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I sailed to Bald Head Island on friday to go to the Bald Head Island regatta.. Hans came as crew… we were supposed to leave on thursday but the port pushpit wasn’t repaired like it was supposed to be and we ended up waiting till 2 pm on friday to get it installed and leave… at the time I was tempted to just go without it but now I am glad we didn’t. We had some really extreme weather and sailing on saturday and having working life lines and port push pit were a life saver… litterally…
The sail up there on friday was a beautifull one… but long.. we left at about 2pm and didn’t get to the Cape Fear River Inlet till about 10:00… actaully getting inside took about anothe 30 to 40 minutes… it was dark with no moon… GPS comes in handy.. not to mention seeing the lights on the channel markers. The combination of the two made it a fairly easy time getting in through the inlet… The sea state was also very calm for the inlet.
We took pattys Pirate Girl out today. No problems with the engine… Patty found that one of the engine coolant system drain cocks had not been tightened good and it had vibrated open which caused the engine problems last trip out.. This time everything worked. Though the prop seems to vibrate more than it should according to richard..
anyway we sailed down the coast and then back toward the inlet tacking back and forth and playing with sail trim and and various other adjustments.
Patty as captain
Beautifull day for racing or just sailing… about 1.5 to 2 ft seas and 10 to 15 knots of wind..
Crew of Patty, Jim and me.. we raced Angela in Sea Haven ( a O’Day 27) and Orin on La Bon Vie’ (a Beneteau Oceanus 39)
First race we finished about a minute and a half behind La Bon Vie and won on corrected time…
Second race we came in about 5 minutes behind La Bon Vie for second place…
We during the race we played with boat trim and found that sailing her flat seemed to slow her down but heeling more than about 10 degrees also slowed her down.. about a 5 degree heel seemed to be best… Moving one person forward to about the shrouds also increased our speed by a solid 1/4 to 1/2 knot.
Winds during the first race were about 10 knots and we did better at keeping up with the much heavier La Bon Vie… not to mention that for some reason they didn’t unfurl the entire Jib…. Second Race they flew the whole Jib and with slightly higher winds they consistently ran a bit faster than us.. 🙂 waterline length realy paid off for them 🙂 and with the decent winds they had the power to move.
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Went out today with Judy and sailed for a few hours… 1.5 ft seas with about a 10 second period… almost flat.. steady 10 knot breeze… I ran the one main that I had not tried today and it balances the boat perfectly with the dacron 155….. i put the bungee on the tiller and didnt have to touch it for 30+ minutes at the time…… The only bummer is that this sail like the other fully battened main doesn’t have reefing points. However under those conditions I think I like this main the most of all.
I had every intention of taking it easy today and just doing some clean up on Sea Puppy from yesterdays rough sail. It didn’t happen.. I was there minding my own business when Jerry came wandering down on the dock to say hi to me and Ben who was working on his boat Anago. he haad to say the fatefull words.. “Hey guys would you like to go out with me today:” lol how could we say no.
Anyways it was a beautifull day in the high 70’s with calm seas and about 12 knots of wind… just perfect sailing weather… We sailed about 15 miles… with the boat just humming along at 6.5 to 7.5 knots… We drug Angela off of her boat and Jerry had a friend along and with Jerrys dog Murphy and her dog on board well we had a full crew….
Well I went sailing/racing today.. it was the first truly official race of the season for the Long Bay Sailing Association..
At its best or should I say worst we had 6 ft seas and 25- 27 knots solid wind.. with gust to 32… this according to the Jeneau 43’s instrements that was racing with us.
It was supposed to be 10 to 15 with gusts to 20….
I took Sea Puppy out single handed. And brought her back after finishing 3rd.
I flew the 100 jib and daycron main with one reef…. earlier in day before it really kicked up this was a very nice combination… I needed the second reef in when it picked up… but was in the middle of race.. 🙁 I finished first race and they called second race… the race committee boat was getting pounded. I wouldn’t have raced second one anyways… that was some exhausting sailing….. I feel like ive been beat with a stick.
I love this quote out of Kenneth Grahame‘s "The Wind in the Willows"
`This has been a wonderful day!’ said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a boat before in all my life.’
`What?’ cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a–you never–well I–what have you been doing, then?’
`Is it so nice as all that?’ asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
We took Pirate Girl, Patty’s Beneteau 323 out sailing today…. with 10 knot winds, 58 degree air and almost flat seas it was a chill but beautifull day to sail.
We motored out of the inlet and then proceded to pull the main out of the mast…. … well tried to pull it out… we got it about half way out and the leech started to wrap back around the furler the opposite direction inside the mast this jammed the sail in the mast half out half in….
Well it was supposed to be an official race but it ended up being just for fun.. lol which is just as well as Sea Puppy came in second..
Winds were supposed to be 15 to 20 and instead were closer to 4 to 10…
Sea Puppy raced against LC Marie a Catalina 36, Runnaway a Cabo Rico 39 and Diamond Girl a Hunter 29, In the light winds Dimanond Girl and Sea Puppy did much better than the bigger and heavier LC Mari and Runnaway.. In the first race Sea Puppy and Diamond Girl were neck and neck far out in the lead 🙂 We ended up not finishing that as the with the light winds it would have taken all day and part of the evening to finish the course. By decision of GPS distance from the mark the race went to Diamond Girl.
ok I finally got a moment or two to reflect on yesterdays sail and can make a few comments about how Pirate Girl.. Patty’s new 323 handled well.. we went out with a couple friends one of who is a very experienced sailor and had done a lot of the work on putting Pirate Girl together.. stepping the mast and rigging her etc..
With an 18 horse yanmar diesel engine Pirate Girl chugged down the waterway at a solid 5.5 knots without straining… nice and smooth…. this would be the third time I’ve been on her under power and I like it much better than Sea Puppys 2 stroke outboard… however I will admit that if you go below while the diesel is running it is much noisier and a bit more vibration from the engine.
I went out today by myself and it was the perfect day sailing… winds were light at about 10 knots and the sea was calm with only 2 ft swells or so.
Leaving the dock was smooth and the motor down the waterway went quickly with the tide going out… 5.5 knots over water and 7.5 to 8 knots over land with the current also carrying me out. The 5 miles to the inlet went fast.
Bending on the mainsail didn’t go as smoothly with the new pre-feeder as It did when I tested it at the dock…. i was very frustrated till I realized that the main halyard had gotten wrapped around another block on a track set on the cabin top and was causing a lot of friction. Once that was fixed It went straight up. I can now raise the main hand over hand all the way up without even using the winch or going to the mast to unjam it..
I had thought that today was a race but it was just an official group sail which we turned into a race 🙂 As crew I had James a stellar sailor and Ray a newcomer to the club. We got along great and made a great team on the boat.
I had high hopes to whup up on my competition today but somehow it didn’t happen.. in two races I ended up being 3rd out of 5 boats.
The first race I made a brilliant start 🙂 lol…. I was well ahead of everyone else and didn’t catch a wind shift.. the rest of the fleet tacked and I kept going…. on a windward/downwind course around a bouy two miles away I was a half mile behind at the bouy.. I caught up to about 2 or 3 hundred yards behind the leaders at the end of the race though…
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