Page 265 of 628 FirstFirst ... 165215255261262263264265266267268269275315365 ... LastLast
Results 2,641 to 2,650 of 6278

Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #2641
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    What to do if your boat sort of doesn't really have a spinnaker? AS in, it's a Freedom 38, with a tiny foresail and a weensy spinnaker?.

    Here's a photograph of a Freedom 36/38 spinnaker.

    Name:  6557469_20171211192910174_1_LARGE.jpg
Views: 776
Size:  21.6 KB

    Reach, reach, reach as long as you can?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #2642
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    448

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sleddog View Post
    Hi Rob,
    Thanks for your analysis and on-site Kauai weather. It should be fun for BEETLE to rendezvous with the SHTP fleet and support committee!

    I have looked at the scatterometer views. Not as good as the old one which gave a full Pacific Ocean view, rather than just narrow strips, almost invisible without a magnifying glass.

    Yes, I have also looked at the Navy FNMOC charts. Their forecast office is nearby in Monterey. I visited once as a guest. All the forecasters were in small booths. As my presence was announced in the room, the forecasters closed curtains over their work, apparently not wishing me to see the location of the naval ships they were forecasting for.

    Now when you attempt to get to the Navy FNMOC weather website online, one is greeted with

    Your connection is not secure
    "The owner of www.fnmoc.navy.mil has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website."

    Does anyone know what that is about? I hope military weather is not like military music, hihi
    Yes, that's due to the US Navy having a self-signed SSL certificate, which nobody else trusts (would *you* trust them?).

    I can accept their self-signed (DOD) certificate and continue on to view their site using the Firefox browser on my laptop. Not the smartest thing to do, but there it is.

    That's fascinating that the folks there are providing boat-specific forecasts, which they did not want you to see. Kristen and I got to visit NWS Monterey, and we were introduced to 'Perfect Paul', which everybody has heard over the VHF radio. He's short, tan, and speaks strangely + he fits into a large computer chassis. Who would have thought?

    I was introduced to FNMOC by a cruiser departing La Paz in 2017 headed for French Polynesia, he was one of the folks that worked on the weather model code and explained in great (and useful) detail how the ITCZ modeling of clouds worked and therefore how we might benefit from that information. Most interesting stuff - and he was correct, the data was seriously useful for my crossing to FP.

    - rob
    Last edited by tiger beetle; 06-27-2018 at 08:10 PM.

  3. #2643
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Name:  twentyfourhr.gif
Views: 652
Size:  50.6 KB
    Not difficult to see why RIFF RIDER made a left hand southerly detour yesterday. It's beginning to look like the boats to the north will run their slot car tracks right to the edge of the cliff and into the grasp of the EPAC High. 10 knots or less of wind north of 32N and/or 1024 millibars may feel pretty slow after the windy reach.

    Here is the 48 hr. forecast:

    Name:  forty84.gif
Views: 760
Size:  57.9 KB

    The isobar (lines of equal air pressure) spacing is key. Closer spacing = more wind. Notice the wider spacing above the 1024 isobar indicating lighter winds, 5-15 knots, and the narrower spacing south of the 1024 isobar, indicating 15-20 knot winds.

    Pretty much everyone in the fleet knows about this possibility. Still, it's fascinating watching it play out in slow motion. Even KYNTANNA, at one point furthest south, seems to now be intent on getting north so not to miss the pool party at the half way barge.

    Where are the tradewinds? South of 29 degrees.

    Carry on west at your peril.

    An additional reminder. Not allowed by the race rules to share these charts or blog info with any race boat.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-27-2018 at 09:47 PM.

  4. #2644
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    258

    Default

    Sled Dog,
    Why is the majority of the fleet still pushing North? Is there routing software skirting them that close? Are we seeing something different than what's actually going on the water, i.e., our isobars are reading 1026, their actually in 1024. Is the High Center Barge offering free cold beers & cocktails to the first 10 boats?

    Hmmm?

  5. #2645
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Submarino View Post
    Sled Dog,
    Why is the majority of the fleet still pushing North? Is there routing software skirting them that close? Are we seeing something different than what's actually going on the water, i.e., our isobars are reading 1026, their actually in 1024. Is the High Center Barge offering free cold beers & cocktails to the first 10 boats?
    Herbie's Halfway Barge remains a great attraction to sailors, especially with its 3 hour free tie-up, hot showers, organic iced fruit smoothies, and use of electric jet skis.

    The Half Way ship used to be run by the government, and was a Coast Guard cutter on 3 month deployment calling itself "Ocean Station November." Ocean Station November had two main duties: radio weather observations to the weather bureau. And being at halfway, Point of No Return, between Hawaii and the West Coast, they were there to rescue aviators who had to ditch.

    During Transpacs up until the mid-70's Ocean Station November would radio weather to the racing fleet on 2186 twice/day. I well remember one afternoon Ocean Station November missing it's appointed schedule. KIALOA's owner went apoplectic. Finally a sleepy guardsman answered KIALOA's plaintive calls.

    The irate yachtsman demands "what is the position of the Pacific High?"

    The guardsman radios back in a somewhat stoned sounding voice, "the High? The High? I do believe it's right here."

    Here's a short video of Ocean Station November doing its thing, successfully rescuing the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight #6 in 1956, when two of their four engines quit mid-Pacific and the crew was forced to make a water landing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6onMGIvRF0
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-28-2018 at 09:39 AM.

  6. #2646
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Submarino View Post
    Sled Dog,
    Why is the majority of the fleet still pushing North? Is there routing software skirting them that close? Are we seeing something different than what's actually going on the water, i.e., our isobars are reading 1026, their actually in 1024.
    ?
    I don't know how many of this year's SHTP fleet are using routing software. Probably less than half. There is great attraction to trusting information coming over the sat com/computer with its pretty uniform lines of wind arrows. As reminded earlier, Stan Honey says, "Understand why the router always takes you too close to a High.."

    Other attractions to be sucked into light winds associated with the Pac High?

    1) "Everyone else is up here. Someone must know better than I." ( I call this the sheep effect.)
    2) The "slot car" effect. Jibing south on an unattractive course perpendicular to Hawaii is a powerful disincentive.
    3) Not everyone is receiving current weather info.
    4) If Kauai is your GPS waypoint, GPS readouts give you the Great Circle course and distance, exactly opposite of reality, when you should be initially curving south, not north, the traditional "Reverse S" course, as my father named it in 1949 when he was TransPac fleet weatherman.
    5) Despite advice, not everyone has a calibrated barometer. This is the "out of sight, out of mind" effect. Same goes with sailing along with plastic on your fin keel for hours/days on end.
    6) Unless you are CRINAN, JACQUELINE, or KYNTANNA, jibeing is a 30 minute chore. Most everything has to be re-led. The wave angle feels odd. The sun is in a different place in the sky, and your solar panels are in the shade of the sails.

    From current tracker positions, I believe the two lead boats have jibed to port and are trying their best to get south. Certainly RIFF RIDER has jibed to port. What about DOUBLE-X? Here's PJ's thoughts from last night:

    "My watch barometer reads 1026.5 and when I vaguely calibrated it seemed to be 1 mbar too low. So that's 1027.5. That's really close to what the Grib files say. Baro has been going up and down over the day. I realize I'm really close to the eye but I'm staying below the routing based on Grib files.

    I had planned to watch this over the night. The wind is supposed to veer, at which point I plan to jibe the main and pole out the 3 too. I almost did it an hour ago but the wind came back. The forecast is for the wind to come light behind me first then port so I'm trying to move West quickly. If speed drops I'll jibe. I'm going to get updated forecasts now."



    Last edited by sleddog; 06-28-2018 at 12:34 PM.

  7. #2647
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Name:  routing-6-28.JPG
Views: 763
Size:  189.3 KB

    Above is the current routing from a position near 32 N x 137-35 W. As opposed to yesterday's "Go North, young man, this route looks like "get South" to me. Even if following this southerly track, winds will only be in the 14 knot range until Monday, July 2, when they again begin to build into the 16-18 knot range.

    Looks like a 13 day race for First-to-Finish.

    A reminder: Any yachts trying to surf the web rather than the waves may encounter financial obstacles. A recent competitor in the S.California 300 Ocean Race from Santa Barbara to San Diego, an overnighter, was shocked to find they'd run up an $8,000 bill while continuously connected to their INMARSAT. Turns out the INMARSAT was downloading a massive Windows OS upgrade....
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-28-2018 at 09:40 AM.

  8. #2648
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Apparently PJ on DOUBLE-X did jibe south sometime this morning. Reading between the lines, I can tell he is tired and not thinking straight. Did he forget earplugs/headphones?

    PJ's recent rig is a #2 jib whiskered poled to windward (starboard.) And a #3 jib spinnaker poled to leeward (port). Apparently in his sleep deprivation he decided when jibeing he needed to switch the jibs side for side. This means not only lowering and rehoisting, but also switching poles, luff grooves, halyards, and sheets.

    A near impossibility by my reckoning.

    PJ attempted anyway. Here is his description of the results:

    "It dawned on me that the center of the high was forecasted to be 1029, only 2mbar up from my reading. I decided to pole out the 3 and jibe the main and come South, which I knew was against rule of thumb (stay in your lane during slot car). Good but it felt slow.

    I decided to jibe the twin jibs and everything went South ... Nothing broke but it took me 90 minutes to recover. Mainly: 2 wrapped with sheets multiple times, lines entanglement galore, lines under the boat and trailing out. I kept clipped on, took everything down and back up. I was on course but with main only. I guess I lost 6 miles there, a lot of energy and confidence. I'll need to jibe this rig again. Don't know how yet. The problem is when I let out the pole then the 2 goes nuts ...

    We're now doing about the same speed but will need to sail more miles.

    Anyways it looks like all the boats North are still making good progress so I have doubts this was all worth it in the end. Passages, Joujou and Riff Rider appear South of me too.

    Getting short on sleep. Too much noise.
    Need to find a happy spot ...
    PJ


    Name:  settle down 001.jpg
Views: 677
Size:  284.5 KB
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-28-2018 at 01:59 PM.

  9. #2649
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    3,485

    Default

    OMG that is the funniest cartoon, especially when applied to our friend's predicament. PJ, PJ, I hope you get some sleep soon!

  10. #2650
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    258

    Default

    "Ocean Station November" -- at first, I thought you were pulling our legs, but after looking at the video and doing a little more history search, it IS part of our actual history. Wow!

    Regarding jibing DE's 2 poles/2 jibs, yes, that sleep deprivation will lead to some odd, repeated behavior. In 2014, my boom was pumping back and forth into the mast at the gooseneck. I could see the hole elongating, so my course of action was a Spanish windlass to compress/squeeze the boom into the mast more.

    After a nap, I marveled at my hour worth handiwork with spectra, rigging tape and turning strut. But also with a clearer head, I could now see that all I needed was to pull the boom vang tighter. I had to chuckle!

Posting Permissions

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