May 31 2011 - status

Hi all, Just to let you know that Hank has, hopefully repaired the toilet. He installed a new "joker valve", even though the existing one looked pretty good.
Looks like I will be sitting at the marina for a while... Hank will be gone on the Van Isle 360 race with the "MoJo". Racing around Vancouver Island for 2 weeks, then he is off on a short motorcycle trip to Sooke then up to Courtney to visit his daughter.
However, I understand that I will be taking Caroline and Hank on a two week cruise through the Gulf Island when Hank returns, this should be interesting reading I'm sure.

Til next time... happy sailing..........

May 23, 2011 - Cruising on down to Elliott Bay

Sailed Caroline and Hank to Elliott Bay to see their friends from the yacht club. Nice and easy sail, sailin between 3 - 6.8 knots. Not bad weather... cloudy and a bit of the wind. We were greeted by Peirre and his wife... helping me dock right next to the BBQ hut. Caroline and Hank had a great home made lunch, and then Caroline was taken out on a small dingy, to see if one of those will suit her needs. The one I have now is too small for Caroline, so Hank would like to upgrade to a different one. From the photo, I'm not sure if this one will do. :)
Sailed home without problems... except when we arrived home, Caroline mentioned that my toilet has backed up and most likely will need to be repaired; the smell down there was ... you know. :)

Bye for now...

May 18 2011, Another Wednesday night race!

For an old sea lady of 38, I'm sure doing a lot of racing with Hank and Paul, (our other crew member). Last night they took me on a race with 15 - 20 knot winds. Even though he reefed my jib to 50%, I still heeled over to my rails, with waves breaking over my bow.When 10 boats racing, we came in only 7th!!! not good for a good old lady like me.
to recap...

1. Hank got to the start line too early and had to run down the line to the marker. Unfortunately, we ran out of start line and had to jbye, now on a port tack heading into the fleet who are on a starboard tack... not good... we lost at least 3 - 4 minutes.
2. During one tack, our starboard winch was wrapped to many time and the winch knotted; we had to pull up into irons and undo the knot. lost 3 minutes.
3. During a port tack run, we had to give way to another race boat on a starboard tack. Hank was hoping to slow a bit and pass on his stern, but another race boat was just up wind on our starboard side. So we had to do an emergency tack. Paul was still on the windward side so he to scrabble to get to the sheets. Lost about 1 minute.
4. Estimate time lost 7 minutes.... we could of placed 2nd if all went well... but that's racing eh!

1		Radiance		David Chard	WVYC					40:02	1.0
2		Mystique		George Streadwick	WVYC					42:08	2.0
3		Equilibrium		Bob Johnson	EHYC					42:28	3.0
4		Avontuur		Dave Bruynesteyn	WVYC					42:45	4.0
5		Lopeka		Jason Bowman	WVYC					45:13	5.0
6		Silver Shadow		Bev Parslow	WVYC					47:28	6.0
7		Tarka		Hank Schut	WVYC					48:37	7.0
8		Wildwind		Gary Wildman	WVYC					1:29	8.0
9		Baloo		John Noble	WVYC					1:27	9.0
10		Lark Not Registered									10.0
11		Solaris		Rand Thompson	WVYC	209			DNC		12.0

Well you can see from above, it does not take too many minutes too loose / win. :)

Afterwards, Hank went for a great dinner with Jason and Andrew at the Yacht club... Paul had to go home - family committment.

May 14 2011 - Stag Race to Center Bay

Looks like I was the baby in this race; all other boats were a lot larger than me... unfortunately, I came in 6th out of 7. At least I beat out a 46' ketch!

The winds were very light, even motored for part of the way over. There was a wind puff of 15 - 20 knots for a short period. On the way home... it rained with no wind:)
Jason, his dad, their friend Tony, and Hank had a great time! steak dinner was perfect with Hank at the BBQ. Jason caught 7 legal size crabs, which came lunch on the following day.

My cleaned hull looks and felt great!!

Looking forward to  my next race!
Tarka.

May 13 2011 - Haul out time

It has been almost a year now, that I was put on the hard (that's sailor's talk for taking the boat out of the water).
 I was put on the Club's elevator with the help of Hank and Jason... no problems going up or down!

There was not too much to clean off, mainly around the propeller and rudder. Jason installed two new zincs on the prop shalf, and Hank power washed  my black bottom. After-wards Hank applied another coat of Joton bottom paint around the water line.... looking good eh!

Also, we had Performance Yachts do an inspection on the keel, rudder and bottom... we got the GREEN light... all is well. :) Only goes to show that I can ram a few logs now and then. (rammed into two last season) and get away with it.

Now sitting at the club overnight, waiting of Hank to take me out, doing the Stag race to Center Bay tomorrow.

May 11 2011 - Race Day!

Well I survived! another race over! This was one of the best race I ever had! The winds were at least 20 knots, gusting to 25 or more, for the complete race. Foolishly Hank sailed me with full sails! no reefing for him! Needless to say, we were heeled over to my rails most of the race, ever buried them at times. There were six boats in our division... We came in Third!!
We had a perfect start for once... it looks like Hank is learning how to be at the line on time at the start line!
Back at the club, Hank spoke to the sailor who came in Second... he was reefed... a single reef in the main and reefed the jib to 60%.

Hank's lesson learned... read the winds and adjust according; you can sail just as fast reefed, without the excessive heel and excitement? :))

Average speed:... Tacking: 5.5 - 6 knots... Broad reach: 7 - 8.4 knots!... running: 6 - 7.0 knots!

May 04 2011 - Wednesday Night Race

Well, the first race of this season is over, with Paul as trimmer and Hank at the helm.

Thanks to Hank, we can in 5th out of 7 boats entered! We have 5 Sailing divisions in our club, I am in the Division that does not fly a sail...only allowed to use working sails. He missed the starting time... he assumed that our Division 5 was starting last (as it normally is). .However... our Division started in the middle, so Hank was off sailing away from the start line. By the time he realized his mistake, we were at least 5 minutes behind... this means we would be last no matter how I sailed... we lost before we even started! BUT, we did make up for lost time due to my fine lines... but still came in last. (6th DNF (did not finish) and 7th was DNC (did not compete).
The winds were light... started at Atkinson Point with the rounding mark near Stanley Park. By the time we got at the club house is was 8:30 pm.

Things Learnt... ALWAYS watch the Committee boat flags!! at all time... with the binoculars!

Oh,one more thing... Hank had my boom only repaired, moved the reefing lines to the proper setting to match my new main sail and adjusted the sail battens to make my sail work and look good!

Till the next race...