45+ knots!

Highest wind speed so far on this boat. Front came through and added to the thermal on a otherwise normal day on the SF Bay. Wind peaked around 4p with 35kn sustained with gusts above 45kn on our wind speed indicator. 2nd reef in the main with the boom vang way off and the J#3 rolled up to 30% was still enough to produce some crazy round-ups. Good news: nothing broke. This boat is tough as a brick in heavy weather! No pictures, we were way too busy!

Labor Day Cruise!

Some pictures from our cruise on the SF Bay over the Labor Day weekend. After a great sail around the water front and Alcatraz we stayed overnight at Belvedere Cove / Tiburon. That anchorage gets a little rolly once in a while, but you're all on your own as the depth is only 4-6ft at low tide. No problem for the Tartan 34C with the center board up! The views at sunset of downtown San Francisco are nothing short of spectacular. Next day we ventured out of the Golden Gate since the weather was really nice (no fog!), and the tide was cooperating nicely. Out there it is a different world, very tranquil, actually much less wind than inside the bay, believe it or not. We saw plenty of marine life and I tried my luck to catch some of the salmon, but alas, to no avail. After a total of 75miles crisscrossing the Bay we were pretty exhausted returning home! 

Anchored at Belvedere Cove

Outside the Golden Gate!

Salmon catching efforts..

More maintenance!

Did a couple of necessary repairs and upgrades over the weekend:

1) Replaced the broken exhaust elbow with a new one. The tricky part was to get all the hoses off the old part, and back on the new part. Also the bronze fittings were really snug and I was a bit concerned that I would crack the cast iron elbow by applying too much pressure. In the end it all fit ok, engine is running smooth and no exhaust fume is escaping into the cabin no more!

New Elbow

2) Replaced the old single wire stanchions with double wire stanchions that comply with offshore recommendations. The tricky part was that the sockets were all different so I had to drill many holes and tap threads like a champion. The next step will be to install new lifelines. The old ones are of the vinyl coated variety with lots of rust stains where they pass the stanchions. Yikes! Not something you want to depend your life on.

3) Replaced the mast boot and the partners. The old partners were kind of worn and allowed the mast to pump quite a bit on a beam reach, and the boot had cracked from age in some places. I bought a Spartite kit, which forms a continuous barrier around the mast and should completely stop it from pumping. Spartite is some sort of 2 component epoxy, that is applied while still liquid and then cures in place. The tricky part here was that it needs to be poured in the gap between mast and deck. For the still liquid mixture to stay in place before it cures, there must be no leaks to down below, otherwise the whole goo goes down into the cabin. Now, forming that barrier is quite tricky as there is very little space in some places. The kit comes with some sort of a playdoo clay that settles in corners and crevices. I thought we did a pretty good job, but just to be sure I positioned the best crew of all in the cabin below to watch, equipped with paper towels etc to stop any drops. Then I poured just a tiny bit and watched the level. From downstairs I got the all ok hail and I went to pour some more. And some more. That's when all of a sudden the level started sinking at an alarming rate, followed by a cry of disgust from down below. The stuff must have broken some crucial barrier and was now emptying out of that hole. Argh! I rushed below and helped putting wipes and tape in place to stop the ingress. In the end it wasn't so bad, except the blue sprinkles all over the place, in my hair, face and pretty much everywhere. No picture of that mess, sorry :-)

I should have just waited until the stuff settled a bit, but I was afraid for that to happen too quickly and then I would have ended with a solid piece of plastic in the mixing bucket, and none next to the mast. The instruction said you have 7-15min under normal conditions. And that was a pretty warm day to begin with, so I figured less. So hurry hurry, but in the end I could have waited. It was still pretty easy to pour after 10min or so, more like honey. Oh well, next time.. The mast boot was comparatively easy, just roll the self adhering tape around a couple of times, install the clamps and voila!

4) Installed the hardware on the boom for the 2nd reef. We figured that we really need the 2nd reef installed permanently, quite often we do see winds above 30kn here which absolutely requires 2nd reef. 

5) Cleaned up the mess from the spartite experiment. 

6) Drank some beers!

Memorial Day Cruise!

The long weekend of Memorial Day was a great chance to get out of our usual SF and back routine and visit some places we haven't been to for a while. I checked the tide tables and coincidentally, it was just a perfect fit for a venture out to the North Bay! The morning ebb would take us nicely to SF and the afternoon flood then would flush us up through San Pablo and further up wherever we wanted to go. We decided to visit our old stomping grounds of Benicia, so many beautiful memories! 

To get out early enough (noon slack water at Treasure Island!) we spend Friday night on the boat and set out early in the morning after breakfast. I was expecting to motor at least some part of the distance, so we had brought a spare canister of Diesel, just in case. However, the wind was already setting in early in the morning and we ended up motoring only for a little stretch close to the Bay Bridge. We even ran the spinnaker pretty much all the way to early afternoon, where it started to gust up in the usual afternoon thermals setting in. At Berkeley Circle we made a little detour to say hello the the J24 state championships, where a friend of us was competing. They were struggling with fickle winds and strong currents, but with the help of the iron genny we were quickly out of there and started sailing again.

Under gennaker close to Richmond bridge

Cruising the North Bay, SF skyline in the background

Going through San Pablo Bay was a breeze, wind and current in the same direction usually means flat sea state and a very smooth ride. Beautiful! Seeing the familiar silhouette of the Carquinez bridge reminded us of the time 3 years ago when were sailing this stretch of water countless times. Of course, and just as usual, as soon as we entered the strait the winds sort of died, but we enjoyed sailing slowly along the beautiful scenery, pushed by the current, and finally docked at Benicia harbor. After a walk through beautiful downtown Benicia we settled for dinner at Sailor Jack's, a really nice restaurant offering creative and high quality seafood dishes in a very relaxed atmosphere. They are located on the water front, offering splendid views of the sun setting over Carquinez Strait. 

The way back wasn't going to be that easy, as we now had winds against us and the ebb too early to be useful getting all the way to SF. Already in the morning it was blowing quite hard and we decided to tuck a reef in right away. Just outside the bridge where the Bay opens it got really messy, the strong ebb tide against 25kn of wind created a huge chop. The boat was slamming down pretty hard into the waves, so we decided to get out of the main channel to have a little smoother ride, even though it meant being somewhat slower. We saw some boats deciding to go under bare poles, engine only, slamming up and down the waves. Good stomach training :-) Around Pinole point it probably blew the hardest with gusts in the 30s. But as we neared China Camp the waves got much better as the wind doesn't have enough fetch to create any bigger waves. What a difference going through Richmond bridge, we really had to take that reef out to make any progress after that. After a long day we finally picked up a mooring at Angel Island, our favorite spot to spend the night. Nothing more pretty and tranquil around in the area.

Cuvee Constance for dinner!

The next morning it felt like being anchored at Moorea, as a pair of outrigger canoes came paddling by the lush green scenery that envelopes Angel Islands north flank. The way home was uneventful and we had to motor quite a bit to get home since there was way less wind than the day before. Just when we entered the Coyote Point marina channel I heard some strange noises from down below, as if the propeller shaft was rubbing against something. Otherwise the engine was running fine with full power, but I was glad it didn't happen earlier and was able to investigate right away. Upon further investigation when we were eventually docked, I also noticed a pretty bad Diesel exhaust smell inside the cabin, something I had noted earlier but attributed to the wind blowing exhaust back into the cabin. Happens sometimes when you run under engine down wind. This time however it was clear that it was coming from the exhaust system. After a quick check I noticed that the exhaust elbow was cracked. Good grief! No more motoring until that is fixed I guess..

Broken exhaust elbow, see the crack at the connection to the engine...

Round the Rocks!

The last of the SSS spring series races! Last year we did pretty well since the fast boats all parked in front of us until we had a chance to catch up. But this year that wouldn't happen, as the summer winds have already started. The race is fairly long at nominal 19.8 miles, plus we're on a new moon with raging currents in the SF Bay. Lots of work for a shorthanded crew! The start was at max flood, setting off from the Berkeley Olympic Circle towards Alcatraz (aka "The Rock)", then further up current to Harding buoy, then hopefully with some flood still pushing through beautiful Racoon strait, rounding Brother Rock all the way beyond Richmond bridge. Then past Red Rock and finally towards the finish line off Richmond YC.

We totally messed up the start (along with everybody else in our starting group), thanks to a huge current on the line. Took us a while to clear the line, but then off to the Rock! On the way there it breezed up quite a bit and over the radio we heard that Crissy field already had 23kn, so quickly in with the 1st reef! Took lots of tacks to finally clear Harding, but we weren't doing bad. The gennaker went up in a flash and we had a nice ride towards the Brothers. For some reason I set up the spi for outside gybes, and guess what, that works much better! We only messed up one gybe when there was little to no wind at the exit of Racoon. Lesson learned!

The last beat to the fish line was relatively easy, although we were pretty tired now. I was battling a Yankee 30 from our division which rates 20sec slower than us, so they had us beat on time for sure. When we were just about to pass the Richmond dock, a huuuge tanker decided to leave veery slowly, but of course you still cannot pass in front of him, so we probably lost another 5-10min there. In the end we were 2nd last in our division, but only 18min behind the leader, but 2nd overall on time, so I'm not too disappointed. Lots of fun sailing a technically challenging course! Results: here

Constance trucking upwind at 5.5kn

Corinthian!

The annual Corinthian race is the 2nd big race of the Singlehanded Sailing Society in the SF Bay. It is almost the same distance as the Three Bridge Fiasco (18mls vs. 22mls), but has a prescribed course zigzagging across the Bay (and avoiding the wind holes behind TI and around Red Rock!). At least that ensures that you're not constantly fighting the current but can also enjoy some down current speeds in between! Start is off the beautiful Corinthian yacht club house in Belvedere, across the Bay from San Francisco. There are 4 divisions (multihull, non-spi, spi, sportboats), with sub divisions for PHRF rating, double-handed and single-handed crews. We started in the Doublehanded PHRF 162 and above division. Constance rates at the top of that group with a PHRF rating of 165. On the East Coast I had 186, but of course the West Coast usually has stronger winds which favor our boat.

Corinthian YC in Belvedere

The day started early for us, leaving Coyote Pt marina at 6:30a, motoring against a growing  flood tide to be at the starting line in time. Just the day before was New Moon (solar eclipse in Europe!) and the tide currents were predicted to be monstrous. Which made me a little concerned, given that this time of the year the winds tend to be fickle! With more than 100 boats signed up for the race it was pretty crowded in the starting area. Also, the location in the Raccoon channel is very tricky, with big currents and shifty winds. Our original start was scheduled for 11:15a, coincidentally the time of max flood within the channel. Sure enough, the inflatable mark for the starting line drifted off so the start got postponed by 15min. Fine with me, as there was little wind and it seemed to be slowly building.

We got off to a great start, just off the club house outside the main channel, so I was trucking with the center board up all the way into Belvedere cove. At depth of 6ft this is a no go zone for all the deep draft boats! The trick is not to get becalmed in the cove, so you have to find a compromise between enough wind to keep moving and staying out of the channel to prevent getting swept backwards by the current. We finally cleared the headland ahead of plenty of larger boats from the previous starter group that had to stay in the channel. I plopped the CB down and off we went skirting the channel edge over to Richardson Bay.

All telltales flying, slightly off the wind, that's how the T34C likes it!

We stayed maybe a little too long on the Sausalito side, almost everybody else had already tacked over and was slowly disappearing towards Alcatraz on the way to the next mark at Blossom Rock. But at least that gave us some safety margin against being swept past the mark by the flood tide. In the end we could even set the gennaker to reach the mark!

Rounding Blossom Rock. © 2015 norcalsailing.com

After rounding Blossom Rock the next mark was Blackaller close to the Golden Gate all the way up against the current. We had to short tack along the waterfront, that actually went pretty well and we were able to pass a couple of boats. Counted 19 tacks on this leg! While being busy with tacking I had totally missed that the gennaker was set up for the wrong side. Took me a while to clear out the lines and meanwhile we got passed by everybody who had planned better and had the Spi running earlier. Bummer!

Unfortunately, the next mark off Southampton shoals, all the way across the bay behind Angel Island, was almost exactly dead down wind. That works pretty well with the symmetric spi, but the gennaker really doesn't go below 150deg wind angle, so we had to gybe a couple of times. Lost some more time with our abysmal 50% gybing success rate :) But in the end we kind of figured it out, so I have high hopes for the next race! I'm still learning the optimum angles, I believe I have to keep a gybing angle of about 75-80deg to get the best VMG.

The next mark rounding was again abysmal, the jib sheets had themselves tangled with the spinnaker halyard which I had uncautiously spread around the foredeck (was concentrating on packing the spi so we wouldn't lose it!). That took us another couple of minutes to figure out, but soon enough we were back under way going at great speed towards our next mark, Little Harding Rock. By now the wind had increased to 20kn so we also needed to tuck in a reef. Also, the current had switched and we were racing at 8kn over ground!

Towards the finish. Constance on the inside. © 2015 norcalsailing.com

Rounding the last mark before the dash to the finish, we discussed if we should just keep the gennaker down and sail with the jib & main for the remainder of the race. In 20+kn it seemed a bit risky to put it back up, but then I saw how everybody seemed to slow down in Raccoon channel. By now both of us were super exhausted. Since we didn't have anything to eat the whole day except some cookies I was running really low on fuel. On top of that, I was getting cramps in my hands, so it was quite an ordeal to get the spi back up. Anyways, we got it up and reeled in a pack of 20+ boats parked in the ebb current just a few 100m before the finish line. I had this genius plan to scoot into Belvedere cove out of the current and pass all these boats on the inside. Great plan with one flaw: there was really no wind inside the cove. Or rather it came from all sides. So back and forth I was gybing the spi to get the speed going. Meanwhile I was so exhausted that I couldn't even make a fist any more, so in the end I was merely clawing at the cloth to bring it over to the other side. Very pathetic, but in the end we finished! Due to all the mistakes we made, we didn't make it to the top of our group, a hapless #4 with 9min behind the leader. Still not too bad! Overall 40 out of 56 in the double handed monohull division. I'm glad we finished and didn't come in dead last!  

Race recap on jibeset!

The best crew of all!

Gennaker!

I can't believe what a difference the new gennaker makes. Setting up is much easier as you don't have to worry about the pole, same with setting and dowsing. Since the area is somewhat smaller (750sqft vs 880 sqft on the big symmetric spi) it stays easier to handle even in big puffs. It also helps that the main projected area is lower compared to the symmetric spi. The boat doesn't go into a death roll downwind, but I still get down to 135deg apparent, and up to about 60deg apparent wind angle. What I haven't figured out completely is gybing, that still has a success rate <50% meaning I end up with a twist or some stuck lines most of the time. Also, not closing the halyard shackle results in the spi come crashing down and the halyard zipping up :-( and me later on climbing the mast to retrieve it back.. 

3BF!

This year's Three Bridge Fiasco started out much better than last year's. We had a nice NE breeze at the starting line which brought us trucking past Alcatraz towards TI in very little time. The plan was to go first around TI clockwise before the main ebb tide would make it impossible, then reach Red Rock, then go back through the Raccoon channel between Angel Island and Marin, riding the tail of the ebb tide, and finally finish rounding Blackaller next to the Golden Gate and back to the finish. The weather forecast predicted a dying gradient NE, which would be later be replaced by a westerly sea breeze. 

Starting line 3BF 2015

The weather was absolutely beautiful, sun shining, temperatures way up in the 60s. Not bad for a January 31st! At the northern tip of Treasure Island we set Big Blue, the new gennaker. By that time we had well above 10kn of wind and I was a little flustered on the pitching and tilting foredeck. Sure enough, I let go of the snuffer line and with a sudden puff the gennaker filled and pulled the sock all the way up, including snuffer line. Oops. That meant a complicated dowsing operation underneath the bridge, something I was not looking forward to. We went all the way across the channel to get out of the current and made nice progress towards the Bay Bridge. Sure enough the wind died closer to the bridge and our progress came down to inches. The good news: The gennaker snuffed itself without any outside help, so I was able to grab the snuffer line and set it up correctly. That was a very lucky turn of events! Some other boats that stayed in the channel and initially had pulled away, were now slowly swept back and eventually abandoned the idea of crossing the Bay Bridge. We made it all the way to just outside the Alameda channel, where we had to anchor for a little while. Eventually the westerly set in and we were able to make it past the southern tip of Yerba Buena island, sweeping at great speed under the western span of the Bay Bridge, woohoo!

So far so good, it took a little longer to get around the Bay Bridge obstacle as it was already noon now. The way to Red Rock was initially easy, first close hauled, then the wind was gradually clocking back and we could set the gennaker again. As we past Angel Island, the main fiasco fleet emerged out of the Raccoon strait. Apparently, the wind had died just after our start and everybody else was forced to go downstream with the tide towards Blackaller buoy. Many unfortunate boats got swept out of the Golden Gate, just like us last year, but some 100+ boats made it through Raccoon.

Unfortunately, as we neared Red Rock, the wind got less and less and completely shut down about a mile south of it. A huge parking lot of boats desperately trying to dodge the current and catch some wisp of wind emerged just south of the rock. That's where we stayed for about 5 hours until we called it a day at 5:30p, with no chance to reach the finish line any longer (7p was the cut off). Looks like only a little more than 40 boats out of about 350 starting boats actually finished. Those were mostly fat boats that picked Red Rock as the first mark and made it around before the wind shut off. Not sure if we would have been able to make it tough with Constance, she is just a bit too heavy to excel in light winds. 

Still, we had a lot of fun, and spend some nice days on the water! Next year we'll make it all the way around!

Making our way towards Red Rock (thanks to Mike from Roxanne!)

 

Big Blue!

Is my new G1 asymmetric gennaker. First test sail at little to zero wind was not 100% convincing but at least I got it to fly and was able to make some sort of speed with it. Jibing is somewhat more difficult than I imagined, it still needs someone on the foredeck to help the sail around. Let's hope next weekend at the three bridge fiasco there'll be more wind!

Going solar!

Spent the last couple of weekends installing a new solar system on the boat. Since there was very little wind for sailing! Why solar now? Answer is relatively easy: I don't really like to be dependent on shore power and I also don't think it is a good idea to run the engine just for charging the battery. We end up staying quite often overnight somewhere outside with the boat and the batteries come down quite a bit with the anchor light on all night. Usually we would run the engine for less than 15min to get in and out of the marina/anchorage, so that's clearly not enough to get the batteries recharged. But if the wind is right, why have the engine drone on? But that's what usually happens, otherwise you run into danger of draining the batteries too much, damaging them in the progress. 

Nowadays, they have pretty affordable flexible panels available for less than $140 each, so I thought I give it a try. These are the same panels sold under the brand name of Solbian, but I got them much cheaper on eBay. 50W each, which is quite impressive just thinking a couple of years back. The biggest investment was the charge controller from BlueSky Energy, which came in at $292, but is also capable of supporting bigger panel arrays, and has some nice features boosting the panel output. I figured if I ever want to go on an extended cruise I would need some means to be able to recharge without shore power, so that leaves me the option to upgrade the panels if necessary. 

The next question was where to mount the panels. The only place that is not interfering with handling the boat and sails is really on the top of the spray hood. That's where the flexible panels come in handy. Of course you don't want them flexing back and forth, but I think the installation is rigid enough that it shouldn't affect lifetime too much. For now the panels are mounted using sewed in industrial strength Velcro. I probably need to reinforce the corners a little, but that can come later.

Today was the day when I finally connected the first panel. 1.1A from the get go on a hazy late afternoon, not too bad! After adding the second panel I should have enough juice running to never ever having to run the engine again for charging, hooray!

Solar panel installation (still need to hide the cables)

Hooray, 1.1Amps!