M Squared

The results are in for the 2007 Harvet Regatta - Santana 20 class along with a description of all six races from the perspective of my skipper. Hopefully, we can race Sea Bear again in the near future.... perhaps the Great Pumpkin ! Otherwise, the Columbus Day Regatta in Newport might be our last for the season. It's always fun to race on the coast. Yaquina Bay racing is a bit like sandlot baseball or street hockey... All the marks are permanent buoys or dolphins for navigation . The courses feel something like "go down to the end of the street, around the light pole, the across the street and around Mr. & Mrs. Simon's car, then past the fire hydrant and cut through the Biondi's garden... First one back to the maple tree wins!" In addition to everything that racing throws at you, there's the tide and current to worry about (we're lake sailers...), there are crab pots to slalom through and the thoroughly confused weekend crabbers out in their bo...

I found this video on Rule 69 . Magnus called the post "Six glorious minutes..." I couldn't agree more! It's got two great things in one video: sailing and manufacturing (particularly CNC machining ).

Mini's are cool and I enjoy following the 2007 Mini Transat Race which started Tuesday. Solo ocean racing seems extreme enough... but to set out in a 6.5 meter boat is way out there... No diesel engine/generator, no head, no galley, no sleeping bunk, no heater, no crew... Just you and a very small, high tech. ocean going race boat. I saw my first mini in person at the Corinthian Yacht Club while participating in this year's SOCKS regatta . The boat belongs to Craig Horsfield who is campaigning for the 2009 Mini Transat. There are only two Americans in this year's race (in a very French/Euro dominated class). I tracked the progress of Alex MeVay and Genasun crossing the Atlantic last year for the summer mini racing season and qualification for this year's Transat. Clay Burkhalter is the other American in this year's race. This video about the Mini Transat by Lucas Schroder, NED 633 is well done. "It's a really small boat with too much sail"......

Sunday: Sunny, North Wind, Averaging about 15 mph, Max 18 mph, Max Gust 26 mph The forecast for wind was the same as Saturday . One difference being the earlier start time by two hours. The Lido fleet made an early decision not to race. Probably a wise choice even though the wind did not build to the same level. After Day 1: Sea Bear was in first with three bullets and... three points. H2O Boa was in second with three seconds and... six points. Disaster Area was in third with three thrids and... nine points. (The math is killing me!) With a couple exceptions, all the S20s left the dock with jibs. Similar to the Lidos, everyone expected 10 to 20 from the North. Early in our pre-race routine, we decided to go with the genoa as the wind speed actually decreased below 15. Racing was tight again at the top. In the first race, we managed to beat Sea Bear for our first bullet of the regatta. In the second race, we were looking for a pin end start along with Sea Bear and DA. Fortunately f...

Toward the latter part of the regatta on Saturday a wildfire started near the east shore of the lake. It was a strange sight both during and after racing. Many roads were blocked off for several hours. Our dry September conditions and the high winds made for a very dangerous situation. The fire came within yards of several homes but thankfully no life was lost.

We don't get wind like this on Fern Ridge very often. In fact, several people (myself included) have never seen wind like this before on our lake. For me, that covers ten years. Saturday Conditions: Sunny, North Wind, Averaging just above 20 mph, Max 28 mph, Max Gust 37 mph. No, that's not a description of the conditions at Cascade Locks or SOCKS . It's our humble little ACE Project . This was jib weather... and we were at home. The regatta started off with 5 fleets including Lidos, Portsmouth, Santana 20s, PHRF and multi hulls. As boats were doing their pre-race preparations, several capsized and concluded the conditions were beyond their comfort zone. Others would come to that conclusion as the day wore on and the wind continued to build. The first course was a Windward-Leeward, twice around. We were the third start after the Lidos and Portsmouth . One Lido tentatively crossed the start line. Five minutes later a Fireball, some Thistles and a couple Lightnings sta...