The Gator Bowl 2011

The unavoidable occurred; we are about packed and ready to leave home and... creepy neighbor (CN) appears seemingly out of nowhere. He is lurking at and around his house under construction right next to ours. Fortunately, we are about to roll so we shoosh him away and head out. The bright side is he wanted to discuss the type of fence that will soon separate his place from ours. My advice; the taller the better to which I get the tilted head puzzled look similar to what you get from the dog. It turns out the cool neighbor on the other side of CN is moving; partly due to CN. Cool neighbor got wind of CN's possible plans of not having a fence at all! Cool neighbor took matters in his own hands and.. OUT!

We are thinking of moving too, but that is a blog topic for another time.

We recently finished a Kay Scarpetta novel by Patricia Cornwell. She has a number of books in the series, the main character is a coroner in and around Richmond VA. The coroner part is pretty interesting but we are both in agreement that her writing style is just too tedious so we are happy to be done with that. For our trip to Jax we are starting a David Baldacci novel, Deliver us from Evil. We shall see. For me, the jury is out on him too, but I am keeping an open mind. I was in the mood for a Thorn book, Robert W. Hall, but our inventory is lacking.

We arrive at the Rudder Club about 2:30 after an uneventful trip. Uneventful is good when considering we are in a new/used RV.

Here we have RV row. We are at right, the Lintons center, and at left we have the John and John/designer/condo/mobile including the much sought-after faux granite countertops.

We intentionally arrived after them for the;

preferred waterfront view...except for the pesky suv's, forest of pines, ratty dock and interstate highway bridge. But hey!

It has become a mini-tradition to gather at Trent's on Friday night for dinner. Trent's is a little dive not far from the club but the beer is cheap and you can eat the food with few ramifications. I think our headcount was 22 which really makes us popular with the hostess/pissed off door cop-ette. Having no real seating choices we settled in on the outdoor patio, outdoor patio in Jax. in Dec. is a lot like the word "brisk". They have one of those gas heaters that went a long way toward keeping us comfortable, until the gas ran out. The staff seemed a little iffy on the refueling process but we had Andy Hayward in the crowd so, no problem.

Come Saturday morning, it was obvious we were going to see a nice turnout of Scot-ticians, 25 to be exact, very cool. There were also a few Snipes and Lasers, this would probably be a good intro to the video that was posted on Youtube so; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZDKiHVl1V8 Pretty cool but my advice is, don't blink.

We did three races in about 12 to 15 that was steady from the NE. Pretty sure this was the most steady I have seen at the RC. Oh yeah, there was a mess of General recalls. A strong ebb current opposing the solid breeze and you get the idea. It was a really great day of sailing with much starting practice so all is good.

Donna and Jon always do a great job with the food and this year they brought in some Cuban chow that was up to their high standard. They got on everyone's good side by handing out free beer, so there you go.

We are expecting a little warmer weather and more sun on Sunday but it seems the breeze may be a little iffy. We wake up to...

Fog...WTF

The warning signal was scheduled for 9:55, so at about 9:50, in about 1.8 knots of breeze the RC decided to bang out the first general recall of the day. Did I mention the current is flowing north against the zephyr of a breeze from the north. Hmmm. The RC strategy worked perfectly and killed enough time for the wind do build to about 4 to 5 so we try again. Blah, blah, blah, racing, racing, racing. It was a good race when it was all said and done, especially for Paul Abdullah (Thistle class champion). He managed a huge comeback to grab a bullet and widen his slight lead from Saturday. Those in hot pursuit were John Aras, Jeff Linton and Jim Egan.

The fifth and final race started out ok, but quickly landed on my personal top ten list of most frustrating races of all time. This also earned the "sailing sucks" tag on this blog post, there are more of those if you care. During the second beat the breeze was fading fast but the current was going strong, an ok combo for a shortened finish at the weather mark but not ok for a leeward finish against the flow. Nuff said.

Hearty congratulations to Paul Abdullah and his crew Alex who bested the previously mentioned group of stars! Results should be up soon on the Rudder Club website.

We FL-ians are always grateful for the company of the Northerners who come to play, the Privateer YC sent three; Rob Fowler, Bill Humphreys and Ed Craig. Ryan Malmgren jetted in from WI, while his able crew, Tom Lawton, drove the boat down from the Carolinas. I like that deal! John and John did the MD and VA rep and of course Charlie and Nancy Fowler dropped in for communion on their way south to the Keys. Despite their best efforts Wally remains a Gator!

Still chasing the Linton's, we are used to it!

Out.

Tampa Fleet Racing Kick-off

It has been a long time since we fleet raced, and our group was pretty lean; 4 Scots and a 420. Early on it looked a little dicey for a lack of wind. It was looking like a little southerly was trying to fill in but it was really patchy. Around 2 pm it started to fill in so we all lauched and went out. Here is a shot of the wind;



During the second race it tailed off which is clearly visible on the graph. This was the lull before the pressure (seabreeze) filled in from the right. We sailed two more races in perfect conditions but by then, it was about 5 pm, so we called it a day.

It was a great day but sadly, the most excitement came from the haul-out on the hoist. Mark was in mid hoist with, gasp, a borrowed boat when the boat crashed to the ground. The forward half was over the ground/bulkhead while the aft half was still over water. The boat seemed to pause for a second or two after impact but the stern dropped into the water and with a sickening sound it scraped its way backwards until the bow fell back into the water. The mast was torqued pretty good...



This definently qualifies as one of those "sailing sucks" moments.





The boat bottom looks amazingly good, far better than the concrete bulkhead that has some chunks missing. Go figure!

2011 Midwinters Wrap-up, Photos

Some of you regulars may have noticed that the daily blog posts were a little light on content. My laptop has the extremely annoying, random curser thing, that makes me want to bounce it off the wall. If you are not familiar with this the curser randomly repositions itself as you type so the letters may be right where you want them or in the middle of a sentence three lines up, or anywhere else on the screen. This is not a productivity booster! I'm home now on the desktop so we are back in business.

Back to the regatta... We had a really good time aside from me obtaining the new nickname of "keg boy". Seems that a word like technician (or similar)could have been worked into it somehow w/o too much difficulty. But no!

We rented a house for the week that seemed to be the perfect fit, lots of bedrooms and bathrooms and seemingly good for about 10 people. So about two weeks ago I did a "drive by" since I was in Sarasota for a midwinter planning meeting. Uh oh...



A quick double check of the address to be sure I had the right place, not really looking to impressive from the road, now is it? Could there really be 5 bedrooms in there? I decide to snap a photo and email it to Harry since he had made the arrangements. Email reply from Harry; "Hope it's bigger than it looks". As it turns out the house was perfect, the rooms were big and there were lots of them, we actually could have had more people in on the deal but who knew?

So we did not get to race on Thursday and Friday since the breeze was "on". That kinda sucked but what can you do? Sailing sucks sometimes as you can plainly see;


On the bright side Lainie Pardey took a bunch of photos on Wednesday, so I am including a few here;











Lainie was also pin boat as well as photographer extraordinaire!! To see more of her pictures go to FSSA.com, they are on the homepage.

It seemed the 63 boat gang liked the Sarasota Sailing Squadron and Sarasota Bay aside from a little more breeze then would have been ideal. The 2012 Midwinters will be held at the Southern YC in New Orleans before returning to Sarasota again in 2013.

Keg boy out.

NAC Friday

July 2, 2010

IN WHICH the regatta is a regatta after all.

In order for the Flying Scot North American Championships to be complete, three races had to be scored. As earlier reported, the weather has been unsettled to the point of malice – lots of thunderstorm squalls and then absolute millpond calms, and very little of the gorgeous, hot, sea-breezy conditions that we were expecting. (I was told there would be cake as well, but that’s another story altogether.)

Between the weather and bad luck, we started this morning (at 9:30!) with but one race on the scoreboard. Things were a bit tense. Still, the RC prevailed and sent the fleet out to race in some lightish conditions. We got in a race before the breeze shut down, which gave us a fourth. Richard Wake and Jennifer Judkins from Texas took the race categorically, though Robert Cummings and Nina Boswell (Hey Texas!) had great speed.

Then came the wait and inevitable countdown. No races to start after 3 pm, so as we most of us drifted around the race committee in the melt-your-macademia-nuts-off haze, we started counting. Two hours and twenty minutes until the cutoff. Two hours and fourteen minutes until the cutoff. One hour and fifty-five minutes.

At around one hour and forty minutes to go, there was rumor of wind, and Clinton put up a come within hail flag. This drew back those boats that had slid closer to the harbor (some even at the dock! Gasp! Some probably drinking at the bar! Not us, since we packed a big cooler) but alas, the rumor proved flat for another hour or so.

Finally this afternoon, with a half-hour or so to go, we got the kind of conditions we had been hoping for: hot like an oven, yes, but with a lovely sea-breeze filling in to around 7 knots. Al Terhune took an early lead, and though there was a big black cloud threatening on the other side of the bay, both fleets finished and got to shore without incident.

The Flying Scot class has a LOT of silver to award, and some of the notables from Florida: Kimmie and Dave won race 2 in the Challenger division trotting away from the rest of the fleet. Ray Laguna was in the money, finishing 10th in the Challengers. Both got cool bags. I’ve listed some of the results below. Maybe Dave and his magical slow computer will put up the rest…Must pack up and get ready to hit the road in the a.m. Maybe late in the a.m. Maybe after some lunch...


Partial Results
1 Al Terhune/Katie Terhune 5,5,1 11 points
2. Chris Wientjes/Dave Bolyard 2,2,8 12 pts
3. Jeff/Amy 7,4,2 13 pts
4. Andrew Eagen/Shelby Friedrichs 4,9,5 18 pts
5. Zak Fanberg/Gary Taylor, 10,3,6 19 pts
6. John Dane/Schaffer Dane 1.6.13 20 pts
7. Richard Wade/Jennifer Judkins 9,1,10 20 pts
8. Max Albert/Steve Hunt/Avery Sollberger 3,14,11 28 pts
9 Dave Boylard Jr/Bradley Jarvis 6,12,12 30 pts
10. Larry Taggart/Carrie Berger 12,7,14 33 pts.

Challenger Fleet
1. Ben Williams/Deb Aronson 1,2,3, 6 points

Some more from Kim;
Bright and early, the roosters and howling dogs outside greet the day. Nature, it turns out, is very noisy at times. The chorus of frogs at night is quite different from the chirping of crickets at home. New dogs greet us on our street for more morning excitement.
As expected, rain starts as we get ready to leave the house.
The last day of “The NACs that almost weren’t” begins with a race that actually counts! And, bonus, we won! The RC tried to start the next race in a ridiculous amount of non-breeze, and wisely abandoned as some boats in the Championship fleet have not crossed the starting line after ~5min. Wow. We settled in for a long stretch of waiting, bobbing, drifting. RC has till 3:00 pm to start a race to complete this regatta.
Between 2 and 2:15, our boat is pointed toward the yacht club and a horn is sounded calling sailors to get ready to race. It seems futile to us, Sailflow has nothing good on the radar (what would we do without a Blackberry), the smokestacks remain in a straight-up position, and Clinton starts a sequence in questionable conditions, patchy ripples on the bay, and potential for a very poor race. Dave and I make our final decision to continue on to the club, as beating the rush to the hoist, washing the boat, hanging by the pool, and margaritas seem like the preferred activity.
At ~2:45, though, the prayers of many on the water are answered as the promised sea breeze fills in, and the best and last race of the regatta is completed. The Terhunes run away with the win in the Championship fleet, and Diane and Greg Kampf win this race in the Challenger fleet. Fun to watch! Then, as if on cue, thunderstorms that had been threatening, finally let loose to complete the day and complicate hoisting once again, dowsing competitors and sails, once again. With the guidance of the volunteers at the hoist, all goes without incident. At least we had been warm and dry earlier in the day.
Congrats to the winners!! The hurricane-themed regatta is in the books, much to the relief of the race committee, I’m sure.
Dinner-time! The troops organized again for dinner at Trapani’s. This family is amazing. The older brother seems to run the restaurant, then, there are twin younger brothers, one bought us margaritas at the club, the other is the Commodore at the club and was available on award night for pictures. The Patriarch maintains watch at the weather/radio station at the club and monitors the comings and goings. He is omnipresent and helps with communication between RC on the water and volunteers in the club. I’m sure he’s in charge of many other things as well. At Trapani’s, we had our table with Jeff, Amy, Ryan, Carrie, and the Fowlers. Lo and ahold, Harry and crew also join in for a good dinner before the 3 hr trip to their evening destination. We are surprised by the arrival of plates of appetizers that we didn’t order, and we are thankful to Bubby Eagan for his generosity. Yummy stuff. I don’t think there is anything this restaurant makes that we wouldn’t eat. This is really a great small town with wonderful folks.

NAC Thursday

Sorry this is late but....

We try again! Again, it rains when we try to walk the dogs, but we are not deterred. We head toward Spruce Street, in the direction of Ben and Deb’s house where Ryan hopes to some day sample some cappuccino from Ben’s cool machine.
As we travel, we are greeted by 3 dogs that run off their porch (not much in the way of fences or leashes in these parts) and follow us home. Carrie lifted Alfie for the walk back to the house, Missy and Lexi managed to make friends after the human energy calmed down. They seemed young, one brown hound-y looking male, one brindle pit-mix female with white socks on her front feet, and a small, black male with all-too-prominent ribs. We continued on our way home, with our escorts. As we leave to go racing, the female stayed on our steps.

After another long day of racing, Clinton keeps his gun close-by. One race, but Dave and I came in early after some frustration. John and Susan and Ryan and Carrie had some great races that, of course, didn’t count. The pressure is on for getting 2 races in on Friday. We feel like we’ve been sailing for a really long time. Clinton alerts us to wake up even earlier tomorrow; so much for the civilized 1:00 starts and sea breeze schedule.

On the drive home, Dave remembers the dogs from this am. We hope we don’t see the girl when we pull into the driveway. Sadly, she’s still there. We drove in search of the house she came from, and find some nice folks who seemed to actually be concerned about their missing dog. Her name is Bella.
One of the guys follows us back to our house where she remained (phew!) and he takes her home.

Drinks start at the house, dinner at the club was nice, met some new people, and the annual meeting is blessedly short (a little nip doesn’t hurt!).
Blog entries are a little behind schedule, as dinners tend to go a little late and the mornings get earlier and earlier. No WIFI at the house, but we are thankful for Direct TV and cell phone reception. We ARE in backwoods Mississippi (see Amy’s post for pronunciation cues). The house is great, though, excellent situation for regatta-ing. We “heart” our roomies!

Thanks to Amy, here goes;

IN WHICH the Nannering Nabobs of Negativity had their say.

Thursday of the Flying Scot NACs featuring Guest sailor Hurricane Alex brought us a score! The series began! The RC pushed the schedule early, and we started at 10:30, in lightish air (all to the good!), but alas, when the wind began to die, and the RC called a finish at the leeward gate, it was after only three legs.

The NOR requires four legs for any race. (Insert the sound of Mark Taylor quoting Homer Simpson, DOHH!)

So, a second first race, under cloudy skies as the weather settled. And settled. And, during the final leg, shifted and settled some more. The kind of race where the windward leg becomes the leeward leg, and people are flying ‘chutes on the same leg others are beating to weather. Frustrating. Hot like an oven. Zephyr conditions, with the current just starting to flow…John Dane was about two boat-lengths from the finish when the RC called the time limit of two hours. (Repeat sound of Homer Simpson, in chorus: DOOOHHH!) We were in about 4th or so, ten boat-lengths back, ten minutes or so from finishing.

Back to the harbor under tow, three o’clock in the afternoon of Thursday of the week of racing, and not a single point to post on the finish board. (Unless someone can convince the jury that the offset mark makes another leg of the course, but we think that is a long-decided point.) We were over early that one, had to round the end and restart, and had battled back to top ten – which is nice, but still.

Some muttering and moaning on shore, lots of people glad not to be on the Race Committee. Clinton the PRO told us not to take boats our of the water, but many people figured the breeze was dead for the dead – Marcus Eagan was out on a powerboat, towed us in, and then asked if it was a beer-drinkin night… Still, we kept the Mighty Majestic in the water, loosened the rig some, and then BANG! Next start at 4:3o.

This time with feeling. This time, rather, the first race of the series gets off with a nice little seabreeze ruffling the water. And the current starting up. I imagine the RC was ready to sacrifice small furry animals to whatever gods and goddesses rule the –– WAIT right there, HOLD ON! This is the honest-to-goodness South, and we had a Christian blessing at the opening of this event -- so ix-nay on the acrifice-say! Heathens! They had to be about as frustrated as any of the sailors, let’s say that.

Anyway, although the weather looked very dicey, the wind never really let up (the spinnaker collapsed only a couple of times) and Bang! John Dane won by a mile. Bolyard second. We were top ten. Finished racing at 5:45, sailed to the dock, shower by 6:10. Dinner tonight at the club –– we sure earned it.

It’s astonishing to have had this much racing with so little scoring to show. Ryan and Carrie had a fabulous lead in one race for a long while, putting the petal to the metal on Hogwarts Express 2 2/3. I watched (and was ready to witness!) as Harry Carpenter dealt with a windward mark barger so calmly -- so reasonably! -- it was inspiring. He said, in a calm conversational tone, "Do I have to protest you?" To which the other skipper, nameless, replied, "For what?" as he continued to steer at right angles to the offset leg, on port, with a line of starboard tackers beginning to stack up rub-rail to rub-rail.

I imagine there are a thousand stories to catch tonight, but this is pretty much my entire brain contents for now.

Day 4 First Day of Racing at Sandy Douglass Regatta

Breezy, warm mostly nice day with gusty, shifty breeze which peaked at about 22 knots. Deep Creek Lake lived up to its reputation as super shifty but John Meredith and Chris Danilek were unfazed with each getting a first and second to end the day tied.

Two races in and 2 DNFs for us. During the first race as were were rounding the leeward mark to go upwind the rudderhead strap that holds the mainsheet lower block broke. There was a powerboat close by offering a tow so we dropped the flogging mainsail and tossed them a line. The schedule includes a lunch stop in between the first and second races so we figured we would snag a new part form Harry, grab some lunch and be good for the second race. We didn't anticipate being forced onto a rocky leeward shore by a nameless, overzealous challenger fleet boat. This was the reason I filed a protest although racing rules are not real specific about such situations. The protest was dismissed and the full story too long for me to tell here. Fortunently, the damage to the tow boats prop is not too severe and only our rudder hit the rocks so nothing a file can't fix. I was sweating the centerboard, for sure but it's ok.

Lots of overly aggressive sailing, seemed kinda un-Scot-like. Knowing how hard we race in the Florida District Championship with rarely a protest and not too much shouting has me thinking we are pretty fortunate.

We even broke the cooler but the ice and beer were unaffected.

District Regatta in Eustis

This past weekend we visited Eustis to do a little lake sailing and tackle the 4th Regatta of our State Championship. The regatta report, results and updated series standings are up on the District Website

There were huge position changes but none bigger than in the last race. Jim Egan had a really nice race going leading the way at the second weather mark. A huge dead zone and the 1st became 16th. Ouch. There were other huge gains and losses, as well. We had one of our own, second race, third leg and we are sitting (I mean sitting!) about 20th. Almost a full leg behind the leaders but near the mark we get inside and pass two boats. All of a sudden we are fast, smart and probably really lucky, we finish 8th. Go figure. One thing I will always remember about lake sailing is no lead is safe and/or you are never out of it.

Now for some random chatter;

EustisReport - I've never seen so many World and NA Champs walking around in one place before. Thirty Scots registered! As for the sailing - Have you ever sailed a race where it became pretty clear that strategically it was much better to position yourself in last place than ever to be hanging waaay out there in first? Just ask Jeff Linton at today's first windward mark, or Jim Egan at the final windward mark. Jim's lead over the other 29 boats at that point was measurable in nautical miles. Didn't matter tho'. That's what Eustis was like. Very nice crowd sailing, and running, the regatta, which is why it remains one of the best annual Scot regattas. Chuck.

First, let me whine about last sunday: I would. I could and I should, 'cept the guys that placed at the top are the same guys who placed at the top of the other races. So who am I to complain? I must admit tho, it was a painful last leg. Usually, when something like that happens, there is some good-natured ribbing. I think others felt my pain, though, as I have never had so many people walk up to me and say (without apparent sarcasm) that they felt sorry for me. It may be the new administration, (then again, there certainly was some "redistribution of wealth" out there), or it may be that we are a kinder gentler nation, or it could be that it was the single worst drubbing in the history of sport, (think: agony of defeat) but people didn't even tease us. They just came over and expressed their condolences. It was lonely over there, terry wouldn't even speak to me and he was in the same boat! Thanks everyone for not pouring salt in the wound. The salt from my own tears was pain enough. How will i ever forget this? how can i put it behind me? i'll just have to remember the leeward mark rounding and forget all the rest. Now for next sunday:

I hope and plan to be there. Who else is in? Jim.

Dear Jim, I caught multiple lumber across the bridge of my nose on the icy high school rinks of NH that didn't hurt near as bad as what happened to you yesterday. Plz count me in for next Sunday. Chuck

Recommendation to all SSS Scot skippers; next time you see Jim Egan, buy him a beer. It was PAINFUL to watch, even as one struggling like hell to try to beat him. Dave.

We can't get worked up about these things. Bad to grip too tight. A little scared for this morning's patients tho'. Chuck

Jim, Sorry we weren't there to offer our condolences. For those like us that didn't make it I think I found some coverage of the last race on youtube: Hope to see you Sun.
John & Suz.

The only thing going through my mind are condolences to Jims first monday morning patient as he gets back to work with drill in hand! Bob.

Labor Day Fleet Race (Pummeling) in Tampa

Sound familiar? Fleet race at 3pm, thunderstorm shows up right on time. Go figure.




More later...

Ok, its a little later. Andy has this to say:


43.5 knots at 1532, or so says the anemometer at the club. Having left the dock at around 1500, team #38 has no reason to doubt it!

When I close my eyes and think of sailing, I fancy blue skies, fresh breezes, and sparkling water.

I SWEAR ONE OF THESE DAYS IT WILL HAPPEN!

Around 1330 most teams were setting up, rigging boats and got chased into the club by a stout boomer. The consensus was that it was good to get that out of the way.

The skies cleared up a bit so it was back out to the boats and in the water they go.
It wasn't very long once out on the bay that it became evident that another storm cell was forming from the North. The wind ramped up pretty quickly and the conversation on #38 was if we could somehow skirt the storm...

Nope, no fringes, solid gray from Bayshore to the channel. Everyone has their stories of tested seamanship and valor. Ours from old #38 was how awful the boat shakes with a flogging main and how the un-sheeted main was trying to drag us over.

Match the quotes: This is a test. There is a prize.

1. "any other centerboarder would have tipped over"
2. "last ones in, we WON!"
3. "this is the last time Jeff will loan me his boat"
4. "time for a new suit of sails, SHUCKS!"
5. "how does this halyard thingy work"
6. "50 year old chainplates don't fail us now"
7. "my green crew and I are outta here!"
8. "the police car on Bayshore has his lights on for us, how nice"
9. "Hike like he__ Dad!"

A. #5026 Paul Silvernail and Leslie Fisher
B. #4321 Mark and Tom Taylor
C. #812 Bo, DeDe, and Alyson
D. #38 Andy and Lisa Hayward
E. #4156 Dave Bell and Susan Cintron
F. #4925 Dave and Kim Thinel
G. #2007 Josh and his buddy
H. #5477 Dean Bell and nephew Mike
I. #504 Al Thompson and Cameron Salmon

Everyone was eventually accounted for and only a few sails were damaged. The weather remained gray and rainy for the rest of the afternoon, but this did little to dampen the spirits of the hearty bunch known as Fleet 168! Thanks to all for the good eats, and to Lisa Hayward for her efforts with the cookunder.

Thanks to Henry Moore and Jay Tyson for their efforts on RC and the tow in of the unnamed Scot with the red waterline.

****Please review the class rules in regards to anchor requirements, this was a problem for some boats.****

Our next Fleet Race is September 20th @ 1500 and I promise the weather will be horrible, but the company will be great! We hope to have Jay Tyson as RC again.

Flying Scots at the Gator Bowl

Well, this site seems to be having issues. I had added a post earlier which seems to be lost in cyberspace so here is the important stuff;

Results and Fl District Standings are up on the District site http://www.fssa.com/fldist/news.htm

Gator bowl site has detailed results http://gatorbowl.home.comcast.net/~gatorbowl/OneDesign07.htm#scot

Maybe the lost post will become found and re-appear...

RX for PIG PEN

It’s been a little while since my last post. That means there has not been enough sailing happening, at least for me. Kim on the other hand, has had a few outings on the Sunfish and is really having fun and is doing well in her first season on that boat. We haven’t named it so maybe for the time being it will be referred to as “that boat”. I personally think calling that thing a boat is being quite generous but she is having fun, so we’ll go with it.

A few people have been inquiring about PIG PEN so I thought it might be good to do a progress report on the repairs. To recap a little, we last raced Labor Day weekend and were involved in a collision (I did my 720) where we were basically T-boned on the port side about where the skipper normally sits. The breeze was about 15-ish and the other boat was at about full speed (beating to weather) so it was a pretty solid impact. That sound of crunching fiberglass….. I hate it when that happens.

Port rail damage about where the skipper sits

The hull cracks from below looking up

I have included some photos of the damage and a few more of the repair. Unfortunately, I did not think of the camera when doing the fiberglassing so that part is left to your imagination. Also, I decided to repair the deck but left the cracks in the hull alone since they aren’t too bad and I’m lazy. The deck repair was essential for two reasons; one is that it is cored with balsa so needs to be kept dry. The second and way more important reason was to keep the splintered fiberglass out of my ass.

The first step was to remove the aluminum rub rail and then pick away the loose gelcoat and fiberglass resin to get down to a solid base. That turned out to be a little iffy since removing all of the fractured glass would have left an oval shaped hole about 1 by 2 inches. I was surprised at how much was broken when I started picking at it. Instead, I left some damaged glass to be the base to support the first of 3 layers of 18 oz. biax cloth. The third layer of cloth was sufficient to build up the area to just above the surrounding gelcoat. Once cured, it was sanded smooth and the flange was filed and shaped to accept the rub rail.

The patch after sanding smooth

One other thing I noticed was the balsa core became delaminated from the fiberglass deck in the surrounding area from the impact. It’s not very noticeable unless you get your eye close to the deck and sight it fore and aft. There is a small “hill” where it should be flat but fixing it would have meant a patch about 4 or 5 times as big and it is unnecessary except possibly for cosmetic reasons.

From the stern the small "hill" is visible to the right of the patch

The next step was to straighten the aluminum rub rail. I expected this to be a snap but as with most “simple projects” it took a little longer than I expected. It’s a little hard to describe but if you picture the rail in its mounted position it is easy to bend it away from or towards the boat. However, it is tricky to get it to bend up or down without it rolling over and bending side to side instead. A vise, two c-clamps, a hammer, some beer, some trial and error and about an hour later it was acceptable.

With the rub rail installed it looks ok, for an old, semi-ugly boat. Actually the photos make the repair look worse than it is. If you run your hand over the patch it is very smooth and fair but in the photos it doesn't look that way, I thought about painting over the patch (and several others on the aft deck) with some white primer I have on hand but decided against it. PIG PEN is a 1965 model with a very faded yellow deck so I may pick up some pale yellow paint to match a little better. Kim seems to enjoy looking at paint color chips in Home Depot so that may be in her future.

Near deck level of finished repair

From above...

Once the work was completed I decided to look inside the hull to see if any resin had dripped through the repair area, I had forgotten to place a rag to catch them. No drips but the 3 fiberglass straps that hold up the Styrofoam blocks were all detached from the hull. They remain attached to the underside of the seat, so not a big deal but it would have been nice to know when I had the batch of resin going. OK, so I’ll use 5200 instead…..

Port side strofoam blocks hanging down a bit

Yep, dried up in the tube….

Maybe some duct tape....

Labor Day Racing

Here is a report of the action from Saturday as reported by our Fleet Captain: Andy Hayward. I tried to get a few photos but they are before or between races, the planing reaches were a bit much for picture taking, while skippering.

Getting ready for the first start, breeze about 15, thunder head to the NW

Our Labor Day fleet race quite interesting, wacky in fact. we had a nice turnout of Ten boats, a few less than anticipated, the iffy forecast and a sick spouse thinned the ranks a bit.
At noon the wind was a solid 12k from the South west and the area was peppered with thunderstorms.
Race #1 started in bumpy waves and bumper boats at the start,

Bumper boat fall-out to PIG PEN'S port rail, more like a crash than a bump...

Rod Koch and Suzy Reichner #5296, slid thru the mess to win wire to wire, and the wind went right quite a bit, (the theme of the day). Race #2 required a sizeable adjustment and started in less breeze, say 8-10k but quickly ramped up to max depower mode as a thunder cell scraped the course. Andy and Lisa Hayward #38, allegedly jumped the gun, (hey cut me a break it's my birthday!) and blast reached away in oh sh__ we have to jibe conditions. But alas, Dave Clement got the gun.So much for the nice sunny day

Race #3 required yet another course change, Thank You Tom Taylor, Joe Linton,
Craig, and Mark Taylor for your hard work chasing the wind! The wind was back down for #3, around 6k and was now from the North West. The wind faded even more and saw Rod Koch lead Dave and Kim Thinel around for the first two legs. Andy and Lisa slipped by the Thinels on the second beat, and the final run got really weird as one last thunder cell swept in from the South. Spinnakers where dropped and Rod and Suzy beat #38 to the finish in the pouring rain. The poor Race committee finally said enough and sent the fleet in. The race was actually refreshing as it rinsed some of the salt off.

Results:
R1 R2 R3 Tot
Rod Koch and Suzy #5296 1 2 1 4
Dave Clement and Jeff Kinsinger #4318 3 1 6 10
Dave and Kim Thinel #812 5 5 3 13
Nate and Melissa Velardebo and Josh #4321 7 3 5 15
Jeff Linton, Robert and Grinder Hobbs #2456 4 4 7 15
Paul and Leslie Silvernail #5026 2 dnf10 4 16
Dean Bell and Penny Ruark #4281 6 6 8 20
Andy and Lisa Hayward #38 ocs10 ocs10 2 22
Bill and Gail Meyer #2069 8 dns10 dns10 28

Once the boats where tucked away we sent OUR Flying Scot National Champ to fire up the grill for burgers and brauts, Thanks Jeff! And the fleet proceeded to partake in all of the delectable dishes, Thanks everyone! Extra Kudos to Kim Thinel and Dave bell for their help with preparations.
Special thanks to Masthead Sailing Gear for some sweeet door prizes and for Summer Series gift certificates!! (If you have not been to Masthead you are missing the best Sailing gear shop in Florida!)
The consensus among the participants seemed favorable for this Labor Day event, free racing, food, and fun, such a deal, we will try for the same next year.

The fleet's newest addition: "Animal House" owned by Robert Hobbs, before leaving the dock

Day 4, Race Day 1 - Here We Go

Here we go;

6 am rise and shine! The Club has done an awesome job so far but many of us are leery of the chances of those tractors getting over 100 boats in the water in time. The organizers made an announcement Sunday evening that it would be best to have your boat launched and ready prior to the 9 am skippers meeting. That didn’t sound good. So 6 am it is, and tractor guys are supposed to be ready to go at 7 am. We arrive at 6:50 and it is surprisingly quiet, except for a brisk southerly breeze that has been blowing all night, maybe about 12 or 13 I’d guess. Very overcast sky and the look of rain. No big deal but more than the forecasted 5 to 10 which we were hoping for. The last few days there has been no breeze early but then it fills in late morning or early afternoon. Luckily, Kim has heavy influence on the tractor guys and we are first in the water and they are consulting with us on who should be next on the agenda. Nice! As it turned out the launching process was amazingly smooth and very quick, we will be sleeping in a bit tomorrow.

After the skippers meeting we shove off and head to the race course. If you have seen the NAC website we used area D, if you haven’t it is at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (western shore) and the Piankatank River. I've included a chart but area D is not labeled but is just above and to the right of area C. The area is ideal for racing with room for courses of a couple miles in any direction. Curiously, the legs would only be .75 miles in length. We work our way there and begin some practice in what turns out to be very tricky conditions to sail. The breeze has lightened up a bit but the water is very lumpy, especially tough when on Starboard tack. This will make for a long day.

Here is a chart of the racing area, the club is just above and to the right of area A. To get to area D, we sail through A, B and C around the point and out to area D, usually about an hours sail.

The site of over a 100 boats in the pre-start area was pretty cool. The right side appeared favored due to both wind and smaller waves so we decide to be close to the boat and work our way there as soon as we can.

Only about 30 or 40 other boats have the same idea so it is crowded but amazingly we hit the line on time, with speed and at the RC Boat. Too Cool! For about 2 or 3 seconds… until the RC signals a General Recall. SUCK!!!! We go again but now the I flag is flying so more caution is in order. We get a decent start near the boat and try to work our way up the right side. We struggle at times to find clear air but our strategy was working ok. If it were not for a pile up at the leeward mark and overstanding the change of course mark we could have been 10 or 12th. Not too bad for our first race at our first NAC.

The second start looks good for us as well, we are at the boat with speed but about a boat length below the line at the gun. Another General recall. Time for the Z flag. The next attempt is clean but we get spit out of the pack and struggle to sail in clear air. We work right again and end up pulling out a fairly good leg to round about 10th. We eventually work up to 6 or 7 and the right side is working well. Near the end of the second spinnaker run a huge left shift with pressure comes in and we are toast. We lose a bunch of boats on the last leg to finish 18. I never saw the left shift coming so……….. Jeff saw the shift and is sitting pretty in first place, hoping for more light air.

Many cocktails later the Lintons and us enjoy the fine BBQ facilities at the INN. Jeff is a fine slow cookin BBQ guy along with an excellent sailor. Not sure how you can cook a whole chicken using only about 12 charcoal briquettes. Not sure how he sees all those wind shifts either!

The Inns BBQ facilities

Jeff and Dave in action

Sunset from the Balcony of the Inn

Forecast for tomorrow is 10 to 20, Damn.