John, the White Rocks Marina co-owner and manager, has delivered in his promise to me. He has launched (or moved) boats stacked behind us in a frenzy, even under the rain, and came to work on a Saturday to finish the job for us. Well done John, thank you.

We had a gale warning and Mike decided wisely to leave his two daughters at home. We used the Sharkskin main and this alone made the preparation longer because of the removal of the pre-feeder and the adding of the track plates.

James, Mike, Tony B, George, Tim, Ginny.

Will leave dock at 0815

NASS Spring SIs

A1 is the second start at 1010

We finished 8th of 10 boats, with two J35s behind us. Air Mail is first and we are 6 minutes behind, however we are also 3 minutes behind the 7th boat.

Race was 7.5 nm (5 x 2.5 nm). NASS Spring Results

Will leave dock at 0900

A1 is the second start at 11:10

312 SIs

We had a 14.5 nm Gov. Marks race (point to point).

Santiago, Paul, James, Jon, George

We have finished 7th of 13 boats. We have beaten three good boats in real time and compensated over three more. Last year, we had achieved mid-fleet or better only twice (in one of which we had Will Keyworth onboard), so this is a very encouraging and this time the boat felt much better upwind.

This is due above all to good sail trim and good crew work at tacks jibes and mark roundings.

However, we have also had the following hardware improvements:

- Balancing the boat in its designed float lines at the dock. I had asked Bobby Muller to add the official float lines and when I saw the boat on Friday I was amazed because the bow was floating 4-5 inches higher than the stern. So, on Friday, I have loaded the forepeak locker as much as I could, checking the float lines after each move, before the race I have added 4 x 2.5 gallons of water (83 lbs) in the anchor locker. This has made a big difference. The boat was stern-heavy from the beginning most likely due to the wheel (the boat was originally designed for a tiller - the wheel adds 80 lbs at the stern), the two batteries below the wheel (some J/105 have only one battery and in the cabin, a much more forward position) and the quarter-berth.

- The new more streamlined propeller, which by the way also gave us fantastic cruising speed (7.5 kn), due to its 11 pitch as opposed to the 9 pitch of the original propeller.

- The rudder fairing that fixed a serious flat spot on the Starboard side (the spot was due to a hole in the core material).

- The brand new, properly burnished, hard bottom paint.

We have not used the new reacher during the race but used it extensively thereafter. The sail is in good shape and is tremendously efficient when reaching. We still have to define the cutoff points between the reacher and the spinnaker, but the sail will definitely be a unique assed for the BOR.

All this augurs well for our Bermuda race.

Leave the dock at 1000

Leave the dock at 1000

Fleet RV at 1100

A1 is the second start at 1210

George, Michael L., Ed

Results: RESULTS 314 315.htm

Leave the dock at 0845

316 SIs

Fleet RV at 0925

A1 is the 12th start at 1025

20.9 nm long course

Santiago, Paul, Jon, Mike, James, Chad

We had a good race with good crew work but unfortunately I did a couple of tactical mistakes and we finished 17th of 27 boats, 3 minutes away from the 11th place boat. We were still in good position at the turning mark into Eastern Bay, but thereafter we stayed way too long in a position were we had bad air from Wildfire, a slower A2 boat that had started ahead of us, while our competitors gained and passed us with clear air.

at 1000

317 SIs

A1 is the second start at 1005

Length: 18.1 nm

Congratulations to Jon and Paul for teaming up quite well on tactics, to Mike and James for doing the same on foredeck work and inventing a much better way of tacking (we used and abused it right away and did a large number of tacks in Eastern Bay with minimum loss of speed at each tack - James was helping the genoa clew pass the mast and Mike was behind the shrouds making it pass in a flash that area where we had so much trouble in the past). Jon and Santiago trimmed the sails perfectly well and Chad managed to be helping everywhere when not filming. Santiago is the only person I know who can trim the spinnaker in waves and 15 kn wind standing up without leaning on the shrouds or grabbing anything.

Our epic sailing has been recorded and I am sure that Chad and Santiago will come up with a beautiful video. They even stayed on Chantecler after the return to the dock for cabling the link between the aft camera and the camcorder below. The rest of us were too exhausted to stay.

It was the most satisfying race.

On the hardware side, two problems surfaced and need to be fixed very quickly: the cutlass bearing on the propeller shaft is making noises and vibrations from time to time and the digital compass of the Nexus instrument system is misbehaving badly.

A view from the Race Committee:

Leave the dock at 0830

Fleet RV at 0930.

Mike, George, Bill, Ed, Eric

Santiago, Paul, Jon, James, Mike

When assessing the safety situation, I decided to abandon the race as the sea state and wind conditions at the Gulf Stream was expected to be challenging and the risk was simply too great to affront it with a leaky pole.

See the 14 Jun 2004 news at: J105.org

55 nm

NOR_334

2004solomonsletter

2004_solomons_SIs

Major race for us. I am trying for a revenge with the Bermuda crew who are available and also go light at the same time.

Mike, Tim, Ginny, James, George

It did not work but will try again at the Gov's Cup. There was a major equipment failure, just below my hat, as I followed a flawed Western shore strategy, despite multiple failures of similar strategy in several previous races, with the exception of 2002. Somehow, I convinced myself again that this was the way to go and we were so hopelessly behind any class boat when the wind died a couple of miles from the finish that I did not have the patience to stay there more than a couple of hours, using our anchor from time to time to avoid negative SOG. We had nobody around us for the second half of the race and we understood why when we reached the turning mark and could identify the boats ahead of us and behind us, they were all from classes starting way behind us and they had all followed an Eastern shore strategy, which had better pressure and better wind direction and led them to the mark with basically no tacks while we had many to stay on our route.

We will leave the dock at 1630

We are the second start at 1810

govcup SIs

70 nm

Chad, Bill, George, Ed

We will leave dock at 1430

SIs 346

We will leave dock at 0815

35 nm race

Expect a return late in the evening

We got a terrible start when Muskrat luffed on the line and pushed Air Mail and us into the CB. The tide was against the light South wind and thus the CB had its bow on the leeward side of the starting line and was in such position that we had no escape possibilities, once we committed to the gap between Air Mail and the CB, 10 to 15 seconds before the start. We may have been barging, but Muskrat had the obligation to avoid the collision. The CB then had three short signals that we interpreted for a short while as being a general recall so we tacked but soon discovered that there was no general recall. We then decided to protest Muskrat and tacked back to continue racing, but we had lost lots of ground to the A1 fleet.

We had a good first leg along the Eastern shore (but in deep water most of the time) in medium and steady Southern breeze and a couple of miles from the turning mark, we were ahead of a few class boats. Unfortunately, we lost some ground in the tacks for the final approach to the mark and turned it in last position, just behind Hot Pepper, a J/120.

Be at the boat by 0845

Will leave dock at 0900

RV at 1000

A1 Start is the second at 1110

SIs_hospice/352.pdf

Be at the dock in time, as we need to practice using the roller-furler and dousing the chute when shorthanded. This should be our last PHRF race of the season.

Be at the boat by 0745

Will leave dock at 0800

RV at 0900

Start at 0935

SIs_353.pdf

Ed, Eric, Jim, Alexander

I had never before experienced force 8-9 conditions (and hopefully never will again), never before seen 48 knots on my True Wind Speed display, never before seen 18+knots on my boat speed display.

I am talking about Saturday’s race to Oxford (29 nautical miles), while a cold front combined with the remnants of hurricane Ivan passing South of us created exceptional weather conditions. The starting sequence was a big mess and many boats in all classes were as confused as us and started several minutes behind. We had reefed the main before the start and this made our gibes manageable when we did it at peak boat speed. The waves were short and steep. Foam and spray was everywhere and visibility was limited under the rain. I assume the key to success was for the top drivers to be able to sustain the surf in such difficult wave conditions. I buried my bow too often in the next wave. But what a feeling! The J/105 is a great heavy weather boat.

I have damaged my only class jib (stupid roller-furler mistake in the reaching leg) and damaged the top slide on my main (over-cranking the backstay), but it was the experience of a lifetime.

We have finished fifth of 16 boats of which only seven finished. Most of the others turned around at the start or before.

But this was not the end of the adventure, as the TAYC marina where we arrived was quite exposed to the Northern wind. Few of the finishers had decided to stay there and we should have tried some other places upriver that were more protected. But, we were exhausted and settled for staying along the main quay. We managed to borrow large fenders and to put two dock lines on nearby piles to avoid being tossed against the quay. Then somebody mentioned the draft and I checked that we were only a few inches from the bottom. Furthermore, the tide was scheduled to go down during the night. The tide table for the area from my navigation computer gave a weak high tide from 7 to 8 am the following day with about the same level as where we were then. I decided to stay. The wind kept blowing strong most of the night and from 11 pm to around 2 am we hit the bottom with each wave. Thereafter, it became much quieter when the keel stayed constantly on the bottom and the wind weakened and thus we got a few hours of sleep.

We have had dinner in a nice place nearby but the breakfast at TAYC was awful. We managed to leave the quay in time after a well-planned maneuver, only to find us grounded again in the middle of the small harbor with a long line across preventing us to go to the deeper side. We nevertheless managed to get under way and motored back at moderate rpm (because of the vibrations from the prop) with no sail up. When we reached the Bay, the fun began against still a strong NE wind and waves. Despite the low rpm, the engine temperature alarm set off and we had to shut the engine down and hoist a reefed main despite the lack of a top slug near the board. It worked without a hitch nevertheless and we slowly and painfully made our way tacking upwind without a jib. Later on, the wind and waves dropped a bit and the sail became more pleasant.

Later on, I found what the engine overheating was: the primary water filter was clogged with pin needles, several large pieces of rubber, a few leaves and five baby eels! We should have picked the stuff when we grounded the boat at TAYC and the temperature alarm sounded only when the engine strained against wind and waves.

Bobby Muller has promised to lift the boat soon to change the cutlass bearing (making this terrible grinding noise from time to time) and put my old propeller back. He needs a special tool from Vosbury and this is why the schedule is not yet firm. After that we should have again a decent cruising speed and no vibration.

Also, good news from North, as Jeff has been able to patch the class jib, contrarily to what I was expecting, and repaired the slug on the main. So, unless something unexpected happens, we are good to go for the AYC Fall series.

Be at the boat by 1130

Will leave dock at 1145

Be at the boat by 0910

Will leave dock by 0925

RV at 1000

Warning at 1100

Class start at 1115

SIs 357_362.

James, Ed, Eric, Bill

We did our first class W/L race with Chantecler and I am in serious disarray because of our stunning last place, beaten by all SD and DD boats that raced that day, a huge 8 minutes behind the nearest DD boat and 13 minutes behind the winner.

We had the 2001 3DL jib that was not used much since its purchase (something like ½ a season in total), the 89 m2 US spinnaker that I had purchased used in 2002 and has been used regularly since and the sharkskin main that Walt had loaned me after using it one season (the sail looks quite good to me). The wind was 8-15 TWS and the sea was choppy. The rig was on the base set up with lower tension on the intermediates to induce leeward mid-mast sag (we got a bit less than ½ inch; I had tried the base set up the Sunday before and had no sag in 4-10 TWS). The mast step was what it was for PHRF and I may need to move it one hole back to induce more forestay sag and more power with the class jib.

I messed up the start a bit in the middle of the line and tacked to avoid bad air. We had a few boat handling mistakes during the six-leg race but my estimate is that we did not lose more than a couple of minutes on that account. We did not take any big gamble; we stayed mostly in the center of the course and had clear air most of the time. Our trim and my steering had no glaring mistake as we kept the speed up in the short waves. We were staying with everybody around us downwind or gaining a little and most of the ground we lost was upwind.

I know that the boat is likely to be lighter than any DD boat here but is stern-heavy. I am trying to compensate by loading the forepeak, but I have not found the optimum, yet. I also know that my mast is larger and heavier and adding weight aloft with a second jib halyard, a second spin halyard and a masthead VHF antenna (all for better offshore racing) is not helping.

I knew that all that was too far from being perfect to make us a contender for that race, but the 8 minutes gap with the closest DD seems to confirm the bad PHRF racing results. I somehow doubt that new sails and a better rig tuning will make the boat 8 minutes faster on a 9 nm course.

Be at the boat by 0915

Will leave dock by 0930

RV at 1000

Warning at 1100

Class start at 1115

Be at the boat by 0900

Will leave dock by 0915

Warning at 1100

Be at the boat by 0845

Will leave dock by 0900

Warning at 1000