Don’t Miss the P.T.S.A. ANNUAL MEETING AND AWARDS CEREMONY
Write November 3rd on your calendar---that's next Thursday. Its the annual P.T.S.A. celebration and awards ceremony. Location: NW Maritime Center, Marina room (that the large conference room) Time: Socialization and beverages at 6pm, dinner approx. 6:30pm, and meeting at approx. 7pm. Pictures of the year's racing will be on the projector. Dinner: Dean's famous chili and fixings, salad, cornbread. Beer and wine available, as well as non-alcoholic beverages. $10.00, payable at the door. (Dinner is optional) Meeting: Elect 2012 Board members, discussion of the 2012 calendar and ideas Awards: Awards will be given for the year's series races. Bring your [...]
Alexandra Cup 2011, Tight Racing in Bigger Breeze
ACE leads LADY VAN in the breezier conditions of this year's Alexandra Cup for R Boats. For two years we have watched LADY VAN dominate in the lighter winds on Port Townsend Bay. Now it appears ACE is coming into her own in the higher breezes facing the boats this year at the Alexandra Cup for R Boats in Vancouver at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. To quote ContenderCAN2399 on Sailing Anarchy, "Great to see how the design choices made in the 20's (what combo of length, sail area and displacement to chose) are playing out in the [...]
Night Cap Race 6
11 Boats came out for the final race of the Night Cap Series. Conditions were “variable” to put it lightly. Two boats, Silent Way & Pacemaker, crossed the S-F line between the first and second marks. The Sailing Instructions specify that the S-F line is only to be crossed when starting and finishing. This is a safety consideration so that even in a longer race, or multi-lap race, boats aren’t crossing the line in opposite directions. Silent Way, otherwise, had a very good race, and Pacemaker did not finish. The RC laptop’s hard drive has departed to the cyber-junk pile. [...]
Three Simple Go-Fast Rules
From Sailing World for the last scheduled PTSA race of 2011. by Steve Hunt It’s easy to overcomplicate sailing, because it can be a pretty complex sport if you want it to be. That’s why, come race day, I stick to a few simple rules that keep me focused on the things that really matter. I have three rules that have never failed me, and I continually drill them into the young minds of the Point Loma High School sailing team. And if the rules can work for a bunch of fast-sailing teenagers, then they ought to work for you, [...]
Night Cap 5
Nine boats participated in the 5th race of the Night Cap Series. The course was problematic from the dock, with the wind from the NNE while it was reported that there was no wind at the buoy (NNE of the dock). The only, somewhat consistent, wind seemed to be along the PT shore, so a downwind start to the trestle and back (hopefully twice) was chosen. With the wind slackening before the first boat crossed on the first lap, it was clear that fewer than half of the fleet could finish within an hour so, the shorten course flag was posted and [...]
Kids these days!
Kite Park from EASY RIDE on Vimeo.
Pics from the Sloop John B
Sym Sebastian sent in some pictures from the September 17th PLYC race on Frank Lawson's J/105, JOHN B, with Chris, Kathy and Sym crewing. Sym mentioned that it was blowing a steady 20 with gusts to 28. Got some pictures? Send them in. [slideshow id=36]
Whale Fins and Rudder Designs
Bob Perry has a new blog and one of his first posts was on ICON's new rudder designed by Paul Bieker. This is ICON's revised rudder. As you probably can guess the bumps on the leading edge are what was added to my original rudder shape. These bumps are called "Tubercles" and can be found in nature on the leading edge of the fins Humpback whales. They can be seen as vortex generators. So, why were they added and did they work? ICON's original owner and skipper were Happy with the boat's performance and I never heard any [...]
Night Cap Race 4
8 boats participated in the 4th race of the series. Fortunately, the wind was a good bit better than predicted, though sometimes a problem in the area of the tower. Second Wind finished 17 minutes after the last rated boat. I have no rating for Second Wind. […]
Another Reason to be Bilingual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OCXCC0lkn4&feature=player_embedded
The Concordia Capsize Report Issued
Canada's Transportation Safety Board has finally released its report on the loss of the school ship Concordia, the 188-foot square-rigger that capsized and sank off the coast of Brazil back in February of last year. Charles Donne reports that he was more than a little surprised by its conclusions: a) there was no microburst, as was reported by the captain and crew of the vessel; b) the ship's officers failed to follow guidance on securing the vessel and reducing sail area prior to the capsize. You can read the whole report here. If you have the time, it's [...]
Night Cap Series 2011 / Race 3 / First race completed
The Night Cap Series has gotten off to a rough start. In Race 1 the winds diminished enough that no boats finished. Race 2 was abandoned due to a Gale Warning and winds gusting to near 40. 10 boats came out for Race 3 and all “finished” though Kolus’s finish could not be counted as they finished in the wrong direction and did not re-cross the line in the right direction. No Name and Second Wind did the same, but then crossed in the right direction. The RC made a mistake in signing the tower for a port rounding which [...]