Watching sail racing has been compared to spectating paint drying, or is it grass growing?
But not boring at all with exceptional commentary, such as provided by this Irish announcer of a Women's Olympic Laser Radial race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPjMvTmE2g
Mind your fookin' head!
When building my custom Wylie-27 WILDFLOWER I had gone to lengths to avoid any thru-hull fittings below the waterline. Finally, some years later, this good intention was breached when I installed an engine, and a saltwater intake was needed. Number of thru-hulls = 1
On WILDFLOWER's first passage to Hawaii 38 years ago I had used an historic Walker patent log to measure distance run. This was a rotating metal fin dragged astern and attached to a readout. Unfortunately, I was to discover that hungry fish seemed to attack the the black painted spinners, and by halfway I was out of spares.
Flash ahead to 1996, WILDFLOWER's first Pacific Cup Race. I knew Chuck Hawley, our safety inspector, would be a stickler for rules compliance. The safety rules asked, in a vague sort of way, for a knotmeter or distance measuring device.
I wasn't about to again carry the heavy and impractical fish lure spinners of the Walker Log. Nor was I going to drill a hole in the bottom of the hull for a plastic impeller that could be easily rendered useless, or worse, by floating detritus.
I remembered an old speed measuring and safety method my father had taught me in pre-electronic days: carry a phone book on the aft deck, so pages can be ripped out to follow back to the MOB. Alternatively, pages could be used to measure the boatspeed.
Rather than a wet phone book, when Chuck Hawley came aboard for the Pac Cup safety inspection and asked to see our knotmeter, I tossed him an orange labeled "KNOTMETER" with a black felt tip marker.
I have to hand it to Chuck. He took one look at the orange, shook his head, and smiled a wry grin. It turns out his father had taught him the same speed measuring trick.
"OK," Chuck said, "Let's see it work." I reached in the companionway, pulled out the Etch-A-Sketch with a couple of DB connectors glued on for good effect. And stuck the instrument onto the Velcro mount.
[Peel orange. Toss orange peel off bow and start stopwatch. Record time as orange peel passes stern. Speed in Knots = .6 x Boat Length in Feet/Time in Seconds." (S=.6 L/T)]
Chuck rolled his eyes.
Chuck Hawley admitted he had learned this trick as a kid. And so had I. The Rule requiring "a speed measuring device" was met. I peeled the knotmeter and shared the orange with Chuck.
Accuracy? At least as accurate as any ill-calibrated, low-on-battery, 50 cent plastic paddlewheel attached to an expensive "Thrill Meter" and likely to be fouled with weed or jelly fish.
"Or crushed by the Travelift sling" squeaks Flippy.
Last edited by sleddog; 08-15-2016 at 03:46 PM.
I remember walking the dock after the 2002 Pac Cup, I was on Spirit the Sparkman and Stephens 33 that year. If I recall correctly Wildflower had a knot meter drawn on the bulkhead in sharpie with the needle pinned at 12 knots. I don’t know if it was an Etch-A-Sketch or actual permit marker, it been a few years. When we had to turn off our instruments in this year’s Pac Cup during the day to save power, I told Mark about the Wildflower knot meter it inspired him so much that he included it in his write up about our race. Hope I got the facts right.
Last edited by Ian Rogers; 08-15-2016 at 04:02 PM.
Thanks, Ian, your memory is spot-on. In the 2002 Pacific Cup, WILDFLOWER did have a Thrill-Meter decal on the back of the cabin with the needle permanently pegged at 12 knots.
As for thrilling, the story of Mark and Ian's recent Pacific Cup win on the Moore 24 MAS! is inspirational and ranks up there with the best small boat voyages ever. Congrats, Team MAS! (Ian, if you should chose, we'd love to see your story on this Forum...)
Last edited by sleddog; 08-16-2016 at 01:10 PM.
Just read Mark's version of their record breaking Pac Cup race. Unfortunately they're gonna have to sail larger boats from now on in order to accommodate their giant balls.
http://moore24.org/m...eapple-express/
Thanks for the invitation. I have been working on converting my log into a digital version. If I get this done, I will post it. Currently my 2 year old daughter and 5 month old son are consuming all of my free time.
BTW - I read your 2010 race guide about 10 times before the start, its a hidden gem with a lot of great information that some of the other great pacific race navigators tend to leave out.
"As for thrilling, the story of Mark and Ian's recent Pacific Cup win on the Moore 24 MAS! is inspirational and ranks up there with the best small boat voyages ever. Congrats, Team MAS! (Ian, if you should chose, we'd love to see your story on this Forum...)"
What a great reading and congratulation Team MAS! - you are my heroes