Anemone Log

Weds 8/10

2010-08-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

This week was windier (~16kts) at the start than when I took the photos below. I wasn’t sure if we were going to use the #2 or AP. So I added forestay and rig tension assuming we’d use the larger sail.

u= +4
l= +6
forestay = two-blocked

We sailed the first leg with the #2. Most of the time we had enough power, but with the wind dying, we changed to the AP on the first run. By the end of the race we were over tuned. We finished second. The J30 corrected two seconds ahead of us.

Ap Genoa Shapes 8/3 Mast butt 8mm forward

2010-08-15T13:45:00.001-07:00

Conditions
~10kts

Tune

Rig at base
~ u=38
~ l= 25

Headstay carries significantly less sag. Reduced Halyard tension by 5 inches.

The helm had much more feel. Boat speed was better. We finished 3rd after a terrible start. The guys feel the sail trim differently from one tack to the other.

Starboard Tack

Click to enlarge

Port Tack

Click to enlarge

Download larger images

2010-08-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ap Genoa Shapes

2010-07-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

Conditions
6-8kts

Tune
Rig at base +1
~ u=39
~ l= 20
Headstay turnbuckles just about bottomed out. Still a fair amount of sag.

The boat performed ok (decent, speed point and helm) while the air was heavier, but slowed and developed lee helm as the air lightened.

Average trim

Eased halyard

don't remember what we changed

Eased sheet and moved lead forward

In order for the tell-tales to all fly the bottom of the sail was very full relative to the top. It was 12" off the chain plates as opposed to the top which was 4 inches from the spreader

Here are hi-res versions of these photos.

Weds Night Series 2 Race 1

2008-06-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

Craig set your clock ahead.

We waited at the dock for Craig until 5:50, it seemed like forever. Lucky for us the RC was late setting-up and postponed for 10 minutes. No harm done.

Another crocked race course. The wind was blowing from the SW at 10kts; tide running out hard. You had to be at the weather end. We tried a Mark May start (late and at the boat.) It might have worked, but we were fouled by Slice, lost the jib sheet with less than a minute go. I lost focus, and things went down hill from there. We started about 20 seconds late.

Tack to port as soon as possible. Tack back into a clear lane and ride some nice starboard tack lifts almost to the port layline. We round in 5th behind the Cow. Somehow their set is worse than ours, hard to believe since we didn't have the spin halyard attached, we almost roll them.

We had a decent run. Round behind but inside of Cow. We hold for a little while and then tack to the left. I don't remember much of this leg. It was puffy and squirrelly, so i just focused on boatspeed. Bob had us tack on three or four shifts. When I did manage to look around we were moving forward. We gained on the leaders for the rest of the race, but ran out of course. We finished 4th. It felt worse than that.

Crew

Jack B
Ben B (Ted went with Wolf who only had three.)
Chris
Laura
Bob
Craig
Eric
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 5

2008-06-26T05:03:00.000-07:00

No Race.

Thunderstorms blew in from the SW at around 6:30. Winds 40-50 in gusts lots of rain. RC abandoned after 10 mins.

Do damage. We needed this race to break the tie. End the series in 5th. Bummer.

crew

ted
Jack B
chris
ben b
craig
bob
eric
charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 4

2008-06-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wind was West Northwest at 12kts the current was once again going with the breeze making easy to be late for the line. We had a good start at the weather end. The breeze was in a right phase but current relief was off to the left. We rolled Stryker and Poppy. They tacked out to the right and died. The J/30 (Meanie) was fast to leeward and Jim was working up under our bow. We held starboard as long as we could, eventually Jim pinched us off.

We rounded the weather mark second, the Cow and Kung Fuie close behind. We had a little trouble getting sails up and down tonight, but that was more of a distraction than anything else. By the Second upwind leg it was a two boat race, us and Jim, or so I thought. Leg 4 the wind went light. The mastheads are coming. Mad Cow passes us on the run and pulls away. We have a good mark rounding, but linger too far on the right side of the course. That and I can't seem to find the boat speed. I think we were over trimmed and stalled.

Almost to the finish, we can see Meanie and the Santana charging from the left corner. We try to head that way but have to tack for the barge. In hindsight, we should have ducked it. This is where we fold like a cheap suit. Stuck on the outside of a lift in bad current. Mayhem and Meanie pass us on the left.

We end the night in 5th. That hurts. The good news is we're only 2 points out of first in the series. The final race is this Weds. Two boat ahead of us are out. We have a real chance next week.

Crew:

Jack Buzzi
Chris
Neil
Laura
Jon Eberly (from SF)
Eric O
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 3

2008-06-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

We started the night with a delay. There wasn't any wind and the RC was concerned about thunderstorms. Finally a 5kt SE breeze filled. The course was from the lighthouse to T and back. The tide was rushing in.

Our pre-race plan was to start at the weather end and protect the right, tack away into shallow water and current relief. We lingered up current in a barging position assuming the fleet would be late and we could slip in, ala Mark May. At the last minute Bob suggested a dip start just to leeward of the committee boat. It was a great call. There was more wind at the pin with a left shift.

For Sail was the first boat to tack, we were second. We were higher and faster. I don't know why, but I'll take it. When we got to the Starboard layline we decided to go past Slice, a mistake, we were all over stood. This let Cow back into the race. After the rounding we gybed our way down the right side of the course. The wind was a little lighter but we were in favorable current.

Cow gybe out early, made some gains and crossed us just before the finish. We kept our time and ended up third.

Rig tension: I added 2.5 turns to the head-stay. I still haven't measured it. Otherwise the rig is still at base 36/33.

Crew

Jack Buzzi
Chris
Neil
Laura
Bob
Eric O
Craig
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 2

2008-05-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

What an odd night. When I arrived at the boat there was a light sea breeze, 5kts from the East. While Bengt and I were reeving the new mainsheet tackle a 12kt Westerly blew in.

The course was as crooked as I've seen in a long while. You could lay the pin at the boat. Plus the boat was physically closer to the mark. Needless to say there was a pile up. I did not have enough patients and ended up in the middle of the fray. We were OCS, I think, it's hard to say since the committee didn't call anyone back. After re-starting we one tacked to the lighthouse, jibe-set and marched on downwind. There were a few boat behind us but not many.

The second time up, Bob made a call to tack as soon as we rounded the leeward mark. It was a good call. We managed to get out of the current and stay in steady breeze. We gave a little back once we hit the port tack layline. A big righty came in and scooted the fleet by.

We finished 8th or 9th. There's always next week.

Crew:

Jack
Ben B
Laura
Bob
Craig
Charlotte
me

Rig same as last week.

Weds Night Series 1 Race 1

2008-05-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Finally time to race. It's been a long winter of sanding an body putty. I'll explain the off season exploits in another post.

We were slightly better prepared than we were for the first race last year. There was a nice Westerly (15kts) at 5pm. Thunderstorms lurked about, skirting the race course as they traveled to the North. By the start of the race, the breeze freshened to 18-20 kts. We planned to sail with the 150% the boat felt pretty good once I put on enough backstay. I have to remember to tighten the forestay. It seems too loose.

The wind shifted 60 degrees right during the A1 sequence; RC postponed. We took this opportunity to switch to the 100%. One problem, it wasn't on the boat. Ends up I left it in my garage. Oh, well, back to the 150% the sail is pretty flat. We'll twist it off and suffer through the first leg.

At the start it was clear the 150% was the right sail. We were the weather most boat, rolled Meanie and Stryker. We followed a header to the left while most of the fleet tacked right. We tacked on top of Slice as they peeled off. We were in pretty good shape when we got to the top mark. It looked like we'd lay it and be first around. The breeze lighten and went left. so much for laying the mark. Kelly and his new mainsail rounded just ahead of us.

We followed Kelly downwind; had to clear our air after the leeward mark. Kelly made the finish without tacking. He beat us over the line by 5-6 seconds. We managed to old off the boats behind us for 2nd place. Not bad for the first night.

Crew:

Teddy
Jack Buzzi
Neil
Bob
Eric
Craig
Charlotte
me

rig:

36-33

Fall Series

2007-09-20T08:33:00.001-07:00

Weds. Night Series 4 Race 2

2007-09-20T08:32:00.001-07:00

Weds. Night Series 4 Race 1

2007-09-20T08:31:00.001-07:00

Weds. Night Series 3 Race 5

2007-08-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

What a perfect night for sailboat racing. The breeze was 6-8kts from the Southeast. The water was fairly flat. The current was flooding.

We had a reasonable start in the middle of the line about a boat-length late. We pinched off Blue Meanie and held stb tack until we could clear the barge. The right turned out to be much better. So we dug in pretty hard. We rounded the weather mark just behind Slice and Mad Cow, but we couldn't get the chute up; same problem every time, the pole is pinned to the deck. We must be doing something wrong in the back of the boat because, it doesn't matter who's doing foredeck the result is the same, a 40 second loss at the weather mark.

We gybed as soon as we could. About 2/3 of the way down the course Slice and Cow gybed back on to stbd. We held port until the layline, made a big gain and rounded the mark inside of both boats. Unfortunately the chute was wrapped in the genoa, and I think I was pinching, which let Cow and Slice drive through our lee.

We lucked out and hit a lefty the second time up the course. It was more pressure than direction. We rounded the weather mark near the Cow, but somehow Slice was launched.

We played the NJ side downwind, and again it was a gainer. We rounded inside of Mad Cow. They drove off and went right. I think I was still pinching. At the next crossing we tacked into their lee bow, but they managed to lift off of us in a righty.

I think we went too far left on the third beat, there was more wind along the NJ shore. Cow corrected out 22 seconds ahead of us. Slice was way out in front.

The crew:

Bob M
Sean (we picked him up off the dock)
Laura
Roberta
Eric O
Craig
me

Weds. Night Series 3 Race 4

2007-08-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

The changing conditions made for kind of a strange night. I got to the club early, for the first hour the wind was very light out of the east northeast. Around 5:00 the breeze picked up to just over 10kts. By 6pm the wind was just about gone. We left the rig tuned to 37/29. The course was from a mobile mark near Y out to T, back and forth 3 times.

We had a great start, going fast at the pin, in a huge left shift. We tacked and cleared the whole fleet. Problem was, we were 45 degrees above the mark. Slice and For Sail tacked under us. I cracked off and headed straight for the mark. The breeze shifted 60 degrees right, we followed the header down, thinking the shift was progressive. For Sail crossed us by less than a boat. Slice by about two boats.

When we tacked we over-stood the mark by too much. None of us took the current into affect. It makes sense now, since on the run I was having a hard time making the leeward mark on port jibe. The breeze was very shifty downwind. The puffs were righties lulls were to the left. By now the breeze was building. We staid pretty close to For Sail on the run and passed them on the next beat, we tacked out to the left soon after the leeward mark. I think we had better pressure. We crossed For Sail and rounded just ahead of them.

The second time down wind we held stdb jibe almost the whole way, just one short gybe at the end. By now it was a three boat race. Slice was launched, and was For Sail slightly behind of us. I managed to pinch FS off. We tacked to cover shortly after. We gained. FS initiated a tacking duel (By now the breeze was up and we were struggling a little with the 155%. It would have been fine if we had more weight on the rail.) We wouldn't bite and decided the shift was to the right so we headed off to that corner.

We got tied up with Dennis Driscole who took us past the layline. FS sneaked in at the mark. Our set was better than there's so we slowed them down and as they rolled up to protect their air we assumed a nice position inside them. FS jibed. We sailed by the lee to keep them from crossing, which they eventually did about 100 yards from the finish.

We corrected over them. Slice was way out in front for the win.

The crew:

Bob S.
Pavel
Niel
Bob M.
Mike K.
Charlotte
me

Weds. Night Series 3 Race 3

2007-08-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

It looked to be a light air night, so I tuned the rig down to 39/29 and took 4 turns off the headstay. The helm felt kinda funny, but the boat speed seemed okay.

The plan was to start at the boat, but the line was so crooked, we got pinned out and circled around at 30 seconds to go. We had a third row start behind Magic who tacked away, allowing us to carry stbd tack for a long time.

We went almost to the port tack layline, tacked in breeze and it looked like we got lucky. About a third of the way from the mark the breeze died and came in from the right. We were the last of the 30' around the weather mark.

The wind went so far right that you needed to gybe immediately. We jibed before Magic and Cow and managed to round the mark before them.

The next time up wind we played right of center and lost to both sides. Cow and Slice caught breeze on the left, Meannie legged out in a righty. For Sail won, Poppy sailed another good race for a second. We finished 6th.

Crew

B. Gold
Neil
Pavel
Laura
Roberta
Eric O
Charlotte
Craig
me

Weds. Night Series 3 Race 2

2007-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

At the start, the wind was blowing 12-16kts from the west-south-west. The tide was ebbing. The course was from T to a mobile mark off the Morgan beach. We left the rig tuned to the new base setting.

We managed to leave the dock early and spend some time sailing around the starting line. We should do that more. We were able to notice that except for a few big lefties, the breeze staying in a right phase. The puffs were all righties. When the A1 fleet started they all charged the pin except for Eric on Fame who looked to be immediately ahead. We all agreed to start at the boat.

At the start I was too early approaching the line. Blue Meanie was looking to hold us up but the current started to sweep him towards the pin as he stalled the boat. Rather than hook, him I opted to luff towards the RC boat. At 20 seconds we put the bow down and drove towards the line. We had a good start 1/3 from the weather end. Kelly had a better start, inside of us wound on the lift. For Sail was trapped under Meanine going slow at the pin. We rolled both of them.

We held strbd tack for quite a while until a pretty good header convinced us to tack. Although we'd been going fast Kelly crossed us by 1/3 of a boat. We continued right to the layline into what we thought was more wind and shift. Overstood by twenty degrees I cracked off. That was a mistake. The wind shifted left as we approached the mark. Kelly crossed a boat ahead and planted on us. We ended up needing two tacks to round.

By this point it was a two boat race. We had our time on the rest of the fleet. After a decent leeward mark rounding we opted to go right. Lucky for us Kelly tacked left soon after the rounding. We had clear air. As soon as we tacked on to strbd it looked like we had Kelly. When he tacked back we tacked just above him, and manage to pinch over the rock pile; he had to duck.

We rounded the 2nd weather mark about two boat lengths ahead of Kelly. He gybe-set we went a little farther on stbd then gybed. We had a better angle.

On the last beat, the air lessened, For Sail gained, we decided to keep a loose cover on Kelly. Poppy was our closest competition. Poppy drove out past the port tack layline. We beat them by forty seconds or so. It was a good night.

Crew

Aaron
Neil
Pavel
Laura
Roberta
Charlotte
Eric O
Craig (pinned thumb and all)
me.

Rig Tuning

2007-07-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

We've been slow in light air. But very fast in anything over 10. The rig was tuned to:

uppers = 39.5
lowers = 38

Main top batten = e15160C 48 3/8"

This is pretty close to what we sailed last year. The headstay length is an inch tighter than last year.

Steve, Jerry Newmark and I went out yesterday and retuned the rig. First, we found that the mast was leaning an inch to port.

We ended up with a base setting of 39 on the uppers and 38 - 4 turns on the lowers. I didn't get to remeasure the tension after we took the sails down. I'll do that next time I'm on the boat.

We've been strggling with getting the top tell tale to fly on port tack. Loosening the lowers helped but I think we're going to have to go with a softer batten.

Next steps are to take a few turns off the head stay. Right now there's 12 inches between the end of the shackle and the tool mark on the turnbuckle.

Here are some photos we took while we were tuning:

Click photo to enlarge

Click photo to enlarge

The bottom of the genoa is a little flat, I'm going to soften the headstay to see if that helps.

Click photo to enlarge

Download photos for printing 13mb

Weds. Night Series 2 Race 4

2007-07-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

You couldn't ask for better conditions, warm, with a 10-15kts Easterly, slight chop; a great night for drivers. The course was from a mobile mark off Morgan out to "T", back and forth a couple of times. In terms of crew weight we were a little light; missing Neil and Aaron. After much discussion we decided to sail with the old 150%. The sail has seen better days, but I felt we couldn't carry the 155%.

We had a decent start, just under Slice and on top of Blue Meanie. We hit the line fast, held our lane. Eventually we rolled the J/30 and Slice tacked off. The other two 29s were over early.

Magic was slightly wound-up inside we were pinned, but wanted to go out to the channel anyway. Bob expected more breeze to the left. We tacked at the channel crossed the whole fleet except for Slice who was about one boat length a head. We hipped up on Slice, slightly above the layline.

The breeze continued to go right and we were well over-stood, allowing For Sail and Cow to catch up. We rounded in second just behind Slice, For Sail, Cow and Magic close behind.

We couldn't get the chute up. Nothing like a little foredeck macramé to make the night interesting. By the time we set, the two 29s pasted us and Magic was on top of us.

We rounded the leeward mark just behind Magic and just ahead of Meanine. Meanine tacked out, as did Magic. We managed to pinch up above Mad Cow's bad air and hold a lane out to the right. At some point early in the 2nd weather leg Craig hurt his hand.

The right was a gainer, there was more air and a shift about 20 degrees to the right. We rounded the weather mark well ahead of Magic and Meanie, still too far back from the leaders to make our time. The 2nd run was a little crooked; no real tactics, just a long Port jibe. We switched to the 155% for the next beat.

I don't remember much of the last beat. Put the bow down and go right. We were faster than Cow and Slice, held our own against Jim.

On the last run, we caught a few puffs that drove us down to the leaders. About halfway down I started to feel that we had a chance to win.

The course was just a little too short. For Sail beat us by 25 seconds, we corrected over Slice by 0.6 seconds. All in all, except for Craig hurting his hand, we had a good night.

Craig went to the doctor Thursday. His right hand was fractured and thumb dislocated. Bummer.

The crew

Craig
Bob
Vicky
Pavel
Laura
Eric
Charlotte
me

No sailing next week. I'm in SF

Weds. Night Series 2 Race 3

2007-07-17T14:36:00.001-07:00

No sailing tonight, a pretty big line of thunderstorms rolled through around 5:30.

Weds. Night Series 2 Race 2

2007-07-06T04:41:00.000-07:00

It's fourth of July and we're short-handed. Craig bailed out at the last minute.

The breeze is almost due South, with big swings in direction, and a few nice puffs coming in from both sides.

We aim for a committee-boat start. As we approach the line Jim and Steve are luffing at the boat. At 20 seconds to go, we dip below them, and make our approach. At the gun For Sail and Blue Meanie are over by half a boat and I think we've nailed it. Wrong. The RC calls us over too. That sometimes happens when you shoot out from behind a stalled pack. We jibe back to the line and just pinch over the anchor line.

We carry port tack in search of the right corner. Tack into pressure and a righty, things are looking good. Unfortunately at the top of the leg, the stbd tack lift fades and all the boats to our left except Blue Meanie cross us.

We sail to the port tack layline and wiggle around the first two boats to round. We're almost DFL, but close enough to get back in it.

We jibed soon after the mark. About a third of the way down the leg, I felt lifted on port, so we jibed on to stbd. That was a gainer. We round the leeward mark just behind Magic. They are stopped and pinching. We pinch up as high as we can and end up tacking. As we approach the port layline we're in a big lift. We hold on right to the layline and manage to round ahead of Meanie and Magic. The Olson and For Sail are not that far ahead.

Magic manages to keep inside an overlap, but we take advantage of their bad douse and squeak inside them. Meanie holds the chute on the reach leg as do most of the fleet ahead of us.

We decide to stay with the jib. It wasn't as windy as I thought and we probably could have held the chute, but being short handed, and having Aaron's kids with us, I chose to play it safe. It wouldn't have made much more than a one place difference.

We set about halfway down the leg. Manged to jibe inside Poppy at Z. Too little too late.

Crew:

Aaron
Donna
Harper
Sparky
Vic
Laura
Big E
me

We're not sailing Red Grant. I ordered a replacement winch from Steve. I hope it's here before next Weds.

Redemption

It was picked up by one of the racers that the course as shown for the A-1 & A-2 was incorrect.  It was shown and figured at 5.21 miles with a course of T-M-T-A-Z-RYC.  It should have been T-M-T-M-T-Z-RYC at 5.51 miles.  The only change it makes in places is that it takes Slice from 6th to 7th and Anemone from 7th to 6th in the A-2.

At least we've moved out of DFL.

Thanks to Carl Bloksberg for the attention to detail.

Repairs

2007-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

Tightened the leaky stuffing box, we we're taking on 10 gallons of water a week, way too much.
Fixed the cabin top winch that came apart during the Lighthouse race.
Measured the rig we're within one inch of the rake and headstay length we had last year.
The head won't pump. That's a job for after Block Island.

Weds. Night Series 1 Race 3

2007-06-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

This race was a blur to me, It was a puffy shifty night so I had my hands full trying to go fast. Anyway this is how I remember the race.

It started out as a breezy night, blowing 17kts or so from the West-North-West. The course started out by T and went up to a mobile mark in the anchorage.

We had yet another in my series of dog-meat starts; third row at best. We suffer under For Sail, Meannie and SinnFinn until a lane opens up, then we tack to the right. We take Kelly's stern, go almost all the way to the channel and tack back to starboard. We let Kelly cross us on port. We gained.

We hold starboard until almost the port tack layline. As the rest of the fleet is coming out of the left we're about mid-fleet, behind Meanine, the Olson 30 and For Sail. We round the leeward mark inside of Blue Meannie, who had trouble with the douse. Continue to the right, tack on a knock, which we carry almost all the way to the port tack layline. While we're on strb I can see we're wound inside of most of the fleet.

We round the weather mark in first. Can't get the pole up. Aaron free climbs up the mast to retrieve a missing topper twice. That was some feat of strength. By the time the chute is up and pulling, Jimmy has pulled ahead. We change to the 150% on the run.

We round the leeward mark inside Tango, and another A1 boat, just behind Jim. Bob starts telling me to be careful not to hit him. He meant For Sail, I had no idea that Jim's Genoa exploded and he was dead in the water. We pass him about 5 feet to weather.

After that it was just a matter of covering Jim to the finish.

Crew:

Bob
Vicky G
Eric O
Aaron
Pavel
Neil
Charlotte
me

Weds. Night Series 1 Race 2

2007-05-31T04:42:00.000-07:00

At 5:30 there was a light breeze from the East-South-East. It was gone by 6:10. A South-Westerly filled in a little before 7:00. The RC took us out to T, where we raced a 3 lap Windward-leeward to a mobile mark set along the Morgan shoreline.

The starting line was really skewed, the pin favored by 30 degrees. My plan was to run the line on starboard and tack on to port when we go to the pin. It didn't work. Sinn Fein was in my hole. I managed to find a spot at the boat, but we were in the third row. For Sail tacked off our hip on to port. We held starboard take for another couple of minutes going slow and eating gas. When we finally tacked off Jimmy was already a boat length ahead.

The right side was okay, the boats coming out of the left were doing much better. Boat speed seemed okay. We got stuck under Sinn Fein as they were going ballet near the weather mark. Slow slow slow.

It took us a little while to get the chute up, but once we got rolling we sailed much deeper than the boats to our left. The leeward mark was an adventure in sail handling, we rounded bare headed just behind Poppy.

Somehow we held our lane as the breeze shifted left. We held port tack until we sailed into a nice righty. We tacked on a few shifts and rounded the weather mark in better position: Slice, Factory Girl, For Sail and Blue Meanie were still ahead of us but we're gaining.

On the third beat we played the left side and passed Factory Girl. We over-stood the finish because the course as posted said to round M to starboard. We were far enough behind the leaders, so we had time to decide how were were going to finish. Everyone drove straight through the line, so did we. The boat was favored, over-standing cost us Magic.

Somehow we were 4th. Blue Meanie, who should have won, retired due to an incident at the leeward mark.

The crew was:

Bob -- on the bow
Vicky
Laura
Pavel
Eric O
Charlotte
me

Weds. Night Tune-up #2

2007-05-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

No sailing this week due to thunderstorms. I'll be out of town next week, our next Weds race will be May 30th. Is anyone interested in sailing Memorial Day?