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Thread: Berkeley Midwinters 2018-19

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Poor visibility, plus the J/24 District 20 Championship course adjoined ours. It's usually not that confusing.

    Good to see you out there!

  2. #22
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    Jan 2010
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    More impressive than her holding tank was the way Surprise! took off in the Berkeley Midwins yesterday. Whew! Fast! Here she is, first at the start and then again after rounding the windward mark the first time.

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    It was, as Bob mentions, windy, else I would have taken better photos; more photos, one each of Greg and Jan and even Chris, whose Express 27 seemed to like the conditions. I double reefed before the start, and was glad I had throughout the short two hours. I watched Jan throw something overboard. Was it a winch handle or a gift to the water gods? That race was a lot of fun. May there be more like it this series.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    75

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    No surprise regarding Surprise!, nice job Bob - and the rest of us for getting out there and getting around in one piece. My march to the start was kinda ugly from Pier 39. Rig was loose enough that I decided to tighten it underway. Getting wet with outboard popping out with high rev cavitations yadda yadda...
    Stupidly did not lead reefing line pre start so was forced to perform light acrobatics on 1st downwind leg. Still super overpowered with spinouts but with only one reef in the winter main....
    The boat likes breeze but upwind with no weight was painful.
    I still had a damn good time. Especially the ride home.
    I will likely haul out at Brickyard after Dec race so if anyone is hanging out lemee know.
    Cheers!

  4. #24
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    Sep 2007
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    Is this Chris on the Pork Chop Express?

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    75

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    oops- yeah, Chris J on PC Xpress.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    Arnold, CA
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    586

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    December 9th turned out to be a fine day for sailing and racing on the Berkeley Circle.
    Three singlehanded and five double handed boats mixed it up.
    I made a mess out of my first spinnaker set and didn't bother with the second.
    Here is Dura Mater looking good.

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  7. #27
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    Sep 2007
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    Great photo and that's quite a sail - way to bee colorful!

    I'm bummed I missed this one - my boat is still at the yard.

  8. #28
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    Jan 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    I'm bummed I missed this one - my boat is still at the yard.
    Bob, we always miss you on the water. Chris Jordan was fired up. He arrived late and finished first. His boat is fast and he clearly knows how to get it going! Thank you, Greg, for the nice photo of my boat. I had a really good time, and felt proud of myself for raising and dousing two headsails in one race without falling off the boat.

    Here's my story du jour:

    A couple of years ago Bob Johnston gave me a racing sail. This is a gorgeous sail, the kind that would make Dura Mater feel proud to show up at a race. Bob called it "a little black dress" for Dura Mater. I was reluctant to accept such an generous gift, but Bob wanted it out of his storage locker and into my dining room. So, one morning as I was rigging DM for a Sunday afternoon race out of Berkeley, he showed up on O Dock with this long sailbag and threw it on my boat's bow.

    "C'mon. Let's just see if it fits." So we did and it did. Then we motored out to the start and raced, and it went very well. Dura Mater went fast upwind, then we sailed back in with the spinnaker up. Huh. That was a lot of fun. The only problem with this sail is that, without crew, I can't see around it to other boats, buoys, container ships or islands. It's real low and almost the same length as Dura Mater, hence the "racing sail" moniker.

    I asked Skip his opinion and he said that my boat with that sail and only me aboard would become a death trap (or something to that effect). But like I said, Bob wanted it out of his storage locker and Connie wouldn't have it in her dining room. So it's been in mine for the past two years. And it looks great over there next to my Navik Windvane, which almost fits right in with the china cabinet. But I digress.

    This past weekend, the second Berkeley Midwinters, the forecast called for "up to 10 knots". It sounded like a perfect day for something new. I decided to invite crew to join me on Dura Mater, with an eye toward using Bob's sail. Now I don't invite just anybody to sail with me aboard Dura Mater. In fact I would rather not have anybody sail with me on Dura Mater. It's the whole "Don't Touch That!" response that occurs when anyone else is in the same cockpit, cabin or general proximity when she and I are moving on the water together. It's simply annoying. "Why are you here?" But I did want to sail with that black sail again, because, well, who wouldn't?

    Now every invitation to sail with me on DM is carefully considered. I don't invite just anybody to come aboard. So I carefully considered my options. Then I emailed Bobbi Tosse and asked her to move Dura Mater and me from the Single to Double Handed divisions. Jonathan Gutoff helped me turn DM around in the slip so we would be upwind the morning of the race. Then I invited someone to be my crew. I suggested a judicious arrival time, one that would allow us time to switch out the old for the fast new headsail before leaving for the Midwinters. I arrived early to clean DM's bottom with my new extension brush and swiped at the bugs in the cockpit. Shortly before 10 am I thought to check my phone, only to find that my crew had sent me a late text with no good excuse.

    I responded by text, but my would-be crew had clearly turned the phone off. Then I made myself a cup of tea, sat in my cockpit and sulked for awhile. After that it was time to motor over to Berkeley, where DM and I chased after Jan and Greg for a couple of hours, not particularly fast nor slow either, but it felt just right. I watched Jan's beautiful spinnaker when it finally unfurled and waved to Greg as he circled me after finishing. He looked incredibly cool and handled Nightmare easily, as if she was a dinghy. After that I stayed out on the bay until it started to get dark and quite cold. The wind was gentle and it was quiet out there on the Olympic Circle, just east of the ebb. Later that night the black sail went back to the dining room, where it waits for another day. It was, in the long run, a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

  9. #29
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    Sep 2007
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    You still have DM's "little black dress?" You should feel complete freedom to toss it in a dumpster, although DM told me she kinda likes wearing it.

    Here's where this got started.

    Tell us about the new drifter - I assume you didn't take a marker to the old blue and white one. Does it have a history?

    The history about the little black dress: It was owned by a lawyer on the right coast who bought new racing sails every year. He then sold off the prior set on the J/29 Owners' website. His boat was a J/29F (not a J/92) and its genoas would be a little short in the hoist, but would work.

    Ragtime! came with a 100% jib and no tracks for a genoa. She was underpowered upwind when it was light. I estimated that a J/29F's #1 genoa would sheet to the aft stanchion bases - not a good idea structurally but it was just an experiment (right?) and I promised I would use the genoa only in light air. The lawyer was actually selling two genoas - the black one (an Ullman Technora 155) and a light #1 (a North 3DL 155). He wanted $350 for the Ullman and $200 for the 3DL. I bought both and took them to Synthia to change the sail numbers. Synthia also changed the draft stripes to dark blue, because Rags!

    If you've read the "Downwind Issues" post in the Archives, these were the two 155's that became twin headsails for the 2008 SHTP. But before that: Mark (Alchera) Deppe, another J/92 owner, and me, used one of the genoas (still sheeted to the stanchion bases) in that year's J/Fest... in the Spring... when it's windy... on the Cityfront. Rags was way overcanvased, we had to skip the second race because we couldn't get it down, and we created a bunch of spider cracks in the gelcoat around the stanchions. (Don't worry, the spider cracks were completely repaired during the refit.)

    It turned out the light #1 was a little too light and basically exploded during the SHTP. It went in the dumpster next to the Tree in Hanalei Bay. But the little black dress soldiers on, next to the china cabinet in Philpott's dining room.
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 12-11-2018 at 03:51 PM.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
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    803

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    BEE-utiful, Jackie! And you are looking so calm with that great big sail up. Fantastic photo, Greg

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