Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

May Series 4

We had three Vanguard 15's come out - which was good to see. There's hope for a fourth next week(!) We had two Day Sailers, one Lido 14, a Laser II, and one Flying Junior.

I've been trying to find a way to characterize the boat's performance for a particular race and so far I haven't found anything too satisfactory. My latest attempt is to split the GPS track log data for the race into the separate legs, then determine the average VMG for each leg, using an estimated distance and the time it take to complete that leg.
Then, using that VMG, I compute the average angle I was able to sail the boat at relative to the rhumb line. I used the average speed for the leg, (computed by OziExplorer), and did some trig to find the angle between the average VMG and the average speed.

The formula is:
Theta = Arccos(avg speed/avg VMG)

The numbers going upwind appear credible, however, I'm not entirely comfortable with the math behind it. Going downwind, the angle is of course smaller.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not at all comfortable with this method. But, if the data are to be believed, we sailed a closer average angle to the mark on the third leg than on the first. I assumed the length to the first and fourth legs was from the pin to the weather mark, and the second and third legs from the leeward mark to the weather mark. Comparing the down wind legs shows that the 12 degree angle resulted in a faster VMG. than the 17 degree angle. sounds trivial, but I wonder what would have happened if our angle was really close to zero? Convention says some angle off the mark should give us an increase in VMG. over sailing dead downwind. It's very tough to draw any conclusions from this. Maybe with some more data a conclusion can be drawn. I suppose I could go back and look at the data from previous weeks to see what happened.

May Series 3

This was one of those evenings that sailors dream of: Perfect winds. Not too strong, not too light. Warm temps, cold drinks afterwards.
This was also the first time that CLRA has ever given us the two triangle course. Usually we get the windward - leeward or occasionally the gold cup. This course has been on the books ever since they started a portsmouth class and tonight they actually gave it to us. We had three Vanguard 15's sailing tonight which was really great, but unfortunately they misread the course during the second lap and sailed towards the finish without rounding the jybe mark. In otherwords they sailed a gold cup course. They did realize their mistake, and came back to sail the proper course so at least they didn't have a DNF.

The best thing about tonight was Jim W's second place finish which gave the top two places to Day Sailers. WE RULE. ;-)

Wind data during the time were on the water form the USGS waterdata web site
Date CDT speed direction
MPH degrees(true)
05/18/2005 17:15 17 124
05/18/2005 17:30 12 136
05/18/2005 17:45 14 140
05/18/2005 18:00 12 142
05/18/2005 18:15 12 143
05/18/2005 18:30 14 140
05/18/2005 18:45 12 136
05/18/2005 19:00 11 144
05/18/2005 19:15 14 125

May Series 2 - Rig splinter netting!

There was plenty of wind durng this race between 15 and 20. I would have been more comfortable with it but for the fact I was fighting some sort of upper respiratory crud. As it was, I felt less comfortable than I did in April Series 1 which had more wind.
I chose not to fly the spinnaker during the first downwind which in retrospect wasn't that great an idea. We've done well with it in higher winds.

The start was a fiasco, I found myself in a bad situation and we were late to the start by about 10 seconds. We tacked over to port as soon as we could partly to clear our air from the fleet, but also because at the time I thought it was the right thing to do. As it was, we did managed to keep up with the faster class boats in the fleet. During the first beat in the fourth tack, one of the wooden seat planks on the starboard side of the boat shattered. Of course, it was due to my bulk. However, these seats were never honest work. They were poor quality wide grained wood. They were proported to be teak, but I doubt it. This particular seat plank had previously cracked a couple of years ago and although I glued it back together it was not going to last. At the time, I was mostly concerned about not getting a large splinter in my rear end as we tacked about. I was less able to focus on the race, the boat's position on the course and the trim of the sails. It was a distraction to say the least.

Nevertheless, we flew the spinnaker on the last downwind and had some really high variations in wind speed, mostly due to the shadowing from the buildings near the finish line. We went from a downright drifter to planing in less than 5 seconds a couple of times, which made for interesting sailing.

It seems it was a gear buster day for a few of us in the portsmouth fleet - Dick H. lost a chainplate on his Lido before the start. Luckily those boats are set up so it's not such a catastrophic thing as it sounds. Jim W. had a strange event occur. The sister clip holding on of the clews on his spinnaker came undone, which is exactly what they are designed not to do. I think he must have sailed through a pocket of improbability.

So, time to do more repairs.
The wooden seat planks are made from 1x4 stock. Thursday I went to the local lumber store and procured some mahagony (sold by the foot) instead of teak (sold by the inch ) and have fashioned some nice replacements, if I do say so myself. Made good use of my table saw, and router.
The offending shattered piece is shown below, after I removed it, as is the replacement planking on the starboard side. They look nice compared to the thwarts, if I do say so myself, which makes me want to use one of the pairs my Dad built for me in Surprise instead of the boats we're slowly restoring.

May Series 1

Back to racing handicap on Wednesday nights.... I repaired all the damaged items from the regatta in Arlington, actually K. helped me with the hiking straps. Industrial grade sewing machnes are a wonderful thing for sailors to have. Aluminum welding technology would be as valuable, too. But I digress...
Winds were moderate, we had less than I wanted, but still usable. It was a shifty day. The wind were from the SE most of the time, but went almost NE by the end of the race. I was wondering what was going to happen, since the NOAA weather radio and other sources were reporting NE winds when I was standing in a SE breeze on the dock.

There was nothing remarkable to report during this race that I can recall, but the GPS track data was good so here it is:

Arlington Yacht Club Annual

This was the first One-design race I've had this year. It's always fun to go up to AYC. There's some very nice folks there; always hospitable and welcoming. We had rather gusty winds on Saturday morning - over 15kts, gusts above 20. We had three races on Saturday, one in the morning and two in the afternoon.
During the first race in the morning, we took third place. Unfortunately a lot of the details of what happened during that race have left me but I remember that the masthead fly was loose, and we the shackle on the Spinnaker opened during the second downwind hoist. We got back for lunch, ate quickly, and pulled Surprise out of the water. We struck the mast, and I discovered to my dismay that the masthead fly wasn't just loose. The threads inside the top of the masthead that I had tapped were stripped out, so we used some electrical tape and taped the fly to the top of the masthead. That worked for the rest of the regatta, and I've got a solution for the permanent fix. During the first race we were in good shape but rounded a mark placed for the sunfish fleet. Luckily we realized it in time. Andy we ended up finishing first in that race with us second. In the next race we sailed very well and got a first place. So we were tied for first with Andy K.
The next morning it was less windy. As we pushed off the dock, the tiller extension came off in my hand. It had pulled out and bits of the wood were clinging to the wood screws. We taped the socket back on the tiller and that worked for the rest of the day as well. We had the full fleet of seven boats this day. The first race I think we had a good start, and were close to Andy the entire race. Somehow he ended up being forced to tack away, and at the time I think he was unhappy about it. But as it does sometimes out there, the wind shifted very hard and we fell from second to 4th. Andy was fortunate he tacked when he did. He managed to take second that race, and Manuel got first. That put us out of the running for first place unless Andy were to make some big mistakes, which he doesn't do very often at all. We broke a hiking strap during this race, so we jury rigged the painter to act as strap. It's time to replace them anyway.
In the last race we played the shifts well going upwind, and by the last downwind we were quite a way out in front. I was not comfortable with that lead, however. We ran into some problems and lost some of the distance. I was on pins and needles the whole time hoping that the wind wouldn't be to unkind to us and we were lucky enough to finish ahead of Andy in that race by a couple of boat lengths. He had made up a lot on us during that beat.
So we came home with second place, a lot of good memories, and some repair work to do.
Summary of repair work:
Replace hiking straps - I need to incorporate a way to make them more tolerant of being stepped on so the screws securing them to the thwarts don't get pulled out.
Masthead fly - The threads in the masthead truck are stripped, so I need to tap a piece of aluminum plating and use it as a nut on the underside of the top of the truck. I'll need to drill out the existing hole so that the masthead fly can pass through and meet up with the plate.
Tiller - The spruce wood, although light, is splitting. I need the length in the tiller to control the boat while hoisting the chute. I plan to epoxy the wood back together as bet I can and wrap a layer of fiberglass around the handle to hold it together. Where the extension socket is to be seated, I'll through-bolt it instead of using wood screws and fill any voids I can with thickened epoxy putty.