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Archive for June, 2008

Return to Long Beach

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Happened to be in Southern California for business, so I arranged to go down to Long Beach and pick up HKE up at AG and Gary’s after the LA Film Festival. Didn’t feel like hitting the George Michael concert with the rest of the Birthday celebrators, so I had a beer, a quick nap, then wandered down to Rainbow Harbor to visit my TP stomping grounds, almost exactly 1 year later.

Weird, weird. I only spent a week of my life here, but it popped back like a bright, coppery memory from college. If that makes any sense.

Didn’t see anyone I recognized. Didn’t stay for a drink.

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YRA Southbay + Summer Sailstice

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

A full day of SF sailing. Wore shorts from dock to dock, which was ~~slightly~~ bizaare in late June here.

Raced the YRA southbay race with the Brothers Marsh and Todd on Elusive. Pretty sure we got 4th, even though we were short-handed and about 0/8 in the smooth rounding department. Had a good start and a nice first two legs, anyways.

After the race, we ducked into Treasure Island and caught some of the “Summer Sailstice“. One thing is for sure: There is a lot of sailing (and sailors) in the bay area who are part of a completely different scene than St. Francis after j/fest. Ran into Phillip and Nicole from the j/105 Racer X and kept the vibe alive by riding the KLR up to Bolinas to watch some bluegrass at Smileys.

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Crawdaddy’s Day

Monday, June 16th, 2008

A family-oriented post with nothing to do with sailing.

(more…)

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Angel Island raft up

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

Heather and I took Shanti out for a quick sail and to meet Bob and Shana in the cove just north of Ft. McDowell on the east side of Angel Island. We rafted up to them, which was convenient, but having the rigs swinging into each-other when the ferry wakes came through the cove was a bit nerve-wracking.

Bob and Karin came out on Charisma too, so it was an OCSC basic keelboat reunion for the better halves.

Heather and I took a spin around San Pablo Bay before returning to SFYC, where I managed to knock off a couple quick chores before calling it a day.

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East River – i.e. the 6 bridge fiasco

Monday, June 9th, 2008

Took the afternoon off to sail the j/30 down from Westport Connecticut to Raritan Yacht Club with Jerry.

Incredible trip. About 9.5 hours, six bridges, and almost 11 knots over the ground at Hell Gate. Hey, is that the UN? Hey, is that the Statue of Liberty?

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Cedar Point One Design

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Flew back east to race with Jerry on Bengt Johansson’s j/30 “Fuzzy Wuzzy” in the Cedar Point One Design regatta in Westport Connecticut.

This regatta was the east coast regional championships, with 5 races over 2 days. We had a great weekend of sailing, and won the event with (3), 1, 1, 2, 1.

http://www.cedarpointyc.org/

Their program was really well put together and very “pro” on the course. As Jerry pointed out, it was 5 skippers out of a crew of 7. At first that seems like a recipe for conflicting opinions and chatter, but in reality, there was virtually no talk amongst the crew between the warning gun and the finish line.

The 4th race had the most exciting finish of my racing career. We were putting a lot of pressure on the #2 boat about two lengths before the finish line—very close racing in 30-footers—and they mistakenly luffed us up too far. Bam, a tight gybe behind them, maybe a handswidth between our bow and their stern, and then all of a sudden, we are over the line. Absolutely unbeliveable tactics—total “psychological” sailing.

Here’s hoping I can make it back for the NA’s.

credit: photoboat

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So many sportboats

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

…so little time.

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Flying with inflatable PFDs

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

I’m flying back east for the j/30 regionals in conneticut this weekend. Something that’s always an annoying source of stress is whether an over-zealous TSA screener will impound my spinlock harness because of the compressed CO2 cartridge. Which, considering that they confiscate chapstick that’s not confined to a ziplock bag, is a legitimate concern.

What I usually do is print out a copy of the CFRs with the appropriate exception (that an inflatable PFD is allowed by the FAA) and tape it to the harness. It seems to me that the subspecies of Pettious Athoritorio in question might respect this type of talisman of higher regulatory authority.

Here’s the relevant CFR (49 C.F.R. Â§ 175.10 (25)), and here’s an easy-to-understand PDF.

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SSS Corinthian

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Raced the Single-handed Sailing Society Corinthian In-The-Bay Race. Bob and I raced it double-handed. Shanti had great boat speed, we were passing folks all day.

Prelimary results say that we got 5th in the 13 boat PHRF 100-160 double-handed class.

Also, got a good photo in the latitude article (we are sail #326, left side of photo) that captures the general chaos at Pt. Blunt. The nice thing about this photo is that it appears that boats all around us were wiping out while we cruised through with white knuckles and a full chute. Actually, that is pretty much how it was.

The article mentions that about 60% of the fleet went through Racoon Straits and got a great boost to the mark. We were in the other 40%. Luckily, we stayed so close to the fleet all day that the 5 minutes we lost with that tactic only cost us one place.

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