http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/ Surprise, class number 11750, owned and operated by Bob Hunkins.]]> en-us 2009-06-04T09:55:06-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000517.html I don't mean that the winds were challenging, although they were. While we were racing I saw some ambulances and emergency vehicles on shore. I had assumed someone at the turtle club or the marina next door there had a... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-06-04T09:55:06-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000513.html This video shows a mark rounding incident that happened at the AYC regatta. I got pinched out at a leeward mark, tacked, rounded the mark, gybed and came up on the wind.... One-Design Racing Bob 2009-05-17T21:52:51-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000512.html Producing this has taken me a lot of work, and it's not that great except for the fact it catches the RC prep flag going down, the start horn, and A.K.'s boat can be seen to leeward of us for... One-Design Racing Bob 2009-05-10T22:33:22-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000511.html Sunday at AYC showed the storms of Saturday had passed and we began racing on time. At the start we had a close fleet. I was behind A.K. on Starboard tack with M.L. behind me and to leeward. I forget... One-Design Racing Bob 2009-05-08T21:49:12-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000510.html Winds were not so strong tonight, I estimate 10-12, lulls into the single digits. Temperatures were arms in the 80's, a little warm going downwind. Winds south by east, to south. Course was a trapezoid, rounding the offset weather mark... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-05-07T09:14:56-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000509.html Video of our first tack The Starting Sequence First Mark rounding and spinnaker set... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-05-05T22:10:08-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000508.html Once again, we traveled to Arlington Yacht Club for their annual regatta. Once again it was a great time. We arrived about 2 minutes after the GPS predicted we would, at 6:04pm. Did the usual Friday night arrival ritual -... One-Design Racing Bob 2009-05-04T22:09:53-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000507.html This is the first time I've used a small video camera system I put together on Surprise. Editing it and getting something worthwhile will be a lot of work, so this is just a little clip from when we left... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-04-30T23:14:31-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000506.html Here's the track logs for the race last night. For some reason, the GPS stopped recording during the last upwind leg. This has never happened before, I could not find any reason that this would happen. Hoping it doesn't happen... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-04-30T20:21:28-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000504.html I finally made it out on the water yesterday, Winds 10-15kt, gusting 20. Got on plane a couple of times with the spinnaker. The fleet was two DS's in the Portsmouth fleet, several Lasers, a 420 and a 470. Started... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-04-30T07:16:36-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000501.html I had a hard time concentrating at work Weds. Again, I was looking forward to getting on the water for the first time this year for the Wednesday Night Races. I got down to the shed, and found a strange... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-04-16T22:34:23-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000500.html Today I went back to the shed where the boat lives when she's not on the water. After taking off the clamp, I sanded the epoxy drippings away. Next, I mixed up some unthickened Epoxy, and wet out several pieces... Rigging Bob 2009-04-12T20:37:08-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000499.html I spent the day repairing the block that broke free last Wednesday. It's a three stage operation. The big problem I've encountered is the problem of applying enough force to clamp the wooden pad in place. In the past, I... Rigging Bob 2009-04-11T19:52:53-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000498.html So here I am, looking forward to the first Wednesday race of the year. I got to the dock, with Surprise in tow, Joe showed up right on time, and we started rigging. There's always something about sailing after the... Wednesday nights Bob 2009-04-08T21:48:47-06:00 http://www.bobhunkins.com/surprise/archive/000460.html I've been working on some MATLAB scripts to come up with some analysis of this and hopefully other races using the GPS data. Here's the track of the race. For the first leg, I plotted the relative angle to the... Wednesday nights Bob 2008-06-07T10:04:38-06:00