12.5 volts to below 12 volts, a heck of a discharge.