New Boat 4 Sled

[Critter]

Alan, as I understand it, the lateral area of any fin keel is pretty much insignificant for resisting lateral slippage unless you're making little or no forward way. They all work by generating lift as the boat moves through the water. And a high-aspect keel as in your picture will produce more lift per unit of lateral area because more of the area is far from the tip, where you get pressure bleed-off as water moves from the high pressure side to low pressure. Of course, having a bulb on the tip further reduces this migration.

 

[sleddog]

Sad news that Santa Cruz surfing legend and pioneer of the wetsuit, Jack O'Neill, has died at age 94.

After tiring of selling parking meters*, O'Neill opened his first surf shop, a corrugated tin building with a totem pole in front, at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1952. Inside, when he wasn't out surfing, O'Neill made foam and fiberglass surfboards.

Early on, Jack began experimenting with neoprene rubber as possible thermal protection for surfing in local frigid waters. Before O'Neill's early "Short John wetsuit,” people sometimes wore oiled wool or cashmere to stay warm. This clothing was not only heavy and inadequate, but also tended to leave a small oilslick while waiting to catch a wave. Jack's neoprene "Short John" was a better deal, and sold for $25 a pop. For $10 bucks more you could get a full length "Long John" and a small bucket of talcum powder needed to slip into the new fangled gear, something initially disparaged up and down the Coast. Jack just smiled and repeated his mantra: "it's always warm on the inside."

In 1959, O'Neill closed his Ocean Beach surf shop, loaded two truck loads of gear and kids, and set out down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz to open his second surf shop at the foot of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, adjacent to Steamer Lane.



O'Neill set up a 2 used fire hoses from his brother's firetruck at the the local cliff to access the surf below. Sliding down the fire hose was easy. Climbing back up with a surfboard under arm was a different matter. Does anyone remember this, before the steps were carved in the Steamer Lane cliff face?

Jack O'Neill enjoyed life to the fullest and his pirate's eyepatch image, the result of a surfing accident, only added to his persona. Jack was a gentle person and an early promoter not only of surfing, but windsurfing, catamarans, skateboards, schooners, sand sailors, and hot air balloons.

One afternoon during one of the ubiquitous surf parties upstairs at the O'Neill Building at Santa Cruz Harbor, Jack decided to go for a balloon flight. By now, to his chagrin, Jack's once red hot air balloon with black lettering was faded to pink. No matter, Jack inflated the balloon with the propane burners on the beach by the breakwater, climbed aboard, and lifted off into the low cloud layer. No one saw Jack after that, not until Jack's sharp eyed wife Marge saw his balloon descend from the clouds and disappear into the kelp off Lighthouse Point, a mile west.

"RG," who worked for Jack for nigh on 50 years, was detailed by Marge to effect Jack's rescue....neither of the O'Neill Sailing Center's two outboards would start, so RG rigged a Hobie 16, sailed out the Entrance, and out to Steamer Lane. There, in the fog, RG found Jack O'Neill sitting in the middle of his now deflated hot air balloon in the middle of the kelp. Jack was muttering "Pure. Pure." More on this in a moment.

With difficulty, RG loaded the soaking wet nylon balloon, the propane burners, the basket, and Jack on the 16 foot catamaran. Again, Jack beseeched the heavens with "Pure, Pure!"

Then what happened next is pure Jack O'Neill: He and RG decided to take the heavily loaded Hobie 16 into the lineup and surf waves! WTF? The tramp on the 16 was so low it was dragging in the water. No matter. To Jack, "pure" meant the intersection of one wind or wave propelled activity with another. Riding a hot air balloon, then being rescued by a small catamaran, and riding the surf under sail, all in the same afternoon, was about as "pure" as it could get for Jack, who rejoined the upstairs party in his wetsuit with a big grin on his face.



Although wetsuits opened up surfing to the masses, Jack's finest legacy is the non-profit O'Neill Sea Odyssey Marine Science Program that has taken nearly 100,000 grade school children onto the ocean off Santa Cruz, teaching them environmental stewardship and marine science aboard his 65 foot catamaran.

Godspeed, Jack.



* When Howard Spruit was a little kid living in Los Gatos, the city decided to put in parking meters. The company that sold them had this deal that they would install them for free, on a one year trial basis. The company believed that the city would like the revenue and decide to keep and pay for the meters at the end of the first year.

Well, the citizens of Los Gatos hated the meters so much that they decided to tear them out and not pay for them.
The salesman got burned for the commission and the company had to remove them and repair the holes in the sidewalk. That salesman was Jack O’Neil and because he knew knew Howard was from Los Gatos he never let him forget it.

 

[sleddog]

It had never been done before. And never will be repeated. But the time Jack O'Neill flew his hot air balloon under the Golden Gate Bridge bears telling.

This is a first hand recollection from good friend RG, who was there. I was somewhere else on Sf Bay in 1969, teaching sailing on Shields, or helping resupply the Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz for 18 months.

Jack O'Neill was good on ideas, a little less so on execution. So one day Jack gets the bright idea to fly his pink hot air balloon under the Golden Gate Bridge. Flying over the GG Bridge would have been ballsy enough. But under the 220 foot high bridge strains credulity. However, RG, who drove Jack's blue 18 foot Chrysler outboard motorboat from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, is probably the most honest person I know, and I do not question his veracity.

RG in the blue Chrysler, with the hot air balloon aboard, arrived in SF to meet Jack O'Neill. Together they proceeded seaward to Pt. Bonita aboard the Chrysler. Pt. Bonita is 2.5 miles upwind of the Golden Gate, sufficient distance they figured to inflate the balloon and ride it victoriously under the Bridge.

It was a cold, windy, rough day on the SF Bar as they put the hot air balloon into the water, lit the propane burner and began to inflate. The wind and current seemed to be taking the team inshore faster than planned!

RG put the outboard into full speed reverse, and with water coming over the transom of the small boat, they motored stern-first and pulled the balloon upwind, away from the Bridge. The increase in apparent wind helped inflate the balloon enough to lift Jack O'Neill out of the water.

Jack's attachment to the balloon was unorthodox to say the least (this was one of the country's first hot air balloons.) From the top of the balloon downward ran a heavy hawser. The hawser ran through one side of a wooden rope spool on which Jack sat.

Just as the balloon tender, with RG at the controls, was about to sink, they resumed course for the Golden Gate, Jack hanging from under the balloon while towing RG and the tender below. It was a good thing they were still connected as this ungainly configuration passed successfully under the 220 foot high Golden Gate Bridge.

Once inside the Bay and clear of the GG Bridge, Jack released the towline and ascended into the thick cloud deck. Then it happened: as Jack's balloon came into the blue sky above the cloud, he came face to face with a small plane out on a sight seeing flight. Shocked by the encounter, the plane's pilot took an evasive maneuver that just cleared the balloon while simultaneously Jack ran out of propane and his burner quit.

Jack and the balloon descended unceremoniously into SF Bay about 1/4 mile east of the Golden Gate, where RG retrieved his friend and gear.

What happened next? The FAA got word of Jack's escapade and issued a fine for flying a hot air balloon without a permit. Flying under the Golden Gate Bridge? Apparently legal, then and now.

Permits? We don't need no stinkin' permits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ

 

[sleddog]

The third annual Race to Alaska (R2AK) starting gun goes off this Thursday, June 8, at 5:00 am. 750 miles, no motor, no support, from Port Townsend WA to Ketchikan AK.

There are 41 entries, of which 21 are multihulls and 3 are Stand Up Paddleboards (SUP). The biggest is a 34 foot trimaran from Isle of Wight, England.

Who are the favorites to finish first and win the $10,000 prize? I'm guessing it will be between MAMA TRIED, the 3 Burd brothers on their 28 foot custom tri from Marblehead (photo 1), and local PT boatbuilder Russell Brown on his 32 foot Gougeon catamaran PT WATERCRAFT (photo 2).





Good sailing, rowing, paddling, and peddling to all. https://r2ak.com/2017-full-race-participants/

 

[pogen]

I have no idea how people singlehand this (awesome) race. A few do it though. You would need to anchor almost every night, so many rocks and such narrow channels with nasty currents and traffic. I will follow and admire from afar.

 

[sleddog]

I have no idea how people singlehand this (awesome) race. A few do it though.

More than a few singlehanders in the 2017 R2AK. 15 singlehanders entered... that's 37% of the fleet.

There's a couple of interesting "sidebet" prizes offered for the R2AK. Small Craft Advisor magazine is awarding $1,000 to the first finisher 20 feet or under LOA.

The most prestigious award, and the one most respected by the sailors is the "DIRT BAG" Award. This is no monetary prize at all, you don't need it, and goes to the competitor who has the least money into the race. The 2016 winner of the DIRT BAG Award found his boat rotting in some blackberry bushes.

And then there is the "Buy Back Award," which encourages smaller, less expensive boats. I'll let R2AK explain the "Buy Back Award."

"We’re going to be on the finish line dock in Ketchikan, with a big Ed McMahon style check. Each team that finishes and rings the bell will get 5 minutes to decide whether or not they will be the one to sell us their boat for $10,000. We made a video about it.

Maybe it’s an act of charity–if Larry Ellison shows up and sells us his fancy boat for $10k–we would happily take it.
Maybe your race was enough of a hate mission that you never want to see your boat again.
Maybe you want a way to legitimately say “I won the $10k in the R2AK.”
Maybe you have found the fastest, cheapest way to crack the R2AK code

We don’t care about your motivations–you don’t have to be first, you just have to be the first to say yes.

We are only buying one boat, first one to say yes gets $10k"

 

[pogen]

That's amazing. And indeed, that is the full course, not the warmup course PT to Victoria. I think there were far fewer SH entries last time. Well here's good luck to them.

 

[sleddog]

A "shocking" sight: seeing the Kiwi catamaran pitchpole at 2:40 in the below video. Shortly before the start, the Kiwis, having misjudged timing, were slowed by Ben Ainsle to leeward. Then when they bore away and put the pedal down the boat went from 5 knots to 30 knots almost instantly, while also becoming airborne.

There's not enough duct tape in all Bermuda to fix that wing.

YiiiII Doggies https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxIm00ZuX5lXNnQ5WTYyd1Vzbms/view

 

[H Spruit]

And that is a reason I have decided to leave the racing to the youngsters!

 

[sleddog]

Ran into longtime friend and SSS supporter Robby Robinson the other day at Marin Yacht Club. Robby is a two time SHTP vet, once in 1982 on his Hawkfarm COURAGEOUS, and again in 1988 on his beautiful Chuck Burns 35 ROLLING STONE.

Robbie alerted me to the news he has taken a step back in time and recently bought the 1938 Myron Spaulding design NAUTIGAL. NAUTIGAL is 38' overall, built in San Francisco by Anderson and Cristofani in 1938, and appropriated by the Navy during WW II.

Robby plans to bring NAUTIGAL onto the SF Bay race course, a treasure from the past.
Here's NAUTIGAL sailing along fog festooned Angel Island, sometime in the 1960's. Photo by Diane Beeston.

 

[Philpott]

Wow! I'd love to see that boat close up!

 

[BobJ]

Looks like Philpott's kind of place and conveniently, right in Madison!

I'll bet you've had the Chocolate Truffle Mousse Cake!

 

[sleddog]

Under blue skies and light winds, the merry lunatics in the third edition of the Race2Alaska got underway today at noon. The LeMans style start from the Empress Hotel docks in Victoria perfectly suited HEART of GOLD, Karl Kruger's SUP from Orcas Island. Karl led from the start for the first 30 miles, averaging a steady stroke and 5 knots through the water. Karl is a true waterman and determined to finish the R2AK, the first SUP to do so. (Karl's other boat is the 50 foot IOR raceboat TOMAHAWK on which he runs day charters in the San Juan Islands.) https://r2ak.com/2017-teams-full-race/team-heart-of-gold-2/

Singlehander HEART of GOLD has just been passed by doublehanded PEAR SHAPE RACING TEAM in their 23 foot tri, the new favorites to win the R2AK. These guys have a fast boat, are heavy on experience, and may stage a breakaway this first night on the inside route through the Gulf Islands as other heavy hitters are making slow headway towards the Straits of Georgia. https://r2ak.com/2017-teams-full-race/pear-shaped-racing/
Shown below is PEAR SHAPED in a pre-R2AK photo, sailing 3 up and with an outboard on the stern (motors not allowed aboard in the R2AK).



The only mishap so far was mixed double rowers on TEAM OARACLE being rammed by a powerboat at the start. Repairs were made, and Janice and Ian, both R2AK vets, are rowing for the lead in their 22 foot scull. That's grit.



The R2AK tracker is live here: http://tracker.r2ak.com/

 

[sleddog]

It was bound to happen: R2AK leader PEAR SHAPED RACING hit a log in the night at 8 knots and is retreating to Nanaimo for inspection and possible repairs. This unfortunate collision has given the lead to the 3 Burd brothers on their tri PURE and WILD FREEBURD, who are beating upwind in 18-20 knots NNW.

Astern, the R2AK fleet is strung out southwards clear to the Canadian border. Many of the 34 competitors anchored or beached overnight in the light winds and adverse current. Karl on his SUP HEART OF GOLD got an early start this morning from his shelter on the NE shore of Salt Spring Island and is now paddling towards Dodd Narrows, south of Nanaimo, which he could reach this afternoon. Dodd Narrows is 20 miles north, and is best transited near slack water, this evening about 7:20 PM, to avoid strong currents and rips that could capsize a SUP. However, the afternoon current is flooding northwards, with Dodd Narrows max flood of 8 knots at 3:23pm, and Karl may try to ride this favorable escalator earlier than slack....

Here's Karl shortly before sunrise this morning. Perfect conditions for a Stand Up Paddleboard. On weekends, the powerboat wakes make the Trincomali Channel, leading to Dodd Narrows, a washing machine.

 

[sleddog]

The only mishap so far was mixed double rowers on TEAM OARACLE being rammed by a powerboat at the start. Repairs were made, and Janice and Ian, both R2AK vets, are rowing for the lead in their 22 foot scull. That's grit.

"Being rammed by a powerboat at the start of the Race2Alaska. Repairs were made." does not do justice to TEAM OARACLE. My apologies.

Jake Beattie founded the Race2Alaska, and writes so well that I can smell the anti-freeze from here. We'll let Jake tell TEAM ORACLE's compelling story.

You might call us lazy, but we’ve only got so much of this virtual ink to spread over the three and a half weeks of this race. We’ve got something better than recoating the proforma with a fresh layer of metaphoric dissonance and other words we had to look up after we wrote them. We’ve got Team Oaracle; the double handed rowing team that won R2AK 2017’s first virtual tiara for tenacity, and they won it within sight of the starting line.

The door cracked on this story on the walk up to the seawall. Team Oaracle offered a preemptive apology that began “Sorry I smell like radiator fluid…” He did, and it was confusing, but let’s start with the fact they were run over by a powerboat after the race start and work back from there.

They were run over by a powerboat, not an exaggeration. While rowing out of the inner harbor, a powerboat ran them down from behind. The boat powered into Oaracle’s stern and then bounced them down the side, clipping their outriggers (the sticky-outy parts of a sliding-seat rowboat that hold the oars. Important for a rowboat.) The skipper emerged from the cabin yelling at the two rowers, they yelled back and left his potential to become a good Samaritan fully intact, the powerboat sped off. Stay classy, Bayliner guy.

With 50% of their horsepower bent, Baylinered, and unusable, and psyches revved up from watching the pointy end of a powerboat get closer and closer, thoughts of “I’m sure they see us” turned into holy crap yells of alert. The scramble to try to row in the direction they thought that the powerboat might not turn—even surviving is stressful. No one would have blamed them if they hit the beach, ordered a couple of Bloodies and Bennys to unwind. It was still brunch time, and in Victoria, hollandaise sauce appears to be a folk remedy for just about everything. While we might have considered second breakfast an important step for the project at hand, they went to shore, found someone with a big enough wrench, borrowed it, fixed the damage, and kept going.

To appreciate that resilience, you need to hear the rest. Their tale of pre-race tenacity started the day they arrived in Victoria as the triumphant fourth and final human powered uber-victor of the first stage. Somewhere between the elation of finishing and the Sunday morning start one of them lost prescription glasses. This set in motion a Sunday morning scramble that unraveled up until the moment when both of the Team Stokes were running down the dock, and everyone else was smelling antifreeze. It started with the Oaracles searching for spectacles; driving around Victoria to find whatever pharmacy/optometrist was ambitious enough to be open both early and on a Sunday. Finding one, they drove most of the way to the launch ramp when their radiator blew.

Think of that moment, you’re running late for a race, your radiator blows, and you need to find some way to get your boat to the water. You now need to deal with a car, that is broken down on the side of the road, and you’re leaving for a month. This is the point we can only imagine that they checked to see if they were wearing pants. They were. This was not a bad dream; this was happening. This was IRL.

They rallied help, but the first two or three trucks all had the wrong sized trailer hitch (Pants check: yep, still there.) Finally finding the right hitch, they found a nearby yacht club with a ramp clogged with dinghy sailors getting ready for their regatta who went from semi-annoyed to “How can we help” after “We’re in the Race to Alaska” was followed by “…and we’re suuper late.” Their boat splashed, they hit the water, and rowed to the start happy to have all of that stress of preparations behind them…and then the boat ran them over.

As of the early morning of Day 2, Team Oaracle is just getting underway from the top end of Prevost Island waking from a well-earned sleep, and if it’s available, we hope considering the Bloody and Benny option if only for us to feel better about our choices. The rest of the fleet is beginning to separate. The vanguard of three sailboats is duking it out in the winds of Georgia Strait near Nanaimo, a chase group near Point Roberts, and the rest at +/- a couple of minutes latitude from Team Oaracle. Some teams are going up the islands to use currents and straight line distance to shave time; others are betting on big water for better wind. Tomorrow will tell who was right.

R2AK Day 1 in summary: Teams are tired of rowing, still breaking, or they are Karl Kruger. Team Oaracle wins the resilience crown for the day, but Alaska doesn’t show up by itself, and there are plenty of crowns to go around. Resiliency is just getting started.

 

[Philpott]

Sleddog, I love the way you are encapsulating this race for us. Just returned from the Heartland of America/Wisconsin, where I have turned my friends on to the R2AK. They avidly follow it now, and interrupt my WORK (!!!) by texting me updates nonstop. I agree with you that Jake Beattie is a brilliant organizer and writer. Just in case our sailing friends are too lazy to clicky on the R2AK site, here is one of my favorite ever updates. "Mistakes Were Made" ??? Seriously. Dude! Just tell me to stop and I will.

2017 Stage 1, Day 2: Mistakes were made
Victoria’s clocktower pealed five and the deadline was official. Stage one was in the books and the known quantities of incredible were already headlines in the news, an online forum or two, and dockside chatters of amazement. Anyone with the tracker page, a need to know, and the ability to left click already knows the boldface.

Headline #1: Muscle power sweeps the Non-existant podium.

The award for doing well in the qualifier is a ring of the bell and the ability to buy happy hour beer at happy hour prices, but if we handed out medals in Olympic podium style, a pedal-powered boat would take silver, and three rowboats would be standing proud for gold, bronze, and that impressive but awkward spot in the grass just offscreen. All four would come across the line before the first of the sailors. Take that Russell Coutts.

Weather, chance, and pride makes fools of us all in equal measure, and especially sailors. Before they had their sails disrupted by the air wake of passing rowboats, the racier teams had been sizing up their competition since the list was finalized. Throughout stage one they kept tabs on their peers—making the best bid for bragging rights over their self-declared competition—during the first leg of a race that cares so much about how fast teams finish that we rushed to post results a brisk 24 hours after it ended. Even if winning didn’t matter to the race, racing mattered to these teams. They clocked each other’s sweaty, frustrated, flaccid sail, human powered progress only to be surprised that teams existed outside of their blinders. “We were keeping tabs on Bad Kitty and Pure and Wild and we were doing pretty good, then we zoomed out the tracker and were like ‘Liteboat? Who the hell is LiteBoat?”.

The humble pie that Team LiteBoat served up to the wind dependent tasted like a couple of 60-year-old Frenchmen on a boat they designed, built, then rocked across in the perfect conditions of early Thursday. They left the boats and sailors with infinitely higher PHRF ratings both impressed and wondering who of their friends would understand just how unfair it was. “A rowboat beat you?” Shame face.

Headline #2: People finished, or didn’t

Yep. There’s a list and everything: 2017 R2AK Victoria Finish Results

Headline #3: Wind was strong, but actually stronger

Environment Canada claimed 30 gusting to 40. Exhausted, scared, and wide-eyed racers were sure it was more. They were right. A lighthouse keeper on Trial Island let us know that their on-scene observations saw sustained periods of at least 50 knots.

50 knots.

Dude.

Try standing up in a pickup on a rural highway. Now put a bouncy castle in the bed, have oncoming vehicles throw buckets of water at you and you’ll get nowhere near what it was like to be out there.

On top of the wind’s ferocity was its surprise. The wind didn’t dial up with the usual progression. It went from 0-50 like it had something to prove. Teams went from rowing, to reefing, to an out of control scramble for survival in a span that for some was less than 30 minutes. The wind came down like a cleaver that chopped the fleet into those who made the harbor in time and those who would suffer for an untold number of additional hours. The tracklines show 2pm as the rough edged dividing line between teams with linear progression and those eastward accelerating curly-q’s of desperation scramble. More than a few teams were in sight of the breakwater, some less than a mile, when the wind hammered down and threw them downwind and into howling hours spent clawing back into the teeth of some of the roughest conditions many had ever seen. Even teams on the harbor side of the cleaver were surprised. “We barely made it. We were with a pack all day and when we hit the harbor and turned around and there was no one.”

Headline #4: Everyone’s safe, things broke, mistakes were made

If R2AK’s was the Hunger Games, the night cannon would have sounded for nine teams that didn’t make it. Five intending for Victoria, four for Ketchikan, all who are now somewhere in the process of adjusting their expectations and beginning the paradoxical process of moving on by reliving it all in spirals and in waves.

Beyond the headlines there were the stories of triumph and longing and teams who wished they were on the greener grass side of the wind cleaving line.
“The wind and tide built so fast. If we would have started 20 minutes sooner we could have shaved 5 hours off of our time.”

“We did great but part of me wishes we could have had a little of what was out there.” Really? “I mean, a little bit.”

“Colin and I were so close for most of the day that we would talk to each other…. or really like he would talk to me. He had a speaker playing music—like kids’ music, like Wheels on the Bus—and couldn’t hear me. I don’t think it was on purpose, I mean he has kids right? Right?”

“Pedal drives have advantages. Like, I could eat a snack and still pedal, but a piece of eel grass would foul the prop and I’d have to stop to clear it. I’d gain during snacks, and lose ground in the eelgrass.”

It was in the quiet corners of the truths of the nine who didn’t make it, that even the finishers began their inward journey into their own close calls that for now had landed on the right side of fate’s coin flip. These were the stories, raw and vulnerable, that can only start to emerge after the headlines have dissipated—you get far enough from the adrenaline to relax into making sense of the truth, and still close enough to resist the need to repackage it all into sharable anecdotes to amuse the in-laws. In between, there is a fleeting chance for honest reflection. For the racers, families, and organizers alike, the beer and food of the finish line party would proxy as the R2AK therapist’s couch.

There were stories of hypothermia both diagnosed and not; at least one trip to the hospital. He was prepared for cold, he wasn’t prepared for sweat he built up rowing to be trapped in a drysuit then turned life threatening when calm turns rowing into hunkering paralyzed and vomiting; seasick survival mode with waves building to twice the size we hope the 13-foot boat will never see again. He couldn’t row to keep warm, he couldn’t do anything, and his body got cold and then colder.

Gear failed. The fingers-crossed preparations from teams running out of time teamed up with extreme weather and things got hectic; sails shredded, masts broke, booms broke, oars snapped, hose connections failed- rerouting bilge pumps to watertight compartments instead of overboard, waterproof hatches removed ‘waterproof’ from their resume. Rather than a boutique purveyor of reasonable portions of shade-grown troubles, teams of the R2AK were delivered calamity by the dump truck.

“It was typical stuff. The ama broke and wasn’t able to be locked down, it banged a lot.” Wasn’t that a problem for stability? “Propably. It was dark and there was no wind, like flat calm. The tide was taking us out to sea and into the shipping lanes. Our batteries were dead, so our AIS transponder didn’t work, neither did our lights or our radios. Sat phone was crapping out too.”

Mute, invisible, and unable to move, just in range they used their last bar on their cellphone to call for a tow. They’re out, but after repairs they might just cruise engineless to Alaska anyway, just for practice, and on their own time.

There were the stories of concern for others. Each pod of conversation produced a “What happened to…” set of questions. Everyone wanted to know that folks were ok, especially those close enough to see but far enough away to be unable to assist. “We had just watched him capsize and then he sort of disappeared. We could see his boat upside down but we couldn’t see him. As far as we knew we just watched him go.” Capsized sailor ended up ok, and after a four-hour tow so were they. Safe and shaken, neither would be continuing from Victoria.

The stories weren’t entirely recounts of catastrophe. In the part of the fleet that gets as close to prudent as R2AK can, more than a few teams (but fewer than we’d like) read the bold faced weather report calling for all caps nasty and opted out of the daylight brigade charge into no-mans-land and waited for the enemy seas to lose interest. Depending on how you count, roughly ten teams waited it out on the calm side until the next day. Some fled the fray for the nearest stateside beaches after things got bad. Some headed back to town directly from the start. Friday morning the prudent were rewarded with sunshine, calm seas, and a following breeze. Their boats still broke, but the mild conditions provided a soft landing and a chance to recover. At least one got a nap on the way across.

We can’t think of another race where the winning strategy includes delaying starting by 24 hours, going to a movie, hot tubs, sushi dinner, and sleeping in your own bed before setting out in the morning. But numbers don’t lie: 100% of the teams who waited until Friday to make the jump finished. Teams that danced with the wind cleaver? Less so. Defying the logic of everyone poised to hit send on an “I told you so” email, regardless of who sprinted and who waited 100% of the paddleboards made it with 0% issues. Sunburnt (Q: “How do you pack enough sunblock?” A: “We don’t.”) but otherwise unfazed.

There’s less than 24 hours to the start for the long haul north and teams are busy making repairs, licking wounds, reassembling egos, reassuring relatives, getting one last ice cream indulgance and wondering how to stay on the safe side of things the next time the cleaver comes down.

Ready or not, R2AK.

 

[sleddog]

The Promo for the Race2Alaska begins with the caveat: This isn’t for everyone. It’s like the Iditarod, on a boat, with a chance of drowning, being run down by a freighter, or eaten by a grizzly bear. There are squalls, killer whales, tidal currents that run upwards of 20 miles an hour, and some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

They are not just kidding. The race leader, a well tested, double-handed, 23 foot tri TEAM PEAR SHAPE RACING, has retired to Nanaimo not because of their damage of hitting a log at night. Rather, in spite of some very expensive and technologically advanced dry suits, the skipper suffered " an ongoing problem with hypothermia." He's OK, but prudence has prevailed.

With TPSR out of the race, 3 multihulls have gotten through the tidal gate at Seymour Narrows and are staging a "breakaway". Currently these 3 are beating into a northwest wind of 18-20 out the Johnstone Straits: TEAM PURE&WILD/FREE BURD leads the trio, followed by the custom cat BAD KITTY and the F-31 BIG BRODERNA.

http://tracker.r2ak.com/

The British Columbia weather is going to change later tomorrow (Wednesday) with the approach of a low pressure from the west, and associated cold front bringing backing and increasing SE winds. Great wind direction for getting north. If you can hold it together in predicted rising to gale force Thursday morning at the north end of Vancouver Island, northwards through Queen Charlotte Sound and along the Central BC Coast..

Check the calendar. This is a winter weather pattern .....It's been chilly and windy here in Central California, with 6" of snow in the Sierra and eastward into the Nevada high desert. Here's lake level Lake Tahoe, with chains briefly required over I-80.

Things are about to get interesting for the R2AK fleet. As if they weren't already.

Meanwhile, in Bermuda, 8 multi-million dollar J-Class yachts, with professional crews in uniform, are lining up for 3 days of tropical racing. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[sleddog]

Holy Guacamole. The R2AK is an "adventure race." I do believe the 3 Burd brothers had the adventure of their lives last night running the tidal gate at Seymour Narrows at near max ebb.

Seymour Narrows, after they blew up Ripple Rock, is still a dangerous tidal rapids, with currents to 14 knots springs, and whirlpools that collect logs, deadheads, stumps and branches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOh20xpFmZI

What do I think of this accidental, on purpose transit of Seymour Narrows? I think the Burd brothers were lucky. But luck and youthful enthusiasm play a significant factor in the R2AK, and Team PURE&WILD/FREEBURD played their cards and lead the R2AK. Good on you, Burds! May the rest of your race be a safe one.

Here is what Trip Burd said about their Seymour Narrows passage last night:

We had an extremely exciting and memorable passage through Seymour Narrows last night in the darkest of dark you can imagine and nearly max current. About Campbell River the current started building in a fading breeze. The current was so strong we were tacking through only 30 degrees. As we approached the Narrows, Chris and I remembered our passage two years ago and we began to get fully prepared- hatch boards in, Ocean Rodeo suits, Deckvests, Headlamps and safety gear all on. We hoped we were prepared for whatever might come. Soon the only wind was the apparent wind caused by the current moving us at a peak speed of 12 knots! We barely had any steerage and we were being pushed and pulled around by the current and eddys. As we entered the gut of the Narrows we could hear but not see breaking waves all around us. Here we go, we thought! We were most amazed to find it was not waves at all, but a huge school of 30-40 porpoises travelling with us. Our passage proved to be thankfully uneventful other than this incredible experience. The porpoises followed us and frolicked in our bow waves for the next 10 miles, tacking with us. It was so incredible. We were sad to see them go.

We had a couple close passes with a cruise ship and a barge and were thankful to have such good headlamps, a handheld torch and AIS. Thank you PrincetonTec.

Sailing through most of Johnstone Strait was generally upwind, with 15-20 knots. It was pleasant sail with a reefed main and J1.

We have a long way left to Race, the boat is all good and we are having an amazing time. Trevor's eyes are wide open!

 

[AlanH]

I see that John Guider is taking his Expedition Skerry on the R2K.

you gotta be nuts. Considering as he's already done the Great Loop in the boat, though...

 

[sleddog]

We leave the Race2Alaska for a moment, and switch back to the History Channel.

An international fleet of Tallships arrive in Boston this weekend, beginning with a sail-by on Saturday. The Coast Guard square-rigged training ship EAGLE will lead the parade. It will be a once-in-a-generation gathering. To feast one's eyes, get thee to Boston. Or check out the fleet here: http://www.sailboston.com/participating-ships/

BLUENOSE II, JOLIE BRISE, AMERICAN EAGLE, ORIOLE, oh my. BRILLIANT, LYNX, PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II, schooners a-go-go. Enough bowsprits, topsails, mast hoops and baggy wrinkle to satisfy any jaded connoisseur of sail.

Let me tell you a little about JOLIE BRISE. A black and white Bekens of Cowes photo is framed above my bed. I found the photo in Beken's attic collection about 45 years ago and bought it for a pound from Mr. Beken... Built in 1913 in France as a Le Havre pilot cutter, JOLIE BRISE is 56 feet on deck, tiller steered, topmast, vertical bow, 30 foot spinnaker pole (!), with a bowsprit to East Jesus.

JOLIE BRISE could (and still can) regularly sail at 8 knots upwind, and make 9-10 knots average off the wind, without leaving much of a wake at all.

Think about it: JOLIE BRISE was designed and built for the most rugged, rock strewn, tidal swept waters in the World: Brittany, on the northwest coast of France. Engineless. She was built for speed and ease of sailing with a crew of 3: Le Patron, a matelot and a mousse (cabin boy). Unusual for her time, JOLIE BRISE was built to plans.



Tough? JOLIE BRISE personifies rugged. After working as a pilot boat, she became a tuna fisher, and carried the Royal Mail Trans-Atlantic, JOLIE BRISE was one of the early ocean racers, a legend of sail that precedes DORADE, FINISTERRE, TICONDEROGA, WINDWARD PASSAGE, IMP, MERLIN et.al. JOLIE BRISE raced in the first Fastnet Race in 1925, ultimately winning 3 Fastnets.




For bed-and breakfast at the Capitola Boating Club, where and what famous storm did JOLIE BRISE weather?


http://www.joliebrise.com/