May Update...

Not much to report this past week. At the weekend Brigite & I sailed on a J/24 (Hospice Regatta), and so did not take Silver Fox out.

Had a lovely race day on the 19th, light easterly around 5kn. Short course K, J, S presumably in the event the wind crapped out.

We set up for the start a tad early, at the favored end, and after burning time barely laid the pin end, plus a couple of bigger boats to weather rolled us, but it was not too bad, the other end of the line was a complete cluster!

Had more Spinn boats out this week - for first time. I think there were 4 total, and Schock Full O Nuts was red hot. Turbo's Tub also got us, making their time from J to the finish, as we rounded the leeward mark together (us and CYMRU outside of her).

The boat felt dialed in, I don't remember her feeling this way racing before, it was sweet, and fun! We used the #1 on the Primaries and that worked well. We also did well preparing well in advance (before the start) for the first hoist. Baserunner came in to the top mark on the Stbd lay (Stbd rounding) and fouled us, but we waved it off when he tacked. We also have a new holder for the small GPS and it worked very well.

Despite the boat tracking well, and no major mistakes we were still deep in the fleet. We did beat most of the non-spinn fleet and one spinn boat, but as expected the boat is not thoroughbred! Which is fine by me.

Sailed back to the dock as it was a pretty evening for a sail.

We put on the Starboard handrails this week! After about 8 months or so! I also checked the oil (fine) and the water level in the Battery (also fine), and added a holder for the trash can at the base of the stairs. By my estimation we have run for 15.75 hours since the tank was last full.

Ralpho Out!

Kiptopeake and back home to Cobbs marina

After the thunder & lightning at 0430, we slept in until 1040. It was a nice calm morning, with the boat barely moving, making for great sleeping conditions. Had breakfast then inflated the dingy to explore ashore.

The bay is part of the Kiptopeake State Park, so when we went ashore we found a nice walkway to trails through the forest. It was a beautiful morning, warm and sunny. We wandered around the trails, and up to a small camping store at the pier. The store just opened last weekend and is operated by friendly Park personnel.

We checked the former ferry pier, and then headed back to the boat.

By the time we had everything put away and were ready to raise the anchor it was nearly 1400. We went out, and decided not to pass under the bridge at the Northern end, but rather take a more direct route back. We had the tide under us all afternoon, and the forecast of NE breeze, which would be from astern at around 14 mph.

But once out it was very light, and the boat was hardly moving. We had lunch and then after about an hour the wind abruptly filled from the NE under a dark cloud. We went for a chute, gybed and were making great progress down the rhumb line.

As we progressed the wind continued to veer to the East, and came up a bit. The chop was getting bigger as we got away from the shore, and it made for great sailing!

We crossed 2 shipping lanes, and on both occasions had pretty close crossings with commercial traffic, both of which we passed in front of.

As we got further down the route, with the strong breeze we had to stay close to DDW, or else the boat was too loaded up. Later around first Island, we dropped the chute and power reached to the cut with the #3 and full main. Brigite did most of the driving here and did great!

We got in around 17:30, which was a great time as we still had the full evening to do things at home, and get ready for the work week. The trip over took 6:30 hours, and we did 24.5 nm, coming back it took only 3:45 and was much more direct at only 18.7 nm.

A great weekend sailing, exploring, cruising and having fun - basically a great way to celebrate ones 41st birthday!!!

May Birthday Cruise to Kiptopeake

What a wonderful weekend! We were late leaving, and missed the favorable tides and wind. So we went out into around 15kn on the nose in choppy seas. A tough slog into that for a couple of hours, with VMG of only a knot or less on Stbd tack. But at least it was warm and sunny, and the forecast was for the wind to go right and lighten as the afternoon went on. We hoised the #3 and main with one reef.

Brigite got a case of mal de mer, and was not at all well, but felt better lying down in the cockpit. Other than that I was enjoying the sail, but getting frustrated that the wind was not veering and our VMG was very low, and almost non-existant on stbd.

The wind started to gradually decrease, to the point that the gusts were not overpowering us any more. The seas also were getting smoother. We beat up to the second island bridge tunnel opening, and we changed up to the #2, and got pushed further out thru the channel by the strong tide which must have been over 2 knots.

Then suddenly at around 4pm, the wind lightened up suddenly, and then instantly shifted right by 50 degrees. Great for us, but it was still light and we were pretty much running on the spot as we headed into the ebbing tide, but eventually the wind picked up and we started winning the battle.

Breeze filled in nicely, and the seas flattened completely to give us a beautiful reach for the second half of the trip.

Entered between the two rows of sunken concrete war ships that form the breakwalls for the harbor. 2 other boats were there and we dropped anchor to the south of them. I inspected the bottom, and cleaned what I could. The prop, shaft and P bracket were COVERED in barnacles, and I couldn't get everything off as it was too cold to stay in the water (65 degrees).

We BBQ'ed terikae chicken, and also had couscos and green beans. Off to bed around 2230, and a nice sound sleep.... until 0430 when flashes of lightening, and light rain woke us up. It wasn't too intense a storm, or else we were not directly in its path, but either way, we rode it out without problem, other than thinking of contingency plans, and keeping one eye open for about an hour and a half, then back to deep sleep.

No beer can racing 5/12/10

A storm producing system moved across the country and looked like it would hit our area at 7pm. It would be late, so the system could weaken and break apart, but at 5pm it was still packing a punch as it passed Lynchburg. I decided not to risk putting ourselves in the path of the rain, wind, and lightening.

In hindsight it was the right decision, the storms arrived right as planned, and racing was abandoned prior to the start.

Hope to get out at the weekend...

Ralph Out.

First Overall - Silver Fox's First Race "Win"

Ok, so Silver Fox is the only boat racing in Spinnaker division on the Wednesday nights beer can races, for the Spring Series, so officially she was first just for showing up. Nice attendance prize.

But to keep ourselves honest, learn, and better gauge our performance, we look at the Overall results each week. Up to last week (cinco de mayo) our best result had been a second in week 3, but on Wednesday (week 5) we worked hard, sailed smart, and were rewarded with a First Overall, 11 seconds ahead of the 2nd place boat, and 35 seconds ahead of 3rd.

Silver Fox's first ever "real" race victory!! You go girl!

This is good, but we have to remember Silver Fox is definitely NOT a racer, and her handicap at 189 is like having a Laser Radial at a Laser regatta! We love the boat, and love cruising on her, this racing is just an excuse to go sailing regularly, have fun, and keep in ongoing touch with racing. Our goal is not to push the boat too hard, nor to turn her into a racer. We just have fun and let the results be what they are. Keeping it real...

Don't believe everything you read!

The fuel tank has been a tad confusing. Whenever I filled it up last year, it never would accept as much as I thought. Engraved on the tank is 30 GAL'S (see photo), so when it was showing half full, I would expect to put in 15 gals to fill her up, but she would be full before that.

Or from third full, I would add 10 gals, and the gauge would show much fuller than I expected. I figured the gauge must not be calibrated right.

But it seems the tank is NOT 30 gals as advertised, but only 20 gals. I worked this out using the cylinder volume formula (π r² h), as the tank is 14 in diameter and 30 in height. I checked some of the documentation from the brochures, and a 20 gal tank seems to have been standard.

Still having a hard time ignoring what is engraved on the tank - but the evidence is very convincing....

Final Race in Spring Series - moving up the Learning Curve...

Light sea breeze all day, was replaced by a strong SE gradient late in the afternoon, and the gusty 15kn breeze made for an intense race!

On the way out I wanted a sail that it turns out was not even on the boat! Poor Brigite, I had her T up 3 sails, all before we even got to the start area! Eventually we went with the Original #2/3, and we came to the conclusion that we need ways to identify the sails when they are down below!

Course was S, K, L, J, S all to port. The line was VERY skewed, maybe 30 or 40 degrees to the boat end, so it was going to be a barge fest! I set us up about 20 seconds early, so we had a lot of time to kill, and it made it impossible to grind in the genoa once we did start. Before the start the genoa caught itself in the reefing cleat on the boom, and tore a little hole in the clew patch, by the leech.

CYMRU barged in a 7 or so knots beam reaching in at a right angle to those of us that were lined up right. Kerry drove the boat into a hole in front of us and parallell to the line, I had the tiller in my teeth to try and avoid him. It was a real bandit move, and I let him know it!! After the start he did his circle(s).

We were not pointing as high as the rest of the faster boats, and we were quickly getting pinned out beyond the layline. I went past the lay, and then we tacked as most of the fleet went before the layline, so we had a lane. SEAL was ahead and too leeward, they overstood, so we cracked off and went straight to the mark, rounding FIRST!

Then we went a tad high, as we got the spinnaker ready, hoisted, and managed to keep the thundering mob at bay. We doused early, so we could set up and have time in case anything went wrong. CYMRU and another big boat were eyeing us up inside, but I talked to them and kept them outside, so we rounded in second.

A good close hauled leg to J, with most boats too low of the mark, and ending up not laying it! We had a STBD tacker approaching as we closed the mark on port, but he was way overstood and far back, so we went for it and got it cleanly, picking off 2 boats in the process!

Then a power reach to the finish, where we had to work to keep a lane and clean air. We powered to the finish with boats much bigger than us, and hopefully with a very good result - I doubt any boat bigger than us beat us. Results Unknown at this time.

Brigite hurt her back trying to winch the genoa in, and really worked hard all day, with lots of action and trimming. At the end we were pretty spent, from the most intense race yet. The #2/3 was the correct sail, and it appears the boat likes to sail with big headsails, old school style!

Engine Maintenance - May 5th

The new engine issues needed checking:
1. Carb throat filling at the dock and dripping.
2. Engine cutting out when accelerated.

So I took some time (4 hours) to do some work on the issues. So here is what I did:

• Drained the carb.
• Checked the sediment bowl (pretty good).
• Sprayed Carb cleaner into the Main jet and choke throat.
• Replaced the fuel filter.
• Cleaned the Spark plugs.
• Sprayed some MMO into the cylinders towards the valves.
• Checked the Distributor & plug connections.
• Checked the oil.
• Checked inside the fuel tank, thru the fuel gauge hole.

Glad to see that the fuel level mechanism is in good condition, and obviously not an original piece of equipment, but a replacement. The wire connections to the sender were corroded away, and one came off in my hand. So I cleaned all that up and soldered clean wire onto the sender, and checked the arm for range of motion and everthing looks to be in good working order.

Now the engine is running great, and accelerates in the full range as smooth as anything. Really satisifying, and I believe the engine is running perfectly, just needs the alternator bearings worked on, as they sound like it is running in rocks!

Hot Saturday Cruise on May Day.

Very hot weather here in Hampton Roads this weekend - in the 90's, and setting records in the process. After a busy morning and early afternoon we took the boat out for a sail and a BBQ for dinner.

The hot SW'erly that has been blowing for quite a few days now was still strong on Sat, around 17, dying to 11 by Thimble Shoal, then gusting up to 20 close to the shore at Ocean View.

We got to the boat around 3:30 or so, and were back in the car around 10:30 at night. We sailed out and around Thimble shoal, and passed a Cruise Ship and the George H Bush Aircraft Carrier (USA - 77), the newest Carrier in the world!!

We BBQ'ed off East Beach, and tried unsuccessfully to fish. Not a nibble on our squid baited hooks. It was very relaxing, and lots of fun!

The engine acted up a bit, I forgot to turn on the fuel so it drained itself, then when I got her primed and restarted, it would not change RPM's without cutting out. With the strong wind, I just let her run just over idle as she was happy with that, and at the dock I restarted her, and she fired up with all cylinders, a fully adjustable throttle, and all was well.