| 27.Jun.07 | I'll start this wrapup with a couple of quotes. From Friday's Providence Journal which featured the drinking at BIRW (and the crew of BAT IV got their faces prominently featured at "The Oar" -- sorry Guy and Mike): “Racing is like playing three-dimensional chess. It’s about the wind, the tide, the crew, the competitors,” said Bishop, 74, who owns Caithness Energy, a power company in California. “I don’t think anybody’s figured it out.” More here. From today's Scuttlebutt, in talking about yesterday's Race 3 of the Americas Cup: "The waves out on the race course were huge, confused and nasty. It was a tough day for the helmsman." Not unlike the times at BIRW when the boat could be going at 6.5 knots upwind, when you avoid the first two waves, but the third of the set bites you and you sink to 5.5 knots. But downwind those same waves sometimes promoted surfing conditions. With regard to sails, I'll divide the fleet into four groups of six, giving the number of boats with a majority of that sailmakers' sails in each quartile. Since the 24th boat was a scratch, there are only five in the last quartile. Ullman 9 boats (2 top quartile, 2 second quartile, 2 third quartile, 3 fourth quartile) North 8 (1, 3, 3, 1) UK 4 (2, 1, 1, 0) Doyle (1, 0, 0, 0) Quantum (0, 0, 0, 1) Again, I remind you of the first quote about three dimensional chess. This is only an insignificant part of one dimension. The sails are all pretty much the same in my opinion. Here's another measure of the average age of sails, considering a 2007 sail as zero, 2006 as one, 2005 as two, etc. Again I list the quartiles of the finishes. <=1 year old average (3, 1, 2, 4) 1-2 years (3, 3, 2, 0) 2-3 years (0, 2, 0, 0) 3+ years (0, 0, 2, 1) One can see a small correllation of finishing quartile to age, but new sails don't seem to be the answer either (four of five boats in the last quartile had the newest sails). That's it for this year. Hope you enjoyed the blog and hope to see you next year. The bike's in the shop for new tires, so I'll be ready. Thanks for reading. If you have any comments, please e-mail me at nelson@105.org. |
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| 22.Jun.07 | I don't ride my bike much, except on Block. And I don't have it serviced unless it needs service. Which probably means every five years or so. So I guess I should not have been surprised when the inner tube started bulging through my rear tire walls. It was too much to chance an (Almost) Round the Island tour this morning. And no local milieu photos either. Before I left, my little point-and-shoot was thrown into the bottom of my sailing bag and came out all rusty. It gave up the ghost after that rustifying experience. David Betts (INSTANT KARMA) and his crew volunteered to host the part last night at their house. Unfortunately for us, he decided to ask his landlord first. Fortunately for us, he was able to get space next to the Block Island Boat Basin. Fortunately for him, he'll be able to rent his house next year for BIRW. There were lots of owners and crew in attendance, but I didn't do a count. Many thanks, David! Just as it was getting dark, a line of thunderstorms to our north gave us a beautiful fireworks display. It started to sprinke on us, but no major harm done. This morning the wind looks stronger and gustier than yesterday. But it was a "chamber of commerce day". The sun shone and the winds were brisk (14-20 knots) out of the west. We got going on time with the first warning at 10:30 a.m. There were some who thought there should be two races today, but the RC decided on one to get everyone back to shore early. They gave us a five leg course with two mile legs to keep us occupied. KIMA started toward the boat end on a generous starting line and within two minutes our jib halyard parted. I was ready to call it a day, but the crew said "no way" so we took the jib down and reset it on the spin halyard. By the first weather mark we made our first pass. We did things the old fashion way and dropped the jib and used the spinnaker halyard to launch the spinnaker. We surfed down the first leeward leg and passed a couple more boats. We took the spinnaker down early and made a controlled rounding while other boats struggled. On the second upwind we continued to gain boats. On the second downwind the crew noticed a rip in the kite. But we decided to keep it up and continue. It held to the bottom of the leg where we again did a conservative douse. On the final upwind we were close to GHOST, JATO, and MISCHIEF. At the top of the leg, we had a beneficial right shift that propelled us past all of them. We finished the race 15th and moved up one position for the week. What a great effort on the part of Team KIMA! It was another great Race Week. Hope some of you who are reading will be with us next year. We had 23 boats, and 19 have been to Race Week before. I'll probably have more of a summary on Monday night. Cheers, Nelson. |
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| 21.Jun.07 | It was a two deer, two cycler, and one car day on the Southeast Light loop. But I've notice something about the deer. When I see them at about 100 yards, they have already spotted me and are standing stock still staring at me. When I get a little closer they bolt into the brush with their white tails clocking like a metronome. The most notable sight of the ride was the three sailing ships moored off Crescent Beach. They had British flags and were modern ocean going yachts, probably here for the tall ships visit to Newport later this month. There was some conjecture on how long they were (ranging up to 180 feet), but they clearly all would dwarf the largest racing yacht in our regatta (the Riechel Pugh 66, Titan). Today is the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year). At our latitude (41 degrees, 13 minutes N), the sun rises at 5:13 and sets at 8:22, giving us 15 hours and 9 minutes of daylight plus an hour if you add dusk at either end. The wind appeared to be 12-14 NNW and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect sailing/beach day. On the way back I missed the Sheeps Meadow exit on the BIE, so I added a few tenths to my ride. And it was a marvelous sailing day! The wind was 14 to 18 for the most part out of the west. KIMA was a little late at the boat in the first race behind MORNING GLORY. We wanted the right for more flooding current to the west. But as luck would have it, there was a 5-10 degree shift to the left so we did not benefit from the current. On both legs we joined the starboard tack parade and had to overstand not to be in the dust of other boats. We finished 15th, but there were a passel of boats right in front of us. We were probably just 20-30 seconds out of 8th place. In the second race (five legs instead of four), we were again near the boat end, but this time we worked our way to the port layline and were overstood coming in. Fortunately, there was a hole for us to fit into at the weather mark. Sure beats a long overstood beat on starboard. We gained downwind and on the second upwind we again favored the left. We were pacing two Annapolis boats, MOPELIA and TENACIOUS, with the third, BAT IV also in the mix. We rounded sixth and kept this place on the downwind. We passed BAT IV on the final upwind and finished just behind TENACIOUS and MOPELIA for a respectable 5th place. A good day with better boatspeed than previously. The lesson of the day was that it is better to duck several boats at the weather mark coming in on port than it is to go slow on the starboard layline for a half mile before the mark. This even works better the second time around when there are fewer boats competing for the weather rounding. |
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| 20.Jun.07 | No ride today. Too foggy and wet. The fog horn off the jetty was droning all night. So I'll tell you a funny story about my e-mail. When I arrived at the island, I could not access my e-mail using the (very, very) slow phone connection we have at our "cottage". I tried OE and the web and all my many addresses, but I got nothing. It was not until the next day that I realized that my desktop at home was sucking off all the e-mail to my home computer. So if you have sent e-mail and not received an answer, that is the reason. You can always expect a little fog at Block in June. This Wednesday was socked in pretty badly, but the RC got things going in spite of the fog at the appointed time at 10:30 a.m. The course was set at 2.0 miles to 205 degrees (SSW). Unfortunately, the wind did not cooperate and shifted radically to the right and by the end of the race was more like 300 (a ninety degree right turn). The third leg of the four leg course was adjusted to 240, but the wind continued marching right. Those who picked the wrong side of the course found themselves in the bottom of the pecking order. The last leg in particular was one port jibe to the finish. Anyone who continued on starboard for any length of time after the second weather leg found themselves tight reaching to the finish. SAVASANA, ECLIPSE, and GHOST were 1, 2, and 3. Then we waited around for more than an hour while the fog came in and faded out. But the big problem was the steadiness of the wind. When they finally got the race off, it was set as 1.5 miles at 250. But again the wind marched right and both downwind legs were one long jibe on port. The second race had boats 5-10 all finishing within about 10 seconds. Unfortunately, KIMA was the last of the group. KINCSEM, DRAGONFLY, and ANDIAMO wer 1, 2, and 3. The wind in both races varied from 6 to 16 for the most part. |
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| 19.Jun.07 | I took the same loop today for my bike ride. It's about 10 miles and 50 minutes. Today the sun was rising a minute earlier, but I was a little farther along Corn Neck Road. I saw two deer today in separate sightings and the same 6" box turtle. Unfortunately, today he was road kill. At this time in June the smells are intoxicating. Between the honeysuckle and the salt marshes at low tide, it is heavenly. If you take in the smells down at the town dump (futher along Corn Neck Road), you could write a book. But do you think that anybody would buy a book called "The Smells of Block Island"??? Let me get one thing out of the way. KIMA was sucky today. We weren't within a couple of miles of the leaders by the end of the race. Most of our decisions were wrong and we were slow. Hard to beat that combination. But there were some questions for the RC. They included: (1) Why, after postponing for an hour and a half with no breeze, did they have the (nearly) Around the Island Race today? (2) Why, did they shorten the race at 1BI just when the wind came up? (3) Why did they guess when calling boats back at the start? (4) Why did they allow some classes to do a 360 for a foul when other classes needed to do a 720? It did not make a whole lot of sense to some of the owners. The first two classes with slow PHRF boats went off around noon to a mark set at 210. Then the wind shifted to 185 and the RC delayed while they reset the line. The J/105s were the fourth start and the flood around the bottom of the island was two knots by the time we got there. Most boats hugged the shore before coming out to pass the two marks to weather. It was like a washing machine and there were long lines of faster boats passing us all the way up the weather leg. KIMA decided that along the south shore, it was better to go inshore to get current relief. But the boats that went outside got more wind. Then up the east side of the island it looked to us like the boats ahead would have to jibe out and the wind was better off the island. But the boats inside never had to jibe out and we guessed wrong again. Then the race was terminated early when the breeze came up. Was it because of the IRC meeting at 5 p.m.? |
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| 18.Jun.07 | Thanks to an overly hard mattress, I can attest to the fact that the birds start singing at 4:15 a.m. at the same time it starts to get light in the third week of June. I can also attest that the sun rises an hour later at 5:15 (I was riding around the Island on my bike at that time). On this particular ride, I encountered a deer, a turtle, thousands of birds, a couple of joggers and a couple of cars. This in a ride that took me to Southeast Light and back. We are staying at a house that you get to by taking Corn Neck Road and turning off at either Ministers Lot or Sheeps Meadow. You literally have a five minute walk to Crescent Beach from our house. We decided on a laid back regatta and to go for speed rather than point. When we got to the boat this morning at 9:05, the harbor start had taken place and we were among the last boats to leave the Boat Basin at 9:20. But we still encountered a logjam going through the narrows of New Harbor. The speed limit in the Harbor is 5 mph (4.7 kts we were told). The racing was postponed for three hours due to lack of breeze. As predicted, it was to start NE and move to the right to SE and then S over several hours. As predicted, the pressure was light. By the time they had gotten a start off, the wind moved all the way to 210 and had picked up considerably. We are the fifth start after the J/44s, J/120s, Beneteau 36.7s, and J/109s. True to our strategy we started at the pin and sailed low and fast. SAVA and ECLIPSE sailed higher and beat us to the mark, but we were a respectable 5th at the first weather mark and kept that position throughout the race. In the second race the wind backed to 195, but now everybody wanted the pin so we were over early in the "I" flag start and quickly circled behind the entire fleet. We remained near the back of the fleet during the first circuit. The RC finally shortened the race to three legs as the breeze died again. Thanks to a rightie and some some private breeze, we managed to finish 12th. Not bad, considering the start. Starting at the pin under the "I" has the advantage of being able to recover more quickly than if you are in the center. It looks like the J/109s and J/105s will be starting under the "I" all week. More tomorrow. Stay tuned. |
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| 17.Jun.07 | Today was a great practice day. In the afternoon the wind averaged 14 knots from about 250 (a little right from yesterday). We managed to tune with GHOST and JATO for awhile and got the rust off for some of the folks that had not sailed since last year. We were out for about 3 hours as were most of the BIRW participants. I think the total number of boats is about 160 this year. Some of the boats weighed in overweight, but managed to lose enough pounds to make the 1045 limit. Bruce Stone was sailing in a regatta in San Francisco today and is taking the red eye tonight to Logan, and has arranged for a charter to Block Island to arrive early Monday morning. Now that's dedication!
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| 17.Jun.07 | My son and I sailed KIMA over yesterday from Wickford, RI. It was a beautiful sunny day with beautiful wind and only a touch of waves and whitecaps. There was enough wind so we had to depower with only the two of us, but we sailed the whole way. The only problem was that the wind was in its normal 220 (SW) mode, so Block was directly into the wind. SEA SHADOW was coming from Newport and powersailing under main. She arrived well before we did. We got to the Boat Basin and had to wait for another boat to leave their slip and nearly took GHOST's spot. They came back at about 5 p.m. after a full day of practice. What did they do? Sail around the island three times??? We'll see if their practice paid off. Would that the racing days are as great for sailing as today.
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| 13.Jun.07 | Only five days left until we convene at the starting line. Of note is that we have 24 boats registered from nine fleets. Fleet #14 (eight boats), Fleet #6 (six boats), and Fleet #3 (three boats) lead the way. Also notable is that of the 24 boats, 19 have been to Block Island Race Week before. There is plenty of experience out there with regard to the weather and the tricky Block Island currents (watch the water carefully). We also have three previous winners with us and they have to be the ones to beat in 2007. We have SAVASANA (winner in 2006), KINCSEM (2002), and ECLIPSE (1999, 2004). Last year those three were 1, 2, and 3 and they could very well be top three again in 2007. GHOST will be looking to improve on their fourth in 2006. If you want to know how to race a J/105, they are good ones to ask about it. Brian, Joerg, Damian, and Ken are happy to share their secrets (well most of them) with you.
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