Happy St. Paddy’s Day (race)
Quick update and some eye-candy (photos)…
We ended up doing an impromptu race this past weekend that wasn’t originally on the calendar. It was one more opportunity to practice that we couldn’t pass up. This was the GBCA St. Patricks Day Regatta. 47 boats. Pursuit start again. Shearwater started last, a full 5 MINUTES after the next to last boat and 75 minutes after the first boats (Catalina 22’s). 19 mile dash back and forth across the Bay. Good breeze, and at times pouring rain. This was a bit more challenge for us because, A) we were one of the few boats sailing double-handed, B) this would be the first time we’d have to hoist the spinnaker twice in one race. Mostly it went pretty well and our hoists and douses were quite good. Only problem was I stupidly left the spinnaker in the bag on the foredeck, attached to the lifelines after the first run and then the wind picked up on the next leg and the spinnaker in the bag almost washed overboard, held on only by the lifeline clips. We had to come to a complete stop to get it back onboard. That’s not fast. Still we finished 24th, pretty much exactly mid-fleet.
On the project side…
- We installed a C-Head composting head, which is super awesome. That means no smelly holding tank, no smelly hoses, no overboard discharge pump, and we eliminated two thru-hulls. Super win! And it’s lighter especially not having a full holding tank in the bow.
- Replaced the ignition switch. Remember how we fried a starter because the old ignition stuck in the start position? That’s problem is solved.
- Hard-wired our Garmin 76CX GPS at the nav and after a few tries successfully connected the GPS to our NKE instruments via NMEA so now we have waypoint and speed-over-ground information on the instruments. Small victory.
- Broke down and bought some Dyneema, taught myself how to splice, and made up new aft lifelines, complete with the Dyneema spliced to Pelican hooks. Easy peasy.
- Feeling confident working with Dyneema, I made a few soft shackles to attach the trysail and #4 to a Dyneema stay.
- The liferaft was recertified and we picked up all the SOLAS flares we are required to have onboard.
The to-do list is really starting to shrink. Only 74 items now. We can actually see the end.
One of the best things about GBCA races is the Commodore takes photos on the water. We now have more on the water photos of Shearwater than all of the boats we’ve had before combined. I love it! Here’s a selection from this past weekend.
Nice Photos!