So it has been forever since I updated this blog, but Karma has been out strutting her stuff during the CRA Beer Can Series this year. We had to miss the first race, and the second race was so light that the entire fleet did not finish (DNF). That said, for the past three races we have been sailing clean races and doing well. Race #3 was a second place by 6 seconds, #4 was second place by 26 seconds, and #5 was a win by 1:43! Results and class standings here. Photos of race 5 are here. Bottom line, even with a DNF counting, we are tied for second place halfway through the series.

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.