2013 Crewed Duxship

[Photoboy]

Criminal Mischief is 1st to finish the 2013 Duxship in 4 hours 13 minutes and and 8 seconds, besting Emily Carr for division for PHRO Division 1. They were later chastised on the VHF by Blue and Gold ferry "Harbor Empress" while motoring post Alcatraz, as the Ferry driver seemed irked to have to alter his course 2 or 3 degrees....




Mark Howe's Farr 30', War Pony was 1st to finish in division 2 yet corrected out behind the Dan Benjamin's Wyliecat 30 " Whirlwind".




Brian Turner's Beneteau 31R "Cruzsea Baby" experiences a little South Tower Demon
magic...




Rick Waltonsmith's Corsair 37, "Transit of Venus" dominated the 1 boat multihull division!




The new rules limiting speed and channel width means that inbound and outbound commercial traffic wont hit so many whales...sailboats were not listed as endangered...




Bobby the J with Slip Allan as crew on Ragtime...whoduthunk?


Bobs mini report:



We ended up having a close race in our SHS division.

We got a good start but were almost over early after sparring with friends Rich and Mary on RACER X. Immediately we all got pinned on starboard by the trimaran coming in fast from behind (why did they start him with the shorthanders?) Once he tacked away we could all tack onto port to head out into the ebb.

It got light past Bonita and a couple boats went for headsail changes. I'd made that mistake in the last race so we held on to the #3 based on the forecast. We rode a branch of the ebb up the coast until it petered out. The consensus was the wind line would appear offshore first, so we tacked back onto starboard and headed out. The breeze filled in nicely, although not nearly as much as was forecast. We remarked several times what a spectacular day it was on the ocean.

There was enough northerly in the breeze to plan setting a reaching kite after rounding Duxbury Reef buoy. However I lost my balance and fell hard on the tiller, cracking its aft end. A Spectra lashing and a screwdriver were applied but we judged it unlikely to hold in a hard broach - and the leg down to the Light Bucket was going to be broachy. We stayed with white sails and joined the parade, watching the WylieCats extend.

After rounding the Lightbucket we mulled over the risks of hoisting a kite and finally did as several boats approached from behind. The little reacher was ready to go so we compromised with that, but it was hard to sail deep with it. It finally got fun after we came back under the Gate.

Other than the busted tiller it really couldn't have been a nicer race - it was beautiful out there!





Mary and Rich Pipkin smoking under the gate!




Dylan Benjamin's Moonshine corrected out to wind SH04 division




Tesa doing some spin durability testing

Paul Zingaro's Islander 36 "Pilot" Rocking and Rolling

Additional Photos


https://www.jibeset.net/racedoc/YRA_...l?t=1370194594

[Idiotwind]

Too much fun! We made a mistake, and hit the North Tower hard, but found the sweet water in the middle, as most of the Entrants went back and hit the north side. There was a massive starboard tack lift for those who ventured to the Marin side, but when the boats that had passed us were left behind as we approached the CLOREGS line, we knew that, even though we were headed, 8 knots to weather in a Cal 20 is Whoopin'. It went very light to the west of Pt. Bonita, and those who were paying attention went to the south, but out of phase. We played with Andy on Ahi for quite a while, eventually passing him twice. We chose to go south, looking for the big wind, and found progressive pressure, but a lift. We tacked, and went to the nude beach south of Stinson, on a lift, until we were not hitting our polars. The starboard ride out to the lay line was quite unpleasant, but we locked down and rode it. The brutal part was the transit from DR1 to SF. Wind abeam to 15° forward made the spin reach quite hard to drive, even with our massive rudder. Looking forward to the blast home was denied, as the wind pooped out all the way through the Channel Buoys. Big drops, and no power. What a drag. We matched boat speed with the Hinkley, "Mimicat" all the way to the Golden Gate. Once again, we saw a Competitor, an Islander 36, sail out of the sweet water, to the north side, and we raced ahead of her for awhile. Lots of fun, as usual, at the South Tower, but we were having fun, and staying focused. Our elapsed was 6:30.05. Corrected TOT turns out to be 5.1347 hours. Do the math, when OYRA releases the results.

Cheers,
Richard

[Angry Dolphin]

What division?

[familysailor]

I didn't see any Cal 20's on the results page??

[Buzz Light Beer]

The little known invisi-division?

Did the Peckerheads show?

[war dog]

Did the Peckerheads show?

Nope and the decision was made we want nothing to do with the idiot!! At some point we may meet up on a race course but I'm not going to be a part of his on-line drivel anymore!!!

[Idiotwind]

Tom, how in the hell do you represent as the COO of unauthorized sailing? At least we walk the talk, meat!

[Tonapah Low]

He has a point.

[BobJ]

I'd like to hear from some of the two dozen boats who were in the race. Counting crew that's 100+ people who were participating. Do NONE of you read this board?

How was your race? What went right - what would you do differently? Is anyone else even mildly enthusiastic about what we're doing out there?

[Hanno]

OK Bob, I'll chime in. I agree, it was a beautiful day on the ocean and I just needed shorts and T shirt under my foulies. Unlike you, we did change up to the #1 when it got light. It seemed to pay off, but maybe we left it a little late to change back down. We were generally trying to work farther out to find wind, and after changing down and lugging the big jib below we were happy to find ourselves just about on the port tack layline. We had lost some ground to boats that we’d passed when it was light, but I’m not sure if it’s because they stayed inshore or because we were overpowered.

I was very tempted to set on the beam reach down to the Lightship, but with my crew Rom a bit queasy we held off. (And I call myself a singlehander?) Anyway, we set after rounding and came in just south of the ship channel, as the boats we could see to the north didn't seem to have much wind. Rom had a nap and a puke and felt a little better, but the wind dying and lifting didn’t help. At Bonita we headed up to the north side where we found more wind and jibed. The South Tower didn’t give us any trouble, but a few minutes later the spinnaker sheet came unshackled during a broach. So we doused and finished meekly with the 3. Fun day.

[familysailor]

He has a point.

It's not as obvious if he wears a hat...

[Andy Newell]

Ahi had a wonderful day, not what we expected based on the NOAA brochure. We were expecting to start with the #1, change down by Bonita and reef before Duxbury with the #4 and a second reef in reserve. Instead we started with the #3, changed up to the #1 before Bonita, and barely changed back down by Duxbury. It was a lovely reach down to the Lightship and we resisted the temptation to hoist. We only saw a couple of asym kites on that leg. We hoisted at the Lightship and slowly worked our way from the south side of the channel to the north. We were at least a couple of minutes ahead of Jim on Green Buffalo at the bucket which we knew would not be enough. On the Lightship race we got as close to catching him as we ever have (under a minute behind) by going north of the channel and the rest of the fleet. This time he took the northern route and we opted to sail as high as we could with the kite. I am pretty sure he would have rolled us anyway, but I still wonder if we should have tried harder to cover.

I think our only spinnaker jibe was between Bonita and Diablo and we had an exciting yet mostly controlled headstay reach from there to the finish. We were on the edge but it was manageable. We nearly ran over a port tack Folkboat that just could not understand why we had to be on his race course. Finished 8 minutes behind the Buffalo despite being in front at the Lightship. This did not surprise us.

Ahi is scheduled for a rudder transplant between Farallones and Half Moon Bay. I know I should wait for a bigger break in the schedule but the OCD won't let me. It's basically the bottom 60" of an IMX 38 rudder, higher aspect, better shape, a little longer. I doubt it will improve boat speed but I hope it will improve control and reduce the 'pucker factor' when the kite is up.

There were no inspections for Duxship because we could not find a willing body, and the RC did not have any to spare. We should be back on track for Farallones, then skipping HMB due to logistics.

We are trying to get HMBYC to give us a good party after the race. I've been in touch with the YC and I sent a survey to all the skippers and 20 boats have said they are going and almost all are planning on staying the night, and most of those are going to the YC for dinner. If you were not on that survey and have questions or suggestions PM or email me. This is our only land destination race so let's do what we can to make it as festive as possible. I'll share details as they gel.

[BobJ]

Thanks Andy and Max.

Andy, who did your new rudder design? We've talked about a "transplant" too. The J/92 rudder is a 20 year-old design and it loads up pretty quickly in our conditions. I may buy a J/92S rudder, which is higher aspect and a bit thicker, but I suspect it would be much more expensive than something made locally (J/92S's are made in France).

I hear Larry Tuttle is backlogged so I'm looking for other options.

[Andy Newell]

Finco Fabrication http://www.fincofab.com

Waterrat wanted 4500-5500 and 2 months, with no discussion of design. These guys came in under $2k until they found out the shaft is 2-3/8 schedule 160 $tainless after tunas were losing rudders all over the place in the '80's. It took them longer than they thought to get the stainless so the original quote of two weeks won't happen, but they say they need about a week once they get the steel which was supposed to get in yesterday. New price was $2300

We'll see if this works. There is actually not that much design. They are using the mold for an IMX 38 and cropping some off the top. They were able to get all the stock rudder specs from WD Schock (on a 1981 boat!) so I am hoping for a relatively easy change over. The owner says he has the same rudder in his Express 37 and once he switched it was 'like a new boat'.

I'll be happy to give you a review once I actually see a rudder and steer the boat with it. So far they have been as responsive as anybody in the 'business'.

[Nick Salvador]

BobJ,
I put a Waterat on my Baltic before the PAC Cup. It's nearly a foot deeper, narrower chord, thinner section, and the broach coach is a completely different boat. The changed forced me into self aligning bearings because of the bending loads. That installation was 3x the cost of the blade.

As for design, ALL of Tuttle's blades are immediately identifiable at a glance. Punk Dolphin, mine, Brian Boschma's...very similar.

My 295lb water soaked solid ss shafted rudder was replaced by 38 lbs of carbon fiber.

Nick