Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst ... 345678 LastLast
Results 61 to 70 of 78

Thread: LongPac Updates

  1. #61
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Capitola,CA
    Posts
    3,336

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by WBChristie View Post
    Congrats to all for making it back safely
    Name:  Clean Sweep Broom.jpg
Views: 4231
Size:  24.4 KB

    Respect and hearty congratulations to Falk Meissner and his little ship SHARK ON BLUEGRASS for their Ironman performance and Clean Sweep in one of the more memorable races in SSS history. Final LongPac results posted: SHARK First-to-Finish, First in Class, and First Overall. https://www.jibeset.net/show.php?RR=...OC=r1&TYP=html
    Last edited by sleddog; 07-11-2019 at 07:37 AM.

  2. #62
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    132

    Default LongPac Final Results

    Update from the LongPac RC:

    Apologies for not having labelled the original Jibeset results as "Preliminary". See below final scores. Indeed SHARK ON BLUEGRASS is first to finish, first in Division 2, and first overall. Fantastic job. More amazingly, after three days of racing, the five finishing boats were separated on corrected time by only 11 minutes. It could have been anybody's race.
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    132

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by tboussie View Post
    Update from the LongPac RC:

    Apologies for not having labelled the original Jibeset results as "Preliminary". See below final scores. Indeed SHARK ON BLUEGRASS is first to finish, first in Division 2, and first overall. Fantastic job. More amazingly, after three days of racing, the five finishing boats were separated on corrected time by only 11 minutes. It could have been anybody's race.

    Without the excuse of sleep deprivation, I managed to confuse hours and minutes... Make that 11 hours (not minutes) separating the boats. A bit more reasonable. Only makes SOB's 5 hour corrected time advantage that much more impressive.

  4. #64
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,687

    Default

    Indeed it was - congrat's Falk!

  5. #65
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    4

    Default

    Fellow Racers,
    Thank you for warm words, I am naturally quite thrilled how this turned out. Thank you to the race committee for the time and effort to organize the race. Thank you and congrats to all fellow racers who ventured out there. Independent of the outcome, it takes courage, time, and money to even cross the starting line. Thanks to my family and friends that supported me roaming around on the ocean. (In what basically amounts to a 3/8" fiberglass zip-lock bag). Below are my impressions and learnings:

    Fair Winds
    Falk, S.O.B.
    --------------------------------
    2019 Long Pac on Shark on Bluegrass

    This was the first time I took the Shark out for an overnight ocean race. I had done single-and double-handed Farallones, but the Long Pac is something different, especially with the heavy winds predicted out of the NW. Here are some of my impressions and learnings:

    The first night was miserable. We were beating into about 15-20kn of wind. I was seasick, did not sleep enough the night before, and it was cold. I bore off to make it easier on the autopilot and retreated into the cabin. There, I learned that water dripping from the cabin top (from a deferred hardware re-bedding project) and the left-open hatch board makes a boat and everything in it very wet. I needed to figure out how to sleep. I had to get back out into the cockpit to tack to avoid a tanker. Back inside, my spinlock life vest inflated on the wet cabin sole.

    The second day and night went much better. The wind was still around 15-20kn. I had dialed-in the boat, and caught up on 6hrs of sleep (30min increments). The container ship was friendly enough to change course when I checked in on VHF. At around 4 a.m. I reached 126’40” and turned around. All of the upwind leg I sailed with a 100% jib and a reefed main. The (tiller) auto pilot steered about 80% of the way to the turn mark and did a much better job at keeping a straight course at night than I do.

    The third day had light winds, I shook out the reef, cleaned up, and slept a lot during the day to prepare for the last 100 miles of the race. I reefed the main again, closed the hatch board, and as the sun was setting the wind piped up to 22-24kn with 10ft swell from abeam. Immediately the boat started to plane at ~7kn. I saw 8-10-12+kn on the GPS (when I managed to have a look at it). I held on to the tiller and the jacklines, the spray was flying, and we rode the waves for 7 hours straight until the sun came back up again and the wind calmed down. Somewhat a surreal experience!

    Around the Farallones the wind died. I was too tired (or lazy) to hoist the spin but managed to change to the Genoa. For most of the race Shark and Libra (Hey Gregory!) sailed only a few miles apart. I could see Libra on my AIS and/or her navigation lights at night. Sailing towards the Golden Gate Bridge, Libra was catching up with her spin flying. A bit thanks to the South Tower Devils wrapping Libras’ spin – Shark On Bluegrass managed to eke-out line honors 12 sec ahead of Libra, after 400nm and 3 days of racing!

    Few of my learnings and takeaways (some of this might be obvious, as said, this was the first time I have done this)
    • I sailed most of the race with a reefed main and the 100% jib. The Olson 25 weights 3,300lb and I stored the 70 lb 125Ah battery and the 70lb life raft near the mast foot. In this configuration, the Shark felt incredible stable and balanced even in the strong winds. Nothing broke. The tiller-pilot had not issue steering upwind in ~20kn (I did not try that in the 3rd night with 22-24kn from abeam).
    • The boat is very wet with spray flying over the low cabin. I always needed to close the cabin top & hatch board. Once out in the cockpit, the door is closed and I needed to make sure I brought everything needed for the next few hours (food, cloth, drink, light etc.).
    • Two proud moments of confirmed fore-sight. I bought a new (Raymarine tiller-) autopilot before the race. After 2 days of constant operation, my 15-year-old tiller pilot that came with the boat finally (and expectedly) gave up. RIP. I had made a point to bring a spare (non-inflating) life vest, which I wore with the tether once the spin-lock blew.
    • I had an AIS receiver only, but now firmly believe that a AIS transponder should be a must. For the safety aspect to be seen by big ships, to make it easier to solve on which side to pass, for not running into each other when sailing relatively close to each other at night, and also for the camaraderie of seeing others close by out on the ocean.

    -----------------------------

  6. #66
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Corte Madera
    Posts
    23

    Default

    HI All... Michael Chammout here, Mulan. Just logged on and read the posts.. amazing to hear others' accounts of this epic event. I saw a couple of questions regarding Mulan's issues, and my ribs!

    This was my 1st adventure into the deep blue, and singlehanding it to boot.. Trepidation would be an understatement! I had done the 2 previous SSS Farallone races, and was pretty excited to take this on: qualify for SSS TransPac, maintain/improve (?) series standings, and mostly, see if I like it out there!

    I've been gaining experience using the NKE Autopilot, recently upgraded with a working control head, and going through all the other boat systems to get Mulan seaworthy.. I thought. This has been a steep learning curve at my level of experience/knowledge. In the SSS Farallone Race I experienced AP failure due to low battery voltage and discovered spent batteries, so had recently installed 2 Group 27 AGM's, and a Voltek battery monitor.

    The start was a bit hairy, as my 2nd jib halyard became detached from the mast base and was swinging around in the breeze trying to bean me until I just pulled it up to the shives... so much for thinking I had made everything perfect! Omen? Going out the Gate was great... Main reefed, #3 jib.. fun dueling and crossing tacks with Bob on Surprise! out to Pt. Bonita.. Then things got real... very real!

    My strategy was to stay as N as I could manage, hoping to maybe get out ahead by the Farallones and take advantage of the predicted northerly wind twist, maybe then coursing a rhumb line to the Longitude turn around. This actually played out amazingly well... I basically landed on the island, and footed-off a bit to the perfect line... heading 270W at 35 degrees of apparent wind.. Wow, I was stoked, game on! However....

    As everyone experienced.. the gnarly conditions were very intense, and new for me. Mulan is a sturdy girl, and we could handle beating into the heavy wind and swell.. it was the southern swell and resultant maytag thrashing that was creating the physical challenges. I've been prone to seasickness in the past, but doing much sailing the past years I've gotten pretty over it. No issues in the Farallone races, or occasional fishing trips.. as long as I stay above deck. I was very reticent to pre-medicating as I felt I needed all my wits, but did bring some oral Zofran tablets. Mostly hand steering at the helm I could see the occasional stacked-up southern monster swell coming outta the corner of my eye and deal with it, however, the few times I needed to go below to check the battery monitor or change clothes I couldn't see them coming and the boat would just spin to port, drop out from under me and I'd go flying. I've never experienced this before and didn't anticipate the 1st few times it happened... one particularly hard smack-down landed me badly on a wood ledge on the cabin floor and turns out I cracked 2 ribs on my left flank... friggin painful. Also, after 45 seconds going below I would become violently seasick... weird. Took 2 zofran, threw up.. took 2 more.. threw up again. This repeated 4 or 5 times and I finally just piled on several layers and resigned to staying on deck for the night, bringing water and snacks with me... Advil too. It was dusk at this point and the wind settled somewhat into the mid 20's.. which seemed pleasant by comparison!

    I'd been tracking my new battery monitor, getting down to 12-ish volts.. started the engine and resumed hand-steering. after half hour, snuck a peek.. What? 11.8V's! Hmmm... shut down everything.. all electronics, music (yeah, I know!), and increased RPM's to 1500 for another half hour.. no change in charge. Little red charging light also not on.. dang! No bueno. Kicking myself... all those early, formative years with old beater cars, how many times when a battery goes does the alternator soon follow? then the starter? McFly... why didn't I replace the 12 year old stock alternator when I installed new high-charge-drawing fresh monster batteries??? I just didn't have it in me at that point to rip up the settee's and removing the engine cover looking for a loose wire or easy fix.. the wind was ramping up again, approaching 30, with accompanying sea state, and I'd throw up any time I was below more than a couple of minutes. I was also worried that my ribs may worsen, maybe a bruised kidney even, and the risk of becoming physically impaired in extreme sea conditions wasnt prudent.. no battery charging to run autopilot (or play music, haha).. time to head back.

    Coming back through the washing machine was ok.. got some beautiful pics of the sun setting over the Farallones which are posted on my Bookface, and a whale spyglasses me.. holding about 10 feet out of the water for 4 or 5 seconds just eyeballing me from 30 yards away. He then followed me for 10 minutes, spouting every minute or so.. I think he like the blues music! Hit the CYC dock around 1 am, almost ran into the parked Tiburon Ferry I was so lulu at that point.

    Follow up: Yes, fried alternator and 2 broken, extremely painful ribs... just today the pain seems to be just starting to get better, yaay. Hoisted the main for Friday beer can, 2 practice tacks and the boom broke at the connection to the mast gooseneck... glad I wasnt another 50 miles offshore when this happened! Sheesh Maybe reassessing the concept of running with scissors!

    I'm out of town July 20-27th... am really hoping the awards meeting can be scheduled some time other than that week, would love to hear everyone's stories and honor those tough-as-nails comrades who stayed out there for several days in those conditions... whether they won, finished, or simply made it back in one piece! Lots to learn, indeed.

  7. #67
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,687

    Default

    Brian solved Surprise!'s AP mystery inside of 30 seconds. We are enriched to have such talent in the SSS.

    It's stretching to say the reason was the now-removed mizzen mast, but there was a connection. You'll have to attend the meeting to get the details.

    I may bring a bottle of the elixir that enabled me to finish the race without dozing off at the helm. It can be a door prize for aspiring SHTP'ers with questionable autopilots.
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 07-14-2019 at 11:36 AM.

  8. #68
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    283

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Brian solved Surprise!'s AP mystery inside of 30 seconds. We are enriched to have such talent in the SSS.

    It's stretching to say the reason was the now-removed mizzen mast, but there was a connection. You'll have to attend the meeting to get the details.

    I may bring a bottle of the elixir that enabled me to finish the race without dozing off at the helm. It can be a door prize for aspiring SHTP'ers with questionable autopilots.
    .
    Rudder position feedback linkage/and or sensor, not reliably reattached after its original mounting spot (mizzenmast) bracket was removed.........??

  9. #69
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,687

    Default

    Creative guess, but no. Since the mizzen mast was mostly unrelated I'll post that part - it's too boring for the meeting anyway.

    The tiller arm centers per the drive's manual were supposed to be 11.4". They were only 6" so the tiller arm could be cut off to clear the mizzen mast. The drive was working very hard to turn the rudder with such little leverage. I discovered this after Brian left. His discovery was more simple!

    Name:  HLD2000L 1.jpg
Views: 970
Size:  2.08 MB
    Last edited by BobJ; 07-14-2019 at 06:39 PM.

  10. #70
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    283

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Creative guess, but no. Since the mizzen mast was mostly unrelated I'll post that part - it's too boring for the meeting anyway.

    The tiller arm centers per the drive's manual were supposed to be 11.4". They were only 6" so the tiller arm could be cut off to clear the mizzen mast. The drive was working very hard to turn the rudder with such little leverage. I discovered this after Brian left. His discovery was more simple!

    Name:  HLD2000L 1.jpg
Views: 970
Size:  2.08 MB
    Hmmmm! Key fell out??

    No need to respond if you’re saving it... congrats on qualifying for the shtp and such a good effort. Looked like it was all over bar the shouting until the ap thing

Posting Permissions

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