Hokey smokes.
Archive for the 'PacCup2012' Category
Written in response to a request from the PacCup Chief Inspector.
Here is our harness/tether policy:
We are double-handed. It is understood that a MOB in all but the mildest of conditions will more than likely not be recoverable.
I have just received two brand new Wichard double-hook tethers, the kind with the glow in the dark ends.
I also have new jacklines to replace the old ones that are wearing out from UV exposure. These are special flat nylon webbing specifically designed for lifelines with 7000 lb breaking strength, and custom sized to our vessel.
We are presently sourcing new Spinlock PFD/Harnesses which come in S/M/L for better comfort and fit. We will carry the older gear as backup along with recharge kits.
The policy of the boat is for all crew to be wearing PFD/harness and clipped in at all times outside the Gate, except when bathing, when a simple harness will be worn.
The crew on watch will carry our Standard Horizon HX851 handheld radio on his/her person, which has DSC/GPS capability, which along with our in-cockpit AIS display should facilitate MOB location if necessary. I am also looking to get 2 of the newly approved Kannand R10 AIS MoB beacons to be worn inside the PFDs.
Thank you,
David Nabors
S/V Temerity
But mainly NEVER GET OUT OF THE BOAT.
Now that the Pac Cup race entries are closed, I was wondering how the Division splits might look for the doublehanders. Above is how I think it will break down. I couldn’t get data on the Ohlson, but it surely will be in the slower of the two groups. Moonshine‘s PCR is from 2010.
The PacCup rating for these boats is computed as the NorCal PHRF Downwind Rating + 515, and is the handicap average boatspeed in seconds per mile. The Time-on-Distance allowance is the course distance (2080 nm) divided by boatspeed expressed in knots. So for example, Temerity will have to beat Plus Sixteen by 15.6 hours in order to correct out ahead in the final standings.
For about a day there it looked like there might be a late entry in the fast boat, DH group, which might have thrown the E-27s in with us in the slower group. But it looks like this is the fleet that will be racing as of the deadline.
… and counting. Today we were up at the boat installing the new 200 A-hr LiFePO4 battery pack from Race Cell. The new 80A alternator and 135W solar will be on board in a couple of weeks, producing, one hopes, energy nirvana.
I’m not sure if I am going to do the Stand Down Marathon or not. I need time under sail, but would prefer doing drills double-handed. We’ll see.
Shore team member and all-around spokesmodel Char displays our new 135W solar panel, soon to be fitted to Temerity, and the stylish Temerity PacCup 2012 aloha shirt, of critical importance to winning the party.
Last Friday Temerity had her safety inspection, with inspector Michael Caplan performing this service for us. The previous weekend Char and I had spent a full day on the boat marking gear, applying reflecting tape, and performing a host of other checklist items, to be fully in compliance with the 38-page Special Offshore Regulations, Category I. There were a few minor items, such as a leaky bilge pump (since fixed) and no sail number banner (I did not understand the requirement, and it is since been ordered), but overall there were no deficiencies that needed to be checked prior to race start, and Michael was in fact very complementary, much to my pleasure (and relief). We chatted afterward, and he had some very useful suggestions beyond safety issues, and put me on to a local source for landjaeger, a critical provisioning item.
Afterwards, I called my crew to share the good news, and she said “Wow, this is getting pretty real.” Yep.
EDIT: I’ve since learned that Temerity was the very first boat in the Pac Cup fleet to pass inspection. Let’s hope this sets a precedent as far as other finishings are concerned!
JFC, so much still to do!
It’s the morning of March 27, which means (as seen on the countdown on the NSL right sidebar) that there are only 111 days to the Pac Cup start!
Where does the time go! So much still to do!
Yesterday Annika and I were up at the boat knocking off a few PacCup checklist items, including practicing deployment of the emergency rudder. It went OK, but I will be drilling some more holes in it to add some attachment points to make it easier to mount, and also to better secure it to the boat. It is so buoyant that it tries to ride up and out of the mount, and needs to be restrained, here with some green utility line.
A storm trysail is required per OSR 4.26 and is thus a PacCup requirement. We has ours built by Dominic Marchal of Marchal Sailmakers in Alameda (UK Halsey). It was delivered recently, and this week Annika was able to bend it on and in consultation with Dominic work out its sheeting requirements. Looks good.
Temerity is now back from our GC Marine, our rigger, having had the mast out and a number of maintenance tasks completed. This included rig overhaul and inspection, replacement of mast head sheaves, replacement of VHF antenna cable, rebuild gooseneck and vang attachments, hydraulic backstay adjuster service, rebedding the forward hatch, and adding a second topping lift and pole butt car to enable twin-pole jibing of the spinnaker (we also had the old black pole repaired and re-rigged, and a new carbon pole is under construction.)
What did not go back up when the mast and rig were reinstalled was our foil on the headstay. Instead, we are going bare, and I have had the sail loft convert all our headsails from luff rope to hanks. The Sweden type brass beauties can be seen above. Char and I took her out for a test on Saturday afternoon, and so far I am happy — it was blowing 10 – 16 as we motored and then sailed upwind under main alone with the jib unattended and un-bungied on the foredeck, and the jib of course had no ability to try and fly up and out of the boat. On the douse the sail did not exactly fall like a rock, and I had to run forward as usual to pull it down, but this was with our brand new #3 which is quite stiff and crispy still.
I was talking to someone at the recent Pac Cup prep seminar, and he was urging me to go crewed instead of double-handed. His points were entirely valid — more hands, more eyes, more sleep, and so forth. Almost certainly a shorter passage. But I was thinking there are a number of benefits to the less is more way of thinking, most of them intangible benefits to the skipper. You know, the grumpy fat guy writing the checks. And I had the notion that more skippers might be choosing this path, so I checked the numbers for the last three Pacific Cups, and was proved right — in percent terms, the number of DH entries has been growing. If you add the single-handers doing the SHTP, then the percentage of boats going shorthanded has been pretty stable right around 40% for these same three years. So, 4 out of 10 skippers are foregoing crew for their Hawai’ian adventure. Sounds good to me (so far).
Hidden Villa to Black Mountain, about 10 mi round trip, about 2300 ft climb.
Hiking around on Black Mountain in the Monte Bello open space preserve, to improve fitness/stamina, and also part of the program to reduce skipper body mass by 20% by race start.
Start tag immediately above this line.
Not really offshore, sitting in the office. Not going through the satphone yet, just testing software and WordPress/postie capability.
First Image immediately below this line. Should be autoresampled to 470 wide. #img1#
Second image below this line. #img2#
End tag immediately below this line.
Recent Comments