Frozen Assets Part 2

Radial Fleet

Sailed:6, Discards:1, To count:5, Ratings:USPN, Entries:6, Scoring system:My scoring system

Rank	Fleet	Boat	SailNo	Helm	Crew	USPN	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	Radial		182725	Karl Jenson			1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	(2.0)	7.0	5.0
2nd	Radial		178861	Robert Berry			3.0	2.0	(8.0 DNC)	2.0	2.0	1.0	18.0	10.0
3rd	Radial		129277	Charlie Simpson			2.0	(7.0 DNS)	2.0	3.0	4.0	3.0	21.0	14.0
4th	Radial		184626	Kate Easton			(7.0 DNF)	7.0 DNS	3.0	4.0	3.0	4.0	28.0	21.0
5th	Radial		185559	Max Brown			(8.0 DNC)	8.0 DNC	4.0	5.0	6.0	6.0	37.0	29.0
6th	Radial		112284	Amanda Hind			(8.0 DNC)	8.0 DNC	8.0 DNC	6.0	5.0	5.0	40.0	32.0

The chart below shows wind speed and direction with the times I was sailing highlighted in red. This is measured at Discovery Island which is between Cadboro Bay and the Straight. Wind conditions in the bay may have been slightly different. RVYC had a wind measurement at the outer edge of the harbour. I can confirm that it registered winds up to 36 knots on Saturday so the bay conditions weren't much different! Interesting to note that the CYA Gold VII (the highest level in the Learn to Sail standard) requires sailing in winds up to 23 knots. I guess everything else is optional! I've only achieved Bronze IV which requires sailing in winds up to 14 knots. Note the charts are easier to see if you double click them. The second chart is temperature. Over my time in Victoria the temperature ranged from 4 to 13 C. No wonder I couln't feel my feet half the time!

WOW - Frozen Assets Regatta Day 1

Forecast: Gale Warning Continued

For all you non-nautical types a gale means wind speeds over 34 knots (>60 km/hr). My mom gets nervous going out in a keelboat in a small craft warning (>25 knots). Not that I wasn't terrified at the thought of going out in 30+ knots in an itsy, bitsy, very tipsy Laser Radial (sorry Fionn, I do love you).

Skipper's meeting at 11:45am with the first race scheduled to start at 1pm. This meant being on the water by 12:30 at the latest. Between 9 and 10am, I was driving along the coast- Dallas Road, Beach Drive. The idea was to take a good look at the weather coming across the straight. The result was that I watched very big waves crashing violently on the shore, on lighthouses, on islands, and rocks. I also saw 5 windsurfers at Willows screaming along (and falling in). Strangely, this increased my excitement and only made me a little more scared. Maybe I did lose my mind some time back...

Anyway, at the skipper's meeting they said they would put the AP flag up. This meant a half hour postponement. Tricky. All of the kids got their gear on anyway, most of the grownups didn't. I was debating but decided to hold off. I wasn't going to be the first one out there anyway! It takes about half an hour to dress, finish rigging and get on the water. They were waiting until the winds were sustained below 25 knots.

We watched Volvo racing videos on YouTube. Then I went and hung with the coaches for a bit and caught up on the should we or shouldn't we go out discussion. Race committee said if it hadn't calmed down by 2pm, they would call it off for the day. Coaches and kids migrated to the junior room. We chattered about boats and partners for doublehanded sailing and Olympic campaigns. At 1:50pm Geoff and Phil were getting restless and wanted to go out. Coach Steve was saying that if they called the race off, we would go out anyway for the practice. Steve then went to see if they had called it yet.

Steve reached the race committee member just as he was walking to the flag pole to raise the A flag to postpone all races until Sunday. The flag was not raised. In fact the AP flag was lowered and the horn blown. We had 45 minutes until the first race. Thanks, Steve!?

Rumor was that most grownups were staying in the bar. Laser sailors are a little looney and it seemed most were going out. Charlie had said he wouldn't. I was missing the GSC AGM and banquet. No sense in being here if I didn't try. Earlier they had said there would be 3 coach boats out. Now they are calling them crash boats. They are willing to have us try and fail. Full gear, just like the Frostbite. Windstopper gloves- although thinner than the sticky work gloves, they are actually warmer when wet. They aren't as warm as my crazy green claws, but the claws are terrible for grabbing lines.

I watched Drew get off the dock to increase my confidence that I could do it without getting blown into the massive rock in the harbour. Here's a photo of the rock (taken on beautiful Friday, not near gale Saturday):

Should I tape the kiss clips on the mainsheet blocks, or would I need to be able to unclip in a hurry? I checked and the three remaining Lasers on the dock had done so. I taped too. I talked to Fionnlagh and then realized I was getting funny looks from Louise. The hardest part is getting in and out of the dock I told her. Then I launched Fionnlagh, put the centreboard in and walked him to the corner of the dock. Brian Berry was coming back in in his full rig. It's too much for me he said. He'd only been out a few minutes. Hmmm... I was in his way so I pushed off and safely made it out of the harbour.

Everyone was reaching slowly back and forth behind the start line, sails flapping violently in the wind. The L flag was up and I couldn't remember what that meant. I reached back and forth as well. The trick was turning around at each end. I had to sheet in and pick up some speed. Even then, as I tacked Fionnlagh often stalled in the wind and the waves and I was stuck drifting backwards in irons. Once, I drifted back towards the committee boat. Ahgg! I grabbed the anchor line to try to avoid hitting the boat and to stop my bow from going between the anchor line and the committee boat. That would have been disastrous. The wind would attempt to capsize me onto the committee boat. My sail would have been shredded trying to sort that out. Somehow I managed to stay out of that trap and my hold on the anchor line provided a pivot to turn my boat so that I could sail off. My stern did bump the committee boat bow before I made it but things could have been much worse.

Boats were capsizing all over the place, especially Fireballs. After what seemed an eternity, they started the full rigs. They may have started the Fireballs first, but I'm not sure what happened to that race. Several of the Fireballs were capsized when the 1 minute horn blew. Radials and Bytes countdown started after the Laser start.
More to tell later.. out of time.

Later... I didn't get off to a great start, but it wasn't too bad. I was managing to tack without going into irons, for the most part. Keeping Fionnlagh level was the tricky bit. Also, I've never sailed upwind in waves like this before. The waves got bigger
I finished 4th of 6 boats today. Only 2 races were held. Forecast- might drop below 25 knots tomorrow.

Day 1 results (other fleets at http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1172618153.htm). Note that DNC means that the boat didn't show up to the starting area. Was it worth my while going out today? Well, I saved 2 points by doing so and the sailing experience - priceless. The bar has been raised, the fear zone is smaller.

Radial Fleet

Sailed:2, Discards:0, To count:2, Entries:6, Scoring system:My scoring system

Rank	Fleet	Boat	SailNo	Helm	Crew	Rating	R1	R2	Total	Nett
1st	Radial		182725	Karl Jenson			1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0
2nd	Radial		178861	Robert Berry			3.0	2.0	5.0	5.0
3rd	Radial		129277	Charlie Simpson			2.0	7.0 DNS	9.0	9.0
4th	Radial		184626	Kate Easton			7.0 DNF	7.0 DNS	14.0	14.0
5th	Radial		112284	Amanda Hind			8.0 DNC	8.0 DNC	16.0	16.0
5th	Radial		185559	Max Brown			8.0 DNC	8.0 DNC	16.0	16.0

After the fact, I find Steve Cockerill's tips on Extreme Weather Sailing. His comments do confirm that it is possible to be too light to right the boat. He doesn't mention the effect of large waves along with big wind, which I think really complicates the idea of turning the boat in the water to do a San Francisco roll.
Rooster Sailing: Extreme Weather Sailing

I ain't afraid of no Cadborosaurus!

It's Friday and the regatta starts tomorrow. The day began with warm sunshine, puffy clouds and light winds. I checked out of Miraloma at 11, picked up the rental car and drove down to Cadboro Bay for lunch. I decided to try Olive Olio's as we hadn't been able to get in there on Monday. Lunch was tasty- cauliflower cheddar soup and salad. I took a quick detour to the beach for some photos. A life sized model of the fearsome Cadborosaurus is on the beach. Caddy is a 5-15 foot serpent sighted in this bay. I don't know if this monster has eaten anyone, but I sure don't want to find out. Imagine meeting this guy in the bay!


That said, I did want to go sailing. My training camp buddies have gone back to Alberta and most of the Royal Vic sailors are at school. Steve said last night that Phil would be coming out around 2pm. It wasn't even 1pm yet, but I decided to get rigged and see if Phil came early. He didn't. I checked my rig and then hopped in to face the sea monster alone. No coach boat, no other dinghys. Small comfort in the whistle tied to my lifejacket. If I really get in trouble it's possible that Steve will hear the whistle. Here's Fionnlagh preparing to get rigged:

I toodled around a bit, a few tacks, a lot of gybes. On the upwind I was working on leveling the boat, pointing, and speed. Then I did a few acceleration drills. After about an hour on the water, Phil joined me. I followed him. He gybed repeatedly downwind and then roll tacked all the way back up. He is roll gybing. I'm working on it. Phil reminded me to sheet in to 45 degrees before the sail comes over. This will help to prevent the mainsheet from getting caught on the transom. I'm gybing better than last summer, but more practice is needed to become consistent. It's still a bit wobbly and scary in high winds. The wind was a bit breezy this afternoon. At times I was planing downwind. At other times there wasn't enough breeze to push the main out on a run.

Then we headed out on starboard tack close hauled to work on boat speed. The wind was just enough that I had to hike out fully most of the time but I could keep the boat level. A few gusts increased the challenge. I was footing and sailed closer to Phil. He reminded me to watch my ticklers to stay close hauled.

We reached in, but it wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be. The wind was dying. We practiced acceleration a couple of times and then it began to hail. Phil reminded me that the key to good acceleration from a stop is to heel the boat well. It was very cold so we went in. Sailing in the hail is not fun. We had to tack between the rocks and the yachts to get to the docks. The wind was dead in patches and I roll tacked to maintain speed. Ooops! Rolled too far and capsized! Managed to stay dry- I climbed over the top and brought him back up. Managed not to drift into the rocks either (see photo of big ass rock below)!

2 hours of practice and I'm worn out! Forecast is for 30 knots tomorrow! Yikes!

Flying on the 470 Trapeze

Pouring rain, maybe 5 degrees C. AST has gone home, except for me and Zoe. Peter was keen on getting us to try double handed sailing. We had three 470's, eight sailors/coaches, and Maddy for the coach boat. Zoe took her Radial out and Peter borrowed Fionnlagh. Erin and Meri took their 470, Jenn took Phil Round as her crew and I had the good fortune of crewing for Steve. I haven't used a harness since high school in Doug Bell's Laser >>. I haven't run a spinnaker since Revelry in 2002, unless you count Philona's cruising chute. No pole with that. And keel boat spinnakers are different from dinghys.

Victoria Family Day Training - Crash

Big gusty winds today. Probably 20 knots. Outside Cadboro Bay there were waves and whitecaps. In the morning we did tacking and gybing drills in the bay followed by starting and stopping upwind drills. The we ran down to a mark outside the bay and began tacking upwind towards a mark that none of us could see. (I for one had no idea of even the general area where the mark was supposed to be). I totally forgot to crank the cunningham and was overpowered. The group stopped- at the time I didn't know it was because no one knew where the mark was. I stopped too as I caught up with then. As the coach boat approached, they all started again and I did too.

Steve pointed out I was working way too hard. Cunningham. I trying to yank it in, I stalled the boat. Then I was blown backwards. Steve yelled to ease the vang to power up. Before I could do that I capsized. As I swam to windward the boat was rapidly turtling under the force of the wind on the hull. I arrived at the centreboard just in time to see the last inch of it disappear through the slot. Oops.

Peter tried to help right it by raising one gunwale while I stood on the other but we didn't have enough leverage. I swam to leeward, kicked under the boat and managed to find the board. I kicked it up and grabbed the couple inches that came through the slot. Leverage. I righted the boat and then it came back over on me. Swam to windward, righted again and climbed in. Freezing cold. In the water too long. Luckily, it was lunch time anyway.

The reach back was fabulous- planing most of the way. Tricky tacking upwind to the dock between the yachts and the monster rock. I was shivering.

Key points for the morning:

• remember the cunningham when it's windy!
• when stalled, power up the sail a bit- ease vang
• good point: I remembered not to gybe as a gust hits. Best to be at full speed going into the gybe rather than get flattened by a gust right after the gybe.
  

Lunch talk
Keep the boat flat! It is an art. The idea is that increased wind power should increase boat speed, not heel. As a gust hits, ease the main so the boat doesn't heel under the force. As the boat speeds up, ease the main back in for more speed.

• Work on S turns while gybing
• Work on tacking slowly - i.e. less rudder (rudder=brake)

Afternoon
I was on port tack. I saw Zoe a little late, it took me a second to work out that she had the right of way. I thought she was about to tack to stay with the tack-on-the-whistle drill. She didn't tack and I tried to bear off but I was heeled from a gust and I couldn't ease the main without dipping the boom in the water- certain capsize under these conditions. Zoe's mistakes were not pointing high enough and being out of position for the drill. I ran out of time and before I could make the decision to capsize, my bow ended up on her stern, then back in the wate. No damage done. But the section of her mainsheet between the boom and the traveller was wrapped around my bow. This one small line prevented both of us from sailing free. I tried pushing her boat backwards from mine to get the bow out but there was too much force from the wind. Peter and Steve were yelling some instruction but I was focussed on the mainsheet and worried it would slip back further. Zoe capsized with her blades under Fionnlagh. I was still tangled in her mainsheet. I tried to get the pressure off her centreboard. Then Fionnlagh capsized the other way. Zoe cleared her mainsheet while I pushed the hulls apart to try to save the blades. Then we were free. The trick was to right both of the boats without another collision. I got up and out of the way. Zoe took a little longer. Net damage - small chip out of back bottom corner of my board, entire chunk of Zoe's back bottom corner gone. Sorry Zoe, my fault. I owe you a repair.

I found out much later that Steve and Peter were yelling for me to push the rudder and sail backwards out of the tangle. That would have been so much easier. I must work on my backwards sailing skills so that that becomes an intuitive option. Or maybe I should just look out for other boats!

Dear competitors, this photo might help you to recognize us on the race course:

Fionnlagh and Kate go to Sailing Camp

In spite of a general lack of sleep in the last two nights, I awoke early to the sound of rain. A brief venture outside revealed a total lack of wind. Still, I drove down to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club to meet up with the others and see what the plan for the day would be. When I arrived, people were busy rigging boats. The wind was picking up we were told. And so it was.

When the rain stopped, it was clear that Royal Vic is a beautiful place to sail. A view to the Haro Straight with snow covered mountains in the background. Coach Steve tells us the water temperature is 7C, which is probably quite a bit warmer than Glenmore most of the summer. Not that I was planning on testing the water.

We began with windward/leeward tacking/gybing practice. I felt rusty and the wind was picking up. Hiking required most of the time. I'm more confident gybing now than I was before Hastings. Roll tacks are terrible again but that is likely due to fear of the new waters.

Next drill was starts. Two minute countdown with the expectation that we would sit on the line and sheet in with 10 seconds to go. Later variation of this drill was two minute countdown with the start anytime in the last 30 seconds. This forced us to sit near the line early. I'm still having trouble with getting to the line at the right time. Too late, too early and over before the start. I also need to work on accelerating quickly from a stop. The coaches said no vang when sitting, a little vang just before the start. Sheet in, allow the boat to heel and balance it for acceleration. Then go all out on the vang and block to block on the main. It sounds so simple but I'm not executing quickly and smoothly.

The next drill was about improving boat speed. All on starboard tack we reached out of the bay. We were then divided into groups: Bytes, Lasers, and Radials. Three Radials. We pulled even with each other and took off when the coaches said go. I fell behind quite quickly. It was comfortable full hiking conditions with gusts above that level. My difficulty is in handling the gusts and keeping the boat level. The coaches were asking us to steer the gusts to keep the boat level instead of dumping the sail. This was not the whole story as I found out back on land. The idea is to punch the rudder quickly to level the boat and then return to even helm. I was luffing to wind which also levels the boat, but it's slow. The other piece that I didn't know was that dumping the sail is okay to avoid stalling in a gust, provided the dump is short and I sheet in again within a few seconds. When tired and scared, the tendency is to leave the sheet out, then I end up steering to the sail trim which puts me on a close reach instead of close hauled as I should be. Way off course.

I think we were on the water for a bit over 2 hours in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. Following the afternoon session, we joined the Royal Vic team for a tactics talk. I learned a lot about the effects of the wind shadow. Most surprising was that tacking past the transom of another boat should give a lift- making ducking more attractive in certain circumstances. We also talked about lee-bow effect and how it is important to tack out of that situation. If covered on a tack, it can be best to foot away to clear air.

Okay, that's enough techie talk for now.. or is it? All that close hauled sailing was answered with an equal distance of fast reaching. I learned a lot there too. Sit further back in the boat, keep shoulders square to the boom, position feet so that I can shift forward or aft as needed. The big difference was holding the tiller extension at the U-joint with the extension vertical for better control. So much easier on the arms and Peter said I have stopped stearing like a drunk! The gusts were fantastic and several times I thought the boat would take flight. Super fast planing is awesome and I am managing to keep the fear under control and smile a bit more on the water.

4 more days of camp to go.

Fionnlagh's Road Trip

Peter MacDougall came by this morning and we carried Fionnlagh out of the basement and onto the ASA trailer. I need stronger arms as I was struggling to lift the stern over the top of the stairs. I think I've lost a bit of strength since the end of the season.

Peter is taking Fionnlagh and 5 others to Victoria. I'll be joining them on Feb 15 for the ASA family day weekend training camp at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. I'm hoping to stay for the Frozen Assets regatta, but tempted to return for the GSC AGM and Annual Banquet. If there is a Radial fleet and a decent forecast, I'll stay for the regatta.

Stay tuned for training tales.