Hot Rum #3

I am too tired to post a review of the race today, but suffice it to say we took 2nd (of 27) in class for the regatta. We finished 15th overall today out of 146 boats, and took a 3rd place in class. Not a bad showing as we are still figuring this boat out and the main sail is within a few hours of just blowing up in our faces. Thank you very much to everyone that crewed for any of the races. Today, we had Geoff, Adam, Warren, Mike, Devina, and Scott on board for the final race. This will probably have been the last race for Karma this year as we take a break for the holidays. Also, Theresa is getting home January 17th, so very soon she will see the new Karma for the first time. Results.

Have a happy holidays everyone.

Hot Rum #2

So the wind gods that smiled on us two weeks ago with extremely heavy air decided to show us what the opposite feels like on Sunday. There was little to no wind the entire race, I think the most we saw was maybe a puff to 6 knots as we were finishing. Karma does not like light air, but we ended up a respectable 6th in class which we were pretty happy with. We were only 10 seconds out of 5th, and in the end we learned a lot about what makes this boat go in the glassy stuff and I think our performance in light air will only improve. We started with too much shape to the jib and realized the boat like a flatter jib which let us point much better after the adjustment was made. I also accidentally wiped some bottom paint on my keel window, so I need to make sure to get that off before the next race so we can see the kelp on the keel.

Overall a great day with Adam, Geoff, Mike and Devina on board as crew. More importantly, we were able to get the boat put together in time for this race, which was only possible because of people helping me to get it done. Thank you to everyone that helped get Karma back on the course in 2 weeks.

More photos can be found here.

Some more photos of Hot Rum #1

DA-WOODY got some nice photos of us sailing back in after the boom broke.

Hot Rum #1 = Carnage

Today started off great. It was forecast to blow pretty hard and everyone was pretty excited to get some heavy air sailing in. We got a little more than we expected, but we'll get to that later.

We started off great at the line and were quickly passing boats on the first leg of the race, which was supposed to be a reach out to a buoy off of 3SD. The wind was cranking with probably a solid 18 with gusts to 25 with some bigger gusts to 30. We had a full main and the #3 jib up and were averaging about 6.8 or so heading out of the bay. We were still picking off some boats and were in pretty good shape for our class when we started hearing radio chatter about a missing mark. We looked around (the waves were pretty big) and realized we could not see the mark either. A couple of minutes later we also realized that we were at buoy 1SD, which is past where the mark should have been. Some mild cursing and we decide we should round 1SD and head downwind for the next mark. Thankfully most of the fleet is still looking for the buoy and we are still in excellent shape.

We take off on an epic downwind run. The waves were too big for us to set a kite and keep the boat under control so we are heading downwind doing 8's with a top speed of 11.54 on one of the larger waves. I can't easily convey how big the waves were out there today. It was insane, edge of control, fast sailing. We had one surf where the wave caught up to the transom and filled the cockpit with water, but aside from that things were going smoothly. We were in great shape looking to round the leeward mark in second or third place overall (or so we thought). We set up for the last gybe around the mark and the boom decides that it is done playing and snaps at the vang attachment point. While we are getting the boom down below and the main off the jib halyard decided to part. Awesome, so we are sitting right next to the leeward mark with the boom in two pieces and the jib in the water to leeward.

A true credit to the crew, no one is hurt, and we are all still pretty calm. We get the main down, the jib down, and then check for lines overboard and get the engine on. We are making all of 1.3 knots towards home with the engine on. We start to pull out the #3 jib but realize it has a tear in the luff, so we pull out the #2. I have to tell you, the boat was extremely well behaved with the #2 and no main, and in fact we are passing boats and hanging with a lot of boats that should have been faster than us but just had up too much sail area.

We tack to get around Zuniga jetty and the starboard runner parts also. Awesome, thankfully the other runner was still snug and we continue home under the jib.

So the damage for today was:

1) Boom in two pieces
2) Jib halyard
3) Running backstay

Good news. It was epic and a ton of fun up until everything went to shit. No one got hurt, and everyone was encouraged to put on life jackets as we got out into the big waves. The bad news, the RC abandoned the race before we even headed downwind but we were so far out we couldn't hear them. So in reality we could have just sailed home and it is entirely likely we wouldn't have broken anything.

The first race that wasn't

I had hoped that our first race on Karma would have gone fairly smoothly, getting around the course clean with a decent result. It didn't happen. My CRA membership was not updated in time, so we were trying to explain who I was to the Race Committee 20 minutes before the start. Then, on our first set we blew apart one of our spin sheets, and without a spare, we were unable to set the kite again. We decided to race the first race, but realizing that there was no way we were going to be competitive we decided to call the racing, broke out some beer and cruised around the bay. Crew for the impromptu booze cruise was Andrew Constantine, Mike and Heather Stoll, and Shannon Bertrand and her friend. I have to tell you, the booze cruise was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Lessons learned:
1. You can't race and try to use old gear. I spent last Monday evening making new spin sheets for the boat. Next month will probably be the halyards. Month after that will be the random control lines. It isn't worth it to put the effort to get a crew together and not be able to race due to gear failure.
2. The runners take a lot more planning for your pre-start game. The new Karma is very different from the last one, and it will take some getting used to.
3. Always bring plenty of beer. In the end, the goal of going sailing is to have fun. Despite not finishing the regatta everyone seemed to have a great time.

More pics here.

Next races are going to be the SDYC Hot Rums. The calendar has been updated on the right.

New Oracle Tri

Went sailing today on Karma and took photos of the new Oracle Tri. Check them out here.

New Karma - New bottom - New sails

The joke goes something like the two happiest days you have owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. Well I went a grand total of 4 days without a boat. Mike Casinelli (our spin trimmer from worlds) was trying to get rid of his old boat after having just purchased a Cal 36. The Kirby 30 (called Scrambled) had been very actively raced before falling into neglect before Mike saved her. While Mike almost never raced the Kirby (renamed Good Fortune), he did a ton of work cleaning her up and fixing her up.

Mike wanted to get one last race in on his Kirby before getting rid of her, so we decided to do the double handed race around the Coronado Islands. While racing we talked about his new boat, and how I had just sold Karma. Well as fate would have it, we decided that I should purchase the Kirby, and we should make a run at some of the local regattas next season. A quick e-mail to Theresa (who is deployed in Qatar), and my lovely and very beautiful wife let me buy a new boat without her ever having seen it. Having a boat that can stay in the water and isn't as extreme as the melges helped sell the idea.

The Kirby was in great shape in every respect except for two things, she needed a new bottom and her main is hurting. A quick call to a local boat yard, and we now have a new bottom.
Before:


After:


Next was a quick trip to the Ullman loft to order a new main. While there Chuck Skewes just happened to let me know that they had a carbon jib for a Kirby 30 laying around the loft that had only been up twice. So there is a new carbon #1 sitting in my garage, and the boat will have a new main in the next couple of months. Again, since Theresa is gone, I asked her if we should go carbon on the new sails or save some money and go with a dacron type main. Theresa starts asking some questions, and one of them is "Will the main last more than 5-6 regattas?" I started laughing explaining that now that we weren't doing the melges thing anymore, the main would last more like 2-3 years. Once she found that out, she immediately said go carbon. Got to love it.

I am hoping our first regatta in the new Kirby 30 Karma will be the PHRF Area G champs October 11-12 in San Diego.