Category: Updates

Another cheer for Squirrel!  Thanks to his help tonight, we now have instruments for our races, and some fun new technology to play with:  wifi!

All the data that the instruments measure and compute are now being broadcast on a local wifi network on the boat.  Anyone with a compatible app can tap into this data stream and see whatever instrument value you want to focus on, right on your phone.  This winter when I researched this, i decided that iRegatta was the best of these apps.  It’s designed for racing, and includes the ability to set the race course, define the start line, find the favoured end, plus, it has a J100 polar table in it, so it will advise us on all kinds of tactics, like when we’ve reached a layline to a mark, the expected wind angle on the next leg, whether we will make better course made good by sailing high and slow or low and fast, and — my favorite — whether we have trimmed the sails to reach our speed potential or not.

Calvin called it our secret weapon…but of course, we have to learn how to use it.  So, if any of you are interested, go ahead and install an app.  iRegatta itself isn’t pricey, but it jumps to around $20 to get the feature that connects to the instruments over wifi.

Afterguy may have a new nickname after tonight:  “Mr Clean”.  He and I went at the cabin, removing all the clutter, vacuuming, wiping down all the surfaces, organizing and stowing.

Here’s how it all looked before:

And after an hour of elbowgrease, we have a place for everything and everything in its place:

Thanks Alvin!

Two changes this year:

1. a new race mark #15
2. location of #11 has moved SW, away from CCIW

Yes indeed, we are ready to go, just add sails and crew!

A great big thanks to Skootch, Lifeline, & Squirrel.  Together we stepped the mast on PERSPECTIVE and then pitched in to help Calvin and Tom launch Merlot.

We had two hitches that took a bit of extra time:

1. The increased water level meant that our top spreader was just slightly above the mast crane while lowering the mast onto the stepping block.  While in the hole, we found that we had parked the spreader on the top of the crane.  Oops!
2. With a shorter forestay, and the mast positioned with minimum rake, the backstay was short :-(.  At first we tried to shift the mast, but to no avail.  Later, I decided I liked the rake, and I liked the feel of the forestay, so I measured up the gap and headed off to Lululemon (aka the marina stores).  Brewers had exactly the right toggle — 3.5 inches pin to pin.  Perfect! –installation was a piece of cake.

By now, Merlot was rigged, so Squirrel and I fed all the lines on PERSPECTIVE — take a look!

New crew member Bert (Tuesday Mainsail trimmer) is keen to start the season and shared this article on how to optimize mainsail twist in different conditions.  A great guide that I’ve added to our Sail Trim page on the website….thanks Bert!

The season is just around the corner and although the weather is lousy right now, we will soon be enjoying beautiful evenings on the bay.  And to help make them even more enjoyable, Alvin and I went to the seminar this evening to collect some tips on how to get a really good start to the race.

There was a lot of stuff covered, but these few tips and reminders were the big things:

Reminders:

1. Have a strategy before the start: in other words, decide which side of the bay we want to sail on.  Some specific tips:
   1. Don’t cross the bay twice — the shore usually has more wind and there is a current from west to east down the middle of the bay
   2. Heading upwind to the west, the boat that goes closest to the wall gets an advantage. Note: as you approach the wall, there is often a knock, but persist, because there is usually a lift just after it.
2. Figure out which end of the line is favoured (more upwind), and try to take advantage of that…but:
   1. Clear air and room to tack are more important
   2. Cross the line at full speed

Tips:

1. Get some separation from the pack
   1. When other boats are arriving early, stay away from them
   2. When everyone is going for the favoured end of the line, the middle is often a good choice
   3. Don’t be afraid to point lower and go faster than the others
2. Learn to slow down and accelerate
   1. Rather than timing the approach to the line by sailing away and back at full speed, learn to sail at half speed and how to accelerate. This will give more flexibility in timing the line and choosing a good spot
   2. If you ease the mainsail, the boat will slow down and bear away from the wind
   3. If you ease the genoa, the boat will slow down and point higher in the wind
3. Try a “Pick start”
   1. Stay about 5 boatllengths below the line and sail back and forth at half speed
   2. In the last 90 seconds, be heading on port tack along this line
   3. Pick a rival approaching on the other tack
   4. Aim for their ‘foretriangle’ (ie: between the mast and the bow), and accelerate
   5. Tack near them to trap them in your lee bow (note, we have to tack quickly and get back to speed quickly for this to work)

And of all of this, I think the bit about learning to sail slowly and accelerate quickly is worth practicing.

Can’t wait!

Hi All,

I just got our new PHRF certificate (at this link), and we have been adjusted from 70 to 73.  It’s a small adjustment (3 seconds per mile), but in the right direction.  And, it is a slightly slower rating than the J-35s that we compete with (Battlewagon, Top Gun, Remarkable) and Eclipse, all of whom are rated 72.  So, if we beat any of them across the line, we win.  Last year there were a couple cases where we beat one of them over the line (by a wee bit), but after correcting for PHRF handicap, they beat us.

No more!

Three cheers for Squirrel — and thank him next time we hoist the spinnaker in 15+knots of wind.  We now have padeyes just aft of the shrouds supporting a big turning block to route the guy down to deck further forward.  This will flatten the spinnaker to de-power it in high winds so that we can hoist with confidence when the wind is howling.

(Tools and coffee run by Gadget, moral support and cleanup by StarPort).

Here are a few shots of the project and finished product:

I know it felt like we had improved a lot last year compared to the year before.  We all know that the big genoa and the symmetrical spinnaker made a big difference — it was obvious because rather than finishing consistently last, we were in the hunt on any given race.

But now we have a number that measures how much better.  In my previous post, I showed that in 2016 we were rated 70 and our performance was equivalent to 70.  What were the figures for 2015?  Was it a marginal improvement in our performance or a big one?

Actually, shockingly big.  In 2015 we were rated 77, and performed 58 points worse:  at a rating of 135!  So our performance averaged 65 seconds per mile faster in 2016 compared to 2015.  Fantastic!

Digging a little deeper into the stats for 2016, I noticed a few more things:

1. In the first half of the year we were less consistent (Stdev=19) than the second half of the year (Stdev=14).  I’m sure a lot of this had to do with experience, but also…
2. In the first half of the season, our worst outings were in high wind.  After we learned how to tune the shrouds and had the #3 re-cut (or used the old #3, which was flatter), we no longer under-performed our rating on windy nights.
3. The only race in the second half of the season where we underperformed was August 18th, a night with a lot of wind shifts and a series of strategic and tactical errors: http://perspectiveracing.ca/2016/08/19/shifty-strategy/.  If we drop this race from the calculation of consistency, our Stdev=5.  Very consistent.
4. And comparing our average rating for the first half of the season (78) with the second half (70), we not only got more consistent, we also got faster.

How about Tuesday vs Thursday?  Nearly identical:  Tuesday= 70, Thursday=71.

What a great season!