tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-148111922024-03-08T02:45:53.254-08:00Charleston YachtingThe Charleston Yachting Blog is a resource of further information gained form various Charleston Yachting projects, from races to installations. Charleston Yachting is the latest online resource for sailing equipment and service.Visit at www.charlestonyachting.comRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-63961894636293840332010-10-30T10:58:00.000-07:002010-10-30T11:32:50.789-07:00Alice Cup Leg One 10/23/10Alice Cup 10/23/2010<br />Race to Rockville. <br />The Alice Cup is comprised of two races one from Charleston to Rockville on Saturday and the return from Rockville to Charleston on Sunday. The treat for the Saturday race is it’s a pursuit start. Since we are all sailing PHRF we start based on our handicap so the first boat to cross the finish line wins. This year I sailed on board Ken Kings Quintet a Sabre 38. For our start time we had another competitor that had the same rating so our start times were the same. Here in Charleston we start off the Carolina YC dock which makes the pin end of the line favored 99% of the time. So at the start of a 34 mile coastal race Andiamo and Quintet were both right on time and headed for the pin luckily for us on Quintet we had gotten ourselves a bit too close to line with the out going tide. This was forcing us up hard on the wind to keep off the line. We were also leeward boat which aloowed us to make Andiamo spin to keep clear. Andiamo had gotten themselves just a tick or two too early and had no where else go, always have bailout strategy. We got the ten feet of space we needed to bare off and crossed the line maybe two seconds late but with Andiamo well behind.. Pretty intense start for such a long race but seconds here and there can add up. It was a beam reach for our first short leg to BP. Next leg was out the harbor with a one tack beat out around Fort Sumter. Many boats tacked too early over standing the Fort we short tacked and preceded to fetch out the rest of the channel to our turning mark and the end of the jetties. At G17 we headed downwind to 1S about ten miles away. It was a deep downwind and lumpy which made for difficult spinnaker trimming (to say the least). When we were lucky enough to the get boat in grove you were able to sail closer to the rumbline if not you ended up reaching a bit more and losing distance to the mark. Our arch rival from the start Andiamo had made some gains so we had our work cut out. We stayed patient low allowing us to reach up at the end of the leg where we once again gained on our class and had caught everyone but a J 24 that had been sailing fast in these lighter running conditions. We were able to jibe at 1S and we were now on a starboard jibe with the waves more behind us making it much easier to trim. This leg was another nine miles and the J24 was hanging tough. They were able to surf a bit in these waves and although we reeling ever so slowly. At 2NE we only a few boat lengths behind and had one more mark to round before heading into the finish. The wind had backed a bit to the east so we able to beam reach the short leg to RN6 and it was time to douse the kite and head up towards entrance to Bohicket Creek with a jib. It was a fairly quick ride down so now we were bucking a tide that was still ebbing. We worked our way to the south side of the channel for some current relief and re-set the spinnaker. Meanwhile our only competition was the J24 who had held onto their spinnaker the entire time keeping them very close. As we approached the winds lighten and we also got into the flat water. This allowed us to stretch away slowly working our through the big shifts and changes wind velocity. Not as easy as it sounds as we also had the tide right in our face. I kept waiting for the shift that would face plant us stopping up dead in the water and putting us a the mercy of the current. This would mean going backwards in case you hadn’t added that all up. So it was tense to the finish but the Fat Lady finally sang about four minutes ahead of the next group of boats that all started to compact for the finish. We had won and now it was off to the party. <br />Lessons learned in lumpy light conditions it pays to really work hard maintaining your speed and sailing as low as possible keeping the distances on the legs to a minimum. Know where the turning marks and have them pre loaded into a GPS or chartplotter. Sounds stupid but getting caught too high or too low can cost you big. Finally just like running to first base in baseball you need to race through the finish line not up to it. <br /><br />Randy (Where’s Alex ******* )Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-25168763943423373782010-08-30T16:28:00.000-07:002010-08-30T17:38:13.807-07:00Ride on Eco 60We have recently been involved in helping Brad Van Liew get his refitted Open 60 ready to compete in the Velux 5 Oceans Single Handed Around the World Race. One of perks was the opportunity to sail on the boat this past Sunday. The conditions were perfect a good 17- 20 knots of breeze out of the ENE. This direction allowed us to get out of Charleston Harbor and out to ocean under 2 reefs and a staysail. The sail combination gives you a good idea about how powerful these boats are rigged. We worked the boat upwind doing what I would call a very easy 10 knots while we let the B&G autopilot do its thing. The processor of the autopilot will learn from the boats motion making in more efficient and eventually steering the boat better than most. After sailing awhile at 35 apparent and comfortable that the autopilot had learned enough we cracked off about 20 degrees and wow these boats are reaching machines and Le Pingouin was very happy sailing along around 15 with surges to the high teens knocking on the door of 20 knots. At these speeds we were leaving Chucktown in a hurry so its wasn't long before it was time to tack back. If you have ever sailed a Hobie 16 you will know exactly what tacking an Open 60 is like. With the daggerboards keel swung back to center you back the jib and you get the waves just right you will make through the tack. Not an easy feat with us on board let alone Brad by himself so it becomes very obvious that the decision to tack or jibe is not one to be taken lightly. As we headed back are wind angle was little wider 90 degrees allowing us shake one reef and switch from the staysail to solent. Le Pingouin was really reveling in these conditions not a ton of sail area up but just very easily plunking along at 16 17 18 19 knots. Plunking along because the boat is just that great. We came blasting into the harbor and once into the flat water discussions of towing a water skier were made. A couple of good puffs and with the keel canted to 35 degrees Le Pingouin would hold her course heel a bit and take off all in one very smooth motion. Very cool ride indeed reminded me of Ice Boating days. Find out more about The Lazarus Project visit their website at <a href="http://www.oceanracing.org/">http://www.oceanracing.org/</a> and really see what they are up to. Its a very special project. Thanks Brad for the ride.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-55381461546956154392009-12-09T15:38:00.000-08:002009-12-09T15:46:01.808-08:00Charleston Race Week 2010.<br />Race registration is now open and the Notice of Race is posted. Sailing instructions are being worked on and will be available online in March. For the 2010 event we will have separate sailing instructions for inshore and offshore courses. Once again we will have two inshore courses and two offshore courses.<br /><br />Race Director 2010Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-73259809648853534312008-05-30T10:35:00.000-07:002008-05-30T10:36:27.708-07:00Daytona to Charleston Race Aboard J120 EllyriaDaytona to Charleston Gulfstreamer Race 2008<br /><br />J 120 Illyria<br />Owner: John Keenan<br />Crew: John Bowden, Ric Campeau, Randy Draftz, Mark Fanning, Mary Pallazo, Brad Taylor, and John Ward.<br /><br /><br />Having never sailed on board Illyria prior the Gulfstreamer Race, the unknowns always make for some anxious preparations. We were able to twist some arms and put together a crew of good drivers and sail trimmers that would enable us to keep the boat going fast around the clock. We strategized early and familiarized ourselves with the course’s options so we wouldn’t become overwhelmed with both sailing a new boat plus a crew that hadn’t sailed together before. I had sailed the Gulfstreamer in 2004 where we sailed a great race only to sort out afterwards in debriefing the race that we didn’t go deep enough into the Gulfstream and had exited too early. As someone said in the 2004 race: “why do you think they call the race the Gulfstreamer, Randy”? The sting of that comment remained as if it happened last weekend not four years ago!<br /><br />We reviewed the weather patterns, which Mark Fanning did a great job sourcing, for weather information prior to the race. We also signed up with Commander’s Weather for their forecast and suggested routing. An XM weather receiver was also installed for tracking and gulfstream imaging so we had done our homework and were ready to race!<br /><br />The big competition was another J120 Emocean owned by the Hanckel family. They had won their class in the 2006 Gulfstreamer, won the Charleston to Bermuda Race, won their class in the Key West Race this year and were last year’s Charleston Ocean Racing Association’s Boat of the Year! We knew they were fast and with all their J120 experience it was going to be tough to beat them on boatspeed, plus we gave them 3 seconds per mile on handicap due to our boat having a carbon mast. <br /><br />We had to leave the dock exceptionally early to avoid a falling tide that would not have given us enough water to exit the inlet without bumping our keel. It’s a long trek out to the inlet from the host Halifax Yacht Club but once out through the inlet we were comfortably at the starting area three hours before our 4:30 P.M. scheduled start. We had two mainsails on board: a Dacron delivery main, and a Kevlar racing main, so this extra time allowed us to evaluate both sails. We wanted to use the Kevlar main since it was larger and lighter but felt that it was too tired for the thunderstorms that were forecast. We opted to use the Dacron main that was smaller and heavier but also able to stand up the thunderstorms and the big breeze we expected at the end of the race.<br /><br />About the only thing we knew about the weather was the first 18- 24 hours were totally up in the air, the forecasters couldn’t come up with anything solid other than that the cold front with a Northeasterly breeze will arrive sometime Saturday afternoon with a solid twenty plus knots. Out strategy from earlier in the week remained intact, that is: get to the stream and ride it up north to set us up for the northeaster. Sounds simple enough but the wind had to cooperate and the forecasts were showing some light westerly winds that would make it impossible to sail quickly to the stream 38 miles to our east. We would just have to sail the breeze we were dealt and if the opportunity arose we would take it to the gulfstream. <br /><br />The Gulfstreamer is made up of two races. The first race is short ten mile leg that starts off the Ponce Inlet and finishes off the Daytona Pier. The competitors that are in the second leg of the Gulfstreamer Race pass through the finish line and continue on to Charleston. This year’s race had twenty-plus competitors all continuing on to Charleston. <br /><br />We got started right on time and took the favored leeward end of the line with the wind light and out of the North. We sailed on a starboard tack towards Daytona Beach. Emocean had started further up the line and was already showing us her speed advantage by sailing slightly higher and faster. The wind lightened a bit more and we kept our footing and finally worked back out in front enough to tack and cross comfortably. A sigh of relief--we can hold our own with Emocean! Emocean would recover and at the next crossing they would put a nice lee bow tack forcing us to tack away. We sailed for a while on port tack taking us out in the ocean while Emocean worked up the beach. There were a couple of local boats with us as well: Mangus (a Beneteau 36S5) and Chasing Rainbows (a Hunter Legend 37.7). Both boats were sailing very well out to the east. We tacked back in to cover Emocean and this time Emocean decided belatedly to take our transom, killing their speed. We continued in our starboard tack. The wind shifted a bit more right and Illyria was now just just starting to lay the finish line that was still four miles away. By the time Emocean got their boat moving again we were several hundred yards ahead but slightly to leeward. Emocean started to roll again, being slightly east of us. But they either had a bit less current or more pressure, so they were way faster. We would owe Emocean about 30 seconds in this race so sailing up in front of them to cover just wasn’t an option. We continued to sail towards the favored pier end and watched Emocean sail right by for the fourth lead change of this short race. They finished almost two minutes ahead. The finish line was a bearing from the north edge of the pier extending approximately 200 yards without any buoy. (Note to RC it really needs a buoy). Once Emocean had passed we sailed up behind so we could finish and immediately go hard on the wind towards the stream. Without the buoy, it left the end of the line open to interpretation and we dialed up inside of Emocean. We might have lost the short race but now Illyria was just where we wanted to be--leading Emocean out towards the stream. The wind gods cooperated slightly, allowing us to sail a reasonable 70 degree heading hard on the wind toward the stream. Mangus finished the sprint close behind us for a very good race, luckily for us they were in the non spinnaker class. It had to be quite a show from the dock to see the two J120s heading out almost bow to bow! This was going to be one very good race! We spent the rest of the evening just slightly to weather and ahead with Emocean legging out once in while, then it would be our turn as the wind would swing back and forth and up and down in velocity. There were a number of thunderstorms predicted for Friday night and they started showing up just after dark. We anticipated a long night ahead of us managing the rapidly changing conditions brought about by these thunderstorms.<br /><br />We’d installed a laptop with WxWorx software and a XM satellite receiver so we could monitor the stream and current weather information but the radar imagery for tracking the thunderstorms was invaluable. We had four to five storms come offshore that just missed us to the north and south. We got a couple of blasts from these fronts but mostly big shifts and light to no air. As we anticipated, plenty of sail changes and one blown out spinnaker later, we were in the stream heading north. With the morning light, we found Emocean on the horizon a good two to three miles directly behind us. We spent all of Saturday fetching with the heavy one up , trying to stay in the current as much as possible. The further north we could get before the northeaster the better. Once again, the WxWorx software proved its value as we used its surface temperature display to manage our position relative to the best parts of the stream. Illyria maintained the lead on Emocean and finally we started to see signs of the northeaster arriving on some of the weather buoys to the north. We decided to tack over onto starboard to see what our course over ground would be. We were far enough East that the finish was now bearing 358 degrees--our course over ground on this tack was only about 330 so on the next header we tacked back to cover our friends on Emocean. We were getting closer to the Northeast breeze and thought Emocean would be tacking to starboard soon and we would follow suit but we waited and still no tack from Emocean. With the northeaster starting to show up we decided to tack away from the competition. This is never an easy decision to make especially when you have them in you hip pocket, so to speak. Not fifteen minutes after we tacked the northeaster arrived with twenty knots of wind and its shift to the right had us sailing a course over the ground 350 degrees, a mere eight degrees from the rhumb line to the finish. We changed down to the number three and eventually reefed the mainsail to keep the boat’s helm balanced enough to steer around and over the building seas. It took about an hour for the seas to get the point of making things uncomfortable but the wind had also shifted a bit more right making our heading into the waves more manageable. We were also getting a nice two knot push from the stream, making our course over ground now 5 degrees, and well above our rhumb line. We were happy to gain the distance for the later stages when we would be out of the stream. We gradually got to the point where we had to start reaching off which is not as easy it sounds when you have the eight foot walls of water slapping you around. We had lost track of Emocean but since we were lifted and over standing the finish line ourselves we were confident that we had only extended our lead into the finish.<br /><br />We finished at the Charleston “C” buoy at 03:31:27 early enough to win our spinnaker division and the Gulfstreamer Trophy for Overall.<br /><br />Many thanks to John Keenan for putting up with a bunch of people he had never met nor sailed with, and getting his boat entered and delivered to Daytona. John Bowden was everywhere and I mean everywhere: up the rig, at the bow, at the helm, at the navigation table--always spot on. I am sure Mary Pallazo packed more spinnakers that Friday night that she has all season and was probably glad to see one of them blow up as it meant one less to pack. Mary was also just relentless on that weather rail as was John Ward and our wave breaker Mark Fanning. All three would occasionally get washed down the rail by a breaking wave! Mark was invaluable with his weather research and did a masterful job of driving up and away from Emocean after the sprint race. Ric and Brad both took stints driving and trimming, keeping everyone fresh on the helm with their good humor.<br /><br />Keys to success were: creating our strategy early, making the plan and sticking to the plan, good teamwork and personalities, having good information that allowed good decisions and having a good boat set up properly for offshore racing.<br /><br />And I’ll always remember they call it “the Gulfstreamer for a reason”. <br /><br />Randy Draftz<br />May 27, 2008Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com378tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1164133035299425452006-11-21T10:16:00.000-08:002006-11-21T10:17:15.316-08:00C.O.R.A Double Handed Race ReportDouble Handed Race 11/18/2006<br /><br /><br />The weather cooperated giving the competitors a sunny but shifty breeze that varied as far left as west and as far right as north. The velocity was up and down as well, varying from 3 knots to 10 knots in the puffs. The race committee chose course 11 for the A,B, C and course 2 for D. These courses provided plenty of windward leeward work and kept everyone close, providing plenty of opportunities for some and misfortune for others.<br />In fleet A is was Ric and Deb Campeau (Hoodoo) leading the way for four the first four legs then falling into one of those holes. Someone forgot to connect the dots (Ric), luckily for Ric, Deb is a forgiving person and he didn’t have to sleep on the boat Saturday night. The Buckeye’s (Arrow) ended up prevailing in fleet“A” in the shifty conditions followed by Emocean and Pagan.<br /><br />In C Fleet it was Quintette continuing their winning ways despite getting caught at the start with the chute up on the wrong jibe. They were eventually able to make the set work as the wind shifted back to the west. Quintette never looked back, and extended their lead throughout the race due so very energetic young crew work.<br /><br />In B Fleet Footloose took the lead early but changes were to happen throughout the race. The last leg the breeze filled in from the east and the boats that jibed over towards the east were able to take the lead. The race was definitely not over until you crossed the finished line. Footloose was able to regain the lead just before the finish followed by Latte and Nautiest who finished a second or two apart.<br /><br />The D Fleet was led by the Soveral 39 Avalon. Avalon showed a good lead but couldn’t finish far enough head after getting on the wrong side of a right hand shift. Raven with Tim Burke at the helm navigated the shifts and up an down breeze to finish second boat for boat and correct into first place. Raven was followed by the well sailed English Beat and Avalon corrected to third.<br /><br />Help spread the word on our first Turkey Regatta being held this Sunday first start is scheduled off the Carolina Yacht Club dock at 1:00 pm. What better way to get outside and give those holiday guests a tour of the harbor.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1148145211433722382006-05-20T10:12:00.000-07:002006-05-20T10:13:31.450-07:00Savannah Challenge Race UpdatesHere you will find the latest information regarding this upcoming weekend's Savannah Challenge. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Randy Draftz at <a href="mailto:rdraftz@charlestongyachting.com">rdraftz@charlestongyachting.com</a> .<br /><br />5/19/06 22:00<br />They are off and running literally, nine boats left the Charleston Harbor for their respective turning marks off the Georgia coast. Midnight Rider a Turbo Rigged Santa Cruz 70 lead the A fleet followed by the J120 Emocean, the J109 Hoodoo, the Sabre 362 Buena Vida and the Beneteau 35s5 Andiamo. Fleet B is the non spinnaker who were all tightly bunched with Tohidu, Lyric, Naut On Call and Drifter chasing each other out of the harbor. With a strong westerly and ebb tide it didn’t the fleet very long. Forecasts were for the westerly winds to gradually ease up and go more south making for upwind beat to turning mark. At 9:30 referencing the NOAA weather buoys there appeared more breeze offshore 14knots out of 200 degrees compare to the 8 knots inshore at approximately 230 degrees. Heading to the turning buoy 234 degrees it should be a long night. <br /><br />5/20/2006 7:00 EDT<br /><br />At 3:00 EDT this morning Midnight Rider was rounding the Savannah Light buoy marking the half way point for the race. From referencing the weather buoys it looks like the buoy is making a good weather mark. Current wind conditions still have the wind out of the southwest at about 14 knots with wave heights about three feet. We would expect the next boat to round to be Emocean. If Emocean is sailing to her rating she would be rounding roughly 2.5 hours behind Midnight Rider. Unfortunately if they were dead upwind to the mark the extra distance sailed will favor the larger Midnight Rider. With the current conditions and forecast I would expect Midnight Rider could be finishing before noon today.<br /><br />5/20/2006 11:00 EDT<br /><br />Midnight Rider finishes! Midnight Rider with the crew hiking hard crossed the finish line this morning 10:28:18. Emocean called in earlier this morning reporting their rounding of the Savannah Light buoy at 8:44 this morning, Wind was holding out of the southwest continuing to make the mark upwind for all the competitors. Emocean did see Hoodoo the J109 and said they appeared about another hour away from the turning mark. Emocean was making 8 knots running downwind back to the harbor entrance. If the wind holds out of the southwest at its present 14 knots Emocean should be finishing around 6:00 pm this evening well after Midnight Rider’s time allowance expires.<br /><br />13:00 EDT<br /><br />B Fleet rounds the Port Royal turning mark. Tohidu was first around at 12:18 followed by Naut On Call at 12:33 with Lyric close to rounding at the time of this posting. Drifter was several miles back after finding a wind hole near shore. Wind is starting to lighten up a bit but continuing to blow out of the southwest. With 58 miles to go for the leaders in B Fleet it is looking like a finishing times will be around 22:00 to 23:00 if the wind holds. The remaining A Fleet competitiors will be finishing early this evening.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1146518223510076102006-05-01T14:16:00.000-07:002006-05-01T14:17:03.536-07:00CORA Sheriffs Cup 2006Sheriff’s Cup 2006<br /><br /><br />What a race! As most of you know the Sheriff’s Cup to Rockville is different from most races in that the starts are staggered based on the individual handicaps. In this years race we had the boat that started first and the boat that started last, finish first and second within thirty seconds of each other. Finishing first was Tim Burke with his Tartan 30 Dissipation and Steve Orchards Melges 32 Grins thirty seconds behind. Boats that started earlier might not have gotten the benefit of the ebb tide but did have their breeze from a more northerly direction allowing them to fetch out of the harbor. The boats starting later had to deal with a more easterly breeze making for several tacks before turning downwind towards IS and on into Rockville. As the breeze shifted it also came in a bit stronger, solidly in the mid twenties and puffs in the thirties. Almost the entire fleet could have sailed in the main and jib class today, only Grins the Melges 32, Emocean the J120 and Buena Vida hoisted spinnakers. Unfortunately for Emocean their spinnaker came down in pieces. With the big waves from the Northeast steering was difficult to say the least. Without the use of spinnakers keeping the distance sailed to a minimum was the key. Another factor was keeping enough sail area up to maintain your pace with the waves. It is amazing how much easier the boat will track when it’s surfing with the waves versus wallowing in the troughs. The post race comments were, tales of record boats speeds on many of the boats. The Melges 32 spent a good five minutes on their side after one spectacular wipe out but took only three hours and ten minutes to sail the 33 mile course. Emocean was sailing so fast with their small spinnaker before it exploded they had to reach back in under jib from the Bahamas. Buena Vida was coming into Edisto and was starting to get passed by the larger Tohido when they decided to set their spinnaker for the sprint to the finish. I was wishing I had a video camera as Buena Vida crashed and burned and then struggled to gain control. In the end it all worked out and Buena Vida extended to beat Tohidu across the line by thirty five seconds. When sailing with a jib underneath a spinnaker remember to ease its sheet and let the sail luff. Overtriming the jib will make it very difficult to control and trim your spinnaker effectively. Another important heavy air spinnaker trimming tip is, never overtrim you spinnaker sheet. If you are overtrimmed and the boat goes to wipe out you will have too much sheet to ease out and the sail will continue to stay full accelerating and increasing the harshness of the wipeout. Keep the sail on its edge just as if it was blowing ten knots.<br /> It took roughly another hour for the rest the fleet to finish with the last boat finishing just around 3:15 P.M. Plenty of time to clean up the boats and have a few beverages, while getting ready for the great BBQ dinner and Texas Hold Em tourney.<br /><br /> With the forecast for Sunday predicting similar conditions there were already discussions of returning to Charleston via the ditch. As expected the bulk of the fleet looked at the 25 knots out of the Northeast and turned right to the ditch instead of left to the ocean. We did have six starters that included Emocean, Wings of Freedom, Hoodoo, Tohidu, Suwannee, and Buena Vida. Buena Vida quickly found that they hadn’t sufficient sea sickness medication and turned around and headed to the ditch. Hoodoo had almost gotten back to IS when their mainsail started disintegrating along the leech from all the flogging it was taking. Hoodoo returned downwind back to Bohicket. The seas were running six to eight at a nasty interval making for a very bumpy ride out of the Edisto. Eventually the breeze (as predicted) shifted more to the east lifting the remaining fleet to the jetties of Charleston. As the breeze shifted it also began to diminish allowing the two leaders Emocean and Wings of Freedom to enter the harbor with their spinnakers, then jibing at BP and reaching across the finish line. Emocean finished first at 5:02: 10 with Wings of Freedom finishing at 5:26:35. The breeze continued to diminish leaving the Stephens 50 Suwannee to finish at 6:23:24 and Tohidu at 7:28:10. A tough day, beating in 25 knots earlier in the day and finishing the day light air running and having to fight the flooding tide to cross the finish line. Sailing does reward patience.<br /><br />For those who missed this great race make sure you put October 21st and 22nd on your calendar for this years dates for the Alice Cup.<br /><br />Results are posted on the CORA website.<br /><br />Rear Commodore.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1138651775104358222006-01-30T12:08:00.000-08:002006-01-30T12:09:35.120-08:00CORA Frostbite Race 2Frostbite 2<br /><br />With the wind up in the high teens to low twenties and wind at 210 degrees with a prediction to go slightly more west. We sent classes A, B, and C on course 11 (BP-J two times ) and class D on course 4 (BP to G27 two times). The wind ended up staying put and gave course 11 a windward leeward course while course 4 had some fetching and running. We ended up using our new starting mark as a replacement for J and many thanks to David Mullen for showing up with his powerboat for placing J and our starting line marks. For those who raced you might have noticed a less than square line. We made the decision to place the pin more up current to keep the pin from being so favored. It appeared to work as we had several boats start more towards the dock. The conditions were tame compared to Frostbite 1 and we saw boats on the line at the start with Latte in class B OCS. Latte was down closer to the pin (more current) and just missed by 2 feet. Boats that found themselves early for the start were better off heading up towards the dock for three reasons. One, less current, two, heading up into the wind, three the angle of the starting line made the dock very favored giving you more distance to the line. Buena Vida did just that and had the start of the day, which would later prove to be a very important part of their victory (take a look at the results). <br /><br />Hoodoo, just back from Key West showed the way to BP in Class A. After rounding, BP they showed the rest of class how important consistent crew work is and then proceeded to provide us spectators with several nice wipe outs. Meanwhile the Melges 24 Thunderbird reveled and the Dauntless the 47.7 really like being able power up in this big breeze. A note about reaching with spinnakers in a breeze, several boats had issues keeping their spinnakers full or their boats under control coming into the finish. One boat had their number three up and trimmed in, if you going to sail with a jib or staysail inside your spinnaker make sure you are able to let it luff as the spinnaker starts to collapse otherwise the spinnaker will never re-fill. The jib or staysail can provide plenty of blanketing if not allowed to luff always under trim these sails. When you become overpowered on a reach don’t try to maintain your heading. If you bear off just 5 degrees, you will maintain control, spinnaker will stay full and you will go much faster. Sail back up to your course after the puff subsides and you will still make the finish line.<br /><br />In Class B Footloose appeared to have the edge, likely gained by their move on the first leg back from J. Footloose stayed on port tack, tacking just short of the finish line gaining nicely on Orange Crush from being in more current. The rest of B had nice close racing and working those spinnakers in from R4 paid especially for First Star who grabbed a nice third place behind Orange Crush and Footloose.<br /><br />In Class C rumor is Andiamo attempted a new lower center of effort spinnaker by hoisting the clew of their spinnaker instead of its head. Meanwhile Dissipation was enjoyed the breeze and sailed on to a comfortable win.<br /><br /><br />It looked like Class D was sailing a little more comfortably this week with less sail area. We did have a protest in this class at the start but otherwise it appeared good clean sailing. Unfortunately with the wind holding steady the upwind leg from G27 to BP never developed. A good question for class D is would you rather sailed have sailed a windward leeward course where you have to sail downwind? Or was the course sailed what you enjoy doing?<br /><br />Sailing Instructions are posted on the website. Please make sure as skippers you are familiar with the CORA Sailing Instructions. Realize once racing starts the race committee can not assist you with the rules. Sunday’s conditions were fantastic don’t miss Frostbite 3 on Saturday February 18th.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1137383516717788742006-01-15T17:52:00.000-08:002006-01-16T10:31:34.140-08:00Charleston Harbor Frostbite Series Race 1It wouldn't be a Frostbite series if it wasn't cold and windy. The big cold front came in Friday night and the CORA racers had plenty of breeze 25 knots with puffs in the 30s, mostly out of the west with small oscillating shifts to the north. In my new position of rear commodore my duties have changed from the participatory level to that of race management (on the dock). We sent the first three classes on a 8.5 nm race, in all this breeze it wasn't going to take very long. The final class to start was the D Fleet which is the main and jib class who sailed the same course but only once around for a 5.5 nm race. Reading this it sounds fairly manageable but let's add an outgoing tide at a pace of 3.5 knots and you now have a very fast downwind leg with the current and and a very nasty upwind, upcurrent leg! Think San Francisco Bay with an extra 5 to 10 knots of breeze. What could we have been thinking as race committee to send sailors out into this and then make them do, not just one lap, but two! Ok we were, well I was thinking it's only 8.5 miles and only three of it upwind. Everyone had made the effort to get out there so, lets not send them on a short 45 minute beer can style race. We also have this new offshore challenge series this year and skippers and crew need to experience some big breeze. It was obvious from the starts that boat handling in today's race was an issue with the out going tide and a beam reach first leg, no one in any of the classes came close to the line at the start. It was obvious from my chair on the dock that the boats that set up to sail a little lower to BP were fast using the puffs to accelerate, (by bearing off) while boats that were sailing slightly higher were rounding up and sometimes spinning out (never fast not even in the out going tide). Sail low and fast in the puffs and work up in the lulls setting youself up for the set of the Ashley current to BP. The next leg was a run from BP to R2 and you would of thought the whole fleet was sailing main and jib, not one spinnaker to be seen, there was a Melges 24 out there though and they looked liked they were flying just under main and jib (lets think about this a second blowing up to 35 air temp mid fifties, Melges 24) not me!. My chair just got a lot more comfortable. Well you can't have fun all the time, what goes down must come up, these phrases do not do justice to the upwind leg back to BP from R2 as usual you had the group that hugged the James Island side and the group that went right over middle ground behind Castle Pinckney. It was hard to see which side paid, but at least you had less a chance of running aground on the right. Kiaora found the beach on the James Island side trying to stay out out of current. This big westerly obviously was pushing more water out of the harbor than usual. Thank goodness Kiaora and the crew were fine other than the Tow Boat US invoice. For the boats that lasted the final leg from R4 to the finish turned into a one tack beat as the wind had continued to clock to WNW. It appeared that boats that had the appropiate sail combinations were able to still point and have a better leg into the finish. The Ranger 29 had a heavy weather jib and a reef in the main and showed good balance and control with very good speed. Boats that had roller reefed headsails just were not able to point and a terrible time going upwind with tacking angles that looked like 100 degrees instead the usual 90 degrees. In this kind of breeze use a smaller headsail and keep up as much mainsail as possible, this will greatly increase the ability to control the boats heel while maintaining its pointing. Most boats that appeared to have control problems had too much headsail or they were dumping the mainsails but not the jibs. In puffs this large both sails must be eased and better to sail with the jib a little eased . You could see from my chair (of course) when a boat would get rounded up from being overpowered how quickly they got set back in the current. It's so easy from this chair!! As always sailing in this much current maintaining boatspeed is crucial you are better off footing than feathering which is very hard to do in 30knots of breeze. Its critical to have your sailplan balanced to the conditions. So what did we learn, use smaller headsails, and get the sail area down to increase control and keep your speed on. This will make it easier to maintain the neccesary speed to counter the adverse current. Above all don't forget to thank that race committee and complain to the Rear Commodore.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1136914104796614342006-01-10T09:24:00.000-08:002006-01-10T09:28:24.810-08:00Charleston Yachting Signs Up for Strictly Sail ChicagoCharleston Yachting signs up for the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Chicago. Charleston Yachting will be in booth 644 featuring our website and products from our many suppliers. Stop by and see us at the show February 2nd thru February 5th at Chicago's Navy Pier.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1133629856096876872005-12-03T09:01:00.000-08:002005-12-03T09:10:56.226-08:00CORA Developing Offshore Education SeriesCharleston Ocean Racing Association is putting the ocean back into their racing program. Up for proposal are three offshore races for the 2006 season. In preparation to sail these Category 3 events there will be a number of educational meetings some being held in conjuction with the monthly CORA meeting and other seminars that will take place indepentently. This is a great oppourtunity for any boat owner (not just the racer) to educate themselves about offshore sailing as well a gain offshore experience. For more information don't hesitate contact myself at <a href="mailto:rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com">rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com</a>.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com216tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1131753453425525802005-11-11T15:50:00.000-08:002005-11-11T15:57:33.436-08:00Sale Items on Charleston Yachting.comI just finished changing the home page featuring several Fujinon Binoculars at really great prices. We are also featuring the Garmin Geko 301 handheld GPS for $169.95. All these low prices are due to our special purchase of inventory and are only applicable to the current stock. These items will sell out and their prices will return to normal so take advantage now. We will continue to feature more new items as we are able to enter them into our online store.<br /><br />Regards,<br />RandyRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1131072876814285222005-11-03T18:53:00.000-08:002005-11-03T18:54:36.826-08:00Charleston Yachting Moves Into New WarehouseCharleston Yachting moves into to new distribution center to manage newly acquired inventory. Our new warehouse is located at 4208 Pace Street North Charleston. Current plans are to set up the inventory for filling our online orders but also possible walk in customers as well. The new inventory is comprised of marine hardware, cordage, clothing, rigging fittings and wire, electronics, and pre- made canvas products. Call us or keep an eye on <a href="http://www.charlestonyachting.com/">www.charlestonyachting.com</a> for warehouse clearance specialsRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1128018035793122542005-09-29T11:18:00.000-07:002005-09-29T11:52:01.523-07:00Charleston Yachting adds Kearney and WireTeknik Swaging Capabilities<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5676/1352/1600/righp1.gif"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" height="147" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5676/1352/200/righp1.gif" width="183" border="0" /></a><br />Charleston Yachting has just added hydraulic and Kearney swaging to our capabilities! Whether you need new lifelines, standing rigging, architectural or industrial rigging, Charleston Yachting can build if for you, with capabilities to swage from 3/32” to 5/8” diameter wire. Our swaging equipment, coupled with our splicing expertise, make us a one-stop shop for all your rigging and line needs. Call us today for a quote or to discuss your next rigging project at (800) 610 9065 or email us at <a title="mailto:info@charlestonyachting.com" href="mailto:info@charlestonyachting.com">info@charlestonyachting.com</a>Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1127763743546182902005-09-26T12:41:00.000-07:002005-09-29T11:23:04.393-07:00CORA Race 4 Aboard J109 HoodooCORA Inshore Race 4 Course #9<br />Hoodoo J109<br />Conditions: Winds East to Southeast six to ten knots. Tide flooding.<br /><br /><br />Pre-race the wind was up to ten knots out of 105 degrees, we sailed upwind noticing a slight right hand shift of maybe ten degrees but still not enough to keep us from fetching the first mark of the course BP. With current coming in and breeze fading right the pin end of the line was going to be the place to be. Somehow we lost sight of this and ended up down to leeward headed for the middle of line. With a minute to go we jibed instead of tacked for our approach placing us behind and to leeward of Emocean the J20. Emocean and us were both a good 30 to 40 seconds late to line while Temptress and the new Wireless were at the pin. We had no where to go but to foot off and try to reach through the boats to windward as the wind continued to shift even more right(130) . It looked good for awhile but as we got out into the Ashley the breeze shifted back left lifting Temptress and Wireless back up to BP and leaving us on the outside. We could no longer adhere to our pre-race strategy of going up the James Island side so we tacked left hoping to find a nice lefty to come back on (first out of Phase or OOP). Emocean and Temptress both came back left with us and we appeared to consolidate against both of them laterally. We continued left just to weather of the new tower and we were now almost even with Temptress who had tacked back to the right for a slight loss. The breeze was now down to about seven knots and was not only oscillating in direction but also in velocity making the shifts very difficult decipher. Now for the greedy part, as we continued left we noticed a significant drop in our speed over ground but our heading was lifted(wind going right Hoodoo hard left OOP) so we didn’t tack. Meanwhile Temptress the M24 and the J33 where off to the right which we thought was a desperation move to catch up. Unfortunately for us, it much more calculated that it seemed and all three came off the right with a right hand shift and less current to round R2 three to four minutes ahead. Emocean had seen the writing on the wall and gotten over the right (better late than never) and gained on the Hoodoo to put about a two minute gap between us. We were not exactly thinking about the current flooding in over the shallower water or we would not of stayed in it so long going upwind, so we jibe set around R2 to avoid the positive effects downwind as well (Out Of Position).Take a look a the harbor chart and you will see what I mean plot out your downwind angles using wind direction of 115 and see how starboard tack sets you up for staying in greater current.<br />We continued on port jibe heading over to Fort Johnson eventually jibing back to starboard to stay in the channel and get some added help from the current. We got a bit of a lift and jibed backed making a nice gain on the leaders coming into the second rounding of BP. Then the wind swings back left just before BP making us jibe two more times in the last 100 yards to BP while the leaders are already headed back up wind.<br /><br />Having not understood all our mistakes the first leg to R2 we continued the search for the left hander or right hander that was going to get us back into the race. We got to the starboard tack layline just in time for the wind to start going left (OOP). It was just enough to slow Emocean almost to stop as she squeezed around mark, while Hoodoo closed in the wind continue swing left forcing us to through two short tacks in get around a mark, that just minutes earlier we were on the online for. STAY AWAY FROM LAYLINES. We jibe set once again because the current issue is hindsight on my part sailed a similar run as the last leg but are now headed to round R4 to starboard. We really weren’t sailing the boat very well and downwind we needed to use our polar data to keep us honest. In light downwind you really have to work the boat up and down getting the apparent up enough to drive you down than back up again as the boat slows. This sounds easy but the wind continued to go up and down in velocity and direction making this extremely difficult. We jibed too early for R4 (again we should have been watching our jibing angles) got past R4 and broad reached into the finish on a slightly dieing breeze that was now at 135 degrees. It was one of those races, you have once in awhile (hopefully) and good reminder how easy it is to get out of phase and out of position. As much as the wind seemed to oscillate what did it do? It went right all day long.<br />Wireless was first to finish and the winner (first to BP) Temptress second and the J33 Ice Pac third, Emocean fourth and Hoodoo fifth. The boats that stayed hard right all won easily. While Emocean and Hoodoo battled out for cellar on the left. Lesson to be learned with a east to southeast breeze in flood tide stay right RIGHT and review charts for positioning the current.<br /><br /><br />Henry McCray has a similar review of the race from the leaders its amazing how close the two reviews were except for ours being hindsight and them getting it right from get go.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1127747705623063742005-09-26T08:11:00.000-07:002005-09-26T08:15:05.623-07:00I have been contacted by a friend of mine that is looking for help to move his Swan 40 from Charleston to Miami about the first week of November. The plan is to go ICW for couple of days than go outside to Miami. I bet he might be talked into outside the whole way if the weather cooperates. If you know of anyone or are interested yourself contact me at <a href="mailto:rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com">rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com</a>.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1127747068436075532005-09-26T08:03:00.000-07:002005-09-26T08:04:28.446-07:00CORA Inshore Race 4Randy,<br />Below is my recap from gameday.<br />Sunday’s Fall Race #4 began for Temptress with a malfunctioning compass. True wind functions, VMG’s, and corrected GPS functions were right out, so we had to go at it the old fashioned way. With the breeze forecast for east-north-east at 7-9 knots and an incoming current the strategy seemed pretty straightforward from the get-go. We planned our pre-start to be able to start near the pin with speed and not let Hoodoo or Emocean above us for the fetch to BP. Both are larger, heavier boats with longer waterlines and we felt being in the drivers seat at BP was at a premium in the flat water. But then there was that Melges. Brand new and fresh out of the shrink wrap Reggie Fairchilds latest “Wireless” looked sharp with her carbon mast, and even sharper nailing the start. We spent the whole first leg trying to chase her down, but Melges sail right through their hull speeds in flat water. Oh well. We also noted during the pre start that the wind was going right. What we planned as a fetch to BP turned into a beat, and a look out to Ft. Sumter saw the flags showing sea breeze.<br />The weather forecast had commented that localized inversion could result in a sea breeze amalgamating with the gradient to produce onshore flow. Funny, that’s what we saw on the first beat. As the morning moisture burned off and the plumes grew we saw pressure and right shift all the way to ESE by the middle of the first beat. We chose to stay close to the JI shore, even though the incoming current is strong in the south channel. Wireless went with us even after we were able to cross and begin to extend on him shortly after BP. I noticed Hoodoo and Emocean choose the left- presumably to get out of the south channel. We chose to let them split knowing the current rushes around the flats in a myriad of directions and strengths. We have had some good luck when the whole fleet is forced on to the flats, but seldom have we had the flats pay on a flood tide. As we worked up the beat picking shifts and trying to force the Melges to the left of us (yeah, right- outmaneuver an anklebiter) we noticed Icepac going strong with us and holding her own. I thought back to the first Ocean Race when Icepac played inside the south channel brilliantly and made huge gains. Must be something going here. As we approached Ft. Johnson a quick look back across the harbor told the whole story. The breeze on the right was much more right and seemed to have very good pressure. Hoodoo and Emocean looked helplessly stuck in a convergence zone over the flats. While they would both occasionally catch an eddie and look oh-my-god great for short periods of time the right paid big.<br />We have learned that even when gybe setting seems like a great idea at R2 it pays to hold starboard gybe and run the boat back up on the flats. Unfortunately for us Reggie obviously knows this too, and held out on starboard longer before gibing. He was in obviously favorable current and as the righty died off and the lefty filled back in Wireless slipped by and put a hurting on us- and the fleet. The second beat was our big chance for redemption. Wireless rounded BP with almost a 4 minute lead, but a solid beat playing middle right slashed into their lead.<br />Emocean seemed to make a big gain at the beginning of the second beat. They went WAY inshore towards JI, and came out with a ridiculous angle and pressure. Here they come… But as the opp (own personal puff) died they came back to earth. They did make a gain, but not one big enough to get back into phase with the leaders. Icepac continued to roll, and was right with Emo at BP. The beat was much like the first. Play the right and stay out of the heaviest currents in the south channel.<br />We both chose long laylines in R2, but Wireless went further right and brought right pressure into the mark with speed and gained a little back. Off they went with their kite on starboard. We rounded and followed, but with the pressure were able to sail lower and faster for a few minutes. Then, our chance came. Wireless had wandered to the north side of the flats and was having to stay very high to keep pressure while the North channel began sucking them in. We gybed and realized an immediate gain. But as we sailed back through the convergence zone they were able to reach in flat water at a tighter angle and got through our shadow and back into the lead for good.<br />We did close near the finish, capitalizing on a late shift and pressure catching a well sailed melges is a tall order. As soon as the breeze reached them they were able to squirt out from under our shadow and take the race across the line. Good job guys!<br />At the end of the day Emo and Hoodoo had reinforced a tactics lesson that I have stressed over and over. You don’t have to hit every shift, but you can’t miss the first one. Albeit there was no way to “tell” that the wind would go to slop over the flats right as they were approaching, but having watched Icepac successfully play the inside of the south channel the last time we were headed that way we thought we had a strong basis for letting the fleet go. With the wind showing right trends pre-start (even without our demonist HAL-2000 supercomputer) we saw no reason to go any further left than we had to.<br />Other notes--<br />· It seems as though that CORA is mobilizing for an all out attack on Key West Race Week. Temptress will be there, and so will Emocean. I believe Hoodoo is planning on attending, and Teddy&co. will be racing the SantaCruz 70! There may even be more, but I don’t remember CORA ever sending such a strong group south to compete in the big pond!<br />· I have to wonder when measurers are looking at the “date” and the “deltas” if they take into account races like yesterday. We got most of our lead on the first beat on one shift. All of a sudden we correct to nearly a 12 minute margin over a bigger faster J/120. Great race for us, but does it mean we should be rated 9 instead of 69? In a race where 60 seconds a mile wouldn’t have changed the outcome I wonder what difference changing a rating by 3 or 6 seconds a mile would do. Having raced very successful J’s like Love that Chicken (J-109) and Eurotrash Girl (J-120) on the Chesapeake with a competitive SR-33 (Outrageous) I know just how hard it is to compete against them with the current rating delta’s. Every second counts. LTC won the regatta with Outrageous 2nd and Eurotrash 3rd. The SR rated 66 up there and the 109 69. They scored two firsts by correcting out over us after we beat them across the line by a half a boatlength or so after 12 miles racing- twice. Eurotrash was 51 up there, and if the delta had shrunk from 15 seconds per mile to 12 they would have beaten us. Conversely if the SR and 109 were even we would have won. After four days of being separated by less than 3 boatlengths we observed that the SR was a little faster downwind, and the 109 consistently quicker upwind. Same pace, but better point. How much of that is sails? Helm? Bottom? Rig? I don’t know. I don’t think most handicappers know either, no matter how much “data” they have. It’s a good thing we have David down here- his verbal policy for years has been to not fix what isn’t broke. As we all wait for the KWRW “PHRF lottery” I wonder what will be in store. SR’s have been rated from 81 to 66 at KW and continued to win and place. Is it really that hard to rate a boat? Funnier still is that Outrageous received a 75 rating for Block Island (they did not attend due to schedule conflicts with the crew.) But can anyone say lay-up? That’s a 9 second spread between two of the biggest handicap regattas in the country. I wonder if anyone’s watching. At 75 here we would have won virtually every race we sailed for the last two years. At 63 we may never win another one. I know IRC is on the way and we experiment with Americap, but won’t it be a wonderful day in paradise when at the very least ratings are consistent?<br />· There is a new J-100 in town. She is owned by the owner of the local SeaRay dealership who purchased the boat as a spicy day-sailer to enjoy with his children. I have spoken to him and encouraged him to join CORA (he has a long background in racing) and hopefully he will.<br />· Where’s Arrow? · Does anyone know who bought Crosswave?<br /><a name="">Henry R. McCray</a>Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1127063948201569432005-09-18T10:18:00.000-07:002005-09-18T10:19:08.210-07:00CORA Ocean Race #3 (Hoodoo)Fall Ocean Race #3 September 17th<br />Hoodoo J109 <br />Crew:<br /> Rando, Jay Bowen Dan Perrin, Katy Durant, Jim Kempert, Randy Draftz, Ric Campeau<br />Conditions:<br />Started in light conditions of 4-6 knots out of the east south east building to 11 knots and shifting south southeast. Tide was full ebb at the start.<br /><br />Rig settings were left at base; we could have eased rig two turns for the light conditions. I also think that a softer rig for these longer ocean racing courses is beneficial making us faster in the fetching and reaching conditions you often encounter. <br /><br />The start:<br />With the light air and strong down course current we opted to hang close to the line staying headed into the current on broad starboard tack reach, with about 45 seconds to go we spun and jibed leading Temptress (to leeward ) back to line. We both were about ten seconds early and had to kill our speed as the current flushed us toward the line. The pin was the place to be at the start and both of us ended up several boat lengths down from pin allowing Emocean to take pin. Temptress accelerated quickly off the line created a leebow effect on Hoodoo. We pinched slightly at the start and were now behind Temptress and Emocean, we had no choice but to foot off to leeward to clear and get the boat rolling. We were all going to fetch BP due to the current and Temptress reached BP first the Emocean and Hoodoo a boat length later. Everyone went hard on the wind on port after rounding BP and being third to round we were dead behind Emocean and had to tack away to clear our air. Temptress and Emocean continued in towards James Island. We seemed to have a little better pressure and gained slightly on Emocean while Temptress had tacked back left to cover. We had a small header and tacked back to port to get back right while Emocean had now tacked onto to starboard we had a couple of sections D boats to sail through and Emocean just crossed on starboard. Our strategy was to the favor the right hand side with expectation that the wind would shift more out of south as well as more favorable current. The breeze still was slightly lighter to right and we tacked back on port as did Temptress. Temptress was now in a comfortable lead to weather of us and we were now to weather of Emocean due to a nice right hander. It did not take long for things to change as we headed across the channel. We appeared to sail out of the current while Emocean ahead and to leeward reached the north channel and started sailing twenty degrees higher due to the current, sailed right up in front of us. Once we got Hoodoo into the new current we were again sailing equal to slightly higher than Emocean but now the breeze was building to eight knots and the breeze and gone far enough south that we were all fetching the turning mark just outside the jetties. Temptress rounded the buoy first 2 ½ minutes ahead of us with Emocean rounding second about minute in front of Hoodoo. With the new wind direction our strategy coming back into the harbor was to hug the south jetties as close as we dared hoping to have some relief from the current. We jibed around the buoy and set our large asymmetrical spinnaker and started reaching back sliding along the jetties. Temptress was doing the same while Emocean was sailing lower towards the north side of the channel. It didn’t appear we were getting much relief, as our boatspeed through the water was about 8 knots while our speed over ground was averaging about 5.5 knots. Dauntless, the Beneteau 47.7 had rounded behind us and was starting to catch us due to her waterline length but as we got closer to the jetties, Dauntless stayed about 50 yards further out into the channel and we quickly pulled away again so we did indeed have some relief staying along the jetties. We were gradually reeling in Temptress with our slightly longer waterline and our masthead A-sail and our rig pulled forward for reaching against their smaller fractional rigged spinnaker. Meanwhile Emocean was going faster than both Temptress and us but were still down on the north side of the channel and would have to cross the current. As we approached Fort Sumter Emocean came reaching up from the north channel like gangbusters, while Temptress and Hoodoo were having to sail down slightly to keep from running out of water. Emocean now had put about 5 minutes on both us and they were now tight reaching with their big A-Sail towards R4. We saw Emocean radically change her course once which we expected was due to shallow water and then reach back up to her original heading. Emocean then ran aground not far from where a Fearless a 1d35 had run hard aground a year ago. Emocean kept her spinnaker up and unfurled their genoa to get as much heal as possible and appeared to be getting free at one point but the sails were rotating the boat the wrong way. Emocean was never able to sail free and had to withdraw. Now the race was between Hoodoo and Temptress and we were now only a couple of boat lengths apart. The wind backed as we sailed back in from Fort Sumter to R4 and continued our gains on Temptress. It appeared Temptress had flatter reaching spinnaker up which slowed Temptress as they had to pull their pole off the headstay. It was now going to be a run from R4 to the finish and with the current still flowing out Temptress and Hoodoo continued on port jibe heading for the current relief off the Battery. There was a large high school regatta going on that we needed to avoid making both of us jibe simultaneously to starboard with Temptress ahead and to leeward. This is where it gets crazy, the pin end of finish line was not down yet, we were now less than a boat length behind but could not figure out the finish line. First it appeared there was boat and pin but that was the high school course. We then saw the pin end of our finish line and Temptress jibed and as did we but now we were to leeward. We stayed to leeward thinking we could break through to the pin but the other end of line was on the yacht club dock and was the favored end. We were now committed and had to follow Temptress across line 11 seconds behind. What a good close race after sailing 15.5 miles. Our missed opportunity to win was a couple of things the confusion of not knowing what the finish line was and in lighter air you are not going to blast through to leeward. On that final jibe we needed to take Temptress’s transom, and attack by reaching over the top, and leveraging the reaching ability of our A-sail. Temptress would have responded by taking us up, which might have kept us from the finish line but also might have given us the speed to pass. Once again the boat first to BP wins, Emocean would have certainly won if they hadn’t run aground.<br />Emocean’s tactics coming back in through the jetties were race winning but not having enough water to sail in was costly. <br /><br />Randy Draftz<br />www.charlestonyachting.comRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1126707916376079722005-09-14T07:22:00.000-07:002005-09-14T07:25:16.383-07:00Temptress Perspective of Race 4 Series 2I am writing because I saw your writeup of Race 4 series 2, and love Tactical discussion and banter. While I agree with a lot of what you were looking at I thought I would let you know how we pulled our Houdini.<br />Thanks to a non-yeilding windward boat (at the start, again…) we were forced into a bad position straight away. With Wrinkles hell bent to bury us (wonder why?) The best we could do was waterline out with them to BP and watch you and Emo take the early lead. You guys did a great job protecting the right and sure enough we had to tack away from what I thought to be the favored side of the course. The wind had been trending right all afternoon, but we had noticed before the start that the velocity positive shifts were back to the left, closer to the forecast direction and strength. We believed we were experiencing a thermal mixing, and that one breeze or the other would win out before a true dying trend ensued.<br />With the tide ebbing we were comfortable with an initial tack out left. The ebb flow off of Castle Pinkney is extremely strong during that stage of ebb, and the direction vs our course provided a lee bow effect showing big left. The problem for Emo was that what shows on the water does not necessarily tell the story. We were watching breeze right of median and holding on to a nice open lane assisted mainly by the current. At the first cross, despite the chunk we were able to take out of Emo and Hdoo’s lead it was Emo who took a close cover and forced back out left. We still were looking at a right trend and didn’t mind spending time on starboard! But right about then we saw puff showing on the left upper and part of the course, so out towards pressure we go.<br />I have seen boat after boat try to master the eddies and swirls East of NOAA and play the beach route. Willy does it like it is his job to do it, current going in or out. Sometimes I see the thermal puffs come rollin’ on, and when he shoots the moon with his layline it is sometimes brilliant. I however have favored the stronger rips between the anchorage bouy and our perennial mark. Tremendous water comes rushing off the mid harbor flat during late Ebb, causing SOG’s and COG’s to dance the night away. However, going back the KISS tactics model I choose to stay “close in the cone,” or limit the number of lanes outside of your projected laylines by tacking more often near the mark and not steaking one side or the other. Get the LAST shift will win at the WM as long as you are “in the time zone” of the corner bangers.<br />So we choose a stbd approach about ten lanes short of layline and put the blinders on David and made him steer to SOG/COG instead of watch the tell tales (drives helmsmen nuts, there is no feel and visual feedback is bad.) We crossed the near current line to the ebb rip near the top of the flats and saw SOG spike to 8.2. With boatspeed fighting to stay at 6.0 we felt pretty good. A nice big lefty to tack on helped heaps, coupled with the drop in velocity to the right- direction or not.<br />The first run is really where we got all our time. The beat was nice because we were able to play some games with Emo, acting pissed about being forced back to the left and watching current help increase for us as well as pressure. The lefty hit in earnest at T-now on the port tack line as we rounded the mark and with the right kite (we carry 3 VMG’s) and used the puff to get up on the flats. We had to do so crossing the most adverse of currents, but as we learned at CRW in the last race that area is one of extremes. 70 Seconds later we were across the next line and watched SOG jump from 4.2 to 5.7. There was another ridge of current less than ten boatlengths away, but every time we bumped it we would drop .5 or so OTB. The COG was also a big help. A couple of times we would see our course deviate by 20 degrees W, probably casued by the forementioned runoffs from the harbor flats. We would just reach right through them and in 60 seconds or so we would see the COG come back into line, and keep the SOG up as well. But by Hdoo and Emo staying (not necessarily in better or worse current- just different) in the channel and sailing more rhumbline they failed to hold onto the lefty as it tends to die towards the JI shore. As our AWA/AWS delta would shrink we would head up and power through the lulls. Emo and Hdoo had a good opportunity for a tight cover in the last downwind exchange after middle ground when we came back shy of the rhumbline. But looking back at the current now ripping off the lee shore of CP we gybed back out for the leebow current (upwind and down, as it turned out.) We were able to stay in the AWA range of the med. VMG and use the COG offset to make bearing on the mark. Hdoo and Emo played back to the JI shore side of rhumbline, we got velocity and current help (call it a shift to the crew, they feel better when I do that rather than explaining all the spaghetti soup) and added 60-80 seconds on the last exchange alone.<br />The second beat was a bit different than the first. We used simple corralling to keep Emo (and in effect you guys) herding right towards the lulls (and lifts) near the shore. Once we had you committed we loose covered EMo up the beat and repeated our DW technique. It was a little different, and a different angle (more right) so we changed to the light VMG. Good thing we did--- we did overstand the last DW layline and needed a very flat sail indeed to get there. But while doing so we held on to the proverbial “last puff” and were able to ride a strong puff to finish, rich get richer.<br />I find it fascinating looking at the thought processes of other boats, and in examining what we did right or wrong tactically. I have learned a couple of key tactical lessons in Charleston’s predominantly cat 2 (Walker) conditions. First is usually what you said- get a good start and be first to BP. That helps. But it is not the be all! Identifying while on that leg the first, second, and likely third shift will help anyone to link-em together. Simply choosing a side doesn’t work consistently enough here due to the changes in current speed and direction in the same places at the same stage in ebb or flood! I also learned through competing with the Melges boat to boat that downwind you have to, have to, have to VMG your way around the course. There are too many gains for being “over here or over there” to sail the VMG rhumblines. We fight the trends daily to not pinch near the WM and not foot into the LM.Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1126706375361293962005-09-14T06:56:00.000-07:002005-09-14T06:59:35.370-07:00September 13th Newsletter and Specials TextRigging, rigging, rigging, is the latest news at Charleston Yachting! We are now your quality source for professional swaging and have the know-how to evaluate your current lifelines and standing rigging for replacement. So, if it is time to get that lifeline gate replaced or a even a complete set of standing rigging replaced, count on us to do the job right. Our equipment can Kearney and hydraulically swage fittings onto cable all the way up to 5/8” diameter cable. Charleston Yachting is now a Navman dealer! If you are looking for a basic instrument package, an autopilot, GPS Chartplotter or fish finder we can get it for you. Looking for the ultimate GPS Chartplotter? Northstar has always been the leader in the field and with new integrated software you get the performance of a computer with the durability of ruggedly housed chartplotter. Also, we are also now handling Extrasport lifejackets forthose of you getting reading for the fall dingy season. More added to the website everyday—check it out!<br /><br />You can sign up to have a complete version of this newletter on the right rail of our website at www.charlestonyachting.com<br /><br />Thanks<br />Randy Draftz<br /><a href="mailto:rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com">rdraftz@charlestonyachting.com</a>Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1123174810597585732005-08-04T10:00:00.000-07:002005-08-05T06:46:01.600-07:00Charleston Yachting<a href="http://charlestonyachting.blogspot.com/">Charleston Yachting</a><br />Wednesday Night Race 4 Series 2:<br /><br />Hoodoo Crew: Ric, Deb, Rando, Dan, Katy, Ben, Jim, Randy<br /><br />Wind 7-11 knots ESE; Current Flooding<br />Course #9 8.5 NM BP, R2, BP, R2, R4 Finish<br /><br />The first leg to BP was a fetch with our TWA at about 60 degrees. The dock end of the line was slightly favored so goal was to start down to leeward in clear air and make sure we were on the line with speed. The rest of the class tended to favor the windward pin end of the line allowing us and Emocean (J120, to leeward) to get off the line with good speed. Emocean quickly worked out and away while we consolidated and sailed up in front the class. Emocean rounded BP first while we followed in second about four boat lengths behind. We rounded BP and went very hard on the wind (almost pinching) to make sure we were to windward of the boats rounding BP behind us. We felt the right side was going to have better current relief and the wind direction was expected to shift right as well. If we could maintain our height the boats rounding after us would have to tack off to the left to clear their air. We succeeded and Emocean and Hoodoo continued up the right as long as we had enough water. Meanwhile Temptress (SR33OB) continued off to the left. Emocean was first to tack back left (I don’t think they have working depth sounder) while we had some more room we continued right towards the James Island shore. We tacked well inside of Emocean and started sailing back out on starboard tack, unfortunately the wind was now swinging left giving Temptress some significant leverage and we forced to continue on starboard while looking for more space to tack back to right. We were holding our own against Emocean but Temptress was now leading on the left. We dug back to right and tacked backed left short of the starboard tack layline. With the incoming current it was too difficult to call the layline at a distance so we worked back and got the left of Temptress and Emocean setting up about 50 yards to leeward of the layline. We had to duck the starboard tack Emocean and rounded R2 in third with Temptress clear ahead in first. Emocean jibe set at R2 while we bored away and set. We gained on Emocean and they proceeded to jibe back to leeward of us onto starboard. We continued down the run to close to Middle Ground and jibe over to port to back into the more favorable current. We jibed two more times staying the middle of course while Temptress worked the right and Emocean went to starboard tack layline. Temptress extended her lead to about 2 minutes while Emocean kept her one boat length lead over us. In our second rounding of BP the jib halyard was accidentally released causing Hoodoo to sail low while we sorted things out giving several boat lengths back to Emocean. We continued to work the right sided of the course and the wind was now lighting up to about 8 knots. We used our backstay tension to adjust the entry of genoa easing in the light stuff and tensioning in the puffs, it was obvious the velocity of the wind was trending down. Hoodoo excels upwind in winds under 10 and we closed in on Emocean. Three quarters up the second beat Emocean crossed Hoodoo and tacked to cover but tacked too late allowing Hoodoo to sail through. We felt we wanted the left and we tucked up under Emocean sending them back to right. Unfortunately there was more breeze back to the right and Emocean was able to cross us easily as we came back towards the starboard tack layline. We tacked onto starboard a little too quickly and the combination of bad air from Emocean and incoming current we had to shoot the mark to avoid tacking again. We rounded and had a nice bare away set with Emocean a good five to seven boat lengths ahead. We seemed to sail a little deeper and closed on Emocean I did not feel we would be able sail around her to weather so we just stayed close knowing that they give us a couple minutes on corrected time. I think as the wind lightened both Hoodoo and Emocean where both guilty of sailing too deep. We eventually jibed onto port in search of more favorable current and Emocean followed a minute later. We gained initially than Emocean appeared to have slightly been breeze to the right. Meanwhile Temptress sailed all the way to the port tack layline maybe even over standing a bit but still managing to put another minute on us. We approached R4 from the starboard tack layline several boat lengths behind Emocean. The leg from R4 to the finish was a beam reach that had enough velocity to allow Emocean to leg out slightly and beat us across the finish line by 25 seconds. With the wind velocity on a downward trend the leads boat only got richer as the night progressed and we easily saved our time over the third place boat Wrinkles (Olsen 30).<br /><br />The keys to the race as with most, was the start and first leg to BP. If you can get to BP in clear air ahead of the traffic you have much better control strategically and tactically. Keep you eye on the wind pressure sailing out of pressure against an adverse current is a killer. A pretty famous sailor once said racing sailboats is easy “get out in front and extend your lead”. Nice job Temptress.<br /><br /><br />Randy Draftz<br />www.charlestonyacting.comRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1123170249340476122005-08-04T08:44:00.000-07:002005-08-04T08:44:09.360-07:00Charleston Yachting<a href="http://charlestonyachting.blogspot.com/">Charleston Yachting</a>
<br />TOUGH COMPETITION ON FRONT ROW OF ROLEX FASTNET GRID
<br />
<br />August 4, 2005
<br />
<br />There is more than one way to win the Rolex Fastnet Race. One is to be fastest around the 608-mile course, to be first past the post in Plymouth. This Sunday the battle for line honours is likely to come down to a high-speed duel between two Antipodean Maxis, Skandia Wild Thing and ICAP Maximus. Another way to win the Rolex Fastnet is under the IRC handicap system, and this is a possibility open to almost all of the 286 boats competing in the fleet this year - which, by the way, is the largest fleet to compete since 1979.
<br />
<br />While the theoretical possibility exists for any boat to win, many of those 286 crews have not come to Cowes with thoughts of victory, but simply to take part in one of the great ocean racing classics. One team with its eye very much on handicap success, however, is the newly launched Irish TP52 Patches, owned by Eamon Conneely. With a crack crew headed up by two double Olympic medallists, skipper Ian Walker and helmswoman Shirley Robertson, this lightweight 52-footer has been tearing up the Solent over the past week at Skandia Cowes Week.
<br />
<br />The measure of her dominance these past few days has taken the racing world by storm. After all, the TP52 is not designed specifically to the IRC rule and yet its handicap performance is proving staggeringly competitive. Robertson, enjoying a break from Olympic campaigning in small keelboats, is loving her job at the wheel of Patches. "She is probably the most responsive yacht I've ever sailed," she says. "As soon as you crack her off the breeze, she lights up and takes off. If we get reaching conditions in the race, then I think we can do well."
<br />
<br />That too, is the assessment of Patches by Jeremy Robinson, helmsman of one of the TP52's chief rivals for IRC honours, Nick Lykiardopulo's 55-footer Aera. "In downwind conditions, Patches will be off, we won't even see her," admits Robinson. "But if we get a lot of upwind work then we could do well." Aera certainly proved her ability to tough it through the rough stuff in a wild and windy Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at the end of last year, when Lykiardopulo's team beat a fleet of 116 boats on IRC handicap.
<br />
<br />The Rolex Fastnet Race brings back the winning team from downunder, with 11 of the 15 Hobart crew reunited under former Volvo Ocean Race skipper Jez Fanstone for an assault on the Fastnet. "We've got a very strong team, four very good drivers which is vital in a race like this," says Robinson. "But you also need the luck of the weather in a race like this. All you can do is put the bits in place and see if it works for you."
<br />
<br />While the two big swing-keeled Maxis are primarily gunning for line honours, Robinson has not ruled them out of the handicap race. "Looking at the weather, it could suit the big boats. If they get around the [Fastnet] Rock and there is a shutdown in the wind, then you could quite easily see one of the Maxis win line honours and handicap."
<br />
<br />Then again, there are a number of interesting machines that could upset the predicted dominance of the 100-foot Maxis, not least the Volvo Open 70 Telefonica Movistar. Skipper Bouwe Bekking and his crew set the 24-hour monohull record of 535 miles earlier this year, so what she yields in length to the Maxis, she may well make up for in her awesome power-to-weight ratio. A fleet of 14 Open 60s will also enjoy a high-speed ride to the Fastnet Rock and back, with a number of round-the-world specialists such as Mike Golding, Nick Moloney, Marc Thiercelin and Bernard Stamm among the line-up.
<br />
<br />Aside from the desire to win, the reasons for competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race are many and varied. Some sailors think of it in terms of their 'personal Everest'. For Simon Le Bon, lead singer with pop group Duran Duran, it is a matter of unfinished business. Twenty years ago he and his crew were rescued by the RNLI after his Maxi yacht Drum capsized in stormy weather off the coast of Falmouth. Now reunited with the same boat, renamed Arnold Clark Drum after her current owner, and with much of his old crew, Le Bon is back to complete the course. One of his reasons for competing is to bring more awareness to the volunteer body that saves hundreds of lives around Britain's coastline every year.
<br />
<br />The first signal for the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race sounds at 1050 on Sunday 7th August. In addition to the two main prizes - the Fastnet Challenge Cup and the Fastnet Rock Trophy, there are more than 30 trophies to be awarded at the conclusion of this year's Rolex Fastnet Race. The prizegiving will take place at the Royal Citadel, home of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, in Plymouth on Friday 12th August.
<br />
<br />Further information about the RORC and the Rolex Fastnet Race can be found at: www.rorc.org
<br />
<br />Copyright free high resolution photography, for editorial usage only, may be found at: www.regattanews.com
<br />
<br />Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1123083559577273132005-08-03T08:39:00.000-07:002005-08-03T08:39:19.590-07:00Charleston YachtingSailJazz the new website offered by Cheryl Bolye has Charleston Yachting listed under retailers. Please post your review for Charleston Yachting at http://www.sailjazz.com/docktalk/browse/retailer
<br />
<br />Thanks
<br />Randy
<br />Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1122328199164411132005-07-25T14:47:00.000-07:002005-07-25T14:49:59.170-07:00J109 H1000 InstallationJ109 H1000 Installation<br /><br />As any boat installation of any kind it takes twice as long the first time. Picking the route for the network cables took longer than anticipated, we wanted to stay out of the bilge and also did not want remove the molded on connectors, creating unnecessary splices.<br /><br />Boatspeed/ Depth Interface:<br /> In the J109 forepeak there is a light weight dividing bulkhead separating the sail locker. We mounted the boatspeed/depth interface on the forward side of this bulkhead. (The photo is looking aft) The two transducer cables cable clamped to the underside of the center support through holes drilled through the bulkhead again keeping the cables protected. We always leave a little extra cable to make any repairs or changes easier. Unlike the old depth transducers this cable can be cut to length.<br /><br />We ran the network cable forward and up the starboard side behind the vertical teak trim up into starboard side cabin liner and aft through the bulkhead again up inside the cabin liner in the main salon and back into the electrical panel. The two cables you see in this picture are masthead interface cable and the boatspeed. We ran the masthead interface forward to the boatspeed interface to avoid the use of another junction box.<br /><br />Masthead Interface:<br />We wanted to mount the masthead interface up forward to avoid using a junction box and adding additional connections. We mounted the interface on the forward side of the starboard bulkhead running the mast cable along side the existing radio antennae cable making for an easy disconnect for rig removal. We could of have either run the network cable aft along side the boatspeed network cable but chose to go forward backtracking the boatspeed network cable and attaching to the network cable on the second connector of the boatspeed depth interface. Another solution would have been to use a junction box at the bulkhead and plug the boatspeed network cable the masthead network cable and run the third network cable back to the navstation. We also had the network cable for the two mast mounted displays. To keep the hole in the mast to the minimum we cut the cable and instead of soldering we used a B&G mastcable junction box that you see mounted on to left of the interface on the trim.<br /><br /><br /><br />Companionway Hood Displays:<br />It was very easy removing the hood and cutting the holes for the two H1000 displays and the H1000 Autopilot control head. The hood is pre-wired but only with a generic 7 core wire, not a B&G network cable. So I had no choice but to cut a network cable and splice it to the generic cable by soldering and covering with heat shrink tubing. When splicing the two most important things are a good solid connection and a waterproof connection. The pre-run cable is nicely coiled up behind the electrical panel where we soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing the splice to the other network cable pigtail.<br /><br /> Mastmounted Displays:<br />We elected to mount two displays onto the mast with the B&G dual display mastmount and decided we were better off cutting the network cable to allow for a smaller hole in the mast. We drilled a small hole in the sailtrack and fished the network cable back out of the mast along side the masthead cable, antennae cable, and mastlight cable. We used a B&G mastcable junction box to attach the other connector to allow for quick disconnect for mast removal.<br /><br /><br /><br />Be careful on the mast bracket mount, make sure the bracket is mounted far enough aft to allow room for the reef line and cunningham to run through the bracket. We missed by about a ½” because we using hole from a previous instrument bracket.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Compass Sensor:<br />The best place for a compass is always down low and middle of the boat to minimize the effect of heel and pitching, but try finding a place that is safe and out of the way of interfering items. The aft stateroom’s hanging locker appears to be good clear space but since we had the autopilot processor getting mounted in starboard cockpit locker we opted for mounting the sensor in the cabinet in the head. This a easy cable run to electrical panel and another easy run to autopilot CPU. We will see how sensor calibrates and if there an issue we will move it to the other side of the boat. Here you can see cable heading up into the back trim of the cabinet and forward to the navstation. The empty connector will be used for the autopilot.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Universal Interface:<br />We mounted the Universal Interface behind the electrical panel along with a four way junction box. We always used Velcro pads to mount the interfaces and junction boxes, this makes it very easy access to and avoids drilling holes. We have used all six connections our compass sensor, companionway hood displays, power cable, Universal Interface, and our network cable coming from the bow.<br />The cable you see coming from the bottom of Universal Interface was split to take the two NMEA leads into the to the interface box and the two power leads that power the GPS sensor over to the circuit breaker.<br />With everything connected flip the instrument breaker and away you will go. Don’t forget to calibrate boatspeed, swing your compass, and then your masthead unit for the greatest accuracy.<br /><br /><br /><br />Randy Draftz<br />J109 Hoodoo<br /><br /><a name="_Hlt92730939"></a><a href="mailto:Rdraftz@comcast.net">Rdraftz@comcast.net</a>Randy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14811192.post-1122327089279984372005-07-25T14:24:00.000-07:002005-07-25T14:31:29.293-07:00Chicago to Mackinac Race 2005<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5676/1352/1600/DSCN0102.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5676/1352/320/DSCN0102.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />20005 Mac Race<br /><br />This year’s race was aboard Charleston Yachting’s customer David Gustman’s new J109 Northstar. Our crew was David Gustman, David’s son Hunter, Lee Hutchinson and his daughter Alex, Robert Mathews, Joe Hummel, Brian Hickey and I.<br /><br />Northstar is a new J109 that was delivered just before this year’s Memorial Day weekend. She has North Sails, comprised of a 3DL class mainsail, class jib, # 3 blade, 108 square meter class spinnaker, and a 121 square meter spinnaker for sailing PHRF. The instruments are by Charleston Yachting who selected Ockam Instruments with a Furuno GPS and Icom VHF with Command Mic.<br /><br />To prepare for this years race it was important to change the set up of the stock configuration of the J109 to make it more efficient for changing sails. The J109 when raced around the buoys utilizes a Harken Unit 1 furling system allowing the crew the ability to simply furl the sail when changing from a jib to spinnaker making handling the boat much easier. Having sailed the J109 in other port to port type races I had found it beneficial to be able to change headsails with the conditions but by not using the furling system but utilizing the double grooved extrusion to hoist one sail up inside the other and avoiding making bare headed sail changes. To do this we added a second jib halyard, lowered the furling system halyard swivel down to the top of the torque tube, added a loose prefeeder, and a snapshackle to the Harken tack swivel. To allow faster spinnaker changes we added a second spinnaker halyard a third spinnaker sheet and a quick release tack changing line. We also added four Wichard foldable pad eyes for attaching barber haulers that would greatly improve our sheeting angles of our headsails for headsail reaching. In a long port to port race like the Mac the range of conditions can be huge so the ability to adapt the boat to these conditions becomes very important to maintaining the boat’s performance.<br />The Rig:<br />The mast’s rigging was adjusted to provide more power and gain some performance in the expected reaching and running conditions. The first thing we did was measure the existing rig tension using the RT-10 Loos tension gauge and recorded the measurements of the cap shroud, and the upper and lower diagonals with the backstay eased. We then eased the tension on the cap shrouds and the lower diagonal stays leaving the upper diagonal and the headstay at their original lengths. Originally I considered shortening the headstay by taking some turns on the headstay turnbuckle that’s an integral part of the Harken furling system but concerned that it would not get back to the original setting for course racing we set up the ability to pull the rig forward by using our extra jib halyard. We attached a 5/16” D-shackle to the stemhead fitting for a good strong attachment point for our rig pulling halyard. We would use the rig puller in light headsail reaching conditions and all spinnaker reaching and running conditions. To use the rig puller we eased off the backstay and ground the rig puller on using one of the halyard winches.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Electronics:<br />Northstar has a basic compass level Ockam system that provides accurate and consistent information. We took sometime to make sure we had our compass and boatspeed sensor were well calibrated so we would have good wind direction information. We had a total of six functions displayed at all times to help with our performance and race tactics. On the mast display we kept boatspeed and heading displayed and on the companionway hood we kept true wind speed, magnetic wind direction, true wind angle and we would alternate the final display with course over ground with VMC that would should us our ultimate progress to our waypoint. We like to use true wind angle and true wind speed instead of apparent it helps in sail changes, and especially our downwind jibing angles that can be fairly wide in light air with the asymmetrical spinnakers. For our performance indicators we used the J109 velocity prediction spreadsheet and kept a laminated chart in the cockpit that showed our target speed and optimum sailing angles from six to twenty knots of true wind in two knot increments. With this chart we could quickly see if we were sailing our proper angles downwind and achieving the appropriate boatspeed.<br /><br />The Weather Forecast:<br />We had Commander’s Weather put together a forecast that provides the weather information that we use for our pre-race strategy. This year with the tail end of Hurricane Dennis extending into the region and an already unusually warm lake made the forecast extremely difficult. We reviewed the six page single spaced forecast several times it basically said very light winds or thermal lake breezes would overtake the weaker gradient winds. At night without the heat of the son breezes could be next to nothing. Everything was pointing to a very slow race but also conditions that the J109 performs very well.<br /><br />The Race:<br /><br />The J109 was placed in section four among twenty one other Americap rated boats that ranged from on old IOR Kaufman 44 down to the thirty six foot J109. The section consisted of IOR one tonners, a Sabre 402, Beneteau 42.5 in other words a melting pot of older and newer designs. The boats are all welled sailed and going into the race it was hard to select who might be the boat to watch. For us it was very simple there were five J109s in the section and that’s who we would be focused on. Three of the J109s were sailed by very good one design sailors that included an Olympic medalist, a Star World champion etc.<br />The winds as predicted were light and from the northeast. Our first waypoint was set for three miles off Point Betsy approximately one hundred and eighty miles away at a bearing of twenty degrees. With the wind expected to shift more east we thought it was important to start at the east end of the line. We weren’t the only the only ones and in the six knot breeze everyone was slightly early. We held our position well but came off the line slowly and fell in behind the Sabre 402 (Wooton). Lesson one long distance race start set for clear air and forget about trying to win the start. We were now hard on the wind sailing in about four to six knots of breeze with heading swinging from as far left as 340 degrees to as far right as 10 degrees. Within the first two hours several of our class boats tacked onto port and headed out into the lake. Later I found out they had gone out to avoid the chop that we were experiencing. I am from the ladder rung school that keeps us always on the tack that is getting us closer to mark. This method kept us on our starboard tacking working are way right as the wind direction and velocity would allow it. The majority of our class was to our West and footing in the light air up the coast line. We continued to battle with the Wooton finally losing out when she got a nice puff and took off to about ½ mile lead. Lesson number 2 in light air sailing huge gains can be maintained by keeping staying focused on surrounding conditions looking up the course keeping a keen eye out for changes in velocities. After several hours into the race we were starting to sail through some of the slower boats that had started prior to our class. With the wind still being so light it was very important that we anticipate our passing of these boats to avoid getting in there bad air or getting us in the position of having one of these boats on our leebow. We had such a situation when a bigger boat was attempting to pass us close to windward. We simply trimmed in headed up slightly and tucked ourselves up under their bow stopping them dead in their tracks. We kept going but it took the larger boat a long time regain its pace and by then we were long gone. Our third lesson is as you sail through a fleet keep a close eye up ahead and also from behind to avoid getting tangled up with other competitors that might hinder your progress up the course. In these light conditions we were sailing with no backstay tension lots of twist in the main and the genoa approximately three inches off the top spreader. The J109 is this condition was very fast and we were using our speed to keep us as far east as possible without tacking. As the day progressed as predicted the wind started to swing into the southeast allowing us to sail up to course. Several of our competitors chose to sail low keeping themselves closer to the coastline we held our course first by genoa reaching then eventually hoisting our 121 square meter asymmetric spinnaker. The wind was still low at 6 knots so we were able to use this sail effectively set it at 105 degrees true and used up to 95 degrees true to keep us rolling. Ideally we would liked to have a used a sail designed for reaching as boats around us were using code zeros but that’s whole other issue. We were rolling along now and boat was in its element hanging with much larger boats that had come up from behind. We knew we had made huge gains on the boats to the west but worried about the boats that tacked out earlier with them being on the inside of the shift. Just before dark we got our answer as one of the J109s that tacked earlier reached down across in front us. We continued to separate to windward while the other J109 was sailing lower and maybe touch faster. We continued this tight reaching through night only stopping once for about ½ hour. You always hate it when you stop because you know someone else is moving but I felt we had good night by only stopping once when our forecast had predicted wind speeds of nil. The first morning is always an anxious time and we were relieved to find us with mostly larger boats. During the night we had lost track of the other J109 but later in the morning we found the other J109 that tacked earlier coming back out from the east. The wind had continued to shift more to south and we were now running downwind sailing our target angles and speed and now having to sail above our current bearing. Remember in distance racing the only guarantee is change. The wind velocity had increased up to ten knots, we now sailing about 144 degrees true keeping speed through the water at 7 knots a better. The water was starting to build slight chop and found it fast to sail up slightly building speed and sailing down on the new apparent wind angle and the occasional wave. We had the rig puller on hard and focused on keeping our speed up heading toward the Michigan shore’s Big Sable Point. We now had the other J109 down to leeward to the west and we were keeping tabs on our progress relative to their position. As we got closer to the Michigan shore we found the other J109 coming out on port jibe from the shore. We thought the wind might be getting lighter inshore and took the opportunity to jibe back to west covering the J109 to the west and keeping ourselves with the other J109 as well. We now three of the J109s all close by with about ¼ mile of each other. Even though our port tack took us slightly away from our mark it proved to be a good move the breeze did lighten up near shore and we passed several much larger boats that were inshore of us. The wind continued to oscillate between south and southeast and after about forty five minutes we needed to jibe back to starboard heading towards our waypoint off Point Betsy. The predicted southwesterly that had been forecasted had not shown itself yet and preceded on starboard jibe just squeaking by Point Betsy and then Sleeping Bear Dunes. With one J109 just behind us and the other J109 along side it was going to be a very important night on the water. We went to pass to pass the J109 along side but with night and asymmetric spinnaker making them hard to see after a couple of attempts we decided to separate to leeward and pass them to the west. We were now downwind enough that our optimum sailing took to a heading of fifty five to sixty degrees when our destination was thirty four degrees. We continued through Sunday night with al three J109s staying roughly the same positions Realt Na Mara ahead but to windward of us Northstar and Lucky Dubie about a ½ mile directly behind. It was becoming obvious that we were going to eventually have to jibe to reach Grays Reef but we were unwilling to do so until the very last portion of the fifty five mile leg. Realt Na Mara became impatient and jibed over to port onto a possible heading of due north. We continued on in northeast heading and within hour received a header out of Grand Traverse Bay that brought both Lucky Dubie and ourselves down to our direct heading to Gray’s Reef. With Realt Na Mara hung out to dry in the west it now became race between Lucky Dubie and us. The breeze was now up into the high teens with puffs in the twenties and we were starting to take off. Our little header went away as we pressed north of the Grand Traverse Bays but the sailing was exceptional as we are now surfing at speeds consistently in the low teens. With the wind shifting to south Realt Na Mara was back in play and Lucky Dubie was first to jibe and we followed both boats successfully jibing in winds that were now consistently in the low twenties. Unfortunately both of our laylines had us going directly over Ille Aux Gullets a small pile of rocks that sit in the middle of lake eleven miles south of Gray’s Reef we both had to jibe back to starboard for fifteen minutes to clear the reef. With the wind now in the mid twenties we were have a great surfing contest between us Lucky Dubie with both side by side hitting sixteen knots on the surfs. Gray’s Reef is narrow ½ mile channel that is the entrance to the Straights of Mackinaw and makes for great consolidation point and fleet funnels into the channel. We still couldn’t see anyone in our class other than the three J109s and with our little detour around Ill Aux Gullets and the shift back left Realt Na Mara was now back into picture as well but maybe ¼ mile behind us and the Dubie. We covered the five miles of channel very quickly with the wind now finally clocking into the southwest. We now had to round one of few marks of the course and turn to a heading of ninety five degrees, Lucky Dubie rounded first about a minute ahead of us by hoisting their class jib, dropping their asymmetrical and jibing onto the new course, we followed suit and started our final twenty five miles to the finish. We were comfortably beam reaching with our number 3 up at 7.5 knots until Realt Na Mara rounds behind a couple of minutes later but to our surprise they jibed their asymmetrical instead of dropping and changing to the jib. The breeze was still in the twenties but now at about 110 degrees true. Lucky Dubie was quick to respond and hoisted their 108 sq. meter we followed suit but the damage had been down Realt Na Mara was just ten boat lengths behind and Lucky Dubie was now fifteen boat lengths ahead of us. The 108 sq. meter spinnaker was the perfect size and we proceeded to blast down the straights at 10 to 13 knots. Realt Na Mara meanwhile was hanging with us with her 121 sq. meter spinnaker they did a text book job of sailing low in the puffs while working up when the could in the lulls. They gradually pulled ahead and to leeward of us and as we approached the Mackinac Bridge the breeze subsided down to ten knots allowing Realt Na Mara to pass us and close in on Lucky Dubie. Lucky Dubie did a bear-headed change to their 121 sq. meter spinnaker while used a tack line and extra halyard to pull off a very fast peel change to our 121 sq. meter. With four miles to go we were all once again together with anyone one us capable of crossing the finish line first. We jibe first over to port and headed towards the Mackinac Island, Lucky Dubie follow us while Realt Na Mara continued out on starboard. This new breeze was now almost due west making the finish line dead downwind. We found a little more breeze on the left and with Lucky Dubie in the lead we went to jibe onto starboard towards the finish line. A famous quote is that it’s never over till it’s over well what a statement! After jibing successfully this morning in the big breeze we blow the easiest jibe of the day and wrap our spinnaker so badly that we have to completely lower the sail and in re-hoisting the sail the foot gets in the water and we are now shrimping!! (at least that’s our term for it Charleston). Lucky Dubie finishes first boat for boat with Realt Na Mara second and Northstar third. The J109s all rated slightly different due to sails used etc. which allowed us to correct ahead of Lucky Dubie and we ended up losing to Realt Na Mara by fourteen seconds.<br />It was one of more enjoyable Mac races I can remember. Warm nights, no thunderstorms and the versatility of the J109 made sailing fast look easy. Good competition allowed us a group to excel with the three lead J109s all in the top of the fleet standings. Remember take you time when jibing and if you have any questions regarding Northstar’s set up don’t hesitate to contact me.<br /><br />Randy Draftz<br />Hoodoo J109<br />Northstar J109<br /><br />rdraftz@charlestonyachting.comRandy Draftzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08795375426728788382noreply@blogger.com1