Author Archives: Capn

Road Trip 10/26/12

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Road Trip

Adopting the philosophy of indecision as the key to flexibility turned out to be the theme of this road trip. By two on Friday I decided to pack, by four I was on the road. An oil change, tire pressure check, a desperate need for a new cruise control module for the suburban, all forgone in the interest of moving ahead. A short stop at the wife’s workplace to let her know I was on my way out of town for a week or two, ended with observing a green puddle beneath the ‘Burb and the distinctive odor of antifreeze. The immensely valuable tried and true “close visual inspection” yielded an empty radiator but no discernible leak. A leftover cooler full of water bottles and Gatorade from the last sailboat race provide initial fluid replacement for the hydro-free cooling system. A trip to the restroom with four empty half liter bottles provided a second gallon, and I convinced myself that would get me to somewhere with a hose. (Writing it made me realize that two quarts is only half a gallon.) Oh well, it is only a block to the store/station. The air/water dispenser at the Citgo at the corner of I-4 and Lee Road will take your dollars worth of quarters. It will not apply any water to the water hose, and my tires were not the issue. Two gallons of cold water for an additional five bucks did fill the radiator, temporarily. I hoped it would get me home. It lasted four miles. During that four miles I called my buddy Foster in Atlanta and told him I had intended to surprise him but I was having radiator issues, as my favorite mechanical person, he understood and offered a couple of suggestions. As I veered onto the exit ramp for SR 436, I noted the rising temperature gauge. How convenient for the Mobil Lube and Brake Center that I had intended to stop at earlier in the day to be located at that precise location. I pulled in under a cloud of steam. The first attendant said “you are not looking for an oil change are you?” He was very astute, so astute in fact he directed me to a different parking place while he went to find the other mechanic/attendant. Under the hood, steam was rising from the passenger side exhaust manifold, and Astute One said, “oh no, looks like it is coming right out of the head.” Astute Two was more methodical, he checked the oil dipstick and I was grateful to not be embarrassed by an obvious lack of lubrication, and it was still relatively clean. Most importantly, it was not milky, the way it might have been, if the head or head gasket was the issue. Next he opened the oil filler cap and it was clean. I was proud. By this time Astute One had returned from inside the station with a radiator filler container, old school, several gallons, with the long curved neck. Radiator was empty and cool, not good, but it made opening the pressurized cap less eventful than it might have been otherwise. He poured, and poured, and poured some more. The water started pouring out onto the ground from the short heater hose next to the firewall. The manager had arrived by now, looking at his watch, as Astute Brothers questioned whether or not they had the right hose. “Can you fix it?” says I. “Yeah” says Astute Two. “Better hurry,” says the manager as he looked at his watch again. While the mechanic found the right hose the manager said “I am not gonna charge you for eight inches of heater hose. You got cash?” I nodded. ”Tip the kid”, says he. I made sure the tip was enough to be remembered and shortly thereafter I was on the road again. My plan included a stop at the Forrest’s, Andy and Diane, because I had acquired a copy of John McLaughlin’s newest CD, and few of my friends appreciate McLaughlin jazz like Andy and Diane. Secondly I hoped to catch Fisk Hayden to deliver a Harken wire bullet block and net some cash. Both of those parts of the plan were successful. Next phase included a trip to Gainesville to see Thor, my older son. Pleasant news on several fronts there. Promoted, certified, clarified, and organized, who knew? We talked until early, and I went on down the road. The motel where I landed was overpriced at $29.95, although they did have a mattress and running water.

The Last Rum Race of 2012 by Matt Homan

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The Last Rum Race of 2012

Written by Matt Homan, appreciated by Willie Blevins

Winds were surely blowing as the boats were being assembled on the ramp. The temperature was around 60 degrees with wind chill dropping it a few more degrees. Patrick Daniel was the first out of the marina leaving a large wake, while being heckled by Andy Forrest for doing so in a no wake zone. Hey, what can you do? You are in a Viper 640 in 20+ MPH winds. Ron Semans and Blake Labreche were next into the chilly water to climb aboard the Laser 2. Andy followed on my Laser and Brent Carter chased the spiders off his International Sailing Canoe. Brent explained later at Wolfy’s that he did capsize the canoe before the evening’s race started, which meant he was going to be really cold for the duration of the last Rum Race of 2012. The 29erXX couldn’t make it due to some incomplete repair which left Maryann Carter to crew with me on Millihelen. Even with Maryann arriving at her usual just in the nick, we were able to assemble my Catalina 22 in record time and motor out to the start line with five minutes to spare. I gave the helm to Maryann and hoisted the sails with one minute to go. I sounded a horn at 6:20PM and the boats were off. Millihelen did a quick 180 and headed west down the course. We had a perfect view of a classic Lake Monroe sunset with four perfectly trimmed sailboats heading for the mark that was unusually upwind. The wind from the west is very unusual, but with hurricane Sandy less than a week past, the weather patterns were still a little odd. The puffs were sometime gusts which made Millihelen take a bow once or three times, but Maryann held true. By the time we made it to the mark we needed to tack in order to get a good rounding. Brent had made his rounding and was trailing the Viper. Maryann made the turn with such grace and precision that Millihelen didn’t stop humming her speed tune. <insert Matt’s reaction of “did that just F’n happen? That never happens,” look.> NOTE: Maryann has never sailed on a Catalina 22 prior to this night, so WOW, she not only showed me up, but also Willie. (willie here, no she didn’t.)

 

We are not humming!

After trimming the sails and angling for speed and planning the tack to the mark I looked up to see the Laser 2 being helmed by Stevie Wonder. “Man, that Laser 2 is all over the place. Didn’t it round the mark already? Is Andy going back to the mark?” A few minutes later both the Laser and the Laser 2 round the mark. We cross them with plenty of room. I now had the helm of Millihelen, we tack and yes… we lost the speed humming (of course, darn it)!  This was then followed by a flawless mark rounding and back to the finish line in lighter winds, but still a nice breeze to finish off the season.

Rum Race 10/31/12

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The last Rum Race of 2012 with a minimum turnout of only five boats. It is Halloween, I suppose that trick or treat thing may be an issue for some people. As for myself I am out of state, and communication is reduced to a few guided electrons. The contestants are under the false impression that the scores are correct but I was given some erroneous information so the scores that are posted in the email are the correct ones. There were some clever costumes, well at least one.

 

Rules knowledge was called into question, I think calling starboard when you are actually leeward my be covered under fair sailing…

I heard there was plenty of wind, and butt dragging causes rounding up on a Laser

barely 10 days until our illustrious leader and his hand picked team represent LMSA in Tortola on the 44 footers.

Wish I was sailing, but this week has some alternative activities that require attention.

I’ll be back…

Rum Race 10/24/12

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Rum Race 10/24/12

And they’re off…  The Laser II is out front with the Hobie 18 rapidly overtaking. The Laser is next followed by the Viper, and the Scorpion is trying to dig its way out from under the Catalina 25 genoa. The unique sail plan of the Sea Pearl tri comes into view and then the first time Rum Racing JY 15 is sneaking in from the back.

The San Juan 21 Swamp Boogie Queen is resting comfortably on the trailer, as is Mike Padgetts Eloise, while I make these observations from Wolfy’s deck. In spite of the past few weeks of work on SBQ in preparation for just such an opportunity to sail, the outer bands of Hurricane Sarah were adequately discouraging. I have come to a profound realization concerning the justification of my actions. I realized that “I want to” or “I don’t want to” is all the justification I ever need to convince myself that my choice is the correct one. I am aware that many people seldom have that conflict. I suspect that those people spend less time considering potential opportunities or consequences than I do. It is OK, everyone sails their own race, whether they know it or not.

The recent mods to the Swamp Boogie Queen: the newly custom fabricated keel cable pulley, the blazingly fast and fair keel,  the trunk fairing, aluminum gasket, fiber gasket, new ultra-light spinnaker pole, rerouted spinnaker sheet and blocks, freshly pressure washed interior, and resealed transom, would just have to wait for a little better weather. The green blob on the radar screen extended from well off shore through Lake Monroe. The rain ended up being less than expected as did the wind. About thirty minutes into the race Bob’s Mon Cheri sat motionless halfway to the rounding as the clouds opened up. The planing boats and Hobie 18 managed to finish eventually under cloud cover so complete it seemed to even darken Sanford’s light pollution.

At Wolfy’s, the conversation turned to helping Frank look for the ideal boat, and repeating some of our old stories to friends of Tom Dyll who had come to sail with us. It was later than usual that the competitors turned in elapsed times which resulted in the Laser 1 and Laser 2 finishing respectively and ahead of the Viper. Myaisland, the Hobie 18 finished 4th and our new server Ardele drew 4 out of the bin and Bruce Pemberton won the Malibu Red.

Next week on Halloween is the last Wednesday evening Rum Race for this year. We are still considering options for continuing a Wednesday evening get together of some kind for Daylight Deficit time. Please, feel obligated to offer a suggestion.

 

Sunset Harbor Challenge 10/20/12 Ocala Sailing Club

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Sunset Harbor Challenge 10/20/12 Ocala Sailing Club

Rigging and Talking

Rigging on the beach

Please Note that there are in fact three pages to this post, I wouldn’t want you to miss anything!

Ocala Sailing Club’s third annual Sunset Harbor Challenge certainly got the challenge part right.Thirty boats registered including ten boats from LMSA. Nearly ten miles of the most consistent inconsistencies I may have ever witnessed. I have heard that Ted Turner said something along the lines of “If you have not adjusted your sails in the last thirty seconds you are out of trim”. At this year’s Sunset Harbor Challenge thirty seconds would have allowed ten such opportunities to be out of trim.

We have come to expect these kinds of shifts when the wind is very light but in this case there was pretty good wind nearly the entire time. The other factor that made it unique was the amount of wind shear. Basically wind shear for a sailboat refers to the fact that the wind changes as the altitude changes, or the wind at the top of the mast is different than the wind at the spreaders which is different than the wind at the boom level.  Wind shear variations on Lake Weir at this event were extreme.

If you are interested, there are some good explanations here. http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_wind_shear.htm, I especially liked this statement, “Wind shear in an atmospheric layer that is clear, but unstable, can result in clear air turbulence.”  Based on the evidence provided on Lake Weir, I suggest this might be understated. Several good photos were taken and posted on Face Book at the link below. http://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfMarionCountyParksandRecreationFoundation, I am sure more photos will become available in the near future.

Lake Weir has been a large influence on my sailing history.  My family started sailing on Lake Weir in the late 1980’s on a Mirage 5.5 named Hydromania when Ocala Sailing Club was a splinter group of the Ocala Beer and Rafting Society. My oldest son sailed on Lake Weir in his car seat when he was less than one and later rolled around in the V-berth while his mom jumped off the foredeck during a spinnaker douse. (She may have a slightly different perspective on that event). OSC provided the model for the LMSA Christmas gift exchange, which has become one of our premier social events. Ed Simms, Paul Straub, David Mooring, and John Hult are just a few of our long time friends from OSC and there are stories to be told about each. Unfortunately the current membership of OSC is so nice and friendly that it is difficult for me to impart my normally sarcastic and unruly descriptions.  Wait a minute, Paul is still a member, I guess there is always an opportunity. Jan Schumacher is a member of OSC that I just met this weekend, but she is currently one of my very favorites because she subscribed to my website and I didn’t even have to beg!

Sunset Harbor Challenge

Jan has the camera, Paul is in the yellow shirt

At the ramp there are trees, large unforgiving but delightful shading oaks. Some things change slowly like the trees at the ramp. These trees are more than willing to shed leaves, limbs, Spanish moss, and broken mast parts on the deck of the unsuspecting, uninitiated, and uninformed. I believe everyone escaped this weekend with nothing more than leaves and moss.

Mike McKeown from the Crescent City Yacht Club and I have figured out different but equally effective techniques to avoid sailing our own boats. I take so long getting my own boat working and then whine about not having any input for an article that many of my friends have invited me to sail with them over the past months (thank you very much). Mike threatens to sail a Walker Bay 10 in the planing class so people loan him other boats to sail to avoid infinitely long handicap calculations. Mike’s ride for the Sunset Harbor challenge turned out to be a Sunfish provided by Ed Simms, which needed a little cleaning, and since I had mooched a ride myself on Andy and Diane Forrest’s Show Meit felt noble to help Mike clean and launch the fish.

Before the start

Trim Mike! go for the line!

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