We're done

The boat is now back as it was, and on Clifford's mooring. There was
a nice sunset with swirly clouds for the delivery back, and lots o
neat scenery stuff as well.

The racing was a lot of fun, with us working well together as a
blended crew. We all wished the boat was a bit more racy to see how
well we could have done without it as an excuse.

Things I'd like to see done better next year, and am willing to help
make happen are...
Either more loaner prep (maybe we don't need Carl Eichenlaub to fair
the bottom the way Zephyr does, but some work should go into it...),
or getting Friction Loss to the venue (my hand's up if we need
delivery drivers!)
We'll need to figure out the class 163 percent number one.
We'll need to figure out a way to practice more aggressive boat
handling- starts, leebows, and other crossings and corners. Not easy
in So Cal, for sure. Getting into the next faster Sunset class would
be good for us, I think.
We need a day of sailing the venue to figure out what it's like-
Cedar Point reportedly has lots more current, for example.

We didn't expect to arrive and win this year, but if we can use this
regatta to figure out how we could get closer to the front that will
make the next one lots more fun and successful.

It was a pleasure to meet and sail with Thomas and Kris from
Eggemoggin. Donna was perfect on every takedown, I don't think the
kite ever got a drop of water on it. Danno's a workhorse on the
sheets and while prepping the boat, always a pleasure to sail with.
Shawn's hand on the tiller means I never feel like I'm wasting effort
with a full hike. Jim's stories keep us all chuckling... Absolutely
full praise for the group, it was a lot of fun to work with you all.
Huge thanks to Donna and Shawn for the work they put into this!
-C

J-30 Nationals Day 1 and 2

Well,  our flight to the east coast went well, arriving on time to a beautiful fall day in New England.  When we got to the boat, the scene was a bit different.  "Simply Sailing" is a loaner boatwhich  and was far from race condition.  First, we unloaded at least 500 pounds of junk.  We had a diver sand the bottom which brought it to acceptable but not race condition.  The boat had a roller cruising roller furling which we replaced with the headstay from Friction Loss.  The  boat still had the wire rope halyards so we replaced them with new spectra halyards.  Remarkably, by 6 PM we transformed the ugly duckling to a boat that looked like it is ready to race in a National compitition. We also had to measure in all our sails and dimension of the boat. Remarkably, everyting passed. Dinner at a local seafood house was outstanding with scallops and shrimp a plenty.  Photo of the sunset is attached 

 

We were up early to get out on the race course to practice.  The wind was brisk with air temps around 65. The brisk winds were good for us but very shifty so we had to really be on our toes. We placed 8th out of 23 in the first race which was quite a supprise.  The second race didn't go as well.  Our start wasn't the best and when we got to the weather mark, there was a train of boats going by in front of us.  We rounded fourth from last but picked up a couple of places to finish with a 17th.  In the third race of the day, we were actually 3rd at one point and finished 9th, getting clobbered by a couple of wind shifts

 

The after race events included plent of beer and rum followed by a bar-b-que dinner.  We were fortunate to have Rod Jonstone, the designer of all J Boats sit with us at dinner.  The best thing was his tuning tips for light air which we expect tomorrow.

 

I'll try to post again tomorrow with some more pictures.  For now, I'm bushed

 

regards

 

Dan

The boat is ready

Today we all spent the day getting "Simply Sailing" race ready-
removing the roller furling, installing a new headstay, new halyards
and other running rigging, some new blocks, putting a starter tune on
the rig, cleaning the boat, removing excess gear (the boat sits
noticeably higher out of the water now), and fixing and tweaking
everything we could. No time for a practice sail due to all the
chores, but we hoisted the main and it looks fine to start the day
tomorrow.

After the prep, we were measured and inspected, and deemed worthy to
race. Step 1 accomplished!

Dinner was at a nice joint overlooking Bristol Harbor, which is
pretty nice on the eyes. I think Dan got some pictures.

Let it begin!
-C

Even more. . .. .Photos. . .

More photos

Here's some more. . . .

Photo for website

Here's a photo of Shawn and his daughter Jessica. . . . . please post. . . . Thanks!  Angi

Test of blog page

Thanks Chad for setting this up.  I'm bringing my laptop

 

danno

the J30 "Simply Sailing"

A few pictures of our victim...

The Egg

And here's Eggemoggin going well.

Welcome!

Just checking the image posting routine. Here's Friction Loss at Long Beach Race Week, 2006.