Sailing Stories

Sept 26th, 2005 Off the Water and On the Boat This weekend was an unbelievable growing experience for me as a sailor, despite the fact that I barely went out on the water at all. Ive been spoiled throughout my racing career, in so much as Ive had the luxury of racing only top performance, well maintained, racing boats a class my Ericson 27 falls extremely short of. However, thats why God invented PHRF racing. With its lack of spinnaker, 20 odd years and an outboard engine, I have a PHRF rating of over 240. The boat has needed a lot of work since I got it, but with the season coming to an end and only a couple of casual races left that I would feel comfortable racing her in, I figured I better buckle down and get the job done. Of course there are a lot of cosmetic improvements I would love to do on her, but I had to swallow my pride and take care of the necessities first. This is the first of many sailboats I plan on having and I am determined to learn all the how-tos to not have to rely on anybody to do general maintenance on my boat but me. So a list of my accomplishments Replaced the cam cleat and a new eye strap on the traveler and added a spring. Shortened the rigging on the jib halyard (my first experience with wire cutting and swaging) Replaced two shackles on the jib and the main Added a shroud cleat to secure the main halyard when not in use Replaced both the jib and main halyard lines Added a new forged D shackle to secure the base of the jib to the boat since the addition of a new anchor inhibited the original snap shackle

The one thing I did not complete was the adjustment of the boom. The sail stop had rusted and the boom was sliding down the mast, but they dont seem to make them in the size I need anymore. So now I have to drill a hole in the mast... but I'm not going to do that without consulting somebody else first. I also bought a new wench handle, a portable VHF and some boat dishes with sailboats on them I really want to get new jib sheets, since all my other lines are new and I want them to match the halyard, but I know thats just a luxury, they are still in good working condition. And with the amount of money that Ive had to put into this boat already, I think Ill hold off for a little while. I also had the experience of completely de-masting a J/80 yesterday. We are taking it down on the trailer to San Diego for J-Fest this weekend and had to take much of the boat apart. R, the owner, invented a contraption to hoist the mast and lift it out of the boat; it worked flawlessly. Taking the whole boat apart and having to put it back together again is definitely a lesson on boat assembly. Although its a pain to remove and reassemble all of these little parts that I didnt even know existed, Im glad that I have to do it twice in a row so it will stick in my head.

All in all a very productive weekend and I am so excited to test my boat out on the racecourse! Next week being J Fest, Im sure I will have a lot to report!

Oct 6th, 2005 J-Fest 2005 Okay, so I think enough time has passed since this weekend to give an accurate testament to what happened. I participated in J Fest, San Diego on a J80. I went down late Thursday night with and we met up with a new woman who was going to be on our crew as tactician, Mary Lynn. She was awesome. Friday we got up fairly early to have breakfast and then head straight for the San Diego Yacht Club to re-assemble the boat. Putting it together was really not much of a problem at all. We did forget to take the tape off of the shrouds near the top spreaders before we put the mast up, requiring us to take it down and do the whole thing again. But over all, not a bad experience. That evening was the first race, although it didnt count towards our score for the weekend. As we started the race down the channel, there was absolutely no wind at all. Very few boats decided to participate, and out of the ones that did, half of them quit. Im not even sure if the J105 fleet started. After an hour and forty-five minutes, we could finally see the windward mark, but we werent making any progress towards it. We were practically drifting around in circles until they finally cancelled the race for the few stubborn crews left out there. There was no way R was going to quit, no matter how frustrating the experience was. But we shook it off at dinner and had a great night with a couple of other crews. The first real day of the race was awesome. We motored out to the mark and were a little concerned that the race was going to be cancelled. The wind felt like the night before and the races were postponed for a good 30 minutes. Once the race started we were sailing powerfully, had great point and speed. As the day went on, I experienced a wide gamut of emotions. At first, I felt a sense of competency that I never experienced before on the racecourse. My timing and execution was perfect. At one point, after a jibe, I just couldnt stop grinning and feeling such a sense of satisfaction. I was sweating and panting and my muscles ached but there was no way I could have pulled off what I was doing 3 months ago. I made leaps and bounds. But no less than 30 minutes later my mood shifted. I couldnt complete a spinnaker hoist and got the jib caught in the forward hatch and couldnt remove it without slightly ripping the sail. But there was no choice but to stay in the game and by the end of the first day, I was right back on top again. We finished 3 rd for the day and were happy with our score. Now that we had adjusted to each other as a crew, we were looking forward to boosting our score even higher the next day. Which we were right on track to do The day started great. As we approached the first windward mark, we were in the top three. We normally have great downwind stretches and were confident we would gain some boat lengths on our immediate competition. That is until the hoist. Determined not to repeat the mistake from the day before, I had been working on a new method, which had worked for the previous rounds. As I brought down the halyard with all my strength, I

could tell something was wrong. I looked up to see the halyard release from the spinnaker and going zooming up the mast, stopping right after the top spreader. I didnt tape the damn shackle. Completely destroying any chance of competitively finishing the race, we had to send Mary Lynn up the mast to pull down the spin halyard. Of course, once we got her up there the spin halyard got jammed with the jib halyard that she was hoisted on and wouldnt come free, nor would it let her come down. She was amazing though and, after a little bit of panicking, her tenacity kicked in and she final broke them free of each other. We got her down and her feet touched the boat right as we rounded the leeward mark. We did finish the remainder of race, even though we came in dead last. The second race was just as frustrating. We were called back for being over the line, even though I swear we werent. I just dont think the RC could see our boat. We had no point and no speed and just couldnt seem to catch up to anybody. Mechanically, there were no mishaps. But there was kelp EVERYWHERE. Im not exactly sure when we hit it, I was pretty much directing traffic through kelp the entire race, but it must have attached its self to our keel pretty early on. We kept checking the keel periodically throughout the race and no one could spot it. But sure enough as we crawled over the finish line, 2 nd to last, there it was flush to the bottom of the boat, about 6 feet long. Overall, not a very successful day and quite disappoint considering our hot start. We came in 7th overall. Once we took the boat apart to trailer home, the awards ceremony was already over. However, I had a strange sense of accomplishment as we drove home. I know I am better sailor than I was last week. I had a strong understand to what my jobs were on the boat but now I am learning how to fix and prevent what can go wrong. I love working foredeck and am determined to master this position. I cant describe the overwhelming joy and fulfillment I have when Im out there in the wind and ocean spray, contributing as a crewmember. Every bruise that I get and every ache in my muscles, just reminds me that I am out there on the ocean with the freedom and knowledge to do what I love. I know the races I have coming up are going to be a tribute to what I learned this weekend. It was an amazing experience.

Oct 17th, 2005 Ship Rock Layover This weekend was a double handed to Catalina, sponsored by the Pacific Single-Handed Sailing Association. I was supposed to go on the J/80, but when I got to the boat early Saturday morning R wasnt there. This, needless to say, freaked me out a little bit. Especially since I tried calling him all morning and I hadnt heard a word back. Finally I got a hold of him and he had decided to cancel. I would have liked to been told earlier but Im a resourceful woman, and I happened to know that a friend of mine was going singlehanded on a Beneteau 37, Can 2. So I immediately called him up to see if he wanted a second hand. He did, so off I went across the basin to meet him at his slip just in time to cast off. We motored most the way to the R10 buoy, which was our start point in order to accommodate all of the sailors from Long Beach and Redondo Beach. It was a long motor, but it did cut the trip to Catalina down to 19 miles. Our start was pretty funky. It was a

rabbit start, which I had never done before, especially driving. but it was a good experience. I drove maybe a fourth of the way and then trimmed main. Different than my typical positions, but I know he needs a main trimmer for his regular crew and I wanted to get some practice on his boat. The wind Gods were definitely blowing in our favor. It was a little shifty, but we had great speed. We tacked once during a big shift about a third through the race. That tact was probably what helped us do so well. We noticed the wind shift immediately and did not hesitated with our tack. All of the rest of the fleet delayed and lost boat lengths because of it. We thought we were going to have to tack one more time before reaching Ship Rock, but the wind kept coming up and pushed us perfectly inline of the rock. We had a little scare when we were crossing the shipping lane and a tugboat totting a barge came through. We probably crossed within a half mile of its bow. Most of the boats in our fleet had to go around it. It was definitely the talk of the race at the BBQ afterwards. Rounding Ship Rock was the most difficult part of the race. There was one boat ahead of us with a lower PHRF rating, so we were pretty much neck and neck. But as we came around the rock at our required 70 degrees, the wind changed directions left and right. We tacked 3 times to compensate for it, after almost blowing the jib sheet in the first tack. We still arent sure who won the race, but there is no question that it was either Twelve Bar Blues or us, giving us at least a second place. Im pretty happy about that right now. Of course, I keep going over in my mind the start of the race and what we can do better for next time, but over all we sailed well. We left earlier than anticipated on Sunday; do to a pending storm coming through. Although we did hit rain on a couple of occasions, most of the trip back was beautiful and windy. It was a little cold, but we were dressed warmly. We were back by 6:30 and only motored about the last 4 miles. I definitely had a great time and I loved trimming main. Its a completely different feel than any of the J boats Ive raced on. This might be the boat I decide to crew on next season.

Oct 27,2005 Weekend Races This weekend was an eventful one and yet again. filled with highs and lows. I did two sets of races, another double-handed on Saturday and Oktoberfest on Sunday, both were PHRF. Saturday I did the double handed on the Beneteau 37. To sum it all up, it was just a fun race. We really wanted to get a first to make up for the 2nd in Catalina. There was a bunch of smaller boats, some Martin 242s and some J/80s, but only a handful of bigger boats. There were a couple of instances where we lost time, due to a lack of trust, which was frustrating. It was a buoy race and I read the course and marked it on the boat, but every time JC saw somebody do something that wasnt necessarily on track for the course I wrote down, he would follow them

instead of trusting what I had said. By the third race we had overcome that, but I know it hurt us. The wind wasum variable to say the best. At one point the true wind speed was 0 and we were actually going as fast as the current could take us, which I believe was 1.5 knots. It was tedious. I also had some problems with the tacks; they werent as quick as they needed to be. I wasnt use to the set up and handling the sails on such a big boat. But again, with time, it turned out okay. We had a great day out on the water and we did manage to pull off another 2nd, which was cool. Sunday I was on IOR 46, Morning Star. I was on mast and helped in the pit. I was a little nervous when I first got on the boat, I didnt know what kind of crew I was going to be sailing with. But by the time everything was set up and we were heading towards the racecourse, I realized I was at least as competent and knowledgeable as most of the other crew members, if not more. The race was postponed for about 20 minutes. The tactician was easily the most experienced and competent person on the boat. However, he was too concerned with training the rest of the boat on how to do their jobs. He was going to do time and the course but didnt keep track of the either one and we were a minute off our start and were not clear on some of the buoys. The wind was so bad that it took us a good 10 minutes to even reach the start line and then after we did, about 10 minutes later we found ourselves drifting backwards back over the start line. They called the race and we drifted around for another 30 minutes. Eventually, it picked up. But working with the crew was almost as frustrating as working with the wind. Nobody was quite sure of their job and everybody needed to have a say in what everyone else was doing. It was complete chaos. By the end of the day, we had a working routine and I think the bow shaped up pretty well, once we worked out our kinks. But as we were rounding the last leeward mark and were hoisting the genoa, it got caught in the track and ripped, unable to come up or down. After finally removing it from the track and switching headsails, the race was already over. Even with all of the mayhem, I would still like to sail on her again. There is a lot on that boat that I would like to master. I gave the owner my email address, so hopefully Ill at least be able to practice with them a few times. Both races were extremely physically exhausting. I'm still beat up and bruised from both of them. I'm evening having problems writing this today As for where the rest of the year stands, the end of the season is wrapping up and there are only a few more races scheduled. Im not sure what Ill be doing or who Ill be sailing with but I still have another race this weekend, so Im looking forward to that!

Nov 23, 2005 Why I Love Sailing

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun for me, even though I havent posted here. Two weekends ago I helmed the Sunfast 137 in the Home Port Regatta. Its a regatta that offers new skippers the chance to helm someone elses boat. We didnt do so hot, coming in 7th, but we were sailing against a fleet of Martin 242s on a very light wind day with flat water, so it really was their weather. There was a very nice picture in the paper of us though. Last weekend I spend the entire time working on my boat and helping a friend of mine with his. I went to West Marine early Saturday morning to pick up a couple of things, and much to my delight, found out they were having a 20ff the entire store sale this weekend. So I figured I better get what I can at the discount. I replaced all of the blocks for the main sheet, and actually replaced the main sheet its self. I sewed the headsail where it had 2 tears. I removed some of the turnbuckle covers, which were falling apart (the rest will be taken care of this weekend) and polished the turnbuckles and shrouds. I bought a new tiller, after mine split in two. I also washed my sail cover and replaced the sail ties. Just when I thought I was done, I noticed the shackle holding the boom to the backstay was dropping slightly. When I went to touch it, the dang thing slip in two. So I had to run out and get a new shackle. But the boat is looking so nice. Its really coming together. I cant wait to work on it this weekend, and hopefully take it out! I still want a new traveler and my jib sheets really should be replaced, but Im so happy with it. I didnt actually go sailing last weekend, but my friend and I did take a late night dingy tour around the harbor, which was fun. After that, I went back to the boat and was just hanging out thinking about sailing and why I love it so much and I think I figured it out. Of course, just the pure joy of being on the ocean and feeling the wind is enough, but there is something different about sailing, something spiritual. A powerboat is definitely a great accomplishment for man, being able to travel over the water at an incredible pace, fighting through the elements. But a sailboat is the best, most fine-tuned mechanical engineering man has developed, not to fight nature, but to partner with it. Its the best man has to offer and the best God has to offer, working together in harmony, complimenting each other. I think that is the most beautiful thing. It touches my soul. I love working on my boat, not just to look good, but because I am making something right in the universe. Im polishing a fine piece of craftsmanship that was developed to respect and recognize the power of God and nature. It actually can bring a tear to my eye. I am so grateful for the opportunity to sail. I want to say that Im the luckiest person in the world, but I know that luck had nothing to do with it. I created all of this and made it possible for myself, with much sacrifice and hard work. But I have to recognize my God as well, who aids in all things and without whom none of this would be possible. Now Im off for a 4 day weekend! I will, undoubtedly, spend the majority of the time on the water. We were planning to head to Santa Barbara Island, but I think we might just do Catalina instead because of the weather.

Jan 16, 2006 First Race of the Year

Wow! Its been a while since I posted a blog. I didnt really do any races in the month of December, and since this is a sailing blog I guess I didnt have a lot to say! But I did go to Puerto Rico, back home for my sisters wedding and took about 3 weeks off! I missed the first race of the year, due to my sisters wedding. I tried telling her that was an inconvenient day for me but she didnt seem to care! Saturday was my first official race back. It was double-handed, MDR-Ship Rock and return, 47 NM. I was on a SunFast 137. I was excited all week. Rain was predicted and wind was reported to be blowing at 15-18 kts. And since I just got new foulies for Christmas, I wanted to try them out! The morning was shaping up to match the weeks predictions, but after we got out on the boat, the rain and wind came to a screeching halt. There were 11 boats, all drifting with the current for about 4 hours. There were literally 0.0 kts knots of wind. We seriously contemplated dropping out of the race. We went about 9 NM in 5 hours. After about 4 hours, the wind picked up to around 4 kts. Even with the lack of wind, we seemed to have put good distance between us and the other boats, so we wanted to finish. By the time we got to the island, it had picked up to around 10 kts. There was only one boat in front of us, who owed us time, and 2 boats behind us that we could see. We had smoked everybody else. The way back was a blast. The wind picked up to around 15-16 kts, sometimes higher. We had a great reach the whole way back. We thought we were going to have to pop the chute but the wind shifted to our favor. We didnt even tack once. We had great speed and by the time we approached the R10 buoy (our finish), we could barely see any boat behind us. But there was a problem! The buoy was missing. We circled around a few times just to make sure, but it was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, everybody had this problem, so we werent disqualified. We were both exhausted when we got back. We were out for a good 13-14 hours. It was a good precursor to Bishop Rock and Guadalupe. We got to feel each other out and see how we would handle the long distance races together. There were definitely times that were trying, but we were okay. And hey we won. So that aint bad. Next week I have my first practice on the J/105, Twelve Bar Blues, which I am doing foredeck on for the Regattas this year. Our first race is the midwinters coming up in February. This weekend was a good start for the year.

March 17th, 2006 My Personal Lament Okay so many of you on here know how excited I had been for my Guadeloupe race that starts today. I have been preparing for it for months, and talking about it for even longer. It was a mammoth, 600 mile, double-handed ocean race around Guadeloupe Island and back to Marina Del Rey on a Jeanneau 37. About 6-7 days depending on the wind. About a month ago my boss had a heart attack. He went on two weeks of vacation and came back

just as stressed as before. After consulting the doctor again, it was concluded that he needed another 2 weeks off, stress-free home rest. This was an unfortunate situation for him and as second in command at the company, an unfortunate situation for me as well. In his absence I would be solely responsible for the company during those two weeks. It didn't take long for me to put 2 + 2 together. This was the end of my Guadeloupe race. I tried to take the news gracefully, (basically not flipping out and throwing a hissy fit). And also trying not to stress out or upset my boss/partner, possibly furthering his heart injury. I can't tell you how much is been tearing me apart inside. They are leaving today at 3p. My sailing partner said that I should take my boat out and meet them at the start line to watch the start for the race but that would just be way to depressing. To top the whole thing off, this weekend is the same weekend as the San Diego NOOD's. The boat that Ive signed on with for the high point regattas this year is down there right now, getting ready for the race tomorrow. I told them previously that I wouldn't be able to do the race because of the Guadeloupe Double-Handed Island race, so they found another guy to replace me on the bow. I called up to see if there was any room for me anywhere, just to be on the boat. Unfortunately they had to replace another girl on our crew with a big guy as well and they had reached the max weight limit. This left me a sailor without a ship. The owner generously offered to pay for expenses if I wanted to come down for the weekend and join the crew in the post race frivolities and general debaucheries mayhem. Would be fun but thats a right reserved for the competitors. You cant wear the race t-shirt if you didnt do the race. I think Ill take advantage of this rare time away from the ocean to test out my new snowboard this weekend. A Burton So, there is my story. I hope the racing year turns out to be better than it has been shaping up this year. Next month is April. Spring Keel Boat Regatta, Catalina to Port Double-Handed, Ahmanson Cup, Newport-Ensenada and the start of the Wednesday night Sunset Series. It really is the start of the season, so I have a lot to look forward to. I'll be on a J/105, the Jeanneau 37 and a Martin 242. At least I'll have some time to test out my new snowboard this weekend :)

March 27th, 2006 A Lesson on Water Safety/Les Storres Regatta This weekend's race was an eventful one, to say the least. It was the Les Storres regatta out of South Coast Corinthian Yacht Club and I was on a Martin 242, Sandbox. We had 9 boats in our fleet, one design. It was my first time racing with the Martin fleet and the day started out really fun. I was trimming spinnaker and helping on the foredeck when necessary. I plan on racing with that boat as foredeck on the Wednesday night series, so I was trying to get a feel for it, make sure it was right for me. The wind was blowing about ten knots and we were performing pretty well, especially being that we were new to each other. We landed a 2nd and a 4th on

the first two races. On the third and final race of the day we were in the second lap approaching the windward mark. We definitely ahead of the fleet when we heard "Man over board!" Then "Turn the boat around!" Expecting to see a man flailing around in the water and looking around the boat to toss him a floaty, I was shocked to see a man in the dead man float, motionless in the water. I was struck when I saw him there, not knowing what I could do. He did not move a muscle. One of the crew on my boat had his life vest on and immediately jumped in to lift his head above the water. Still lifeless I watched 3 grown men try to lift this man back on the boat, with not a trace of movement from the victim. He was probably about in the mid 50's and over 200 pounds. I had a moment of relief when I looked over and saw the man come too and open his eye, dumbstruck by his situation but when I turned back around he was out again. For a while it was all the men could do to hold him upright out of the water, dangling over the boat. The man who was taking pictures of the boats racing came over with his Boston Whaler. I believe he was an ex lifeguard. Him and the crewmember on my boat finally got him on board the Boston Whaler, but not without much effort. The whole scene had to be at least 15-20 minutes. It was a hallowing experience. We got on the VHF and called the coast guard to meet the Boston Whaler. We dropped out of the race and started heading back through the channel to the Cost Guard station. When we got there they told us the situation did look good and asked our boat and the victims boat a slew of questions, including and suspicious foul play. He was immediately rushed to the hospital. I headed to the yacht club to check the results and meet with a couple of my friends. Hardly anybody knew what had happened during the race, but about 20 minutes later it was announced that he had passed. What had apparently happened was this: He was driving the boat that day, as the owner was out of town. He had been in pour health and apparently not taking any corrective actions towards it. When his crew heard him say "I'm loosing it" they took it in no other way than he was probably loosing the wind in his sails. Oddly enough, I found myself using that exact same expression the next day as my sail started to fail. The next thing they knew, they looked back and he was unconscious, falling off the boat. According to the doctors, it was a heart attack. He was dead on arrival when he got to the hospital. He left behind a wife and 2 teenage children. The next day the Martin fleet had a flower ceremony for him at the start line. We were one person short and everyone was pulling double duty on our boat. The day was gorgeous. It was in the high 60's and blowing about 10 knots. We pull a 3rd place overall. All of the boats in the fleet decided to give Patience, the boat he raced on, 1st place. I was a lesson for all of us on how quickly things can change on the water. And a sad lesson on how unprepared we were as a fleet in the case of an unconscious victim. There are no lifelines on that boat and less than a third of the fleet wears PFD's. Needless to say, there will be some changes on how things are handled. We had a safety brief when we got back on the boat Sunday and we re-rigged some of the sheets to work as pulley's to pull people back onboard. It was a weekend I will remember for the rest of my life. Hopefully

ever person in the fleet and every person in that race will take a lesson from what happened and be just a little more prepared.

June 7th, 2006 Ensenada and my Foot So, I havent posted here in a while. Its been 5 weeks since the Ensenada race and I havent even mentioned it. It would be kind of silly to go into great detail now, especially since Ive probably already forgotten a good chunk of it. But here are some generals on it. I ended up going on a 1D 48, Sparta. We finished 8 out of 17. Obviously could have been better. I had never raced with the crew before, so there was some adjustment needed on my part. By the middle of race I felt mostly acclimated. I helped out where I could, spinnaker trim, foreguys, grinder wherever I could be of use. The wind died in the middle of the night making the midnight shift somewhat painful, but not too bad. It picked up about 20 minutes before we crossed the finish line and brought us in at 24:41:52. The boat ahead of up corrected out about 2 mins 10 secs ahead of us. The ride was amazing though. The water was filled with phosphorescence. In the middle of the night you could see dolphins vooming at you and criss-crossing the boat from dozens of yards away. It was really spectacular. I did delivery on the boat back from Ensenada as well. We went up the cost to San Diego and then over to Catalina for a couple of days before heading back to MDR. When all was said and done I raced Tuesday on a Martin 234, Wednesday on a Martin 242, met up with the 1D 48 on Thursday and didnt get off until the next Tuesday. I was on a boat for a total of 7 days. It was an amazing experience. I had such a great time. The only downfall was that I injured my foot. I tore some ligaments on the bottom right side and fractured a bone on the top. Bad news. I had no idea that I hurt it as bad as I did until I got back to the Mainland and realized it wasnt getting any better. I tried doing a couple of other races since then, but its been a long slow recovery, which isnt over yet. Ive been trying to do the Wednesday night series but Ive even missed some of those. The bigger regattas are out of the question. Cal Race Week was last weekend and I had to sit out of the whole thing. Im hoping to be back in action by Long Beach Race Week, but we shall see. I did a little race on a Columbia 22 a couple of weekends ago down to Redondo and back again. That was really nice because it was casual and low stress. Until we finished 28 seconds behind trophying, that was a little frustrating! This weekend is Cat Harbor and Return (Saturday and Sunday). I had planned on doing it, but was talked out of it. Which is a smart thing. It will be good to have these next two weeks straight to heal and be able to get back into my life again. There has been no biking, no hiking, definitely no surfing, very little sailing and pretty much limited physical activity of any kind. Its been a nightmare. But I can tell that my foot is on its way to recovering so Im trying to take it one day at a time and not over stretch it, so I can still have some a good chunk of my

summer left! (and yes you people from NJ. my summer does still goes until at least October ;-) Anyway that is the biggest reason for my lack of blogging lately! But as things get better I will keep you all informed!

June 26th, 2006 Long Beach Race Week Im officially back on my racing schedule! I started Wednesday by doing foredeck on a J/105. The race ran smoothly. We didnt trophy, we were one away. But we did beat the Rocket 22, Diavola. Which was my main goal anyway :) I did Long Beach Race Week on the 105 as well. We knew we werent going in competitively because we missed the first day of the race. But we still wanted to get in there and sail well and get some good practice and gage ourselves. Unfortunately, there were some problems. The boat is raced by two brothers, one does tactics and one drives. For this race however, they brought a professional on board to call tactics and trim main. I have never met someone less equipped to do so. He constantly had us sailing below the rest of the fleet. We over stood every lay-line. The whole time as we are sailing deeper and below the rest of the fleet, hes yelling out stop pinching! At one point in the race, we were about to miss our start and no one would go towards the committee boat to see what course we were on, so we headed off in the direction that he thought it was and of course it was the wrong mark. It ended up with the helmsman and the tactician fighting so much that the tactician quit in the middle of the last day. Honestly, we were better off without him. The rest of the crew was really dialed in though. There were no mechanical errors on the second day and we had good sail trim. The first day we did manage to rip a spinnaker, which is never good. But it ripped at the tape, so its fixable. Honestly, there were problems on the boat none of them had to do with me and I was simply happy to be out on the water again. It was beautiful weather. Winds at 12-20 knots plus. Sunny most of the time. And warm. I did get soaking wet, but it felt good to be out there! My foot held up better than I expected! It was definitely a good sign to recovery! Next weekend is MDR-San Diego. Im doing it on the 1D 48, and then doing delivery back though Catalina :) 4 more days out on the water!

July 12, 2006 MDR-SD / Redondo - Queen Mary

It was a really amazing race. I was on Sparta (the One Design 48). There is actually very little I feel like I can write about. We were focused the whole time. The wind was phenomenal. We (well, Gimmy) made the great tactical move of neither going inside or out, but pretty much staying on the rum line. The wind pushed the inside boats closer to land and the people who went outside were hit by the shadow of the island. We saw over 20 knots and it stayed in the 10-11 range for the first half of the night. Until everything seemed to go wrong at about midnight. Only about 5 miles out, the wind shut down entirely. What wind we did have was coming from behind, bouncing of the land and backwinding us. We were adrift. It was very frustrating being so close yet unable to make any progress at all. Finally, at 2:52 at night, we drifted over the finish line. However, we were the first people there by a long shot and there was no committee boat even close to coming out. We took our own time and waited for the next boat to arrive, which happened to be a CAT. We even beat the CATs by 45 minutes. We won every trophy we were eligible for including the dash to the mark, line honors, first PHRF A and first overall. They wrote an article about it in The Argonaut and there was even a mention about it on Sailing Anarchy. The Argonaut issue http://www.argonautnewspaper.com/articles/2006/07/06/columns/nautical_news/nn1.txt Redondo Beach Queen Mary I did this race last weekend on a Martin 243. It was a completely different story. We were doing alright for the first half of the race. We stayed outside for the big wind, but as we started to jibe down towards land, everything went wrong. During out first jibe, I was not use to the low boom of the sport boat, resulting in a pretty gnarly blow to the head with the boom. I knew it was bad, but I also knew we had to keep racing so I tried to push it aside. During the next jibe, I didnt have time to think about it anymore. As we pulled the spinnaker over, the boat (which is extremely light - only 1,500 lbs) over powered as we got it over. I snagged the spin sheet on something and the boat started to round down. S it did so, one of our crew member put all of her weight on the weather rack to even the distribution on the boat. However, she kept going and slid right off the side. I saw her with the corner of my eye. We were still going in the opposite direction and full speed. As we got the spinnaker down, it shrimped in the water and started to get stuck around the keel. We finally pulled it up back on the boat and turned around to find our MOB. Each of us had been keeping an eye on her since it happened, so she was easy to spot. But at the point we were a quarter mile away. We finally got back to her (at the point I had completely forgotten about my head) and pulled her back on board. Everybody was pretty shaken up. We didnt fly the kite again until we got into the harbor and had to round our final mark, which was a little island.

We recovered fairly well and at least we finished the race. She was hilarious though. When she went in, her shoe slipped off but she was able to retrieve it from the ocean and kept a hold of it the entire time. It was definitely a scary experience. Luckily everybody was okay and we got through it fine. But it shook us all up. It is amazing how those sport boats react to such small movements.

I woke up on Sunday morning with a sickeningly familiar feeling. I had a minor concussion and spent the rest of the day Sunday in bed or watching TV. I still have quite the headache and a lump on my head, but the concussion symptoms are gone.

Two entirely different weekends. Luckily both ended safe, happy and sound! (mostly! ;)

Aug 15, 2006 New Open 5.70 Last weekend I raced on the new Open 5.70 for the PHRF Championships. We didnt do so great.. But the boat is brand-spanking new, not really broken in yet and 20 feet long with a rating of 132. Regardless, we had a good time. And the boat got a lot of attention. It's great for 3 people or for double-handling. Definitely check it out if you get a chance. http://www.open500.org/home_internat.htm I'm not racing this weekend because I am going to SLC for my brothers wedding! Yeah! will be great to see my family again. It

Sept 18, 2006 A Full Year of Sailing! Well this weekend marked the first blog I wrote on this site. I figured it was only appropriate to round out the year with a new blog/year-in-review. We had the first of the man/woman series this year. I did it on a Martin 242. There are 4 days of racing, 8 races total. We did alright. We came in 4th place. But I have all confidence that we will trophy next week. Our weakest point was the upwind driving, but we are going out to match race/practice in the middle of the week to strengthen that point. Our boat handling was good. The tacts need a little work, but they were getting better by the end of the last race of Saturday. Our downwind legs were great. We picked off boat lengths consistently each leg. It was fun double-handing the 242. I had never really double handed a pole boat, only sprit boats. (Well, that's not true but I always did the driving not the crew work). It was sort of the climax to a summer-long marathon. Over the past few weeks I have raced about 5 days a week (6 last week). But the beer can races have all ended and it is strictly weekends from here on out. There have been so many amazing races over the past

summer that I have neglected to write about, just because of the time I would need for the upkeep of this blog! I participated in the J/105 North Americans last month, and although we didn't even finish in the top half, it was amazing to see such a competitive one-design fleet. There were 31 total and most of them were extremely dialed in and new their boat like the back of their hand. I wasn't really disappointed in our results (well.. maybe a little ;-) because we have been doing consistently better each regatta. And for a program that is only 3 years old, we are up against some tough competition who have been racing together for years. We ended the Wednesday night Sunset series 28 out of 106. We definitely had our ups and downs over the summer with different crew politics and injuries, but over-all, we had a pretty good run. As much as I have loved every race, I can honestly say that I am looking forward to a little ease in the schedule. (I'm only out on the water 3 days this week!) Yesterday I didn't have a race and it was very nice to get up at will I went kayaking in the morning and went for a nice beachside bike ride in the afternoon went out for sushi and then watched some football while cooking a really nice pot of soup. It was like a normal day. But the year is by no means over there is still plenty of racing to look forward to! Year of Sailing!

Oct 10th, 2006 Catalina Island Series This weekend I did the last of the Catalina Island Series. We came in 2nd the first day and 1st the second day giving us enough points to win the overall series. It was on Sparta, the 1D 48 and was the last race that boat is scheduled to do. It was a lot of fun sailing on it, and although I was still relatively new as a crew member (my first race on it was in April for Ensenada) I really appreciated my time on it this year. The crew can be a little nuts but you are bound to have some personality issues on boats with such big crews. (and hey it sure beats the hell out of the other big boat I use to sail on!) It's now for sale and I hope he can find someone to buy it. It would be a shame for a boat like that to sit on the hard, going to waste. If it were well maintained, it would still be a high-performance boat. If there is one thing I got from it, it's that I don't want to do any of those long distance races on a 35' boat anymore! Hopefully I'll be able to find something for next year that is close in size to sail long distances on. But it will be hard to find something like that where I like the crew as much too.

Dec 14, 2006

Hot Rum Over the course of the last month and a half, I have been participating in the Hot Rum series in San Diego. It was a three race series and was really a lot of fun. It's really the only major race going on at that time of year, so quite a few boats raced. Each race proved to be unique and challenging. Race 1 started off with light fluky winds and heavy current pushing us at 2.5 knots. It stayed extremely light until the first windward mark where is picked up slightly helping to get us through the second leg of the course before we hit final stretch in the channel, where the wind, once again, died. Here is where local knowledge paid off, as we went to the right and the local boat invariably went to the left next to the shore, scooting right down the course. We on the other hand practically stood still and then wound up getting pushed aground by another boat. We came in 63rd out of 123. The second race started out much of the same way. We didn't have the strong current, but the wind was light and variable out of the channel. But it certainly picked up, blowing over 20. In a Martin 242 we were going 10 knots. The biggest excitement of the day when we were rounding mark 4. The breeze was so light in the beginning and so strong in the middle that it gave a chance for about half of the boats to arrive at that mark at the same time. It was utter mayhem. Every boat in the cluster was hitting each other. It was bumper boats. People were jumping on other boats to find off, dropping their sails left and right to reduce speed. Big boats were charging in a hitting 3 or 4 small boats at a time. It was really very funny more than anything. I have never seen that many boats in that small of a space before! There had to be, without exaggerating, 40-50 boats in one pile up. You could see the rest of the boats in the race speeding towards us with their big spinnakers too. It was quite a sight! When entering the channel it seemed to us there was more wind on the right said so, once again, we made the same mistake and were stopped dead in our tracks while other boats close to the shore simply walked away from us. I think we came in 67th out of 130 something. The third race was much more in our favor. The wind stayed solid and steady from beginning to end, blowing at about 12 knots. We simply cruised down the race course. Barely any other boats were even able to pass us. Apparently the winded started to die for the bigger boats as they started, but we saw no sign of it. We crossed the finish line barely 2 hours after starting and new we had done well. We match raced the entire time with another M242. San Diego is notorious for kelp and in all the races we had to floss almost continuously. That was no exception in this race. In fact, I think we may have flossed even more in this one. When we saw the results we knew our efforts had been rewarded. We came in 8th overall out of 125 boats! The other Martin came in 2nd. The whole series was warm and beautiful. I wore shorts the entire time, even through December. Definitely one of the reasons I love Southern California! Check out the picks of the boat I was on, Sandbox. We are the one with the red spinnaker with while lines.

Dec 14, 2006 Hot Rum Last weekend I did delivery back from SD on another local boat that had traveled down the coast to do Hot Rum, a Farr 40. The delivery was as much as an adventure as the whole series! We took the train down late Friday night, crashed out on the boat and got up at 5am start the trek from SD to Avalon on Catalina Island. It is a 70 mile stretch and strong swells and wind were predicted. Luckily, we were blessed with flat seas, warm sun and 7 knots of wind. It was right on the nose so we motored the whole time and got there in about 10 hours, definitely before it got dark! After we got to the island and had dinner it started to downpour. I am talking torrential rains coming down in sheets. We went back to find a flooded boat. And we discovered a major design flaw in the Farr 40. We couldn't shut the hatch from the inside. It had to be locked in place from outside! Rain was pouring in the boat in buckets from the hatch and down from the mast. We slept all night like we were outside. All of our clothes were soaked, nothing could stay dry. The next morning the rain died down and we were able to leave in sunny skies. However, when we got back to the boat from our breakfast on shore, there was a small craft advisory up. All sorts of boats that had left were coming back to port. The Catalina Flyer had stopped running due to bad seas and it was reportedly blowing 30 knots. With a little trepidation, we decided to motor down to Two Harbors, fuel up and see how bad it was. We stayed in the lee of the island all the way down the coast. After arriving in Two Harbors (and being the only costumers of the day) we decided to go for it. It's about 30 miles from there back to MDR. We had seen gust of 25-26 motoring down the cost but it was averaging about 17-18. We put up our main and headed out. As we left the lee of the island, the wind definitely picked up. It averaged about 23 with gusts up to 27. That wasn't the bad part though. The swells were easily 8-12 feet. I was at the helm for the majority of the time and I have to say it took a lot of concentration but it was a lot of fun. And VERY wet! A few large swells broke right over our boat, drenching everything! It didn't feel so bad because the sun was out most of the time. For the last 2 hours it did get a little uncomfortable. A front was moving in from the north, hiding the sun, increasing the breeze and make it very cold and wet. When we got back the marina it was pretty dark and it did start to drizzle. We made it in just in time, again! The best part about the whole thing was how warm it was for most of our time on the water. It was mid-December and beautiful. That was it for me for the rest of the year I have about a month off until the first week in January when the Berger Series begins. I'm looking forward to my time off! I can concentrate on my snowboarding trip to Mammoth over New Years Eve!

Jan 8, 2007

Not with a Bang, But with a Whimper Berger 1 This weekend was the first race of the year. A 23 mile distance race from Malibu and return. Everyone was pumped for it yet it didn't quite reap us the fruits we desired. We had a crappy over-early start on the wrong side of the course that we couldn't really claw back from. We were making some headway but about midway back to MDR the wind cut off again. We maybe saw a max of 7.5 knots at one point during the race. The driver had a bachelor party that he had to make it too that evening, so on went the irongennaker. We dropped out at about 4:30. At least it's a 3 race series with one throw-away!

March 12, 2007 Newport to Cabo The whole flight back to Los Angeles from Cabo I kept asking myself what I was going to say when people asked me "How was it?" How can you possibly describe in a couple of sentences how it was? It was exhausting, it was exhilarating, it was frustrating, it was peaceful, it was fun, it was completely aggravating and it was magical. I've never felt such a dichotomy of emotions over one thing in such a short amount of time. The first couple nights I was totally excited to be there. I was a little bit panicked about being stuck with a group of guys I hardly knew for what I thought was to be 4-5 days, just because I know that people can get tired and personalities can start to flair and conflict, and I was already feeling tension from one member of the crew. But for the most part I was excited. Then the exhaustion kicked in as I started getting the hang of sleeping 2-3 hours at a time. But after a couple days of that, time really does stop mattering and I fell into what I would describe as a zen like state. You just walk through the movements and stop worrying how much longer you have on the boat. The boat just becomes your life. You are there to sail the boat and make it go fast. You sail, eat (while sailing) and sleep. That's it. I was also the ships cook, so I was able to break up my days according to lunch and dinner. I found myself looking forward to the next meal and people would get excited about what they were going to get that night. It broke up a little bit of monotony. When your day consist of looking at nothing but your boat, water all around you and the occasional light from another sailboat on the horizon, the littlest things start to hold more interest. We made a mistake early in the race when we decided to go out instead of staying close to shore. We lost a lot time on the inside boats who were pushed down the cost with better wind than we had. It was a fairly slow race with much less wind that anticipated by our

boat or any other boat. People started dropping out after day 3, afraid they wouldn't make the deadline of noon on Friday. The thought that we wouldn't make the deadline definitely crossed our mind as well especially after we blew one spinnaker (while I was on the helm) We were in the middle of running the job sheets for a sail change when it decided to give causing a domino effect of havoc that lasted the rest of the night. We blew another on a couple days later. It was one of those nights where I didn't even want to try to go to bed after dinner because I knew that something bad was going to happen. It was gusting in the high 20's and steady over 20 knots. The spinnaker was not meant to be flown over 20 and they were pumping it and pushing it more than they probably should have been. It went in the same glorious manner as the first. Left without a-symmetrical we were able to finish the race, albeit Friday as opposed to our predicted Wednesday finish. But at that point, we were just happy to have made the cut off and be near dry land. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget. Every time I would get irritated or tired I would only have to wait a few hours longer until everything would change and we would have great wind, gorgeous sunshine or other-worldly night skies. I was invited back to do Transpac with them over the summer. From Los Angeles to Hawaii. Normally a little under 2 weeks. I am going to try to get the time off. Even though some nights in my bunk I was sure I would not want to do a race that long those moments seem so far away and all I can think about is what an awesome adventure it will be!

Apr 26, 2007 Ahmanson Cup So I meant to write more about last weeks Ahmanson Cup but this week went by so fast that I completely forgot! But here is a brief recap... I was on the J/105, J-Hawk sailing out of Newport Harbor Yacht Club. Saturday was gorgeous. It was sunny and a little chilly, but not bad. We had a horrible first race, with a bad start and wound up finishing 3rd to last. We came back strong though with a 3rd and pushed out enough boats to tie for fourth at the end of the first day with 15 points. The 2nd and 3rd boats both had 15 points, so we were well within striking distance. The second day was over cast and much chillier, but the rain that was supposed to come around noon reserved itself until later in the evening, giving us a mostly dry race. We started the day off with bang, finishing first overall. We had one boat ahead of us the first windward rounding, but they hit the mark and had to do turns, leaving us far in front of any

competition that we may have had. The second race was not quite as strong, but we managed to hold on to our spot and finished ahead of our direct competition. At the end of the weekend, and 5 races, we came in third overall in a class on 12 boats. Not to shabby for such a competitive fleet! Beer can races also started a couple of weeks ago or at least they were supposed to. I am sailing alternating days in MDR and King Harbor this year. The first Wednesday and the first Thursday were canceled due to gale force winds. We got a race in last Thursday night, but the seas were still recovering, forcing our 1,500 pound M243 to fight though 6 foot, confused seas. We had a race here last night on the M242, but we dropped out before the first rounding due to lack of wind. A problem I foresee happening this weekend as try to make our way down to Mexico. I am off this evening to Newport once again, for the Newport to Ensenada race. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to tell on my return

May 7, 2007 Newport to Ensenada So, this last weekend was Yachting Cup. My normal boat decided to bail on the regatta, so I jumped on another 105 for the weekend. Definitely not what I was use to. There was really no desire to win from anyone on the crew. So naturally, we didn't win. But it was a beautiful weekend and I met some very nice people, and I no matter what anyone else's goals were I worked my little butt off. But anyway let's talk Newport-Ensenada. What a long race! I was on Cheetah in the maxi class and we still didn't get in until 1:30p. That's 25.5 hours! The race is typically a downwind race, spinnakers are set fairy early and kept up for the majority of the race. Typically. This year wind decided to play a trick on us and we spent the whole days beating upwind heading south. This in itself was bad enough, but to make matters worse, Chris (the owner of the boat) just bought a brand spanking new spinnaker (well 3 actually, for Transpac, but the other 2 hadn't gotten there yet) that is the largest in the entire maxi fleet. And to go with that new spinnaker, he bought a shiny new 33' fixed aso pole with a carbon fiber reaching strut. Wow! It's massive! And a lot of fun at least for the 2 hours we got to fly it. But the downside to all this is that we got a 20 (or 21?) point rating knock, bringing us down to a -181. We were also competing with all these newer fancy boats that get brand new high-tech sails every year and were able to pull out there biggest, nicest jibs for this race. We, on the other hand, we left with a teeny-tiny, 20 year old jib with lots of week spots. I may be exaggerating with the 20 year part but I'm not sure! We took that rating knock for nothing!

But we did keep moving for most of the night, which is more than I can say for some past Ensenada's. The first maxi didn't even get in until after noon. Overall, we didn't do so bad given the conditions. We came in 42 overall out of 241 boats that actually finished. Many boats dropped out at San Diego, or simply motored to Ensenada. I think 455 boats entered. Or something like that Anyway it was still a fun race, and it definitely seemed shorted after finished the 7 day Cabo race! I delivered a Farr 40 back to San Diego the next day (well sort of. I slept through most of it!). At the end of the weekend, it was still a beautiful weekend on the water.

April 2, 2008 Bucket Regatta Walking down the dock in the Port of Gustavia, St Barths is a truly unique experience quaint shops and eateries, boats shuffling in and out of the harbor, the French langue spoken by the surrounding residence. The little island is quite picturesque. Add a row of exotic, foreign mega-yachts and its another experience all together. A few months ago I was approached by one of the guys that Ive sailed with for the past few years to do the Bucket Regatta with them on their fathers 96 sail boat, Symmetry. The funniest part their boat is the smallest in the fleet of boats racing and not even quite the required length of 100. But due to a good relationship with one of the regatta chairs, theyve done the race for the past 3 years, competing with such boats as Maltese Falcon, Ranger (a remake of the classic J boat), and Helios. I knew this was a chance of a life time. When we got to the island (a 20 hour voyage in itself) we had one day to soak up the tropical Caribbean sun before we got to work. The first day was a practice. We got familiar with our jobs (I was on running backs) and the boat handling necessary for such a large vessel. Although almost everything was hydraulic, managing the boat was still a significant amount of work. After a few hours out we had still only managed a few tacks. As we attempted our first hoist our day was quickly halted by a tear in the spinnaker as it exited the snuffer. After a scramble to get the sail down, we headed back to port. As luck would have it, the owner had just bought a brand new main and jib and 2 sail makers from Doyle Sails were on the boat sailing with us that weekend. They swept the sail off to an ancient sail loft on a nearby island. Not only did they fix the sail so it lasted the entire regatta, they also had to fix the sewing equipment since the loft hadnt actually sown a sail in decades! The rest of the regatta proceeded without incident. As we left the port each day the wind blew consistently in the mid 20s. The water was an unreal shade of aqua and the sky was as blue as you can image with white fluffy clouds floating casually over the island. Occasionally a squall would appear and drizzle us with some much appreciated rain. But it never lasted long.

The first race was around the island counter clockwise. It started with a beat around the right side of the island, then as we approached the back side, we set the kite and enjoyed a beautiful downwind sail until the last few miles where we doused and beat again for a drag race to the finish. We finished 6th in our class. The second was the Wiggle Course, 18 miles around and through many of the small rock islands. This may have been my favorite race. You really got an up close and personal look at the beautiful scenery surrounding St. Barths. There was a lot of maneuvering required keeping all of the crew on their toes, but we performed very well changing sails between our genniker, code zero and jib. Our efforts were rewarded as we crossed the line 2nd in our class! As we started the third race we were tied for 3rd in our class. This was a clockwise circumnavigation of the island. We started with our code zero, beat for most of the race and then popped the shoot for our finish. At this point we were in the lead. We got excited as most of the boats trailed far behind. We easily saw ourselves trophying. A mile or so before the finish our tactician saw wind close to the island, but when we got there we were stuck in a hole. We sat and watched half of our fleet and our trophy pass us by. We finished the day 5th in our class. Although this was disappointing, the weekend itself was phenomenal. Racing against boats of this size was a whole new experience. The typical racing rules of sailing did not apply here. Boats were required to call each other on the radio and discuss their intentions if they came within 5 boat lengths of each other. There are no protests and no "close calls" as we know it in normal yacht racing. But when we did come close to other boats it was a thrill ride! On Friday there was an open house to showcase all the yachts. We took tours of some of the most spectacular boats on the planet. Not only was their size incredible but the interiors were even more impressive. Marble fireplaces, Viking stoves, spiral stair cases, pianos and king size beds were just the tip of the iceberg. The electronics on some of these boats required a team of full time electricians and mechanics just to maintain them. The second night of the regatta was a concert and buffet. The opening band was great, but the crowd went wild when Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reef Band came on stage to do a private performance. We snagged space right at the front of the stage and enjoyed an awesome concert of Buffett at the Bucket! The whole experience was unforgettable. Im so thankful for the chance I had to do it. It will definitely go down in the record books as some of the best sailing I have ever enjoyed.

Sept 29, 2008 ASMBYC Championships and other things... It was the last weekend long regatta of the year this past weekend (!). I was on the Farr 20, Piranha. All and all it was a pretty fun weekend, but there were definitely a couple of hiccups here and there. I was on foredeck and Steve was on mast, so that was nice. We were able to work together. But during the last leeward rounding to the finish of the last

race somehow the spinnaker didn't come down as fast as it should have and as if by the curse of some ill-natured fairy, the chute actually got sucked back and through the main sheet block on the boom. We just switched from fractional to mast head spinnakers, so the sail is much bigger than we are used too, but it still shouldn't have happened :( We still came out first out of the Farr 40's, but were beat by two much larger boats, a TP-52 and Santa Cruise 70. That's why I try to not race PHRF. I rarely do and am always frustrated by the results. Well, needless to say, I got my butt kicked this weekend. I'm all covered with bumps, bruises and scrapes, and I'm exhausted. It's hard to stand up or sit down. But it's always a good experience to go out there and challenge yourself. I learn something each time (or relearn, lol) This week I hope will be a little more mellow than last. I've got a couple of projects at work that need to get done this weekend and another Digital Photo Pro article that is due on Friday. That shouldn't be too difficult, but the photographer isn't being as prompt with my questions as I'd like and he pushed our phone interview back until Wednesday. But it's only 750 words, so hopefully I'll be able to crank that out on Wednesday. I'm taking the day off from the gym today... I think my body needs a day of rest. Whew.