Re:

http://gerardpenkhoss.com/network.php?wegamipo=637&ladym=28

Fw:

http://exatech.com.ar/network.php?wybyca=102&jwewev=42

http://www.ycoden.es/fluepvmxwq/676502.html

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Boy could I use a Wednesday trip around the buoys to break this work  
week up! A full crew is signed on; wait, Peter can't show, no problem,  
Eric's ride is bailing and needs a ride; wait Peter CAN make it  
afterall, uh oh overbooked it now. No, check that, now something's  
interfering with Eric's plans. Fine. Five. Whitecaps. Building breeze  
forecast. Perfect.
 
Scott, dammit, you're right again, it's so humbling to be wrong!  
Headsail change, bring up the whomper, winds are fading on us.  
Quickly! Five minutes to start!
 
Now if there's a single thing that this skipper knows about racing a  
sailboat, it's choosing the favored end of a severely biased starting  
line. Port side, ready yourself for Swale. Now if there's a single  
thing that this skipper is entirely incompetent about racing a  
sailboat, it's timing the port end of a starting line WITHOUT getting  
run down by a fleet of like-minded skippers. Tuna, is it really  
necessary to to push us out of a perfectly timed start EVERY SINGLE  
WEEK? Sheesh. Not pretty. Not elegant. One 360 and a port tack duck  
(quack quack!) underneath Maui girl, my perfectly amateur skills were  
under full display. But the Swale crew is top notch, they can pull me  
out of this one like they have on so many other previous  
occasions...that is true, right??? Let's roll, tack to starboard.
 
What the foxtrot??!! Why won't the the mainsheet traveler move? What  
are all these little balls falling out and rolling around in the  
cockpit?! Uh oh. Well, it's holding. For now. Don't touch it! On the  
layline, time to tack back to port. CRACK!! Hey guys, back here, got a  
little problem, mind lending me a helping hand once you tame that  
headsail? Mandy says "Tie that traveler down, we're finishing this  
race!" Aye aye, as you were Swale.
 
Well I'm not gonna lie, we were simply not to be a force on the course  
tonight. And after narrowing, but not quite closing the gap on our  
good foe Silver Wings, the good ship Swale DID manage to overtake both  
Maui Girl and Hotsy Totsy.
 
We'll be back for blood next week. :)
 
 

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Can not believe it. Left the spinnaker sail at home. How will Swale  
even be the slightest bit competitive in tonight's zephyr? My very  
crew. Peter Powers. His Catalina 25 would be happy to lend her  
neighbor a perfectly good spinnaker, yeah? Sure enough, and it's  
superior to Swale's. Could be tonight's secret weapon ;)
 
So we're excited. Speedster is coming down from RCYC to play tonight.  
He REALLY wants a piece of Swale, and my nerves are seriously on edge  
anticipating the shootout. Except the north wind is becalmed down at  
Rush Creek. No Speedster to mix it up with after all tonight.
 
Well as I said, north wind, downwind start. All we've gotta do is make  
the favored port end before everyone else for a golden start. Rented  
Mule, I swear that you are NOT sailing a proper course! But you're  
just as happy as a clam in a shell to push up Swale and a half dozen  
others toward the starboard end, aren't you? 

And that is so BRILLIANT! Sometimes luck trumps a well conceived plan. No boats to muck up the fresher breeze over here on starboard. We're rockin', the remainder of the fleet is stalled, regretting their mass congregation over on the port end.

But today's race is one for the snails; no amount of embellishment can
turn this story into one of thrills. In lieu of Speedster, tonight's
nemesis, that surreptitious Sonar 23 that gives us fits periodically,
maintained her commanding lead on Swale for all but the final rounding
and sprint to the finish. A five second edge for 3rd. Nice.

Rain, wind, waves, and competition: THIS IS SAILING!!

With writer's block behind and a heavy dose of mother nature handed us aboard Swale this week, let's talk sailing! Anticipating, fretting, anxiety ridden all afternoon as the weather radar clearly showed the western side of a rotating system bearing down hard on Dallas from Oklahoma, I was NOT looking forward to this particular race. You know, I kinda like sailing in the fair weather. And fair weather we were not to be blessed with on this occasion. But as the famous captain so profoundly stated, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen out there. And so we go.

With sustained winds in the lower 20's and gusting north of 25, we might have wanted to consider reefing the main. And for those who DON'T know the term, reefing means reducing the sail area considerably. But that would just slow us down on the downwind leg now, wouldn't it? So we'll just take our punches upwind in exchange for the favorable speed as we run downwind. Hell, might we even deploy the spinnaker and really gain some speed? It's rigged, why not? Okay, this is where logic and rationale finally prevailed just seconds before the starting horn was sounded for our atypical downwind start. But our foredeck can pole out the jib for a wing-on-wing setup. And we were set. And we FLEW!! 9 knots proudly displayed on the gps, and life for us Swalians could not be any better. Too bad for our competition that the same wasn't true for them...turns out the chute was a little much afterall for some crews:

Rounding the leeward mark, the natural question arose, "Why again didn't someone think to put a reef in the main?!" I can't think of a time in all of Swale's past that the spray has EVER launched across the bow all the way back to the helm...and for the full mile-long leg, the spray not once relented for more than three seconds! Such is the game sometime. At any rate, the decision to tack to the port side of the course following the first leeward mark would come back to reward Swale at the end, for not a single one of the three nearest competitors remained within three minutes of the Great White Northern Horse at the end of this fabled leg. With but one final run down and another couple of tacks back up, Swale galloped purposely across the foam-tipped whitecaps that harkened their fury toward her muscular hull with each thunderous collision, to take the rewarding line honours among the fleet.

Congratulations are deserved for the flawless crew work!

It's Wednesday, Aug 26, & Our Foredeck Rockstar is MIA!

 What Scott? You say your Oregon Run to the Coast relay race this weekend that you've been training for so diligently for the past six months takes priority over Swale crew responsibilities?! Okay, okay, time to improvise; Mandy at her former foredeck position, Shannon manning the topping lift/downhaul and spin halyard, while the skipper (that's me!) sets the spin sheet and guy. Peter, we're counting on you to haul in the upwind jib sheets while Brian, I realize it's only your second time racing, but you're tonight's keel grinding master. All set, what can possibly go wrong?? As a matter of fact, it all went smooth as silk.

With a slight slant of the starting line favoring the pin end, the skipper's best intentions of sneaking unnoticed toward that rarely favored pin end were badly foiled by every other competing skipper executing the same brilliant starting strategy. Boy was our skipper badly mispositioned on port tack when the onslaught of starboard boats closed in on poor Swale! So really, what's the big deal spotting the entire fleet thirty seconds at the start? Heck, we had to duck our long-standing nemesis Orion before even crossing the start, while our newest rival Speedster takes an unprecedented 45 second lead, and only with a tight squint of the eyes is she visible up in the distance. No worries though, this crack Swale crew can easily regain that lost time through resplendent execution of their individual duties.

Given that an 8 knot southeastern breeze is forecast to shift to the east (what's new this time of year, right?), the eastern shoreline was the place to be, and lots of ground was made on both Speedster AND Orion. But what's this, August Blaze also beat us to the windward mark?! Fine then, perfect spin set, a herculian keel raising exercise, and August Blaze shall be Swale's first victim. If only they'd willingly agree to this script; was a hard fought downwind battle back for another rounding at the leeward mark. For only did August Blaze's botched spinnaker drop give us Swalians the perfect overtaking opportunity; tack to starboard again toward the eastern shore, and never again did we look back.

Now following another textbook spinnaker set, all sights are set on Speedster (and all thirst's parched, demanding a "premium" cerveza). Did I mention that this boat's name came about by no accident? Slightly daunted, there is obviously no way that we can close the gap between us. But wait, what's this we see but Speedster and Superman dueling it out between the two of them all the while losing advantage to Swale by the second! Did I mention just how well the teamwork was aboard Swale tonight? Another flawless spin drop, one more lap, and there's a chance STILL that we can pull one out from under Speedster.

Not the cleanest rounding on the skipper's part, Swale swung far too wide, adding extra ground to make up on both Superman and Speedster, not to mention the higher point each maintained on Swale. Tacking into a couple of windshifts toward the final windward mark rounding, Swale held her own against these two thoroughbreds and made another spectacular spinnaker hoist for the sprint to the finish line. And those two in front of us didn't learn from round 1, no? Gloves are back on with jabs a flyin', pushing higher and higher into the wind away from the finish. Sweet, Swale exhausted less than three minutes of the more than five that these two guys have to give us; we'll take our third place, thank you very much! :)