Page 11 of 628 FirstFirst ... 7891011121314152161111511 ... LastLast
Results 101 to 110 of 6278

Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #101
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    I'm enjoying this.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #102
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Despite apologies by the Marina staff, Wi-Fi doesn't reach out to WILDFLOWER's slip. The best laptop reception for SHTP updates is stall #2 in the Men's floating restroom, halfway up the dock. I'm sure some have wondered why the cheering and groaning behind the toilet door.

    Sat phones, Trackers, Bi-hourly updates. What next, a SHTP skipper's smell app, and live masthead video. I kinda like it. But, being an old fart, I remember with some nostalgia the first SHTP in '78. We didn't have radios, we didn't have electronics, and the CG didn't want to know of our existence.

    The race started, and the fleet didn't know how they stood until they came around the corner at Hanalei and counted masts. Several racers didn't come around the corner ...without good celestial skills, they missed Kauai and continued sailing west.

    The Race Committee absconded with the entry fee, never to be seen. And the promised finish welcoming committee, Club Med, said they'd never heard of a "sailboat race?" and to get off their property.

    We didn't need no stinkin' committees, nor no fancy dancy Club Med beads. We had a case of beer, shade under the iron wood trees at the Hanalei Beach Park, and each other to interview. The most recent hand printed results were tacked to the Tree each afternoon at 5.

    Some publisher from a new sailing magazine was hanging round. (I think it was called Latitude 38 or something.) But the sea stories were too wonderful, plentiful, and fantastic for belief. By the time #15 finisher got there with a lawnmower strapped to his mast, the magazine guy was passed out in an inflatable dinghy, stuck on the Hanalei River sand bar.

    The iron wood trees remain. Tree Time was born of necessity, not invention. And if you don't get there to share part of this furry, fuzzy, feel good, bring what you got, home grown experience. Well, don't say I didn't warn ya.
    Last edited by sleddog; 07-05-2012 at 09:37 PM.

  3. #103
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Posts
    59

    Default Ditto!

    I agree with Alan. These postings are just great reading. I'm internet challenged at home so I only view these occasionally when the stars are aligned right and the landlord has turned off all his electronics.

    Keep the great reads comin', please, Skip. I am so glad I know you.

    Oh, BTW, I had a real treat on Saturday for the start of the SHTP. I was aboard Cinnabar, Sylvia and company's lovely Schumacher 52. What a beauty she is and what a great day to sail out the Gate and chase down Red Sky.

  4. #104
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    On this warm sunny afternoon in Friday Harbor I wandered out to the end dock to see the sexy F-31 trimaran MOXIE come in. It had a Ballenger spar, and expensive looking sails. I was talking with the owner and his wife when nearby, a single hander came in on his Cal-34.

    The single hander stepped off his boat with his stern line, tripping over his single lever gear shift/throttle in the process. This misstep put the boat in full speed ahead, with no one aboard, aimed at some very expensive looking marine equipment.

    The single hander tried to secure the stern line to the dock rail before the bitter end ran through his hands. He failed, and was quickly losing ground holding his boat that was trying to pull him off the dock.

    The three of us from MOXIE ran to his aid. It became a tug-of-war. The good news is four determined people on the dock can doggedly pull a Cal-34 backwards, while its engine is running full speed ahead.

  5. #105
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    At some point in the distant past, when I was less adroit than i am now....riiiight.....

    I brought my Santana 3030 into the dock at San Francisco Boatworks, in front of a full summertime lunch crowd at The Ramp. I had done this before...why, just weeks ago I'd done it, flawlessly, to the thinly-veiled admiration of the crowd. One gentleman actually walked down the dock to congratulate me on my superb solo docking effort.

    This time we eased in slowly. The forward dock line was lying on deck, neatly contained by the stanchions and aluminum toerail. The skipper is no fool, it is 6 inches shorter than the distance from the forward to cleat to the prop shaft. The skipper aims carefully, applies a touch of reverse and then puts the engine in neutral. As the boat approaches the dock, he takes the stern line in one hand and finally releases the tiller. A lionesque leap sideways over the lifelines is timed to land him on the dock, where he will tie off the stern line and.............

    --> except that the skippers trailing foot catches the lifeline, and Our Hero winds up hanging from his own lifeline, probably spinning like a too-loose piece of chicken on an overdone kebob, while the boat goes *bump* ever so gently on the dock and then drifts off to pay a visit to much larger, shinier and expensive sisters nearby.

    Honest. I wound up hanging from my lifelines like a third grader on a horizontal bar on the playground. It's a good thing that my pride is steel-plated.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #106
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    18

    Default

    Sled - excellent reading - quite the visual thinking of near capsized Mac 26s and some monster cruiser coming in to crush them.

    I've got a question on PacCup tactics. Seems the racers had quite the headsail reach getting out there, with ample opportunity to sag down a bit. Was the pre-race forecast calling for rhumbline? Seems the boats that sagged, whether they wanted to or not (Cal40) are making out yet again.

    Wouldn't the "safe" call be to error on being a bit south?

  7. #107
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    81

    Default

    Hey Skip,

    Always great to read your thoughts. There is no debate, if you write a book, we will all buy it!

    In regards to your thoughts about the abundance of "communication" we have now with the SHTP, I agree, it does seem more every year. But you know what hasn't changed, feeling alone out there, or staying awake for hours or days on end, or feeling like the rest of the fleet is sailing by while you alone have sailed into the worst wind hole on the planet! As you know more than me, what will always remain constant, for all of us, is our wonderful ocean.

    Thanks mate,

    AJ

  8. #108
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Mitch View Post
    Sled -
    I've got a question on PacCup tactics. Seems the racers had quite the headsail reach getting out there, with ample opportunity to sag down a bit. Was the pre-race forecast calling for rhumbline? Seems the boats that sagged, whether they wanted to or not (Cal40) are making out yet again.

    Wouldn't the "safe" call be to error on being a bit south?
    Hi Mitch,

    I saw no pre-race forecasts in my neck of the woods that called for rhumbline routing. In fact, the opposite was true, and I predicted 31 N x 130 W as a good Pt. A. This is well south.

    From the Farallones, the best route would have been sagging south initially. This would have put one at a better course for 1) speed 2) getting around the EPAC HIGH. 3) Smoother boat motion to reduce first night seasickness.


    What I'm seeing is the bane of Transpac racers: zig zagging all over the ocean with no firm game plan. It is difficult to "chase" weather in a small boat, and you end up sailing miles more.

    GREEN BUFFALO has not only much experience with the Race track, but has done his homework. So far, his is the best track of the fleet. GB has gone fast on optimum points of sail, sailing a smooth curving route SW. He has a game plan, and is acting proactively.

    I don't know who is using onboard routing programs like Expedition, etc. But as Stan Honey has said many times, computer/GRIB generated routing invariably takes one too close to the EPAC High. Maybe this is why 75% of this year's SHTP fleet have routed themselves too far north? It's a traditional pit fall.

    AJ! Good to hear from you!!!

    WILDFLOWER had a good passage back to Anacortes, mostly motor sailing at 6.5 knts. Now tied up near Craig and Vicki's cold molded schooner MAGIC, one of my favorite designs. Farmers Market nearby. Sunny, with high smoke haze from wildfires in the Rockies.
    Last edited by sleddog; 07-07-2012 at 05:35 PM.

  9. #109
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,688

    Default

    GB (Jim Q) passed out a route at the skippers' meeting that had him sailing north of the rhumbline for the last two-thirds of the race. He evidently changed his mind but it may have affected the newer skippers.

  10. #110
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Name:  IMGP1083.jpg
Views: 1939
Size:  92.7 KB Name:  IMGP1087.jpg
Views: 1916
Size:  74.7 KB Name:  IMGP1089.jpg
Views: 1898
Size:  52.8 KB Name:  IMGP1088.jpg
Views: 1665
Size:  66.0 KBA beautiful day to let the dogs out! American Eskimos make good small catamaran sleddogs.

    Actually, SSS supporter from Seattle Mark Clouse stopped by with his dog team. Mark is a professional dog trainer, tire kicking for a new boat. We visited until one of his puppies fell in, and we deployed dog overboard techniques.

    Thanks to long time friend Gary Adams for dropping off a roller furler and top swivel he found at a swap meet. Now I can roll up the J-22 141% light air jib that Russell Brown donated. I think we got all points of sail covered now with the sail inventory.

    For many years Gary lived aboard his TREKKA sister, TAREMA, and sailed his little ship twice to New Zealand. I first met him in Apia, Western Samoa, in 1973, when we were delivering IMPROBABLE to Oz for Sydney-Hobart. Gary's dinghy was an inner tube with ping pong paddles for propulsion. He paddled by every afternoon for sundowners at Aggie Grey's.

    For those who don't know Jim Quanci, skipper of Cal-40 GREEN BUFFALO, I'll just say his experience includes twice racing the Moore 24 TEAM BONZI to Hawaii, and was Overall Winner of the Pacific Cup with Frank Anzak on TEAM BONZI in 1992. They horizoned the fleet.

    It was Jim on GREEN BUFFALO that first spotted the distressed LOW SPEED CHASE. There is no finer gentleman, student of the game, and contributor to the sport than Jim and his wife Mary Lovely. SSS and SHTP are lucky to have the BUFFALO among it ranks. It is no accident GREEN BUFFALO and Jim Quanci are contending for the overall lead.
    Last edited by sleddog; 07-09-2012 at 08:21 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •