It's been a while since i've updated the site. I've been busy, but in a good way. Racing on other boats, sailing the Jutson, working on it, working on other boats, out of town racing, etc. Sailing, sailing, sailing, 24/7 right now, which is awesome. Preparations for the Singlehanded Transpac are moving along. I've run into some problems with the boat (does it ever end?), but fortunately i've been diagnosing and fixing those problems, one by one. Everyone involved with the SHTP has been very friendly, and all in all, the Bay Area's sailing community has been really awesome so far. 3.5 months until the race starts. Still have a lot to get done before then, but i'll be ready. Very excited.
Sailing in front of Alcatraz. Photo by Peter Howsen
Sailing and boat work on the Jutson 30 So after sailing the boat several times, my buddy Ed McCoy came up from San Diego. We planned to sail around the Bay one day, and then doublehand around the Farallones. The only days I had had the boat out in the Bay was when it was blowing 15 knots or less. Well, spring is coming early, and with things heating up a little bit, the "slot" in the Bay is definitely starting to suck cold air in off the ocean and create the breezes that S.F. is famous for. So Ed and I sailed out of the Oakland Estuary in a variable and shifty 4-8 knots of breeze. Immediately when reaching the Bay, there was NO wind. We were completely becalmed and very slowly (trust me, nothing was happening fast...) drifting towards the shore on the Oakland side. I contemplated starting the motor, but there was a small wind line up ahead. Eventually, 3-4 knots of breeze reached us, and we sailed toward the Bay Bridge, west of Treasure Island. By the time we reached the Bay Bridge, we had 10 knots of breeze. By the time we reached Alcatraz, we had 15 and were starting to overpower, so I put the first reef into the mainsail. This was the first time i'd reefed down on "Warior's Wish". The boat responded to it very well. It flattened out, became much easier to control, MUCH more comfortable, and actually gained speed. Sweet. We continued all the way up to Sausalito and then gybed around, with 20 knots of breeze and gusts higher. Definitely solid breeze in the Bay. (In San Diego, it very very rarely blows a solid 20). Not wanting to put the kite up for the first time in 20, we broad reached under a reefed main and still hit speeds of more than 8.5 knots. This boat moves.
Photo by Peter Howsen
Down into South Bay, in the lee of San Francisco's city front, we shook out the reef in the main, and put the kite up for the first time. The breeze totally died, as it was late in the afternoon. Ed and I talked about the fact that we were two men on a small boat, in front of San Francisco, with a beautiful setting sun, who were flying a "Mount Gay" spinnaker. Kind of funny. Fortunately, the breeze picked up and we were able to move down South Bay, and almost in the direction of the Estuary. Back at the dock, we tried to figure out some problems on the boat. One, the batteries weren't charging. Two, the autopilot was acting retarted. And three, the port side cabin top winch was flexing under heavy loads.
Kite up in really light air. The only pic I have of the kite up. When there's breeze in the spinnaker, i'm too busy to take pictures!
I personally believed that the batteries were dead. They were dead in North Carolina, they won't charge above 12.2 volts, immediately drop to 11.8 when off the charger (or alternator), and won't even start the inboard diesel when sitting for more than a few days. At first, they kind of seemed to perform okay, although the voltage was low, but they have gotten progressively worse. I was also suspecting that once under a load, they were putting out a low enough voltage to not run the autopilot properly. "The Brain" of the autopilot seemed to be going crazy on this day. I had gotten ti working pretty well on apparent wind mode in the past few weeks, but today, it would just search around for the right angle, and then bear off to the right. Crash gybing isn't particularly fun, so this presented a big problem.
Beating to Sausalito
Ed McCoy helming the Jutson. Ed has pretty much been my mentor since I started sailing, and is hopefully going to doublehand back from Hawaii with me.
On a broad reach with #4 and 2 reefs, still hitting 8's!. Photo by Peter Howsen
The winch repair was no problem. Ed had an idea on drilling some holes in the top of the cabin top on the port side. We found some wet core, so we cleaned it all out. (It was in a small concentrated area, no biggie. Nothing really structurally wrong.) We then used an epoxy based product to fortify and strengthen the cabin top in front of the winch. It seems to have done the trick. I've had the boat out in 25-30 with heavy loads on that winch (reefing down and raising main, under big loads), and it appears to be working fine and not flexing at all. Problems appears to be solved.
Clutch that was slipping on main halyard. I just replaced it with the clutch from the tack line. Fixed the problem. Since i'm not using symmetrical kites and the bow sprit, there's no need for a tack line
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Me helming and trimming main on the Jutson
On the batteries, I found out that the NKE autopilot's brain craps out if the voltage is below 10 volts. So I took the batteries to the outboard shop at Svendson's. 11 volts static, and about 8-9 volts under load, so it appears that the batteries were low enough to make the autopilot function improperly. So, the solution is that we will buy new batteries for the boat. I really hope this will fix all of our problems with the autopilot and charging problems.
Photo by Peter Howsen
Took the boat out in 25-30 with my friend Mark last Sunday. My friend Tony took a photographer named Peter Howsen out on his cruising boat. Peter took some really neat pictures of me and Mark sailing (Mark was my autopilot for the day). We did pretty much the same thing as Ed and I did. With decent breeze early, we had a reef in by the Bay Bridge, two by Alcatraz, and a #4 jib on later in the day. Again, reducing sail area did not hurt the Jutson at all. This boat was STILL overpowered in 25-30. Not too bad though, I could dump air with the main and open up the leach of the jib to spill air. So, spilling air with 2 reefs and a #4 on, and we STILL HIT OUR TARGET speeds up wind. I was pretty impressed with that. Just like with Ed, we gybed around at Sausalito and hit solid 8's on a broad reach across the bay. Impressive. This Mount Gay 30 kicks ass. I love it. Again in the lee of San Francisco, we hoisted spinnaker in 10 knots and sailed through a dying breeze by the Bay Bridge. After the Bay Bridge, the breeze freshened to 15 and we were hitting solid 10's on the way to the Estuary in my first fun kite run with the Jutson. Soooo much fun to sail downwind. A huuuuge thanks to Peter Howsen, the photographer. He donated his photographic services and then wrote a nice article about our program on Sailing Anarchy. Great guy. If you ever need a yacht photographer in San Diego, or So Cal, hit Peter up. Great guy and great photographer. I am adding him to my sponsor page, if you need his contact info.
Sailing under reduced sail in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. Peter Howsen photo.
I'm gaining a lot of confidence in the boat. The boat hauls ass, but feels solid and very controllable. Just a good design really. The Jutson's big keel just digs in and keeps you planted where you're going, and that huge rudder lends to excellent controllability. Foot off if you need to, or go in the wind to spill air. It doesn't matter, and i've yet to feel out of control on it. And the thing just powers up so beautifully. Light air, and it's gone under full sail. When the wind picks up, reducing sail area calms the boat down and seems to have no ill effect on speed at all, which im really pleased with. The San Francisco Bay is proving to be a great place to train. With some more practice, new batteries and a functioning autopilot, i'm looking forward to heading offshore for my 400 mile qualifier. Probably early-mid April now, instead of mid-March like I was originally planning. Getting excited....
Other work
I have been working on boats to get by, and hopefully to be able to afford to upgrade the boat some. I just did a job on a Flying Tiger 10-meter, where i delivered the boat to the boat yard, hauled it, sanded the bottom, painted it, wet sanded the whole bottom, replaced a stern pulpit, buffed/ waxed the hull, and completely re-engineered and fabricated the trick engine trap door on the bottom, along with several other small boat maintenance and repair jobs. Last night, Mark and I delivered the boat back across the Bay to San Francisco. 12 knot kite reaches during the work day are ALWAYS a good idea. The owners are happy with the work, I made some money, and think i've lined up some more work, so i'm stoked. Now I can blow it all on new batteries! Yay
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The Flying Tiger "Centomiglia" before being hauled out at Svendson's. I did 7 days worth of work to her.
"Centomiglia" on the hoist before going back into the water. Check out her racy new bottom job.
Racing
I've been racing and sailing on Flying Tigers a lot. They're neat boats, I really like them. It's ironic, because I cam from San Diego, where most of the Tigers are concentrated, and i've managed to be adopted by San Francisco's small but active Tiger fleet. I worked on Fabio's boat, "Centomiglia", but i've been crewing on USA-69 "Kika". I sailed with them in the Berkeley Midwinters, and then went down to San Diego to sail with them in the Flying Tiger SCYA Midwinters in Coronado. We didn't do well in the results, but learned a lot as a crew, got faster all weekend and had a lot of fun. At one time, we were hitting 12's on a run, with 20 knot puffs, (I was trimming kite in the puffs, which was fun) while cutting in front of 5 boats, all on starboard, (we were on port, so they had rights on all of us. It was one of those "well, we're going for it, right or wrong, wer're going for it" kind of moments.) Fortunately, we crossed all of them, into the finish line. It was freakin' AWESOME. Soooo much fun when racing tight one design like that. I've been working pit and foredeck on Kika, while also trimming kite and even doing some other stuff. I really like doing all different positions, and learning as much as possible. Definitely have a new respect for pit and foredeck people.... A well run pit and foredeck is so important to a well crewed boat, and often goes unnoticed. Going down to San Diego in two more weeks for Flying Tiger NOODs in Coronado.
Pic from the Flying Tiger regatta in San Diego. A whole fleet of Tigers descended upon Coronado Yacht Club in San Diego. Always a GREAT time. Can't wait for the NOODs now! Photo by Clewless, and is from Sailing Anarchy front page.
Other stuff
There have been a couple more articles about our program on Sailing Anarchy, and Latitude 38 did a piece on us in the March issue. I'm also doing a speaking engagement this Wednesday at St. Francis YC to promote what we're doing and Hope for the Warriors. I'm now a member of Richmond YC, which is pretty neat. Definitely a qualify yacht club full of real sailors, that promotes a lot of races and does a lot for the sailing community. It's a laid back club whose focus really is sailing. Nice marina, nice club house, nice people, great bar, great junior program, etc. RYC rocks.
So all in all, things are rolling along. Sure, things aren't going super duper smoothly, but i'm staying busy and am always learning (and sailing), so i'm super stoked on that. 3.5 months to Transpac. I can't wait!
end
March 06, 2010
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