Frosty Moon?
November 19, 2008
I was walking home last night, about the time I would have been going on watch last week. I am still tired and my body hasn’t fully recovered. But I was walking home, walking south, and looked up to see the two bright “stars” that I had used to steer by. From our position at sea (during my watch at least) they were bearing between 200 and 225 degrees magnetic.
I wrote down in my deck log – “you really need to learn more about the stars – it helps being out in the night sky” and remember wondering whether I could come home, and through a sort of reversed equation of finding location (because I know where we were) figure out what those stars were? I just downloaded the sky chart and am trying to figure out what my bright stars were – Altair and Vega are certainly in the running – but I think they were planets (no twinkle twinkle). Of course it could have been the autumn star – Fomalhaut. Apparently (and wouldn’t THIS have been good to know) is due south.
The star chart also pointed out that while we were sailing the moon was full and at perigee and that the November full moon is called a Frosty Moon or a Beaver Moon. I also listened to a pretty cool podcast about the whole thing at Sky and Telescope’s monthly skycast.
Here is what the site StarDate had to say about the night sky:
November 2008
The dazzling constellations of winter begin to creep into prime evening viewing time during the longer, cooler nights of November. Beautiful Orion rises in mid-evening early in the month, but by early evening at month’s end. Taurus, the bull, charges into view ahead of Orion, with Gemini, the twins, rising about the same time as Orion, but farther north. The Dog Star, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, follows the hunter in late evening. A special late-month treat is the pairing of Venus and Jupiter in the southwest at sunset. The crescent Moon closes in on them on the 30th, creating an especially striking tableau.
So I have to go out tonight and see if I can figure out whether what I saw were stars or Venus and Jupiter – seems like they were far too high in the sky – but I suppose since I was steering to them they couldn’t have been that high. More to come.
“Sea-Fever”
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
By John Masefield (1878-1967).
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967.)
Gale Force Sailing Video Blog – Frostbite Racing!
November 17, 2008
Annapolis Yacht Club Frostbite Racing 11-16-08
November 17, 2008
Every Sunday until the middle of December you can find hundreds of folks, dressed dressed more appropriately for black diamonds than sailboats, packed shoulder to shoulder and racing in the annual Annapolis Yacht Club Frostbite Series.
I coach the J80 Bear Instinct for this series in my ongoing role as a JWorld Annapolis racing coach. Each week three (on in the case of this week four) of my clients jump onboard and race against as many as 11 other J80’s (and dozens of of other boats in other classes). Each week the clients rotate positions and assume responsibility for being the helm, mainsail trimmer and jib trimmer. I ride around flapping my gums about rules, procedures, strategy, technique, and trim. Over the next few weeks I will be doing less and less flapping and more and more filming. In the end it is my hope to help this great group of very capable sailors gain the experience and confidence to race their own races – and still make it to the podium.
Right now we are in third place overall in our class. We have a 2nd, 4th, and a 5th. The whole team is focused on doing better so I bet you’ll see those finish scores improve in the coming weeks. You can find the results for this week and future weeks at the Annapolis Yacht Club site.
Today’s racing was held in what felt like pretty marginal conditions at times – but it was a great time and good racing. The course was started in the Severn River and raced up river to a drop mark near the base of the Naval Academy (Route 450) bridge. From their we reached and ran back into Annapolis harbor before returning to the finish line at the Annapolis Yacht Club. With any luck in the future I’ll be able to post some Google Earth maps of our courses, which may allow us to do some analysis of the races and our decisions. For now my GPS is not working well and my love/hate relationship with Google Maps is firmly in the hate catagory.
The NOAA site for the US Naval Academy (our start line) claims that it was 50 degrees and the wind was about 15kts. It felt a lot colder and I know the gusts were likely closer to 25kts. Fun conditions for sure.
Frostbite racing is interesting racing and a discipline of its own. No spinnakers. No hiking. Weird course formed from government marks, drop marks, and a finish line that extends from the yacht club bar to a flag somewhere near another bar, but definitely just shy of a big bridge.
What IS just like all other kinds of racing (albeit manifested a little differently) is that starts are really put at a premium because the reaching dominant courses don’t allow for many passing lanes. Boat speed and boat handling are also important. There are so few opportunities to recover from even the smallest mistakes means that the whole team needs to be on their game in order to win.
Today was SO windy that keeping the boat moving the whole time was also important. When a boat is over powered leeway increases, heeling increases, helm deflection increases and boat speed decreases. We weren’t really slow – but we were clearly a little off the pace of the top boats. It is a product of our lack of time sailing together and a lack of time in the J80. We are getting better, and I bet if we had another couple of days of sailing in those conditions we would have a much better sense of how to adjust our sails and keep the boat moving forward at full speed the whole time.
For instance when a big puff, and there were lots of them, would roll towards a boat the best way to keep the boat moving would be shift gears in our sails in order to translate the puff into speed rather than heeling. This “gear shift” would likely include adding tension to the backstay, vang, and Cunningham. Maybe easing the main sheet or dropping the traveler. Then as the puff abates and the boat begins to stand up or slow down those controls would be returned to whatever their “base” setting was for the day.
We’re getting much better and today’s wild conditions will make everyone less gun shy the next time an unexpected puff hits the boat. Thanks for a great day of racing!
Full Version Of Latest Gale Force Sailing Video Blog
November 16, 2008
New Gale Force Sailing Video Blog!
November 16, 2008
Welcome to the Gale Force Sailing Video Blog – This is the mobile version. I will publish the full quality version shortly.
Delivery Season
November 9, 2008
Cape Lookout, NC Light House
No I’m not going to work for Domino’s, but I am taking a J122 down to Fort Lauderdale. We leave from Beaufort (that’s BOW-FORD), NC and head south (Course 207M). Before we leave, we have a bit of electronics work to deal with, but with any luck at all we’ll be leaving the Cape Lookout cut before dark on Monday.
From there it’s a fairly straight shot to Ft. Lauderdale. The forecast is favorable, due in part to a late season hurricane in the Caribbean. We don’t expect it to be a problem – and in fact if the forecast holds it will be a big help. Here is what NOAA is saying about our trip -
MON NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT BECOMING N TO NE. SEAS 3 TO 5 FT. MON NIGHT NE WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. SEAS 4 TO 7 FT. HIGHEST WINDS AND SEAS S. TUE NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS BECOMING 5 TO 7 FT...HIGHEST SE. WED NE TO E WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT...HIGHEST SE. THU SE TO S WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. SEAS 5 TO 8 FT...HIGHEST S.
Looking a little further south – this could be what we come into Ft. Lauderale on.
TUE AND WED WITHIN 300 NM NW QUADRANT OF REMNANT LOW WINDS 20 TO 25 KT...EXCEPT 25 TO 35 KT NEAR CENTER. SEAS 8 TO 10 FT. ELSEWHERE WITHIN 150 NM OF LOW WINDS 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS TO 9 FT. ELSEWHERE N OF 26N W OF 72W NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...DIMINISHING TO E 10 TO 15 KT WED. SEAS 6 TO 8 FT IN NW SWELL. REMAINDER OF AREA MAINLY E WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT IN E SWELL. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND TSTMS WITHIN 150 NM OF REMNANT LOW. THU N OF 26N W OF 74W SE WINDS INCREASING TO 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT. N OF 26N E OF 74W SE TO S WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 4 TO 5 FT. S OF 26N E TO SE WINDS 10 TO 15 KT...EXCEPT NE TO E 10 TO 15 KT E OF 70W. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT E OF BAHAMAS... AND 2 TO 3 FT W OF BAHAMAS. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED TSTMS W PART. FORECASTER AGUIRRE
Basically it is the best we could hope for. The boat is a great sailing boat and in these conditions should make for a very fast and fun sailing passage. It is approximately 540 miles and we are going against the Gulf Stream for at least some of the trip – but I think we should arrive by Friday. I’m taking the still camera and the video camera and when I return hope to have some super images to share.
Until then… Fair winds and following seas
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Team Dakota Girl Owner Stephanie Reuer Gets Her Props
November 6, 2008
Team Dakota Girl Places 2nd During the Race To St. Michaels 2008
Stephanie Reuer is one of my favorite people to coach ad sail with. She is talented with the right attitude about winning and improving. She attracts great people to her crew with an effervescent positive attitude and a commitment to becoming better. What more could you ask for?
This month Stephanie was profiled in Spinsheet Magazine as well as Scuttlebutt – a daily sailing newsletter that goes to tens of thousands of sailors in the US and Europe. Way to go Steph!
CHESAPEAKE RACER PROFILE: STEPHANIE REUER (click to download PDF)
Stephanie Reuer, owner of the J/35 Dakota Girl, thinks she might be the only
racing skipper on the Bay who’s sung opera on stage at the Kennedy Center with Placido Domingo. Having grown up in South Dakota catching walleye on the Missouri River with her dad, she feels at home on the water. A career in
international trade and a masters in opera performance led her to the
Washington, DC area, where she launched a career in trade compliance and sang part-time for a decade with the Washington National Opera Company. Still working as a self-proclaimed “regulatory nerd” and having just moved to a new home in Annapolis from Deale, MD, Reuer has traded in her passion for singing for racing.
“I didn’t step foot on a boat until I was 34,” she says, and she bought her first boat the next year. “I fell completely in love with it.” That she didn’t start racing until six years later is, “Proof that life does begin at 40.” After crewing for several years and racing her own PHRF boats, she listened to the gentle nudging of her boyfriend Randy Bruscup on the benefits of one-design racing and eventually chose the J/35 for the affordability, the competitive fleet, and the support of the class. Not having a boat mortgage has enabled her to hire professional coaches and ramp up her team more quickly. She says, “We have received a lot of advice, coaching, and moral support over the last two years from each and every J/35 program, especially from the team leaders: Maggie, Windependent, Aunt Jean, Medicine Man, and others.”
ESPN CLASSIC TO AIR DOCUMENTARY REGARDING THE 100TH CHICAGO YACHT CLUB RACE TO MACKINAC
November 5, 2008
The Chicago Yacht Club announced that ESPN Classic will air a one-hour documentary about the 100th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac presented by Lands’ End Business Outfitters. “The Mac” is the world’s longest annual freshwater sailing distance race. The 100th Mac took place this past July, with more then 430 boats crossing the starting line. This documentary will be presented by Rolex Watch USA, the Official Timekeeper of the 100th Mac. ESPN Classic will air the documentary on Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. Central, and again on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. Central.
ESPN’s Gary Jobson, a highly decorated racing sailor and the world’s leading sailing television journalist, has produced the documentary. Viewers will see and hear about the technological advancements over the decades. Coverage will include helicopter and sea level footage, including footage from several highly competitive crews that competed in the 100th Mac. The documentary will also cover all of the pre-race and post-race events associated with this once in a lifetime event. In addition to Rolex, a number of other sponsors will be supporting this project, including North Sails, Gougeon Brothers, and Lands’ End Business Outfitters, the Mac’s presenting sponsor.
‘The Race to Mackinac is an eagerly anticipated event by thousands of sailors each year. The history, the adventure, and the competition are all reasons we come back to Mackinac Island each year, and our ability to share this experience with our families and friends makes it all the more special. We look forward to sharing this terrific event with millions of people around the globe,’ Greg Miarecki, Race chairman, commented. ‘We are also deeply honored to have Gary Jobson, with Rolex’s strong support, covering the Race in this special way.’ Miarecki added.
‘The Race to Mackinac is one of America’s icons of yacht racing. We are proud to document the 100th running of the Mac for ESPN. Given the prestigious nature of this race, it is especially fitting to have Rolex leading this project. It was the highlight of the racing season in 2008,’ Gary Jobson commented.
To learn more about the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac go here.
J105 Chesapeake Championships Video – November 1st
November 5, 2008
J22 East Coast Championship Video
November 5, 2008
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