2010 Double-handed Pacific Cup

2011 Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco

2011-09-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

After a broken wrist kept me from sailing Criminal Mischief in the 2011 TransPac, the 2011 Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco would be my first major race on the boat. I was given the position of masthead running-back trimmer, something I had never done before. Not only would it place me the furthest from the foredeck in all of the races I've sailed, but I was now responsible for keeping the mast up through every tack and gybe. Criminal Mischief has been turbo'd with a square-top (as opposed to a regular "pinhead") mainsail, which requires two separate backstays, one for port tack and one for starboard tack. Out of every tack upwind I would be winding them up to almost 12,000 lbs of load on a large Harken winch, usually with the help of a 260 lbs Kiwi sailor Rodney. As well as keeping the mast up, the runners are also used to adjust headstay sag and mast bend, which affects the power of the jib and mainsail respectively. While the swept spreaders and mainsheet would keep the rig up at the dock and through tacks, the runners are essential downwind when the masthead spinnaker is up. The mast failure on XS due to a broken masthead running back block during the 2009 Key West Race Week was always in the back of my mind.

Sailing on a high performance boat like Criminal Mischief requires a very skilled crew, which we definitely had for this regatta. We sailed with 13 people, some professionals and some very advanced amateurs. Everyone had a job, and while our first day of practice definitely showed us what we needed to work on, the second day of practice shaped up to be much better. Unfortunately, during the second day of practice, the anti-chaff covers on both of the running back control lines melted and broke due to the extremely high load and heat from friction on the winch drum. This just goes to show how much load is on these things!!! After replacing one with our only spare, we motored back to the dock so the boat jigs could start splicing up a new set, as well as some spares. From a rigging point of view, a Grand Prix boat like Criminal Mischief is amazing. All of the lines and covers are made from the newest cutting edge materials. We were docked next the TP52 Vesper, ex-Quantum Racing boat and 2 time TP52 world champion, which was even more drool-worthy with carbon fiber/ceramic winches, bleeding-edge technology lines, and an extremely clean and ergonomic deck hardware layout.

The next four days of racing is a blur, but here are some highlights:

-Ripping downwind at 22 knots! Once the spinnaker was up, boat speed jumped faster than the knot meter could handle. 14 knots, 17, 19, 20, 21, 21.7, etc! The amazing thing is how smooth and controlled the boat felt at these speeds. 20 knots sustained became the norm, and 17 knots suddenly felt slow. In comparison, my SC27 Furthur peaked at 20.7 knots surfing down a 15 foot wave in a squall sailing to Hawaii, but our sustained downwind speeds were more like 12-14 knots. The Criminal has almost as tall a rig as a TP52, but is 7 feet shorter and much lighter. While this makes us struggle upwind, downwind the boat is a soaking wet rocket ship!
-Being in the back of the boat. I usually do bow, and was a little disappointed to be so far from the foredeck. But this meant I got to overhear all of the tactics and strategy in the back of the boat. And when Jay Crumb (strategist) and Jeff Thorpe (tactician) talk, you listen. Being the smallest boat in the IRC A division (but owing a 73 foot boat time around the course) and being offshore optimized with a light keel and no grinding pedestal for the mainsheet meant that the strategist and tactician had to put the boat in the perfect position on the bay in order to keep from being shot out the back of the fleet. Jay Crumb answered all of my questions and I learned a ton about playing the tides in San Francisco Bay, as well as the communication in the back of a Grand Prix boat. Plus, it was awesome how Rodney could call puffs, identifying the wind shift with a perfect count down to breeze on.

-Making new friends and reuniting with old ones. Sounds sappy, but it's true. I met a lot of great people and got to hang out with some old high school and college sailing friends. I'll definitely be able to fill up Furthur for her first Santa Cruz 27 one design regatta in October!

And here's a parting shot of Criminal Mischief, with photo credit going to Jeremy Leonard of Surf City Racing. Thanks man!

Where is Team Furthur Ocean Racing now?

2011-07-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

I recently received a few emails about this blog, the SC27 and what is next for Team Furthur Ocean Racing. After Pacific Cup, Cody and I partied in Hawaii for 2 weeks straight, living on Furthur and eventually staying at one of our college friend's houses. We decided not to sail Furthur back to California due to some rig and electrical issues, the fact that it would be about 3000 miles upwind, and it could take us a month. So at the last minute we decided to ship her home, which entailed getting the trailer to the Pasha yard in San Diego, derigging Furthur in Hawaii, putting her on the trailer and towing it to the Pasha yard in Honolulu. Luckily, our friend Michael was going down to San Diego and towed the trailer to the yard for us. After we rented a U-haul pick up truck in Hawaii and getting Furthur on the trailer, we noticed that the weld of a major support beam on the trailer had ripped off and the whole thing was in serious risk of falling apart and dumping Furthur. Cody and I carefully towed her to the shipyard, where with the help of some very nice Hawaiian longshore men, we found a welder. With the trailer back in one piece, we left Furthur for her ship ride back to California.

After picking Furthur up in San Diego, I got to endure one more long, over-heating Jeep ride back to Northern California. I nearly had another tire blow out on the way up, but got her safely to a storage area. Sadly, she hasn't been sailed since. I went back to Eckerd in Florida for my senior, graduated in May and moved back to California. I now live in the mountains outside of Santa Cruz and it would be impossible to get Furthur up the house. So now I am looking for a dry storage yard near the water with access to a crane, but there is a one year waiting list in Santa Cruz Harbor! Too bad, I would love to race one design with the growing SC27 fleet there. Maybe Furthur will live at Brickyard Cove on San Francisco Bay. If so, I plan to race her in every single and double handed distance race to the Farallone Islands and around the bay I can attend.

Unfortunately Cody still has another semester to complete before he can graduate, so we won't be sailing together for some time. We are also expanding our sailing horizons but getting into skiffs, multihulls, and large ocean racers. I have been racing on Corsair 28R trimarans, F18 catamarans, and was asked to crew on the RP45 Criminal Mischief for the 2011 TransPac. Unfortunately, I badly broke my wrist a month before the start and could not sail with them. Luckily, I am still on their roster and my first event with them will be the Windjammer Race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in September. I'll try to do a better job keeping up with this blog since it turns out that people actually read it!

Pacific Cup 2010

2011-07-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been a year since the Pacific Cup and I never posted a race report! This blog was for class credit and with school over for the summer and a mad rush to get ready for the race, it fell to the way side. So here is the race report I wrote for Sailing Anarchy:

I woke up around 9:00 a.m. on July 5, 2010 in a blind panic. Cody and I had been working on Furthur until 5 a.m. the morning of our start and a one hour nap at a friend's house became a two and a half hour nap. Now we were seriously at risk of being late to the start. Luckily, we were mostly packed up and ready to go. After crazy drive from Sausalito to Richmond Yacht Club, Cody and I said goodbye to our friends and family, hoisted our new Ullman main for the first time, and set off for the starting line. In true Team Furthur style, we were about 30 minutes late to our start, but with 2070 nautical miles of race course ahead of us we took on the attitude of "better late than never" and charged under the Gate in the wake of our fleet.

As we headed out, the breeze continued to die and we changed from the #4 jib to #1 genoa. After the Farallon Islands, it started looking like a very long race. With a huge low sitting over the California coast, the wind evaporated and we began drifting for Hawaii. The wind got so light at times that the #1 would just collapse and it was faster to tie the clew of the #3 to the mast step and let the boat paddle forward in the huge, long period swells than try to sail.

The SC27 has a very heavy, beefy mast, and each set of waves would make the boat rock so badly any flow over the sails and foils would be lost. As I figured out the weather fax program, it became obvious that the usual "go south for more breeze" route would lead to doom and unmitigated failure. Instead, we would have to head west to pick up a wind band that we would eventually ride all the way to Hawaii. While I was trying to get my head around this and forget everything I had learned about navigating the Pacific Cup, an albatross came out of the no where, circled Furthur three times, then flew west. That sealed the deal about which way we would go.

By day 5 we were reaching with the #3 and a reefed main and on day 6 we finally had breeze at the correct angle for Hawaii and set the "Max Runner" spinnaker. The clouds parted for a few hours, Santa Cruz 27 was sliding down the wave faces in true West Coast style, and we had finally begun our sleigh ride to Hawaii. Our goal was to catch our friends on Moonshine, who we nicknamed the Gypsies (think Borat) for the duration of the race. Even though we owed them time, Moonshine had just launched off the start and was leading the Doublehanded 1 fleet.

The first night of surfing with the kite up was just a taste of what was to come: constant cloud cover and no moon. It would prove to be a very dark race.

The upside was everything on board was working except for the battery charger, but with such a small electrical load and large batteries we could make it to Hawaii without running out of juice. Our instruments consisted of 2 handheld GPS's, a compass that was almost impossible to read at night, and the Windex which was perfectly illuminated by the LED masthead tricolor. Around 9 knots, the boat suddenly feels like it is on rails. The helm is lightly loaded and precise, almost like it has power steering. The faster she goes, the better she feels, but the steering groove gets more and more narrow. As our top speed records climbed into the high teens, Furthur stayed true to her roots and felt just like a mini-sled. Linking surfs between multiple waves became common, though it was very physically tiring. Before the race, I installed two clutches and cheek blocks for the spinnaker sheets, allowing the guy to be clutched off and the spinnaker sheet cross-sheeted to the weather cockpit winch. As the boat came over the top of a swell, the driver would pump the vang to initiate the surf, then steer down the face while "banjoing" the spinnaker sheet to keep the kite full and give a little more power from a pump (if it wasn't too highly loaded). Steering up to stop the bow from burying into the back of the next wave and keep some some heat on to climb over it, you would have to ease the vang to unload the rudder and help keep the bow up while also easing any banjoed spin sheet as the apparent wind shifts aft. Let the boat climb over the back of the next wave and repeat the cycle. Wave after wave, mile after mile, 2 hours on watch, 2 hours off watch.

Our max speed during the race (the fastest I've ever gone on a sailboat) was 20.7 knots and I was driving in total darkness. Furthur no longer felt like a sled, instead she was bow up and flat out planning like a sport boat. The waves were about 12 feet and the only warning of their presence was the glow bioluminescene and the sound as their crests broke. Then the bow would drop like the start of a roller coaster ride, the bow wake breaking well aft of the shrouds and as high as the boom on both sides, creating a bioluminescent tunnel. Approaching the trough, the bow wake would slide all the way forward to the headstay fitting, spray still flying away from the boat in a giant white-green V. The groove became so narrow there was no way to drive for two hours straight without the risk of a serious wipeout and carnage, so Cody and I decided to downshift to the #3 poled out. We were still surfing in the mid teens and headed DDW straight for the finish. At dawn we reset the spinnaker, knowing we may have lost some ground but succeeded in keeping the boat in one piece.

The only really bad crash we had was between two squalls at twilight. I had been on watch for about 15 minutes when I felt the tale-tale cold air of a squall. Right as the pressure came on, I dropped in on the steepest wave of my life. It honestly lifted my stomach like going over a bump in a car at speed. The SC27 has really low freeboard and a rather narrow bow compared to other ULDB's; we were used to the foredeck occasionally being covered in green water. On this wave we just augered straight into the bottom of the trough. Completely blowing the vang usually unloaded the boat enough for the bow to pop up. This time it had no effect whatsoever. Immediately blowing the spin sheet completely off the winch as I started standing more on the aft bulkhead of the cabin than sitting in the cockpit, I felt the helm go light as a foot of water rushed over the cabintop. The foredeck was 6-8 feet underwater and I assume the rudder came completely out of the water. [i]Furthur[/i] stood on her nose, then fell over sideways in an epic, masthead-hitting-the-water round up. Everything was eased and I tried pumping the rudder to get the boat back under the mast, but I'm pretty sure the rudder was still out of the water. Between me yelling "Fuck fuck fuck this is not good!" and the water pouring over the cabin top, Cody popped out of the companionway right as the rudder caught a wave and we were whipped into a round down. The boom and mainsheet block missed Cody's head by an inch as the boom gybed. Everything was cluster-fucked on the port side of the boat (we were running on port pole), but we gybed back and tried to get the kite under control. This proved futile in the middle of a squall, so we ran under main only and cleaned up the mess. Amazingly, nothing broke during this almost pitch-pole wipeout. This is truly a testament to the design and build quality of the old Santa Cruz Yachts. As newer boats broke and retired or had to limp to Hawaii, this a 30 year old, structurally stock SC27 just took a beating and kept on hauling ass.

Our only real breakage happened in one night when the wiring for the masthead tricolor at the mast base got corroded and the tricolor went out. This is the only way to see the windex at night, so Cody had to drive through a sqaull in total darkness while I tapped a flashlight to the backstay. Then the wire bridle on our spare aluminum pole broke (the carbon pole's center lashed D-ring was slipping and I was in the process of making it a new bridle), so I just attached the foreguy and topping lift to the pole end. Lastly, the tiller headstock had started slipping on rudder post and it took all my strength to torque down on the bolt with a set of vice grips.

By this point of the race, it was obvious that Moonshine had run away with the bullet in our division and it became a fight for second place between us and the Cal 40 Nozomi. Though 13 feet longer than us, we owed them 3 seconds a mile, which works out to 1 hour 43 minutes over 2070 miles. Nozomi was still leading us; Cody and I knew that we would have to hard all the way to the finish in order to correct out ahead of them. That 30 minutes lost at the start was beginning to weigh heavily on our minds. It was a drag race to the finish and we concentrated on maximum speed and VMG, while keeping the boat in one piece. Coming into the finish at 1 am, we knew it would be neck and neck. Nozomi was still out there, but how far back were they? 30 minutes? 3 hours? We ended up too busy after the finish to even have a chance to sweat it out.

On the second to last day of the Pacific Cup, I noticed about a foot of bolt rope had pulled out of the mast track and the rest of the main was at risk of zippering out of the mast track. Armed with some Dyneema and a climbing harness, I climbed while Cody steered and tailed me up the rig. With the headboard lashed around the rig, the main couldn't pull out any more. It also couldn't be lowered without another trip up the rig. I had this all planned out for after the finish, but I wasn't expecting to finish in the dark and suddenly be so disoriented with some many lights after almost two weeks at sea. Our escort boat was late, but we had our own problems to deal with. After dropping the kite, Cody reached off and I went up the rig one last time to free the main. Right as I touched back down on the foredeck, Cody yelled "Was that a breaking wave?!?" Still tied to a halyard, I dove for the GPS in the cockpit. We were in 8 feet of water on the windward side of the famous Kaneohe Bay sandbar. Cody headed up quickly as I whipped in the mainsheet, but we had to sail out and a round several sets of breaking waves. Once we were able to find our escort boat, we began what seemed like the longest sail up the Sampan Channel. We were required to motor into the harbor as part of the safety inspection, so after wrestling the heavy 6hp Tohatsu from its cave under the cockpit we completed the final leg of our voyage to the dock. Furthur passed her post-race inspection with flying colors, and when Cody and I stepped onto the dock after racing for 13 days and 17 hours I felt like we had just summited Everest. We were the youngest crew to have ever raced in the Pacific Cup and in 2nd place in the DH1 division. Nozomi finished about three hours after Furthur, allowing us to correct out just in front of them.

The 2010 Pacific Cup was the most fun I have ever had sailing. There is nothing better than a 2000+ mile sleigh ride in a light boat with one of your best friends! I'd like to thank everyone who helped Team Furthur achieve this record and podium finish.

Specifically:

My boss and friend Brian Malone, who backed my hair-brained scheme from the beginning and helped me gather support. He is the owner Speed Merchant Services, a mobile rigging company, and gave me the industry discount on parts before I was even his employee. He also taught me almost everything I know about rigging, which was crucial in the refitting and preparing of Furthur for Pac Cup.

His wife Kat is also amazing, she helped organize a fundraiser for us at the Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa and was my professor for a documentary blog I kept about this project as an independent study at college.

Everyone at DIYC who helped us along the way, whether lending us tools, buying my photographs at the fund raiser, or just giving some words of advice and praise.

Chuck Skewes and the Ullman Sails San Diego Loft. Cody and I met Chuck in Hawaii after doing the 2008 Pacific Cup on a Henderson 30. Almost everything broke, we got last place, but he recognized our accomplishment and what we had learned through the ordeal. When we told him the beginnings of our plan to do the race double-handed in 2 years, he promised us a killer deal on sails. True to his word, he built us great sails at a great price. When our only new spinnaker being made of donated cloth wasn't going to be ready in time, Chuck used the combined forces of several Ullman lofts to build us a kite in 24 hours! Truely awesome! His friend Andy of Northwest Rigging and a fellow SC27 owner also lent us a 3/4oz kite for the race, which we used quite a lot.

Patrick aka Stinky of Santa Cruz Sails for offering to build us a spinnaker for free if we could find someone to donate us the cloth. The dude didn't even know us, but went out of his way to help us before the race. Ultimately, the cloth came too late for him to build us a kite before the race, but he is still putting it together free of charge this winter. Thanks man!

Jeremy Leonard of Surf City Racing for sponsoring us the spinnaker cloth. Even though it came too late for us to use in the race, it was still such a generous offer in this economic recession. Jeremy is a great guy, a true anarchist, and I can't wait to bust out the Surf City Racing kite!

Doghouse, who lent us his satellite phone and all the necessary equipment to make it work and be race legal! Thank you!

Wash, who lent us his liferaft. He even dropped it off to us at RYC on SF Bay, but he lives in Long Beach. We could not have done the race without this crucial piece of safety equipment.

All of my friends, especially Sheehan and Michael. Sheehan put up with a lot of my bullshit getting the boat ready for this race, but she still flew up from her summer job in San Diego to help Cody and I get Furthur ready in the mad pre-race scramble. Tweek has been there for Team Furthur for a long time, from letting us crash at his place, convoying across the country, and towing the trailer down to SoCal for last minute shipping arrangements. Thank you all!

Rob and Rowena of Nozomi, thanks for the great competition on the water and great drinks in Hawaii!

Dylan and Rufus, the crew of Moonshine, who shared as many of their Gypsy secrets with us as they could. If it wasn't for your suggestion of bringing a spinnaker net, we would have destroyed every kite before we got half way.

Synthia of Santa Cruz Sails, for loaning us her storm sails and spinnaker net. She's done several Pacific Cups, from DH on her Hawkfarm 28 to fully crewed on a Schummacher 50.

My parents, for teaching me so much about the water, putting up with a project boat squeezed next to the house for 2 summers, being my shore team, and helping me get to the starting line.

We made it to California

2010-06-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

Cody and I made to California late Monday night in the Jeep with Furthur in tow after leaving Florida on the previous Tuesday. Before leaving, we had to pack our dorm room filled with random stuff in 3 days, and I to pulled the rear axle in the Kappa (our dorm) parking lot to adjust the pinion angle.

Thank you to everyone who attended our send-off party at the Davis Island Yacht Club and we appreciate your generous donations to our campaign! We hope you enjoy the artwork and will come back with more stories and photos in the fall.

I will post a full write-up of the cross-country delivery with photos soon, as well as keep a log of all the prep work we are doing before the race.

SunCoast Race Week Recap

2010-05-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

One month ago, Team Furthur Ocean Racing was competing in SunCoast Race Week, a 3 day regatta of point to point distance races between three yacht clubs around Tampa Bay. Our preparations are best described as hectic, but we got a lot of things from the list for Pacific Cup checked off. This included replacing the spectra soft hanks with metal hanks, a new tiller, and mesh bunks. The crew was comprised of Cody and myself, along with three of our friends from Eckerd: Dan, Nigel and Pete. Their sailing experience was minimal, but they were all athletic and quick learners. By the end of the regatta, we were functioning as a tight-knit, competitive racing crew

On the first day, we were the last boat to leave the docks. The sky was gray and looked like rain, but at least there was wind. I hadn't made it to the skipper's meeting the night before because I was delivering Furthur, so we aimed for the Race Committee boat with the 2 horsepower outboard screaming at full throttle. Luckily, they had our packet and handed it to us as we cruised by to check in. With the sailing instructions in my hand, I threw the tiller to Cody and dove below decks to program the course into the GPS. Meanwhile, the crew got the main and #1 jib up and the motor stowed. Finished with the GPS, I came back on deck as the Spinnaker A fleet start gun was fired. Or so I thought.

Realizing that all the spinnaker classes were started together, we gybed for the starting line and crossed it about 2 minutes after the fleet. With the spinnaker up, we were quickly gaining on the stragglers, including our closest-rating competitor, a Frers 30 named Salty Pause. On a PHRF random leg course, they rated 135 and Furthur rated 138. This allows for a 3 second gap for every mile of the course between their finish and ours. If we finish within that time, we beat them on "corrected time".

At the first mark, I tested the skill of my crew with a windward douse. After walking everyone through the steps of the maneuver and what each person's responsibility was, we went for it. The douse went so smoothly that I over estimated the distance needed, and we had to sail with just the main and jib for 50 yards before heading upwind. Upwind, I was finally able to adjust the backstay and vang instantly, which allowed me to keep the the boat in the right groove. The Santa Cruz 27 has a large foretriangle and is most of the power upwind comes from the jib. I was finding new gears in the boat, mostly from backstay tension affecting headstay sag.

Tacking on two lifts kept us in-phase with the wind shifts, and we maintained our gap on Salty Pause, while keeping a large cruising boat from rolling us. Downwind again, we gave chase to Salty Pause and significantly closed the distance between us. Furthur was right on the edge of surfing; with a bit of chop, the right steering, and a good pump on the spinnaker sheet, she would break loose. Two gybes later, we were dousing the spinnaker at the next mark, right on the tail of Salty Pause.

The next leg was upwind in chop, and here the heavy Frers 30 made its comeback against the ultra-light Santa Cruz 27. Still within striking distance, we rounded the next mark. The next course was a "water-line drag race"; with both boats sailing in displacement mode, the longer Frers would be faster. To add insult to injury, Salty Pause was able to carry their spinnaker on this leg, but the apparent wind was too far forward on Furthur to even carry the chicken kite.

With the wind dying, we turned the last mark and began slowly beating upwind to the finish. In the light breeze, the Santa Cruz 27 was faster and we began creeping up on the Salty Pause. The wind completely evaporated as the sun began to burn through the clouds. I knew that the sea breeze was fighting whatever wind we had, and would eventually fill from the west. Also, the tide was ebbing, and the strongest adverse current would be in the shipping channel on the east side of the Hillsborough Bay. Cody called the last puff on the bay and we tacked into it to head west.

Waiting for the sea breeze, we watched Salty Pause keep going east, chasing the receding pressure. After almost an hour, we saw the water at the edge of MacDill Air Force Base turn dark with ripples from the sea breeze. As the first puff hit Furthur, she jumped forward. We were the furthest west boat by a long distance and the first to get the sea breeze. While we were sailing with the sheets eased and charging for the finish, all the boats on the east side of the bay were still fighting the current in no wind. We finished 9 minutes ahead of Salty Pause, which automatically had us correct ahead of them. This put us in second place for our division, with Semper Fi, a well sailed J/29 in first. They were far enough ahead to finish before the wind died. Regardless, beating a faster boat with nicer sails across the line was a great feeling. After docking at the Davis Island Yacht Club and cleaning up the boat, we started a trek to 7-11 to buy more beer.

With the finish at a different yacht club each day, most boat owners and crew find SCRW a logistical nightmare of driving and lodging. To overcome this, we took advantage of the Santa Cruz 27's cruising amenities, as well as pitching a tent behind some boats in the dry storage yard. Exchanging the three free dinner coupons for plates, I loaded them with food at the buffet for my crew. Over dinner and a few beers, we talked about the days racing, our strong points, and how we could improve. Some friends from Eckerd drove out to DIYC and we had a nice little party.

Team Furthur at DIYC.

Cody and Pete enjoying the buffet.

Pete and Dan guarding the booze.

Sunset at DIYC.

Day 2 brought gusty wind from the north, perfect for a sleigh ride down the bay to Bradenton. We were the last boat off the dock again, but at least we knew where we were going. I started conservatively, maybe too much, but I didn't want to get a bunch of dirty air from the bigger boats. Unfortunately, the 1.5 oz spinnaker was ripped on the set, but we weren't set up for peels and dousing would be too slow. I hoped the kite would hold as we locked into Salty Pause's wake and surfed it to the next mark. They wouldn't let us get around them, so we stuck on their tail. The course to the next mark was deeper and we got ready to quickly douse the ripped 1.5 oz for the .5 oz spinnaker. It was the top of the wind range for the .5 oz, but we needed to fix the 1.5 oz. The sail change went smoothly and we hardly lost any distance on Salty Pause. With Nigel's help, I fixed the 1.5 oz with sail tape, while Cody drove and coached Pete on trimming. The repair was completed, we changed back the 1.5 oz kite, and locked into the groove to catch Salty Pause.

Total concentration.

Pump Nigel!

Dan takes a turn trimming the spinnaker.

Lunch break.

In sub-planning conditions, the Frers 30 is faster than the Santa Cruz 27 downwind because it is longer and has more sail area. Knowing we couldn't beat Salty Pause if we just followed them, I called for a gybe and we headed to the middle of the bay in search of more wind. We found more pressure and swell, and Furthur began to surf. Everyone had been taking turns trimming, while Cody and I traded driving. Knowing these were our conditions if we sailed right, I took over driving and Cody trimmed. Cody pumped on each wave and I drove down every face I could surf. Our efforts were rewarded with boat speed; Furthur was pushing 10 knots on every surf. We were ahead of Salty Pause going under the Sky Way bridge; our next goal was to beat Semper Fi on corrected time. Watching them finish and douse, I figured it would be close, but wasn't sure we would make it.

A little surfing action.

Getting the inside overlap on two cruising boats as we rounded the last mark, I knew the last leg was make or break for us. With the pole just off the forestay and everyone hiking on the weather rail, Cody and I worked together to keep Furthur charging for the finish. We finished ahead of Salty Pause, but none of us knew if we got Semper Fi on corrected time.

The J/29 Semper Fi finishing 11 minutes and 10 seconds ahead of us.

Team Furthur charging for the finish.

Salty Pause, the Frers 30.

At Bradenton Yacht Club, we mingled with our competitors and enjoyed the free beer. The crew of Semper Fi joked with us, asking where we went during the race. Pete just responded with "We'll see." They left before the results were posted, and we beat them on corrected time by 5 seconds! This put us in first for our division and we kicked the party up a notch. Our quest that night was for whiskey, rum and fried chicken at Publix. With the supplies back at the boat, we celebrated our first win on Furthur before everyone passed out from exhaustion and sun burn. Any interesting observation is that crabs must love fried chicken; we threw the bones overboard and could hear the chatter of crab claws under the boat all night.

The next day, it was fun to watch the crew of Semper Fi check the results. They didn't seem too pleased. The wind was still out of the north, so after a short reach and downwind, we would be beating upwind all the way to the finish. Not great Santa Cruz 27 conditions, but we were ready to give it our all.

We got the the starting area with the rest of the fleet, sailed around with the #1 jib, then switched to the #3 as the wind built. I nailed the start and we stayed on Salty Pause's hip all the way to the first mark. The wind on next leg was too deep an angle for Furthur to be able to surf, and the Frers pulled away slightly as the wind got lighter. Realizing the #3 wouldn't have enough power to keep Furthur moving through the chop, I called for a change to the #1. Dan worked the bow and did a perfect job changing the jibs before we rounded the next mark. We had a good douse, now it was up to me to sail fast to the finish.

This was a perfect opportunity to sail Furthur at the top on the #1 genoa's wind range and tweak the trim for power and control. Jib cars back, vang on, playing the traveler and backstay, and driving the waves kept us charging. At the Sky Way, we were even with Salty Pause, but sailing a shorter distance to the finish. As we got closer, they fell behind and we finished ahead of them for the third day. I knew that Semper Fi got us, the J/29 loves sailing upwind in chop and deep angles downwind, but we locked in second place.

Finishing Day 3 after a long upwind beat.

SunCoast Race Week was without a doubt, one of the most fun regattas I've ever sailed. It was great to be skippering my own boat with my friends as crew. Everyone had a great time, we learned a lot, and finished very well.

DH Sailing

2010-04-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

Up the rig flying the spinnaker

Don't worry mom I have a harness on!

Self portrait

Cody at the helm

The new deck hareware setup. Note that almost of the control lines aim at the driver so they can be adjusted without anyone else on deck.

The sun over St. Pete

The view from above

Peace man

Sailing toward Egmont Key

Leading the charge, bagel-in-hand

Space Commander reporting for duty

More downwind practice

Photos from the mooring field

2010-04-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos I took while living on Furthur. The first 3 are long exposure night photos I took for my Studio Critic class, the rest just give you an idea of what life is like onboard.

On the foredeck

Eckerd in the background.

Looking out my back door

Chart table and the Captain's Quarters

Breakfast of Champions

View from my bed

Sail storage

Furthur with Arthur's boat Platypus off the bow and Eckerd in the background

Jujubean the dingy!

Life in the mooring field, part 2

2010-04-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated in more than a month, I spent over 2 weeks living on Furthur in the Maximo mooring field off Eckerd. Arthur came by DIYC one wednesday when I was working and suggested we sail Furthur back to Eckerd. The deck hard was installed, there was a nice sea breeze, and I hadn't had lived in the mooring field for about a month. After finishing work with Speed Merchant Services, I threw a coat of Teflon wax on the bottom of Furthur to slow the growth or algae and barnacles.

Expecting a reach and beat in 15 knots of sea breeze, I hanked on the #4 jib and organized the cabin for sailing. Arthur came back from the store with some food, drinks, and 2 gallons of gas. We finished rigging the boat and launched her without any issues. But as luck would have it, right as we hoisted the main the sea breeze died. We did the longest bare-headed jib change, as I had to switch all the hanks from the #4 to the #1. Even with the #1, we were making little to no headway in lumpy swell with no wind. I broke out the motor and we took off for Eckerd.

After running the outboard dry once, we found some pressure and started sailing again. Arthur loves tuning and tweaking boats, and we started experimenting with different settings. This was extremely educational and really helped me get the boat up to speed. Because the SC27 has masthead rig that bends like a telephone pole, backstay tension mostly controls headstay sag. Adjusting the backstay drastically changes the boat's sailing characteristics: more tension de-powers the jib, but helps our pointing upwind; less tension powers-up up the jib at the cost of pointing, but this is great in light wind and/or waves. The new hardware layout allowed for instant adjustments, which will help us change gears faster.

We anchored under sail and a friend picked us up in the dinghy. For the next two weeks, I mostly slept on Furthur instead of in Kappa. I would row to class in the mornings, hang out in my room or on the boat during the day, eat dinner ashore, then row out at night. While anchored off Eckerd, I faced some serious trials, including being unable to row out to in a storm. On a different morning, I woke up to waves hitting Furthur's bow from the side, instead of head on. The keel had just touched the mud off Eckerd and I was 10 feet from the mangroves. I called Cody and started prepping for the extraction. Pulling up the anchor revealed that the chain had wrapped between the fluke and shank, keeping the flukes from digging in. I reset the anchor in the channel with the dinghy as Cody just charged in the chest deep (for him) water to reach Furthur. Between heeling the boat over to reduce draft, the little 2-horse outboard screaming at full throttle, and the anchor line loaded on a winch with one of us grinding, we were able to get to deep water. The chain wrapping around the anchor and dragging was a random turn of fate. Luckily, the grounding was soft and Furthur appeared to have no structural damage. Cody and I also learned a lot about grounding recovery!

There were plenty of good times too. I took friends cruising, Cody and I practiced double-handed sailing, and we continued to learn how to sail Furthur fast. Then I got an email from West Florida PHRF, the SunCoast Race Week Notice of Race had been posted. SCRW is 3 days of point-to-point distance racing around and out of Tampa Bay between the St. Petersburg, Davis Island, and Bradenton Yacht Clubs. This would be a perfect opportunity to line up against some other boats in a distance race, hopefully with some downwind sailing.

Almost done... ...then time to SAIL!

2010-03-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

Almost all the new deck hardware has been installed, the only issue was the big washers for the clutches overlap. I was going to grind down an edge on each washer so they would fit, but the Speed Merchant trailer (and the bench grinder in it) wasn't at DIYC today. If I can find a bit of G-10 I'll just make a backing plate and use smaller washers. Thank you to my friends Leigh and Dan, who came out to help and didn't complain at all about finishing the job in the cold and dark!

Regardless, everything looks great and I'm really happy with the refit. Except for the clutches, all we have left to do is rebuild the traveler car with new bearings and figure out the lines for the backstay purchases. I'm thinking of using either Vectran of SK-78 Dyneema for the backstay and coarse purchases, with some New England Ropes Finish Line for the fine purchase. Lastly, after some shopping around I finally got a good price for some new pipe berths and they should be done in about 2 weeks. It's been nuking here with big swell in the Gulf and I can't wait to get Furthur back in the water for some offshore sailing practice.

Officially Entered in the Pacific Cup

2010-02-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

Furthur is officially entered in the Pacific Cup, I just paid the entry fee! It looks like we'll have some really good competition in the double handed class; maybe they'll split the DHers into two classes so we aren't racing against a carbon fiber Mini Transat boat with a canting keel.

Photo Essay of the Deck Hardware Installation, Part 1

2010-02-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

Arthur and the original pit set up.

Old School: A winch for each halyard and 8:1 vang with SS wire.

New School: 12:1 vang with Dyneema line lead to both sides of the cabin top.

Just mocking it up.

Halyard clutches and 2 winches instead of 3.

We taped over the holes to protect the balsa wood core from any moisture.

The tools of the trade.

Every battery drill I came across was dead, so I used this beast.

Using templates Cody made, I could accurately drill holes for the new hardware.

The view from Furthur's dry slip.

Dry, golden brown balsa core.

Each hole was taped from below and filled with thickened epoxy injected from a syringe. The holes for all the bolts were drilled over-sized, then the correct size holes will be drilled through the epoxy plugs. This creates a water proof barrier between the bolt and core to keep the core dry and strong.

The Office

2010-02-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos of the Speed Merchant trailer...

The Zen view out the back of the trailer

Getting ready to give Furthur a major upgrade

2010-02-16T13:15:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday Cody and I doublehanded Furthur from the mooring field off Eckerd back to DIYC. We decided against doing the delivery the Friday before; as there were intense squalls, driving rain, lightning, and a 51 knot puff at DIYC. The breeze was out of the south, which would have made for a crazy fun ride, but possibly at the expense of breaking something. Instead, we sailed in 15-20 knots out of the Northwest, too tight an angle to hold the kite, but good "leaving SF Bay" Pac Cup practice. The last leg to DIYC was a beat and I finally figured out how to get the SC27 to depower and point: just keep adding backstay.

With Furthur back on the trailer at DIYC, I can sleep a little better not worrying about the anchor dragging. Also, my order of parts arrived, except for the cam cleats. Cody and I plan on going to DIYC tomorrow to start unbolting old hardware and mocking up the new stuff. It's no good in a pile on my desk...

Santa Cruzin'

2010-02-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

With a strong wind out of the East and no rain on Sunday, I figured the conditions would be perfect for a fast run to Eckerd. With 30 knots of wind at the DIYC club house, it would certainly be a great oppurtunity to get Furthur surfing with the spinnaker up. I got Sheehan, Arthur and Julia to come along, and due to our usual timeliness, Furthur wasn't launched until the sun was setting. I am pretty sure I have sailed this boat more at night than during the day. The wind didn't feel like 30 knots, but over 20, so we rigged up the #4 jib and took off. Arthur put four waypoints in the GPS that would take us safely to Eckerd, and the course to the first mark was just a little to high to carry the spinnaker in that much breeze. Instead, we worked up some and made sure all the lines were run correctly for a smooth spinnaker set.

Turning down some for the next mark, we were able to carry the 1.5oz Runner with the #4 up as a staysail until the angle became too deep to keep the jib up. With more water between us and the weather shore, the chop and swell increased until we were surfing nicely. No one was watching the GPS, but I would guess we were hitting 12-13 knots when there were waves to surf. I can't wait to surf some endless Pacific rollers!

We made the trip in just over 3 hours, probably our fastest run. I don't know the mileage, but Arthur and I plan on keeping track of these runs and probably racing against each other for fun along this route. I kept Furthur at the Eckerd waterfront overnight and slept onboard, then left before anyone noticed. Furthur spent the today rafted up with Arthur's boat, but tonight I will anchor her seperately. I have class tomorrow, but plan on sleeping on the boat tonight and borrowing Arthur's dinghy tomorrow to go to class. Here are a few photos of the boats rafted up at the mooring field across from Eckerd.

Rowing from Eckerd with Indian Key and bridge leading to the Skyway in the background

Looking toward Eckerd. Furthur looks so much smaller than the Vital 26 even though she is a foot longer.

Soft hanks in action and new (to me) winches

2010-02-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

After finishing a job at Speed Merchant, I started servicing the old Barient 21 primary winches from Furthur on the work bench, when I noticed the winch pawls were about to fall out of the inside of the winch drum. Over three decades of use, abuse, and probable lack of maintainence, the pawl had worn its socket in the winch drum and the pawl spring was trying to push it out. I asked Brian what he thought about pawls, and when he saw them his reaction was one of horror. The winch was essentially fragged; with any more use the pawl could wear the last bit of the socket holding it in. This would leave only one pawl to hold the entire winch load, and it would inevitably fail as well, leaving the winch useless. Not a good scenario while racing to Hawaii. The other winch was in almost as poor shape, and a replacement drum would be very difficult to find as Barient is no longer a company.

Luckily, Brian had a used set of Harken 32 winches from his J/24 in the trailer. After some discussion and haggling, I bought them from Brian and began tearing them down. Brian said they were only about 5 years old and had been rebuilt every year. He showed me the correct way to rebuild a winch, and using gasoline to dissolve the old winch grease, and each piece was soon clean. The most common mistake in servicing winches is to use too much grease, making them hard to spin when unloaded. The key is to use just enough grease on the bearings and a light oil on the pawls and pawl springs. After watching Brian service the first winch, I did the second one exactly as shown. I initially used too much grease on the bearings and had to wipe some off to make the winch free-spin easily, but other than that the servicing went well and I know the winches inside and out.

The innards of a Harken 32 winch during the test fit

The downside of the new Harkens was they did not have the same bolt mounting pattern as the old Barients. Therefore I had to fill all the holes and re-drill them. Because the Santa Cruz 27 has a Balsa-cored deck, it is crucial that any holes drilled for fasteners be water tight. Even if the fastener is bedded in 4200 (a type of marine sealant), the cured 4200 could eventually tear and allow water into the core. Therefore, it was necessary to go over-kill on the new winch installation.

After using the winch as a template, I drilled the new holes. This is always never-wracking, as you are DRILLING HOLES IN YOUR OWN BOAT, but also fun in a weird way. I then over-sized the new holes to 3/8" (the winch is mounted with 1/4" bolts) and put masking tape under the holes. The reason behind this is to keep water out of the core, you fill the over-size hole with epoxy thickened with filler, then when the epoxy is cured, drill the correct size hole for the fastener in the epoxy/filler plug. The epoxy plug separates the fastener hole and core, keeping the balsa dry and the decks strong.

I did this with Sheehan's help; she loves working with epoxy and fiberglass. I hate it. We even added a step to the epoxy process to further seal the core. First, she injected just epoxy into the holes with a syringe, then sucked it out before it cured. This is because unthickened epoxy will better penetrate and seal the balsa wood. Next, Sheehan filled the holes with thickened epoxy for a stronger plug.

When the epoxy had cured, I drilled the 1/4" holes, and bolted in the Harken 32s. I used some 4200 out of habit, but it may have been unnecessary. The new winches are excellent, they free spin more easily, have a lower 2nd gear ratio for more power, and far more abrasive material on the winch drums. This was a huge issue with the old Barient 21s, even with 4 wraps on the winch the line barely held.

The newly installed Harken winch.

I also got to try out the new soft hanks on the Thursday Night Full Moon Race and they work very well. The jib was no longer at risk of pulling out of the heafoil, sets and douses were fast, and it was easy to control the draft of the sail with halyard tension. The only issue with the soft hanks is they can be hard to get on and off. It will be interesting to see of this gets better or worse with time. It would probably be best to get bronze hanks for the sails we'll be taking on Pacific Cup, but for now the soft hanks are cheap and work.

Soft hanks on the jib and forestay

The wind for the race was very light and we had a bad start in lee of all the big boats. While tacking to get clear air, there was such a massive wind shift that we actually aborted the tack. This put us behind the fleet at the first mark, but we began to catch back up reaching with the spinnaker. Unfortunately, this was the only leg we could fly the kite on and we had a close reach/beat to the finish. There were a few funky wind shifts near the finish that we probably could have played better, but sailing at night without local knowledge makes calling the geographical shift difficult. Arthur did put each DIYC race mark in the GPS before the start, which helped keep us from getting lost during the race. Time in the boat will also help our speed. We corrected out second to last, but nothing broke and everyone had fun so it was a good race.

Splicing Soft Hanks

2010-01-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

After experimenting with some 3/16" spectra, I realized that it would be too big a diameter for the small hanks I was making. Since Brian took almost all the line to Key West Race Week with him, I had to wait until he got back to get some small Dyneema. I also borrowed the SMS splicing kite, which made it much easier. After a few tries, I figured out the right length to make the hanks and how to make them all the same size. I guess we will find out on Thursday night for the FULL MOON race.

Measuring the line

Pulling the splice through with a wand.

Make an overhand knot to lock the splice and give the eye an anchor point

Using the high-tech "nail in a board and eye ball it" method all my hanks came out the same size.

Cutting off the excess dyneena and fusing the end.

The finished project.

In action!

The 2010 Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race on Flight Simulator

2010-01-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a brief race synopsis, I will be doing a full write-up of the race soon and hopefully get it published on the Sailing Anarchy home page.

We had a great race onboard the Corsair 28R trimaran Flight Simulator. Conditions were light at the start and our course to the first mark was dead downwind. This forced us to carefully play our VMG angles downwind and gybe on every major puff and wind shift. As night fell, the wind increased and our course to Key West brought the wind angle forward. While the monohulls struggled to carry their spinnakers and were eventually forced to drop them for a Code 0 or Jib-Top, we kept on flying with our Screecher. We finished at 05:39:37 Thursday morning, the second multihull across the line. When all the boats in the multihull division finished, we corrected out to first place in Multihull A division, first place Multihull Overall, and our navigator Richard was awarded the Navigator's Trophy for the Multihull division. It was a great race (but cold), we hit 18 knots, and everyone on the boat had a lot of fun. Here are a few photos from before and after the race; I brought a waterproof film camera for the race. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my film to rewind and was only able to shoot one roll of black and white.

The Screecher (a large jib/Code 0 sail) on its roller furler and tacked to the bow sprint. We raise it only when needed to reduce windage and weight aloft.

Ron packs the spinnaker.

The Head of the Department of the Interior, Richard makes sure everything is stowed low and aft in the main hull.

Getting one of our only instruments, the Tack-Tic compass, mounted.

At the dock in Key West after we got a few hours of sleep at Tom's condo.

Flight Simulator (left)on the trailer next to another 28R at the Trumman Annex in Key West.

The after-awards party at The Green Parrot. It appears here that Richard is taunting the guys on highly modified Corsair 31R Cheekee Monkee. These multihullers sure know how to have a good time!

Jibs are ready for hanks

2010-01-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

I took Furthur's current jib inventory to the Sail Technologies loft in St. Petersburg today and punched grommets in all the luffs. This will allow me to install hanks on the jibs to attach them to forestay, because the old headfoil fell apart and hanks are better for double-handed sailing. Tom Barry was nice enough to let me use part of the loft floor, their grommets and tools. In return, I will either make him some soft hanks or take photos for the sail loft.

The jib inventory laid on top of each other in the loft. From largest to smallest (left to right): #1 (150%), #2 (125%) #3 (95%), #4 (80%) and storm jib.

After laying out the jibs, I measured each luff and marked it every 2 feet to hole punch and grommet.

Lining up the hole punch.

Grommets installed in all the jibs.

Cody came to the loft after his class, bringing sun chips and Arizona Green Tea. We used a hot knife to cleanly remove some of the now unnecessary luff tape. The next project is to make about 70 soft hanks out of 3/16" spectra.

No KWRW for me this year

2010-01-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I got flicked from my Melges 24 ride for Key West Race Week because of weight issues (I would need to weight 105 lbs for the crew to make the maximum class weight). This is a bummer because KWRW is fun event and I would have been sailing with some very good people in a competitive fleet. On the upside, I will have more time to work on Furthur, which is necesary as spring is fast approaching. I plan on towing her back to California during spring break so my Dad can do a professional job of wiring up the electronics.

However, I will still have plenty of opportunities to sail during winter term. On January 2, I did the 50-something mile Egmont Key distance race out of DIYC on the J/109 Mariah, along with Brian and Sheehan. We had some issues during the race and ultimately finished poorly, but it was a nice day on the water and Brian remarked that it was the first time he had finished that race before sunset. It was a good thing too, as the temperature dropped quickly with the sun. I wish I had raced my boat, as the wind and course had plenty of running and reaching with only one upwind beat.

I am also doing the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race on the Corsair 28R trimaran Flight Simulator, owned by Tom Reese. I did this race last year on Richard Stephen's Trevelyn, finishing first in our division and winning the multihull division overall. Richard will be navigating Flight Simulator this year, and I hope we can repeat our performance last year. Sailing lead-free is also so much fun, we rate faster than a Melges 32, but are 4 feet shorter. The Dark Side has good Kool-Aid.

Working for Speed Merchant

2010-01-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

Since mid-November, we have had almost nothing to do at Speed Merchant Serviced, until mid-December. Brian hurt his back and I was leaving to go home for the holidays, so of course the orders started flooding in. The most pressing was a re-rig on a J/29, which had been bought locally by a man from Jamaica and he wanted it fixed up before sailing to Kingston. Unfortunately, Brian and I were both leaving for the holidays, so with the help of Jed, we measured the boat for the new shrouds and made a list off all the parts that would need to be replaced.

While working for Speed Merchant Services has cut into my time to work on and sail my own boat, I am earning money, gaining valuable experience, and have ordered a bunch of new deck hardware to make sailing Furthur easier.

Here are photos of the completed worked with a description of what we did:

The old traveler was the original from the boat's construction and wasn't running smoothly. We replaced it with a new section of Harken track and captive ball-bearing traveler car.

We upgraded the outhaul with new internal blocks and high-tech lines for a purchase of 8:1 over the old 3:1 system. Also, there was no reefing system, so we ran a reef line and installed a cam cleat on the boom.

The vang was only 3:1 and used old blocks, so it was upgraded to 8:1 Harken Mid-Range Bullet and high strength blocks. A boom kicker was added to support the boom without the mainsail up or while reefing.

The old turnbuckles were pitted, which could lead to cracking and failure, so the standing rigging and forestay were replaced. We did this without removing the mast, so I was hoisted to each shroud attachment point and replaced the old shrouds with new ones, section by section. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but the mast is pretty stout and the load of my weight nothing compared to sailing.

The foreguy was moved forward, its purchase increased to 2:1, and lead to each side of the cockpit.

The checkstay blocks were missing, so new Harken blocks with cams were ordered and installed on 1 1/4" cars to fit the toe rails. The lines used are Dyneema, a high-tech line with very little stretch. Brian tapered the cover to reduce weight, windage and friction on the blocks, while keeping the cover on the handled part of the line to reduce chafe.

The finished project, ready to go to Jamaica with her new owner.

Saltshaker's Soul is Set Free

2009-12-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

The Effigy of Saltshaker...

...set ablaze...

...and free to sail to the next world.

Photo-proof of Furthur in the Water

2009-12-09T00:42:00.000-08:00

I just realized I haven't posted a photo of Furthur in the water, so here is a shot after one of our doublehanded night practices.

Avoiding Bad Juju

2009-12-09T00:24:00.000-08:00

Sailors have a lot of superstitions about naming boats, and some consider it very bad luck to rename a boat. However, when a boat changes owners, her name may be changed if the proper precautions are taken. I have been referring to the SC27 as Furthur, but until recently she still had Saltshaker on the side. Cody removed the old name, and now we are really flirting with disaster.

To remedy the issue and get rid of bad Juju from the name change, you have two choices. First, you can create an effigy of the boat with the old name on it, then set the spirit of the old name free in a viking funeral. Or have a virgin pee in the bilge. Because virgins are hard to find at Eckerd College, and because I don't feel like sponging their piss out of the bilge, I am opting for the first option. Hopefully, once this is done our bad luck will gone for good.

Getting the boat out

2009-12-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

Recently Furthur has been sailed singlehanded, doublehanded and fully crewed. After Thanksgiving I sailed in the DIYC "New Shoe" singlehanded race against Kuli on a Melges 24, Brian Malone on his J/24 and Tom Barry on a Wavelength 24.

My start and self steering system left a lot to be desired, but the first leg was a hot reach and I was quickly closing the gap on the fleet with the spinnaker up. Unfortunately, I don't know the DIYC marks yet and lost a lot of the ground during a hurried spinnaker douse. A close reach was next and there were no gains or loses.

Upwind, Kuli was very overpowered in the Melges, but was able to depower enough to keep his lead. Tom was suffering with a 150-155% genoa and Brian chugging along with a blade jib. I was using a #3 jib and once I got the jib cars in the right place Furthur was fast and balanced upwind. I was able to play some shifts to catch the Wavelength, though the SC27 should also be faster upwind. Brian missed rounding A mark to starboard before the finish and had to double back to the mark. He rounded in front of Tom and I and lead us to the finish. Tom and I finished overlapped with a two second difference; too bad I owed him time.

After the race, Cody and I doublehanded Furthur from DIYC to Eckerd at night for practice. The breeze was light, but the SC27 moves well in light wind thanks to overlapping jibs, masthead spinnakers and an efficient hull form. The kite was up for most of the practice sail, but we eventually had to douse and jib-reach to stay in deep water. We kept Furhtur at Eckerd for a few days, then I sailed her back to DIYC with Sheehan and our friends Ashley and Martha. It was another night sail, which can be nerve-racking due to shallow water and tons of unlit marks. We made it unscathed, with Ashley keeping a vigilant watch, but we had a few close calls with unmarked buoys.

During the sail back we tried the Larsen 125% #2 jib that was given to us by Sumo after Nationals. Even though it was made of mylar in 1988, the jib is almost unused, probably because the 125% has a narrow wind range. This is good news for our Pacific Cup campaign, as I plan on dropping the 150% as our largest headsail for the 125% to get a better rating. Furthermore, we would be easily overpowered with the 150% sailing doublehanded, but the smaller 125% will allow us to hold it in more wind. Hopefully, we will get to ease the sheets soon after leaving the Golden Gate and get the kite up.

Last Thursday, Cody, Arthur, Tweek and I sailed Furthur in the 2nd of 4 DIYC Full Moon series night race. We had a great start, pacing a J35 all the way down wind and round 5th behind some bigger boats. A clean weather douse allowed us to set the kite at the next mark without having to re-run and spinnaker gear.

Upwind we played a few shifts badly and had the genoa cars too far forward, causing us to lose a few boats. The next downwind was very deep and we had a hard time finding the leeward mark. This made for a hurried douse and we got a spinnaker sheet under the boat. Luckily that was our last downwind and we were able to untie the sheet from the kite and pull it out from under the boat. On the last upwind we played some good shifts and came back to finish mid fleet on corrected time.

Through all this sailing I am learning a lot about how to make a Santa Cruz 27 go. The main seems to like a lot of leech tension in the main and headstay tension/mast bend (controlled by the backstay) has a huge influence on power and point. With everything trimmed right, the boat feels great and hauls. Adding the spinnaker makes everything better and I can't wait for 2000+ miles of surfing to Hawaii.

Progress

2009-11-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of updates in the last month. However, this has been due to too much going on, not too little.

The weekend after the DIYC Classic, Cody, Sheehan and I sailed in the Clearwater Challenge on the Santa Cruz 37 Southern Crescent. Cody and I ran the bow, while Sheehan trimmed jib, spinnaker, helped out in the pit and gave Brian input from around the course when she wasn't otherwise occupied. To quote Brian, "Sheehan, you are my hero." Needless to say, we had some crew issues, but finished 3rd in Spinnaker A Division.

I have also been doing a lot of work with Speed Merchant. A few projects include re-rigging and stepping a Sovrel 30 mast, splicing various things, redesigning the SC37 in-hauler system and a lot of running around. Unfortunately I haven't been spending much time working on Furthur, but I have earned enough to order some new deck hardware and Category 1 race stuff like a water bladder and nav lights.

Fun sailing on the Santa Cruz

2009-10-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

With the boat at Eckerd for the Fall Break long weekend, we would have some time to go sailing for fun. The day after the race, Cody, Callie, Sheehan and I went on a couples sunset cruise. Using the old main and #4 jib, we were perfectly de-powered, yet still quick in the light evening breeze.

There was absolutely no breeze on Monday, but Tuesday brought 15-18 knots out of the south. This was perfect for a reach and run to DIYC in Tampa. Cody, Tweek and I started by motoring south down the channel and under the first bridge south of Eckerd, then hoisted the main and #4. We jib reached on starboard down the channel, then turned down into Tampa Bay and set the 1.5oz kite. With the #4 still up and trimmed loosely like a stay sail, the boat was very balanced on the 090 to 110 degree apparent wind reach and easily surfed the chop on the bay. It was nice to feel how fast the boat was downwind, as well as how dry she was too. We'll see if she stays dry sailing in the Pacific.

After about an hour of this, I saw there was a tear in the spinnaker and we dropped it before it could exploded. We set again, this time with the 1.5oz "chicken kite" with narrow shoulders, but by this point we had to turn down on a run to DIYC. Without the right spinnaker we were underpowered, but Furthur was still fast; Santa Cruz 27s love to go downwind. We pulled up to the hoist, Brian came to check out the boat, and Sheehan came to help us lift the boat and move the trailer with her Xterra.

On the drive back to Eckerd, a rain squall that had been hovering on the horizon during the whole sail hit and started pouring. We were all pretty happy that it didn't hit while we were out sailing.

The Davis Island Yacht Club Classic

2009-10-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

The DIYC Classic would be the first time Furthur ever touched water outside of the Pacific Ocean (as far as I know). It also be our first time sailing her since SC27 Nationals in July. We launched her at 10:30 a.m. on October 24 and motored to the line for the start warning signal at 11:00. Raising the new (to us) main and 150% genoa given to us by the owner of Sumo after Nationals, we did a few short practice beats to get the sails trimmed and adjusted properly before the start.

The breeze was 5-10 knots out of the south and the start was mellow with no barging or yelling. We stalled up near the boat end to let a bigger boat roll under us, then put the bow down and got moving for the gun. Off the start we didn't have good point, but pulling on more backstay to tension the forestay helped a lot. Our tactics were to play the left side closer to the channel where there appeared to be more breeze and an ebbing tide. This started out as a good plan, until the boats on the right got a huge lift and increased pressure. From this point we tried to consolidate with the rest of the fleet and cut our losses. As the smallest and slowest boat in the Spinnaker B fleet, we watched as the other boats pulled away from us. At this point we settled in to our positions with Cody on the bow, Eric at the mast, Tweek doing pit and grinding, Sheehan trimming and calling tactics, and myself driving, and began working the boat for more speed and point. Due to the distance of the race we would be switching around a lot to keep everyone fresh.

As forecasted, the wind built and began clocking from south to north, effectively lifting us as we turned the corner out of the bay. On a close reach, the larger cruising boats began ripping up to us due to their longer waterlines. The wind continued to build and as we rounded the mark to head to Clearwater, it was apparent that we would be beating 40 miles upwind in 15-20 knots to the finish. This was definitely not the course for a small ULDB: beating, close reaching, then beating again.

We changed down to the 95% #3 jib, which involved its own challenges. The luff blew out of the headfoil during the hoist, but I had found a spectra loop from racing on a new SC37 that had the same problem, and clipped it around the headfoil to the head of the jib with the halyard shackle. This held and kept going, with the steep waves occasionally breaking over the foredeck. As the sun set, the reality that we would be finishing at about 2:00 a.m. with no wind for the delivery home set in, and we made the call to drop out of the race and head for Eckerd. I called the Race Committee to let them know we would be DNFing and we got ready for a fun spinnaker ride back to the main channel.

Unfortunately, while getting ready to set the spinnaker, Cody fell on the tiller trying to clear a wrap in the spinnaker sheet and it cracked. Afraid that it might completely break if overloaded with the kite up, we decided to play it safe and jib reach up the Egmont Key Channel, then motored up to Eckerd.

It was disappointing to be DNF in our first race, but the course the opposite of what a Santa Cruz 27 is designed for and it would be impossible to do well on corrected time. We decided to save the fun of beating up wind for deliveries in the future. On the upside, we learned a lot about sailing a Santa Cruz 27 upwind, as well as what else on the boat needs work or attention.

The wild parts were too wet for a camera, but here are a few photos (not all by me) from the beat out of Tampa Bay.

Watching the tell-tales. I couldn't find the tiller extension so steering was a PITA. I later found out that my couch had eaten it.

Not bad for free sails!

Sheehan and I

Waiting for the spinnaker set that never happened

Sheehan at the helm

Crunch Time for the DIYC Classic

2009-10-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

In the week before the race we had a huge list of things to do to the boat including:
-Fill the rudder blisters and tip.
-Install the rudder and tiller.
-Change the sail numbers to 116.
-Re-splice the headsail halyards with a kevlar anti-chafe cover.
-Straighten the mast step.
-Step the rig and tune it (for the first time in three months and 3000 miles later).
-Run the halyards.
-Drill out and fill the holes in the deck with epoxy/filler.
-Wash and Teflon wax the hull.

And we got it all done, with some help from our friends, by Saturday morning for the start of the DIYC Classic. Sheehan especially put in a lot of time, filling the blisters and mangled rudder tip, then fairing them smooth. She also helped removed the old sticky-back sail numbers and applied the new ones. Here are a few photos!

Wetsanding in the dorm courtyard

Sail loft in the dorm. My neighbors don't even think it's weird anymore.

Getting Furthur race-ready for the DIYC Classic

2009-10-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Furthur's new home at DIYC

Stripping the old pipe berths out. They are nasty 70's cloth that is heavy and absorbs water like a sponge. We will make new ones out of mesh to dry quickly for the Pacific Cup.

Cody throwing the old pipe berth cloth off the boat

Gypsy yard sale

We will soon be stripping the lettering off Saltshaker, she will be re-christened as Furthur.

Removing the mast step so we can reinstall it straight. The tape is to keep water out of the holes and balsa core while we work on it.

Bunks are gone, so is the sun.

Over the weekend and today while Cody and I were at DIYC, Sheehan began filling the blisters in the rudder as well as fairing the tip. Here it is curing on my bed...

We still have plenty to do before the DIYC Classic this weekend, but it is very doable. More updates to follow as we keep working.

Working and sailing on a J/24

2009-10-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

Cody and I wet-sanded and waxed a J/24, owned by our ex-Eckerd Sailing coach Robbie Brown, last Wednesday in preparation for the 2009 J/24 Southeast Regional Championship Regatta in Jacksonville, Florida. We started with 400 grit sand paper, then 600, finished with 800, then waxed and buffed the hull. We spent most of the day working on the boat, and Cody went back the next day to finish the buffing; in return I drove to DIYC towing the Santa Cruz to her new home in the dry storage boat yard. It was a great opportunity to use some the skills we learned this summer to earn some money to put toward the boat.

Furthermore, Robbie needed a 140 pound person to fill in the "mast" position for Regionals and I fit the bill. I had wanted to sail with Robbie, an awesome J/24 sailor and North Sails rep, for a long time and finally got the chance to. The conditions were puffy and shifty winds starting at 11-15 knots and building to 18-23, with a ripping current, by the end of Saturday's racing. I hadn't seen J/24's surf like this since the 2008 Midwinters and the racing was fast by J/24 standards. We finished the first day in second place and in contention for first place if we sailed well the next day

Sunday brought even more and colder wind, with huge puffs and shifts. We had a hard time finding a groove in these conditions, but kept second place. Team Tarheel won the regatta with five firsts and qualified for the 2010 J/24 World Championships. Robbie was disappointed with the 2nd, but I learned a lot and had a good time. Results can be found here.

Major Contributions

2009-10-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted a link to this blog here on the Sailing Anarchy forums, along with some details about the campaign. I got some suggestions for the blog, words of encouragement, the usual SA flak, and an offer from a total stranger to let me borrow his safety equipment for the race.

Sailing Anarchy member "Wash" posted (#9) in the thread and offered to let us borrow his safety equipment for the race. In 2007 he prepped his boat for the TransPac, but ultimately did not start the race. He has offered to loan us a life raft, EPIRB, parachute flares, storm sails, and various things like life jackets, harnesses, headlamps, etc. This took a huge weight off our shoulders, as safety equipment can be the most expensive part of boat prep for a DH Pacific Cup entry, and Cody and I are extremely grateful for he generous offer. Wash has also raced in 6 TransPacs and has offered his advice if we have any questions.

"stinky", a Santa Cruz Sails sailmaker, offered to make us a spinnaker if we could get him the materials. Brian is helping me source some Airx 700 for the kite and Santa Cruz Sails are fast and durable; I have no doubt that "stinky" will make us a great sail. We really appreciate this, as "stinky" is also sailing in the 2010 Pac Cup as a double-handed entry on the Express 27 Tule Fog and depending on the class splits, we may be racing against them.

"dog house" offered to lend us a satellite phone with all the accesories, as well as buy me shoes if I'll wear them. A Sat phone will be our primary communication tool; the Race Committee is experimenting with the double-handers next year, allowing us to call in our position report on the satellite phone. The positions will be typed in by the RC, then emailed to the communication boat, who will read them off before proceeding with roll call on the Single Side Band radio for the rest of the fleet. This is a huge benefit for the smaller boats, an SSB is heavy and uses a huge amount of power. Sat phones are very efficient, easy to use, reliable, and lightweight.

Marc, an experienced local J/24 sailor and offshore sport fisherman, has also offered to let us borrow his life raft, EPIRB, and satellite phone for the race. I am amazed by the volume of these generous offers and may even have to turn some down. Thank you all for your contributions, they will all help us get to the starting line and race to Hawaii with speed and confidence.

There are also a great deal of people helping us with advice and knowledge. "Mr. Clean" of Sailing Anarchy gave me a lot of advice on creating a website and how to find sponsorship. "War Dog" sailed in the 2004 Pacific Cup on a DH Santa Cruz 27 and is making a list of notes about the race and boat prep. While there have been some negative comments in the thread, the positive response has been overwhelming and it is helping us make great strides in our effort to be the youngest crew to sail the Pacific Cup double-handed.

Where we're at now

2009-10-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

Eckerd College is starting to get a little upset about Furthur's residence in the freshman parking lot and threatened in an email to tow the boat in one week. I thought about just taking the wheels off the trailer, but that's probably not the best approach. Luckily, my membership application to the Davis Island Yacht Club is almost through and then I'll be able to keep Furthur on the trailer in dry storage with access to a hoist and active racing. There is a little bit more work to do before we can go sailing, but we're almost ready for the Florida winter season. Hopefully we will get everything done in time for the DIYC Classic, a 60-something mile distance race from Tampa Bay to Clearwater.

We are also looking for sponsors and contributors. The Pacific Cup does not allow sponsor logos on any part of the boat during the race, but battle flags, team gear and pre-race advertising are all free game. We could also take sponsors out on the boat, both to enjoy a nice sail and get a taste of our life during the race.

Also, if you have any safety equipment we could borrow for the Pacific Cup (to be returned after the race in the same condition), we would be eternally grateful. Not doing the race, but have a liferaft? Please let us borrow it! Or parachute flares or an EPIRB or Satellite Phone! Any kind of contribution will be recognized here and I am working to get more viewers. If you are interested in helping our campaign to be the youngest crew to sail the Pacific Cup doublehanded, please email me at clappijh@eckerd.edu.

Further Work on Furthur at Eckerd

2009-10-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Moving the Mast to Kappa (our dorm)

Work area: outdoors with power, not bad

Using a dremel to round and smooth the halyard exits. A rat tail file ended up being easier to use and faster.

The dremel was perfect for grinding out small blisters in the rudder to dry out, then fill and fair.

The Drive

2009-10-12T04:50:00.001-07:00

Furthur will have about 6000 road miles under her keel before the start of Pacific Cup. After Pacific Cup she may have that many with her keel in the water since Cody and I will be sailing her back to California for the race. We joke about difficult situations as "training" for Pacific Cup, and this drive would prove to be quite a challenge.

Driving to San Diego in the midday sun over I-5 had the Jeep close to overheating, even with the windows down and no A/C. Going over the Grapevine, the Jeep's coolant temperature began to creep toward the red, so I cranked on the heat to help cool the engine. This helped, but not enough and I had to pull off the road to let the engine cool off. The Jeep had plenty of power, but the cooling system couldn't keep up.

With the sun setting and the Jeep cooler, I made it up the Grapevine and began my descent into Southern California. The trailer brakes made a huge difference and the 4000lbs trailer didn't push the 3500lbs Jeep around at all. Between the trailer brakes and manual transmission I was easily able to slow safely, even downhill. Unfortunately, Southern California drivers can't merge at freeway speeds, even though they're driving a BMW, which forces the Jeep with the big boat to take evasive maneuvers to avoid them. At night this was even harder and I almost took out a black Mini Cooper that decided to cut me off and then do a brake check. I got to San Diego without any major mechanical issues and it was great to see Sheehan after 5 weeks of being apart.

We spent a few nice days in San Diego; Sheehan showed me the sights, including the BMW Oracle trimaran "Dogzilla." But we had to leave with enough time to make it across the country with break downs and have Sheehan in Naples by August 24th for her wisdom teeth.

Our plans of leaving early on August 17 failed, though this was for the better as our first leg would be across the high deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. Even still, I had to drive with the heat on full blast in the 100 degree desert sun to keep the Jeep from overheating. All I can say is this sucked. I was also amazed that there were Border Patrol check points on the freeway. All traffic had to bottle neck through a checkpoint, with each vehicle stopping to answer the Border Patrol officer's questions. My boat in the desert really interested them, but the officers were always polite, even friendly, and I was never searched. We made it to Yuma by sunset for dinner at In-N-Out Burger and an air conditioning overdose at Best Buy.

To keep the Jeep from overheating constantly and me being miserably hot, we decided to keep driving through the night. This worked much better, the Jeep and I were both much cooler, though I still couldn't use the A/C. We made it to Las Cruces, NM, by sunrise, got a motel room and crashed for the day. That night we set off again, taking an alternate over some mountains to avoid the constant Border Patrol check points. As we drove up the mountains, a thunder storm rolled over them, illuminating part of the mountains with flashes of lightning. We cruised down the back of the mountain range, the peaks silhouetted by the passing lightning storm. Sunrise found us in Texas, and while getting gas I found a leak from the rear differential pinion seal. I got more gear oil at the gas station and added some; though not much was gone. Hoping it would remain a slow leak, I decided to check the gear oil level at every gas stop (of which there were many). With the sun coming up, we stopped in Ozona Texas to get a motel room. A friendly local woman gave us directions to a nice and cheap motel when she saw me checking the rear differential oil.

As the sun set, Sheehan and I got on the road. The long straight Texas freeway never seemed to end until we hit morning traffic at dawn in Houston. Not in the mood to fight traffic after driving all night, Sheehan and I tried to sleep in the boat until it got too hot. This had been our original plan to save on motel bills, but the boat became an oven during the day. After our nap we pressed on into Louisiana. The desert morphed into wetlands and we were soon driving in white-out conditions from a rain squall. The rain was a great change from the desert sun, so I cracked another Red Bull as we drove over the rivers and marshes of Louisiana.

Other than the overheating issues in the desert, the Jeep was running great and the trailer was holding together. Near the Mississippi-Alabama border, the trailer tongue jack vibrated its pin out and made a bid for freedom on the highway. It also landed so the left trailer tire would run it over. Sheehan immediately called me and we pulled off the highway. I ran back about half a mile to find the jack in the bushes next to the highway. Amazingly it was still intact and luckily no one else hit it. To be on the safe side I threw the jack in the back of the Jeep. An hour later the left trailer tire blew out in three places at 55 mph. The trailer swerved some and eased the Jeep onto the shoulder. A quick tire change and we were back on the road, but soon decided we'd had enough carnage and got a motel room for the night.

Being able to sleep at night and drive during the day was a welcome change. Since my spare tire was a Load Range D and primary tires Load Range E, I thought it be best that I get a new tire with the correct load range. I bought a lifetime tire warranty with the tires from Discount/America's Tire, too bad there aren't any in Alabama. I found a small shop that could get me a tire in afew hours for $50; with that ordered Sheehan and I got breakfast at IHOP and waited. When the tire arrived, they mounted it and let me back the trailer into the bay so they could install it; of course it was pouring rain outside. We chose to get back on the road despite the rain, with Eckerd and Naples our final goal. This was our last leg, everything just had to hold together.

About 150 miles out of Tampa I felt the Jeep vibrate badly for a second before the rear u-joint came apart and the rear drive shaft banging between the road and floorboards. I put in the clutch and the drive shaft luckily caught itself on the e-brake cable. Coasting to the shoulder, I found myself asking the Jeep why it had to break so close to home. To keep going I would remove the rear drive shaft from the transfer case and then drive in 4 wheel drive with only the front axle getting power. To keep from overloading and destroying the Jeep's transfer case, Sheehan would tow the boat the rest of the way with her Nissan Xterra. The Jeep was now a real handful in front wheel drive because of the locker, whenever it engaged or disengaged the Jeep would try to change lanes. The Xterra was also having a hard time, its rear suspension nearly bottomed out. But we finally made it to Eckerd, I stashed the boat and Jeep in the gravel north parking lot, put some of my stuff in Sheehan's car and we headed to her mom's house in Naples to get some sleep.

Getting ready to go cross-country

2009-10-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

After a great delivery from Hawaii to SF Bay on Criminal Mischief, I had about a week and a half to get the trailer and Jeep ready to drive from California to Eckerd College in Florida.

The trailer was made in 1979 and had some rust poking through the teal paint, but it was structurally sound. The surge brake system was shot with rust, a fender came off on the way to Nationals, and the bunks had been recarpeted by the previous owner before selling me the boat, but the wood was cracking and the bolts almost rusted through. Luckily, the bearings were good and never got how on any of the tows. I would need to get new wood for the bunks, new carpet, rebuild the entire brake system, solder the trailer wiring and get the tires replaced. And this was just the trailer!

My Jeep is also not the best tow vehicle. In high school I was really into off-roading and built my Cherokee into a great wheeling machine. Unfortunately, 32" mud tires,soft springs and locking differentials all make towing harder.

Furthermore, the Jeep likes to overheat and the rear driveshaft angle is slightly out of alignment, causing a vibration at freeway speeds. On the upside, I regeared the differentials with 4.10 gears to offset the larger tires. A lower gear ratio and manual transmission allow the Jeep to get as much torque to the wheels as possible. And I can fix almost anything that could go wrong with the Jeep.

The day after I got home I ordered a new brake master cylinder, brake shoes, wheel cylinders and tail lights for the trailer. They would arrive in a week, leaving me just enough time to rebuild the brakes and head down to meet Sheehan in San Diego before convoying to Florida. In the mean time I would have to search for a hoist I could use to launch Furthur so I could replace the trailer bunks. I decided to replace the 12'x2"x6" planks with pressure treated 14x2"x8" planks to give more support for the hull. Several local carpet stores gave me old rolls of carpet and I found one strip that was the right length.

Richmond Yacht Club was nice enough to let me use their hoist, so my Dad and I drove to Richmond to work on the boat. I let my Dad drive there so he could get a feel for the Jeep and give me his thoughts on its towing ability. Arriving at Richmond, my Dad was surprised how well the Jeep did. He taught me almost everything I know about driving, building things and working on cars, so an all clear from him was a good sign. We quickly launched Furthur and began ripping the old bunks out. The bolts holding them to the supports were undersized, rusty and almost worn through. The wood wasn't much better. Taking careful measurements, we cut and drilled the new bunks. We then bent them to the shape of the hull using a hand winch and bolted them on with galvanized hardware.

Next, we put on the new (to me) carpet, securing it with a roofing nail every foot. With the sun almost setting and Richmond about to get ridiculously cold, we hoisted out the boat, rinsed her with freshwater and put her back on the trailer for the drive home. The new bunks looked great, add more support for the hull and are definitely stronger.

My next objective was to get the Jeep in the best possible condition. I ran a heavy duty radiator cleaner through the cooling system and cleaned all the mud out of the radiator. This would hopefully help with the overheating issue as both the electrical and mechanical fans were working fine. I also changed the oil, spark plugs and did a few other service things to the Jeep.

Continuing with the trailer, I called several tire stores and got a great price on new tires. Then I checked my email and found out that the brake master cylinder I ordered was out of stock and wouldn't arrive until the day I wanted to leave. I frantically called local boat shops until I found one with the part in Stockton, so I canceled my order for that part. I installed the brake master cylinder I got in Stockton and began stripping off the old brake hardware. Two days later I got the new parts in the mail, including a brake master cylinder! The rest brake rebuild went fairly smoothly (except for adjusting the star wheels) and I learned how to double-flare hard brake line (its kind of a pain in the ass if you want to know). Bleeding the brakes was pretty hard since the fluid reservoir is tiny and kept sucking in air bubbles, but my Dad and I eventually got it. I reattached the broken fender and bolted on the wheels with new tires. Meanwhile, my Dad helped my last minute scramble by soldering the trailed light wiring. The next morning I finished packing up the Jeep and boat and headed for San Diego to meet up with Sheehan.

Santa Cruz 27 Nationals

2009-09-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

While working on the boat, I found out that the Santa Cruz 27 Nationals were being held July 10-12 in Monterey. With serious progress being made on the boat, I began trying to figure out how to race in the Nationals. However, I had a delivery on Criminal Mischief from SF Bay to Long Beach for the start of TransPac just before Nationals, so it was going to be a major push to make it.

Speed Merchant Services hooked us up with new standing (3/16" wire) and running rigging (1/4" Warpspeed) at wholesale prices and expedited the shipping to get it to us on time. The rigging arrived on Thursday, with the first race of Nationals the next day. The Jeep was loaded up, the boat and mast strapped down, and with a quick check of the new rigging we headed down to Monterey.

We got down to Monterey in the early evening and began setting everything up to re-step the mast for the first time. Several other SC27 owners came by to introduce themselves and wish us luck, but they didn't seem very confident in our efforts to be ready to race the next day. Barry Whittall, the owner of Variety Show, was kind enough to loan us an old 3/4oz spinnaker, which was lacking in our downwind sail inventory. The rest of our crew began to trickle in from around the state and help with the rigging. The crew was comprised of high school and college sailing friends and it was the first time I had seen some of them in a long time. Our line-up was Cody Spruce on foredeck, David Kurtmen as mast/grinder, Michael "Tweek" Whelden in the pit, Cole Davis as a trimmer, Sheehan Commette (my girlfriend and Snipe sailor extraordinaire) as tactician and trimmer, and myself as the skipper. Working together, Saltshaker hit the water around 4 a.m. and we had the rig up shortly after. I had been stripping and splicing the halyards while the standing rigging was set up, but decided to wait until the morning to run them. With the boat in the water and mast up, the crew dispersed to sleep for a few hours.

Around 7 a.m. I woke up and within 10 minutes was finishing the splices on the new halyards while some of the SC27 class watched and expressed their surprise that the boat was in the water and rafted up with the rest of the fleet. Finished splicing, I put on my climbing harness and free climbed the rig to start dropping the halyards in; the feeder lines I ran while pulling the old halyards just went from the masthead to the exits. When I was done with that, Sheehan tuned the rig while everyone else began showing up and finishing random little things around the boat. We were the last SC27 to leave the harbor for the noon start.

Breezy conditions allowed us to use the #3 jib for the start of the first race and we were doing well, but as the wind got lighter everyone switched to #1 genoas. We did the same, except our #1, made in 1988, was so blown out that even strapped at the chainplates, it was a foot off the spreader tip with the jib cars all the way forward. This kept us from pointing well upwind and we lost a few positions on the last beat to finish 7th out of 12 boats. The breeze came on again for the second race, a "distance race" of several miles, and we were doing well before the wind lightened to #1 conditions. Sailing 15 degrees lower than everyone else, the boats behind us caught up and then the jib pulled out of the head foil. Now we really couldn't point and while going for a close duck of a starboard boat, they tacked and we collided, putting a hole in the port side of their boat near the transom and above the waterline. There were no injuries, but since we were the port-tack boat and in the wrong, I radioed the Race Committee to withdraw from the race and we motored in.

Luckily, the Santa Cruz 27 class is very close-knit and friendly and the owner of the boat I hit was very nice and understanding. I offered to help repair the damage so they could keep racing, but his crew was already on the job. It also turned out that the co-owner and skipper of the boat was Bob DeWitt, the SC27 Class President; what a great way to introduce myself...

Back on Saltshaker, the crew was trying to figure out our head foil issue. I'm pretty sure it was the original head foil from 1979 and the plastic was cracked and brittle from three decades in the sun. A crack was running vertically up the inside of jib luff groove, allowing it to spread open under load. Also, bottom of the head foil were pretty FUBAR, making it hard to reset the jib for hoists. Our solution was to cut the bottom 6" off to get past the worst parts and try to file it the end to fit in the metal feeder. Also, there wasn't enough throw in the backstay or rig tension, so I shortened the spectra cascades and Sheehan borrowed a Loos gauge to tighten and further tune the rig. Luckily for us, there was no damage to Saltshaker in the collision.

The second day of racing brought lighter winds for #1 conditions, but we chose to use the #3, an almost unused 1988 Kevlar/Mylar jib, and retain our point at the expense of speed. We nailed the first start and were holding our lane when the jib came out of the head foil. This, and the #1 conditions, plagued us for the rest of the day, taking a 10th, 12th and 12th. However, we figured out the jib was coming down top to bottom because the head was actually poking out of the top of the head foil. This spread the head foil at the top and the jib zipper down. None of our jury rigs on the water were able to keep the head foil up, but back at the dock we sourced two small hose clamps. These, wrapped in Gorilla Tape, seemed adequate in keeping the head foil up.

The last day of racing brought 15-20 knots of breeze and 2-3 foot seas: perfect conditions for the #3 and surfing downwind. Working our way through the fleet, my crew hiked hard, ignoring the pain of sitting on the thin metal toerail. Sheehan fed me excellent tactics and I worked the traveler aggressively as other boats rounded up in puffs. We rounded the windward mark in 3rd and worked the boat downwind for all her worth. Being an Ultra Light, the Santa Cruz 27 loves sailing downwind in breeze, especially if there is some swell to surf. Sailing the boat like a dinghy, we gave one good pump of the sails down every wave to maximize our surfing speed, passing the 2nd place boat and closing in on the leader, Hanalei. We rounded in 2nd, but the last upwind to the finish was closer to shore with lighter and shiftier breeze. Both Hanalei and the third place boat changed to #1's for this beat, and we slid back to finish 3rd due to lack of boat speed.

As the wind got lighter throughout the day, all we could do was try to sail our best with the #3 and make gains during tacks, tactics, mark roundings, and downwind boat speed. We finished the last race in 9th, taking last place in the regatta by 1 point. However, we did get the "Turtle Trophy" for the last place boat! And more importantly, nothing on the boat broke during the last day, including the head foil.

We also made plenty of new friends and connections in the Santa Cruz 27 class, which is very close-knit. Rob Schuyler, 6 time SC27 National Champion and winner of the 2009 Nationals, came to me at end of the day on Sunday and said "If I see you back here with new sails next year, I'll be worried." Furthermore, the owner of Sumo gave us about 7 sails which he said, "Aren't new, but are a hell of a lot better than what you have." These sails included 2 #1's (one of which is Carbon), 1 #2 (all made by Santa Cruz Sails, a small loft in Santa Cruz with a great reputation), as well as 2 mains, another Kevlar #3 and storm jib, all by Larsen Sails (who no longer exist). Here is a link to the full results of the 2009 Santa Cruz 27 Nationals

With nowhere to go really, I decided to haul the boat the next day so other people on a schedule could get theirs out of the water. Sheehan had to drive back to San Diego and Dave to Santa Barbara. The rest of us just hung around the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club and fiddled with the boat. Cole, Tweek, and I sailed in Monterey bay during high school, and it was nice to be back where I first learned to race sailboats.

The next day we de-stepped the mast, hauled out the boat and got everything ready to hit the road. On the way north we stopped at Ballenger spars to get the forestay shortened and again in Santa Cruz to pick up the free sails. I also took this as an opportunity to tow the boat over Highway 17, which is a steep and twisty grade, to practice for the long drive to Florida. Given our bad luck at Nationals, Cody and I decided to rename the boat Furthur. Many thanks to the owner of Sumo for the new (to us) sails, Bob DeWitt for being so nice and understanding, Boat US for doing a great job as an insurance company in fixing Duet, and Chuck Coyer of SMS for rushing to get me new rigging on a job where they made no profit.

With the Santa Cruz safely wedged next to the house and unloaded, Cody and I relaxed for a few days before flying to Hawaii to deliver two TransPac boats back to California. I would be on the R/P 45 Criminal Mischief and Cody on the TP52 Valkyrie.

Working on the Boat

2009-09-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

After a four hour drive using my Jeep Cherokee as a tow rig we made it to Discovery Bay and squeezed the boat next to my parent's house.

Cody wet sanding the bottom next to the house

Our first job was to get the mast off and all the crap out of the boat to sort through it. Among it was a lot of good stuff like hardware and a MOB pole and a lot was just the random clutter that boats collect.

We started making a list of new parts the boat would need and what work would need to be done. I had been talking to the J/24 owner and rigger Brian Malone who I sail with in Florida about my project for a long time and he agreed to help me out. He is also the owner of Speed Merchant Services, a mobile rigging shop and racing yacht service provider, and giving us wholesale pricing on anything we need. I was able to get the boat new standing rigging, halyards, sheets and some new hardware at a great price.

Sanding the bottom was obviously the most daunting task and with day time temperatures of 100 degrees in Discovery Bay we would be working at night. First, Cody and I had to remove all the "crunchies" (little tube worm things) with a putty knife before starting to wet sand the ancient growth off the epoxy with 150 grit paper. We weren't using long boards, just large hand sanders, as the bottom was already pretty fair and they were the best we could find locally. Every night for three weeks we would sand the bottom for several hours.

After weeks of sanding we finally get a smooth bottom

Finding a Santa Cruz 27

2009-09-14T00:46:00.000-07:00

The Santa Cruz 27 is a fairly rare boat with about 145 built (who was keeping track?) between 1973 and 1979. Due to their low build number and small one design fleet, few people outside of the West Coast have heard of one. That being said, I found several for sale around the country between summer 2008 and now. However, none of these boats matched my criteria as they were usually too nice and therefore too expensive. I was looking for a boat that needed some work, didn't have any major issues and that I could afford.

Unfortunately, during the spring of 2008 my grandmother "Meme" died after fighting cancer for several years. She had always been adventurous and fully supported me in all of my endeavors growing up. She was particularly proud of my sailing. When I found out she left me a small inheritance, I knew what I was going to do with it.

After finishing my sophomore year at Eckerd, I returned to home to California to search for a Santa Cruz 27 in its natural environment. While visiting friends in Monterey, I saw an SC27 sitting in a slip less than 100 yards from where I sailed in high school. After calling around to try and find the owner, my high school sailing coach Mr. McAleer put me in contact with him. With extreme apprehension, I called this total stranger. His wife answered the phone and while introducing myself I mentioned that I was interested in buying their boat. She quickly told me she was on the other line but he would call me back shortly. Fifteen minutes later he called back and after talking for a little bit we agreed to meet in Monterey and he would show me the boat with his co-owner.

The boat looked like it had sat for a long time and their was a marine sanctuary growing on the bottom. The rigging was old and needed replacing, as did most of the lines, blocks and some hardware. Below decks she had a clean, dry bilge, no major signs of water intrusions (all boats leak, it just depends how much), the wood needed varnish but there was no rot and all the tabbing was solid. I thanked the owners and told him I would give it some thought.

A few days later I called the owner and gave him a low offer. I was not surprised he refused and we agreed on a price pending a clean survey. It turns out the boat came with a 1979 trailer and 2001 Honda 2hp 4-stroke outboard that had barely been used. The owners were nice enough to get the bottom cleaned, put the boat on the trailer and take the mast down for the survey. I chose Joesph Rodgers of Rodgers & Associates to survey the boat as he once built them in Bill Lee's Chicken Coop across the bay in Santa Cruz. Out of the water I was amazed how good the bottom looked, a lot of the bottom paint was gone, revealing a relatively fair, spray-on epoxy barrier coat that would only need to be wet sanded for hours. A testament to the glass work on the Santa Cruz 27 and protection from the barrier coat, there were no blisters on the hull and only a few small ones on the rudder. The core proved to be dry and the boat solid. The only issues were the ones I already knew about and we prepared to fix. Following the survey, I gave the owners a check and when it cleared a few days later the boat was mine. Cody and I drove down and after working on the trailer lights for several hours we were on our way north.

Saltshaker is hull 116 and was made in February of 1979. After being raced extensively during the 1980's in Southern California, Saltshaker moved to Monterey, California where she was raced for another decade. Robin Jeffers actually raced on Saltshaker a little bit and said the boat was one of the fastest when the one design fleet was big.

Backstory

2009-09-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

In high school, my sailing coach Mr. Jack McAleer, would tell us stories of his experiences sailing in offshore distance races and deliveries while we drove to regattas. At this point in my life and sailing career I had never even heard of a TransPac, Pacific Cup, Sydney to Hobart or Fastnet, yet he had sailed in all of them. All I knew was I loved surfing the team’s CFJ’s on the ocean swells when Monterey got breezy and these races to Hawaii sounded like doing just that, but for weeks. As I expressed my interest, Mr. McAleer told me that the best way to gain the offshore experience necessary for racing was to deliver boats before or after offshore races. During the summer of 2005, my friend Dave Kurtmen was delivery crew on the TransPac 52 Rosebud from Hawaii to California and I instantly knew what I wanted to do the next summer.

My first offshore delivery was in 2006 aboard the ILC40, Mureadritta’s XL, which had just raced in the Pacific Cup and was going from Oahu, Hawaii, back to San Francisco, California. Among the crew was the boat’s owner, Nick Barran, his friend David Smith, Nathalie Criou and myself. However, 425 nautical miles north of Hawaii, a Sperm whale rammed and sank the boat. We attempted to stem the flow before taking turns manning the bilge pumps and sending out mayday attempts over the radio. Nick activated the EPIRB and even resorted to calling friends on Oahu with the satellite phone when there was no response to our Mayday calls on the Single Sideband Radio. With every effort of saving the boat exhausted, Nick gave the order to abandon ship and we stepped up into the liferaft with XL’s cabin top awash and just the stern above water.

Several hours later we heard the drone of engines and saw a Coast Guard C-130 flying low and right at us. Unfortunately we couldn’t reach them on the handheld VHF in the emergency grab bag and watched as it waggling its wings, then circled XL’s listing mast. (Note: The designer of Mureadritta’s XL later confirmed that due to the boat’s construction of carbon fiber over a foam core it would remain slightly buoyant before sinking.) The C-130 then flew back over us, dropping a smoke flare to judge the wind before coming on a final pass to drop an orange barrel on a parachute. The barrel landed 50 yards from the life raft and I swam to retrieve it. Wrapped in foam inside it was another handheld VHF, on and tuned to the channel 16, the Coast Guard emergency channel.

The Coast Guard informed us that we were well out of helicopter range, but a container ship and two fishing boat had been vectored to our position. The container ship would reach us first and take us aboard, then transfer us to one of the fishing boats heading back to Hawaii. At dusk the Maersk Darwin appeared over the horizon and launched a lifeboat to retrieve us. We climbed aboard and were taken back to the ship where we had to climb the forty-foot tall rope and wood Pilot ladder to deck level. After being taken to the bridge to meet the captain we were served dinner in the Officer’s Mess. By then we had converged with the Long-line fishing boat Kami M and prepared to make the transfer. The seas had risen and we were unable to directly board the Kami M, so we were lowered down in the lifeboat, which motored us to the side of fishing boat. By carefully timing with the waves we were able to jump to the rail and the crew dragged us aboard. Four days later we were back in Hawaii.

While in Hawaii, I found another boat that had raced in the Pacific Cup and was leaving soon for California. I wanted to finish the delivery, even if it was on another boat, but my parents quickly shut that idea down and I flew home a few days later. Even though everyone wanted to hear the story of the whale (and this particular version is drastically shorter), I still felt like I had started something and not finished it.

In 2007 I was supposed to be delivery crew on the Turbo’d Santa Cruz 52 Kokopelli 2 following the TransPac, but Eckerd College’s freshman orientation and autumn term coincided. I sent a two-page letter to the school explaining my situation and asking to be excused for the first four days, but Eckerd refused. If I wanted to go to Eckerd I would have to be there for all of autumn term. I read Sailing Anarchy as the Morning Light crew became international superstars of the sailing world and the crew of On the Edge of Destiny set the record as the youngest crew to do the TransPac with an average age of 19.8 years old. At this point I knew that I wanted to be part of the youngest crew to sail an ocean race.

By 2008 I had greatly expanded my sailing knowledge and abilities, but I was still lacking a true blue-water passage. After putting my name on the Pacific Cup website crew list I was approached by a skipper from Hawaii looking for crew for the race. This was my dream-come-true! The boat, called Buzz Off was a Henderson 30, a high performance sport boat and far from an offshore design. However, the idea of screaming downwind for 2070nm enticed me and I signed on as crew. Not only was I going to be racing to Hawaii, but I was also delivery crew on the R/P 45 Criminal Mischief back to California. After finishing my freshman year of college and flying home I spent 6 weeks working on the Buzz Off before the Pacific Cup. Due to some commitment issues, one of the crew was dropped, leaving a spot open. I called my friend Cody Spruce, another freshman sailor I met at Eckerd, and he quit his job to do this race.

While the boat was well prepared and passed all the Pacific Cup safety inspections, it had some weak points and we quickly found them. 12 hours after our start, the main shredded as we were beam reaching in 25-35 knots of wind with a single reef. The main had been made in Ventura, California and was designed for the light winds of Southern California. This, combined with the reefing lines getting tangled so we were unable to reef the main further, caused the sail’s untimely demise. We would sail the remainder of the race with a storm trysail instead of a main. And this was just the beginning of many things that would go wrong.

During the race we had numerous spinnaker halyard failures requiring me to go up the mast at least eight times. The boat was so wet that the battery charger failed from moisture condensing below decks and we were pumping the bilge between every watch shift. Then the “Vara System” rudder bearings began to fail, causing the helm to lock up while surfing, forcing the driver to wrench it free to the sound of crunching Delrin bearings. Furthermore, of the four crew, only Cody and I were able to steer the boat with the spinnaker up without broaching. In the middle of the Pacific Cup, Cody and I began talking about doing the race double-handed. We were already doing all the steering, following a 3-hour on, 3-hour off watch schedule. However, we would need a more controllable boat that could be sailed well double-handed, something the Henderson 30 was not.

After making it safely to the finish in Kaneohe Bay, we began planning how we would be able to race the 2010 Pacific Cup double-handed. While talking to a group of sailors from Velos, an Ullman Sailmaker named Chuck Skewes introduced himself and offered his support in our efforts. And we are currently working with him to get the best price on sails possible. Cody also found a spot as delivery crew on Velos going back to San Diego.

While on the delivery back to California we saw some whales, but none of them bothered us. It was an amazing sail, Criminal Mischief is such a powerful sailboat, and I saw some amazing things like Mahi Mahi jumping after a school of squid, a rainbow halo around the sun, shooting stars against an arm of the Milky Way, dolphins galore, and the Green Flash. Robin Jeffers, the Delivery Captain and Bowman of Criminal Mischief, used to own a Santa Cruz 27 and suggested it as the perfect boat to sail the Pacific Cup double-handed. I knew about the SC27 and other ULDBs from around Santa Cruz and had been watching them come and go for sale. However, at that time neither Cody nor I had the money to buy a boat, so we kept trying to figure out how we were going to do this race.