Page 441 of 628 FirstFirst ... 341391431437438439440441442443444445451491541 ... LastLast
Results 4,401 to 4,410 of 6278

Thread: New Boat 4 Sled

  1. #4401
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by todd22123 View Post
    3 minutes between Aloha and Mountain!

  2. #4402
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    While contemplating finish dates, we are reminded it ain't over till it's over by the recent win of SHTP vet Shad Lemke and crew aboard his O-30 DARK HORSE in the recent Race2Alaska substitute WA 360. The WA360 is a floating bike race punctuated by spinnaker runs around the lake of Puget Sound and its extensions, open to anyone under manual power: sail, row, paddle, pedal, portage, fly (wingsurf).

    If you, like me, don't do Facebook, and didn't see the 8 minute, summary video, or if you did and want to be sure of what you think you saw, here it is in full color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NmQSnVaHSs

    DARK HORSE (Team High Seas Drifters), very much a dark horse until a few hours from the finish, pulled off a most improbable win for the giant belt buckle. Here's Jake's description of what happened: Thanks to Jackie for the link.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Thursday morning, 0500.

    Against our better judgment, we’re going to lead with the conclusion: humans are dumb, especially us, and probably you too.

    Don’t get mad. Trust us, it’s a lot to take in after a lifetime of not knowing how dumb you are. Relax. Take a deep breath and a beta blocker. This isn’t personal, count to 10. Think of puppies and breathe into your flaws. We were all wrong.

    Before the last 30 seconds when your huffed up and wounded insecurities decided to fax us your SAT scores/MENSA membership/photo grab of that Yahtzee scorecard from '05 when you broke 300 and decided you earned the “Johnny Bigtime” nickname you’ve always wanted—go back to that time before rage, hit pause, and hear us out: Whatever you were thinking whenever you went to sleep on Wednesday night, you were wrong. No shame, we were wrong too.

    There are so many versions of how wrong we all were:

    Did you think the cyborg overlord paddlers of Team BendRacing couldn’t possibly break camp and accelerate for two days through sleep deprivation and hold the lead? WRONG.
    Did you think that Team Big Broderna would build on the hard-earned and comfortable lead they grunted out over the first three days and coast in for a victory? WRONG.
    Did you think that the wind would hold and then build in the Strait in the afternoon (like it ALWAYS does)? WRONG.
    Did you tell your whole media team that they needed to get up at 4am because the closing speed of the presumptive first place finishers would put them in Port Townsend at Oh-My-God O’clock in the morning? Us either.

    The past 24 hours have been riveting and humbling, at least for us, probably for you too, and definitely for six or so teams that finished way closer than they should have after 360 miles.

    When we went to bed on Wednesday, we were sure. We’ve seen a race or two—and by that we’re talking the Race to Alaska. R2-mother-loving-K, Johnny Bigtime, not this WA360 lap around the lake we have here. We know how these things play out. We’re important.

    When R2AK-hardened Team Big Broderna took the lead from the sleep-proof paddle mutants on Team BendRacing, we checked weather and tide predictions, pre-wrote this update, set the alarm and went to bed, cozy in a blanket woven from our own arrogance. Broderna for the win, as god intended.

    Team Big Broderna did exactly what we predicted, and exactly what we would have done. By Wednesday night they had a commanding lead and a trimaran—a far faster boat than any of the sailboats who trailed them by over 15 miles, and light years faster than anyone shoveling water. The Bros were an Anacortes team with mad race skills, street cred from 1st and 2nd place finishes in Swiftsure and R2AK, respectively. They were about to sail through their backyard, on the fastest boat, with a 15-mile lead. This. Was in. The bag.

    They made the choice anyone with all of those hole cards would: rather than take the straight-line option and thread the needle through the variable winds of the San Juan Islands, they chose the longer route with predictably better current and cleaner wind—plenty of chance for them to stretch their legs and fly a hull to make the finish line in time for their reservation at any number of Port Townsend’s legendary bruncheries.

    Yep, if there was wind to be had, it would be in the wide expanses of Boundary Pass and Haro Strait. How sure were we? Knowing nods from sailors around the world strained necks and caused a momentary bubble in the market for Chiropractic Futures. (Yes, a lie…but it feels true.) This was the only way.

    In sailing, there is a catch phrase: “Local knowledge.” It’s the recognition that in any sailing race, there’s a home field advantage for knowing the particular wind and current patterns in that area. Local knowledge sailors from the portion of the course NOAA weather radio calls “Northern Inland Waters Including the San Juan Islands” know that sometimes the race isn’t about finding the route with the shortest total distance, but the sum total of likely wind conditions and currents, and at least in this race the currents play such a huge role.

    Neil deGrasse Tyson we ain’t, but it works like this: the moon and sun have gravity, and that gravity pulls a bulge of water around the earth as it rotates. That water bulge sloshes in and out of the rock strainer of San Juan Islands more or less two times a day, causing itinerant rivers and whirlpools that build, then fade, then change direction every six hours or so. It’s complicated, confusing, and PNW AF.

    For boats, currents are the conveyor belts of the San Juans. Get on the right one and you’re on the moving sidewalk towards your destination. The wrong one and you’re that kid in the airport that thinks it’s hilarious that they are walking forward and going nowhere. True fact: it’s not hilarious, especially if you are rowing or pedaling, more so if your competition is catching up on the down escalator while you are fighting to climb it.

    If you’re like us, you were today years old when you learned that WA360 isn’t a sailing race. At least this year for the leaders, it was a floating bike race punctuated by spinnaker runs that lasted as long as 5 hours but as little as 200 yards. Team Broderna made the right call for a sailing race: go for wind. The Strait (of Juan De Fuca) has predictable, bankable winds that tend to rise west to east as the day progresses. Always, except when it doesn’t, like yesterday when you find yourself in a warp speed sailboat without wind, on the wrong conveyor belt, and you spend hours in light air getting pushed farther and farther to the west and away from the finish line. You’re the kid in the airport going the wrong way from the final boarding call. Dammit.

    In the critical moments of Thursday morning, the currents flexed hard. The same current conveyor belt that was sweeping Big Broderna towards Japan was sweeping the chase pack down the west side of Whidbey Island and closer to the turn for the home stretch. By 10am, wind and tide had transformed the race from having a presumptive winner to a six-way race for first place.

    In eight hours the tide had carried the race from ‘Game over’ to ‘Game on,’ and after an overnight of hard sailing, all of a sudden five teams were vying for sailing’s first heavyweight championship belt. The run for the bling quickly became a cause of internet speculation. Port Townsend locals held prayer circles (unconfirmed), sailors worldwide whistled on deck and scratched the backstays hoping for wind (unconfirmed), at least one new agey alter was created and shared via social media, there was incense (confirmed), and the chase pack hailed each other in the dawn’s early light. It was the stuff of legend.

    Farther back there were dismastings and mayhem (see team Gulls On Buoys’ Facebook feed), but the finale of the bike race that was the inaugural WA360 favored the uncomplicated straight line on the down escalator. The chase pack of Teams Trickster, First Fed’s Sail Like a Girl, Lake Pend Oreille Yacht Club, Fressure, and High Seas Drifters worked the near-shore current off of Whidbey Island and lined themselves up for working the last miles with the winds that built out of the south, not the west—which local knowledge will tell you never happens, except when it does. Team High Seas Drifters crossed the line a minute shy of 1300. An Olsen 30, S/V Dark Horse lived up to its name with a hardly probable, come-from-behind win. A day before, they were out of the running. Thursday, they were the unlikely victorious crew of Montanans who bested all comers—including trimarans, hopped up monohulls with teams of seasoned sailors, the Seattle sailing mafia, and the robo-mutant kayakers—who at time of posting were making steady, zombie-march progress towards the finish line.

    Despite all of the certainty, boat speed, and local knowledge; elite athletes, R2AK darlings, and the Seattle sailing in-crowd were treated to the transom view of the Montanans at the finish line. Right behind was Olympia’s Team Fessure who crossed the line seven minutes later. Seven minutes! Over 360 miles that’s like a photo finish in the Kentucky Derby, if the second place horse crossed the finish line smoking a cigarette with an open bottle of tequila. Lake Pend Oreille Yacht Club claimed third a scant 12 minutes later and were as amazed by their bronze medal finish as they were of the currents. “We’re lake sailors...that was crazy!” All three teams rose from, “Who are they?” to household names in a matter of hours, and 1-2-3 finished all within 19 minutes of each other in the most competitive race we could have ever imagined.

    All told 12 teams came in rapid-fire in the hours since first place. All hit the dock in the adrenaline state between elated and exhausted. They hit the dock, rang the bell, hugged the earth and/or their loved ones, and accepted the ceremonial six-pack with appreciation and chagrin. One team put it best: “That’s 60 miles a beer.”

    The race may have been won, the championship belts already raised skyward in celebration, but the race isn’t over. As we type, the machine of Team BendRacing is gaining steady ground on the Point Hudson finish line, Canal Rats aren’t too far behind, and the rest of the fleet is lining up like Rockettes, high kicking towards the big finale. This race is just getting started.

    R2AK—out.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-25-2021 at 07:32 PM.

  3. #4403
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Like Olson 30 booms, and sometimes Westsail 32 booms?

    Indeed, hence the "pretty much."
    I was more thinking of autopilot failures or energy systems going South. Have other single-handers broken their boom on an run to Hawaii? I'd be somewhat delighted that I'm not alone then.

  4. #4404
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Name:  Dark Horse.jpg
Views: 679
Size:  165.3 KB

    Cowboys from Montana win WA 360..Olson 30's seem to be everywhere.

  5. #4405
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    37.205346,-121.963398
    Posts
    788

    Default

    Awesome job Chad and crew.

  6. #4406
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Congrats to Kyle on ALOHA for passing the halfway barge late yesterday. MOUNTAIN, then NOZOMI should be next to open their long anticipated halfway presents.

    The weather for the second half of the Race should improve dramatically as a weak, trapped low pressure slowly dissipates. This low has been forcing the Pacific High into a prolonged and unusual N/S elongation that blocked the fleet, sailing near rhumbline, from progress.

    As the Pacific High intensifies to 1032 Mb and reassumes its more normal position of July up around 40x140, the tradewinds south of 29 and west of 142 will build into the moderate range, 10-20 knots, by Tuesday. This should make the second half of the SHTP as fast as the first half was slow. See 96 hour prog chart below:

    Name:  SHTP7 (2).jpg
Views: 637
Size:  295.4 KB

    Some have asked, "Why the screwy weather with light and shifty winds that plagued the fleet since outside the Golden Gate? There are many explanations. The most easily understandable is given by Stan Honey and other professional meteorologists, and I paraphrase: "The Eastern North Pacific and its usual, centered High Pressure does not become stable until the first week of July. Before that is out-of-season and can feature out-of-season anomalies"

    This is why the Honolulu Race (LA Transpac) always started on the 4th of July or after. Even then, things can go pear shaped, as in 1979 when MERLIN and other race leaders (WINDWARD PASSAGE, RAGTIME, and CHRISTINE) sailed into and sat in the High for 2 days while sailing the traditional "S" course. Stan, navigating DRIFTER, and 50 miles behind MERLIN, could see what was coming, and convinced their afterguard to gybe DRIFTER to sail due south for 24 hours, a famous move that won DRIFTER the Barn Door Trophy, and launched Stan Honey's reputation as a world class navigator.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-27-2021 at 09:53 AM.

  7. #4407
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sleddog View Post
    Being south of 30 degrees by Sunday looks to pay dividends in days to come. However, it will be difficult to achieve for most. The most experienced routeur in the fleet has apparently followed his Expedition program track, cut the corner, and sailed into high pressure hell. Ouch.
    You can bet your boomvang HULA and SEA WISDOM are watching the lack of progress of the "probes" ahead. And hope to pull an "end around" to the south. Both heavy weights will need sufficient breeze to get moving
    back into contention. But the trades are coming, 15-20, south of 30 and west of 138..
    I'm sure it isn't lost on observers that next to ALOHA at 139 miles/24 hours, the next two best 24 hours runs were posted yesterday by the back markers RAINBOW at 138 miles and HULA at 127 miles.

    ALOHA's listed displacement (DSPL) is 4,694, and HULA's designed DSPL is 19,500 (though Bill is probably carrying sufficient supplies and equipment for his and Darlene's return passage.)

    In the SHTP, ya run what ya got, and let the chips fall where they may. HULA could podium finish on corrected time...Westsail owners up and down the Pacific Coast would be nodding in agreement.

    Hi Dave King!
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-27-2021 at 03:19 PM.

  8. #4408
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    "It's a drag race to the finish," reports GREEN BUFFALO, "jibing down the rhumb line."

    Though ALOHA appears to have an insurmountable lead for both First-To-Finish and Overall, and could finish early Saturday if everything holds together, HULA is very much in the hunt for the Overall win also, should ALOHA drop the ball. HULA could finish as early as mid-day, Tuesday, July 6, and ALOHA owes HULA almost 3 days. No pressure Kyle, eh?

    NOZOMI and SHARK ON BLUEGRASS also have an outside chance to win the Hanalei Yacht Club Trophy for First-Overall. But they need a couple of favorable squalls to push them into contention.

    For those who wonder, my optimistic guess as to average daily run between now and Hanalei finish line for ALOHA is 185 nm and for HULA is 160 nm given that trades are forecast to slowly build over the next 3-5 days. The boats, unless under twin or poled out jib, can't sail DDW and so will sail about 5% further than the calculated distance to go. But they do have a favorable surface current of ~ .75 knots carrying them along.

    Good news from Lee aboard MORNING STAR, who arrived yesterday at Hanalei and has taken up station at anchor as the Welcome Boat.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-28-2021 at 06:08 PM.

  9. #4409
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,338

    Default

    Hopefully the 2021 SHTP Race Committee arrived safely yesterday afternoon at Lihue airport on Kauai and were able to find a rent-a-car to get to their digs at Princeville. Here in CA, we are 3 hours different from Hawaiian Time: 9am here is 6 am in Hanalei and 4pm UTC

    Here is the prog chart for this afternoon, Wed. 6/30, showing a favorable map for riding the tradewinds downwind to Hanalei. The finish is almost directly downwind, so most of the fleet will be gybing, trying to sail the closest, shortest course to the finish, which is about 240 degrees magnetic. Without wind or weather reports from the fleet, my guess is their current wind is NE at 15-8 knots, which may feel like less, as the wind is "soft" in the tropics compared to a chill 15-18 knots on San Francisco Bay.

    Name:  SHTP8.gif
Views: 397
Size:  224.6 KB

    With 592 miles to go, and factoring in gybing, the wind going lightish within 10 miles of Kauai, and an average speed over the bottom (SOG) of 8 knots, ALOHA figures to arrive sometime Saturday morning in Hanalei, 14 days, plus or minus, from the start. You can bet Kyle is figuring how to lighten ship, taking fresh water showers to leave himself about 5 gallons (40 pounds) to get in. Not advisable is dumping all the water overboard and relying on making water as needed. That has been attempted, with dire consequences when the watermaker fails.
    Last edited by sleddog; 06-30-2021 at 03:30 PM.

  10. #4410
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    907

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sleddog View Post
    With 592 miles to go, and factoring in gybing, the wind going lightish within 10 miles of Kauai, and an average speed over the bottom (SOG) of 8 knots, ALOHA figures to arrive sometime Saturday morning in Hanalei, 14 days, plus or minus, from the start. You can bet Kyle is figuring how to lighten ship, taking fresh water showers to leave himself about 5 gallons (40 pounds) to get in.
    Guilty! I dropped a lot of the water I had onboard when I found myself behind and not gaining, then I put out the #2, which was a better idea :-)

Posting Permissions

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