Top tips for leeward mark perfection

Looks like a lot of action at the leeward mark!  Here's an article about top tips for leeward mark perfection, written by UK Sailmakers Ireland, published in "Afloat".  It contains good information about technique for the leeward mark rounding that we can apply at that very busy time -- raising the jib, dousing the spinnaker, turning the boat, trimming for upwind, and managing heel angle.  Thanks to Steve Rustigian and to his father for forwarding it!  

Maiden!

"Maiden" is the adventure documentary of the 1989 Whitbread Race around the world whose entries included an all-women crew skippered by Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old brit who was a cook on charter sailboats - and had a dream.

Tracy's inspirational dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an all-women crew would not complete even the first leg, the chauvinistic yachting press took bets on their failure, and potential sponsors rejected her, fearing the crew would die at sea and generate bad publicity.     

The crew of Maiden shocked the world with their performance in the 33,000 mile Whitbread and humbled those doubting that women sailors are the equal of men!

The film is opening in limited release and will be coming to the Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks starting on August 16.  The typical film runs at this cool, independent theater usually last for less than a week.  

Who wants to attend a showing?  What days would work?  Post a comment below or contact Chris.

Upwind technique - tacks and tactics

Here is a good article from North Sails describing technique for "how to improve your tacks".  Really clear, actionable advice that can make a big difference in the upwind legs!  Note the emphasis on managing heel of the boat before and after the tack.

If you are interested in tactics, here is another good article describing "tactics as you approach the starboard tack layline".  This is a close encounter that occurs fairly frequently on the race course, and making the right decision allows you to stay ahead or get ahead.  This article is written by Bill Gladstone (who delivered the weather and routing briefing for the Queen's Cup last Friday).   

Lots of other good information in the North Sails website.  Happy browsing!

Rhumbline Regatta - 3rd in division

Mercedes and crew sailed a great race for the Rhumbline Regatta and placed 3rd out of 8 in Spinnaker I division against really tough local and out-of-town competitors!  

The course was a triangle with a long upwind/downwind leg, 3 times around, for a total of about 17 miles.  Winds were southwest at 10-16 knots, seas were 1-2 ft., and rain was threatening.  

Our boatspeed with the North 3Di #2 and the S3 and S2 spinnakers was good, but crew work made the winning difference in this race!  We observed various snafu's all around the course; a long course race like this sometimes turns into a war of attrition.  We had one memorable misadventure when the spinnaker on deck in it's bag tried to escape the boat and float free!  Dragging the spinnaker behind the boat turns out to be an effective sea anchor! 

Steve B. accepted our flag on behalf of the Mercedes crew.  Great job everyone!

Mercedes Tied for First in the Spring Series!!

We're tied for first with Wellenreiter in the Spring Series!!  Great job, we need to keep it going!!

Think sail FAST!!

Here are the results and the photo from last night's race.

Mercedes 2017 Sailing Video

Mercedes 2017 Sailing Video

In the beginning...

Great South Haven Invitational Weekend!!

Great sailing for the South Haven Invitational and Night Nav Race!!

We took first for the Night Nav Race with a 5 minute margin.  People are talking about the troublesome Mercedes crew.:-)

2nd place at the South Haven Invitational and first place in my heart!!  Mercedes' captain and crew ROCK!!

Just want to say thank you to:

• Cristo for spending a fortune to make our boat slick and fast.
• Steve B. for always making sure we have rum and mixers.  SO very appreciated.
• Dave for the best eats ever!!
• Sayer for doing such a great job of shopping.
• And everyone for showing up and working hard!!
• Thanks to Guy for jumping in and working your magic.

Here are some pics.  We missed Todd and Chelsea and Stever on Saturday.

Night Nav Race

1st place Mercedes

John making it look easy

Dave rockin the spinnaker

Chris coaching the team

Mercedes crew accepting our 2nd place flag!

 Great ride back to St. Joe.  15 knots of air from the north, we got to fly our new asymmetrical.  Thanks to Cristo for buying the asymmetrical and to Steve B. for fabricating the bowsprit.

Bullet Continued!!

First place!!! 

Big thank you to Chris for outfitting the boat with new instruments and sails, your dedication to this sport and our sailing program is beyond words.

Big thank you to everyone who worked on the boat, especially Steve B. and Chris who logged at least 100 hours in cold, finger-freezing weather.  Hats off to you both and everyone else who helped work on the boat.

Great sail last night the only thing that would've made it better is if Dave and Sayer were there.

First race a bullet!

Pretty good start to the 2019 racing season for Mercedes - a first place finish!  Congratulations to the Mercedes crew for sailing a great race!  

Sunset photo

Take a look at the colors in this photo that Molly (from Berrien RESA) took of Mercedes sailing last Thursday night, May 16!  Beautiful!  Thanks, Steve B., for sharing it.     

LMSuRF May newsletter

The May issue of the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation newsletter is available.  There is an article about the St. Joseph River Yacht Club racing program by Gordy Dill and Jim Schrager in this issue.  They discuss how successful PHRF handicap racing is, but there are some holes in their logic!  Other, more scientific rating systems are becoming much more popular because they offer better speed predictive capabilities than PHRF does.   

Congratulations, Sayer!

Congratulations to Sayer for passing the Offshore Safety at Sea Course! It truly reflects a commitment to personal and crew safety. 

When you, too, finish the course successfully, send me (Chris) your completion certificate so I can similarly embarrass you! (I earned my certificate, too, but I'm too humble to post it here :)

Personal flotation devices

Here's an important safety challenge for you!...  Wearing your inflatable personal flotation device (lifejacket), imagine you have accidentally gone over the side of the boat, and both the automatic water-sensing mechanism (if one is fitted) and the manual pull-cord fail to discharge the CO2 cartridge to inflate the lifejacket's bladder.  (This is what happened to the crew overboard victim in last year's Chicago-Mac race.)  

Now, open the cover of the lifejacket, locate the blow tube (hint - it's on the left side), and blow up the bladder.  It will take only about 4 or 5 breaths, and a valve automatically holds the air inside.  For extra credit, locate the strobe light and the whistle attached to the lifejacket.  For even more extra credit, do the whole operation with your eyes closed!

Not so awfully difficult on dry land or in the bathtub or even on a calm, warm day on the lake, but be prepared to do this while treading water in a cold, dark, angry sea!     

 

SJRYC pre-season meeting on May 8

Here is a note from last week from Jim Schrager, the SJRYC fleet captain, announcing the pre-season skippers' meeting at the yacht club on Wednesday, May 8, 7:00pm.  

Everyone is invited to attend to learn about the plans for racing this year.

- - - - -

"Just a reminder for your calendars, the SJRYC Pre-Season Skippers' Meeting will happen next Wednesday evening, 7:00PM, 08 May, third floor of the Yacht Club.  Yes, I know the weather is horrible today, and looks bad for the rest of this week, but someday soon the Sun will shine again.

We'll have the 2019 Schedule, the latest updates on the Sailing Instructions, notes about the Rhumbline and the Queen's Cup, as well as getting to meet at the folks involved with the Race Program this season.  This is your chance to sign up and get the paperwork done for the race season in one easy motion.  Paperwork includes the usual Fleet Form (which we will have with us), your check for racing, and a copy of your PHRF Certificate.  

Skippers and all crew are invited.  

See you there, 

Jim Schrager

2019 SJRYC Fleet Captain"

Big Day Today

Big Day!  Had a sighting of Nate Lammers getting 100 octane airplane fuel for his lawn mower at Benton Harbor airport.  We were getting ready to take off for New Orleans.  Sorry, no pics, too surprised by the sighting, then trying to imagine Nate's flying lawn mower.

Here's the pic climbing out over St. Joseph:

Then, landed for fuel in southern Missouri next to a flooded Mississippi River.

And, it turns out they sell Fried Bologna sandwiches out of vending machines here!!  WHO KNEW??

Please subscribe to receive postings to this blog - just write your email in "Follow SailingMercedes by email" in the upper right!

Spring refit projects

In case you're curious about refit and maintenance projects on deck for spring 2019 to prepare Mercedes for launch this season, here is a link for the current list of spring projects updated May 15.  Thanks to Mercedes crewmates for contributing so much time and effort so far to "boat projects"!  It's really appreciated!

Good opportunity for re-wiring 

and replacing fittings on the 

mast while it is unstepped.

Offshore Safety at Sea Seminar

The USSailing organization has created an on-line version of their Offshore Safety at Sea Seminar that is sanctioned by race governing bodies such as the Chicago Race to Mackinac race committee as fulfilling requirements for crew members.

Karen and I attended the full day offshore safety at sea seminar in Chicago last year, and I was dubious that the on-line version could match that.  So I registered and paid for the Offshore Safety at Sea Seminar, and I'm partway through the video and printed materials.  The quality and breadth of the content is extremely good - it's really impressive.  

Topics in the seminar include lending search and retrieval assistance, life jackets and other personal safety equipment, ship's safety gear, medical conditions, weather conditions, boat handling, marine radio procedures, water immersion survival, and lots more.  Material is relevant for any type of sailing - not just sailing offshore.  There are 10 chapters of video and accompanying text and a (somewhat hokey) quiz to take after each.  

Registering for the on-line Offshore Safety at Sea Seminar costs $85.00.  You can sign in and out and get through the chapters at your own pace.  The registration lasts for 90 days.  The results of the quizzes are tabulated, and 80% is a passing score.  You can generate your personal Offshore Safety at Sea certificate after completing the seminar successfully.  

Please give serious consideration to attending this seminar and obtaining the certificate.  It is a very, very worthwhile investment in your safety and that of your crewmates and other sailors on the water!  

Designing Asymmetricals for Mercedes

Open the document linked here, and cast your votes for your favorite(s) in the Comments section, or try drawing one.  If you send an image of your creations to me (Chris), I will include them in the file.  
Here is an updated document including 2 new designs from Steve, numbers 22 and 23.

Some of the designs I messed with, like those between Design 9 and 14, are asymmetrical layouts not mirror imaged laterally.  The sailmaker tells me they can probably lay out the asymmetrical colors.     

Here's the link for the web-based drawing tool: https://www.onesails.com/uk/paint-your-spi/

To lay out colors for an asymmetrical spinnaker, select the "Gennaker" radio button.  Three colors is free; more than 3 costs more.  Avoid alternating different colors across the center of the sail for more consistent stretch characteristics.  I could find no way to save the output except capture the window, paste it, and crop it.  The numbering of these designs starts at 3 because I sent two in to Quantum already.

Note that there are a few subtle differences in how Quantum lays out the design of an A-sail, particularly in the second horizontal section down.  But this English OneSails tool is pretty close.  

Here is one of the images...

Don't forget to vote in the Comments below!

Crew overboard lessons

This UK Sailmakers Newsletter has articles about crew overboard (COB) procedures.  It also contains a link to the report from the Chicago Yacht Club committee that investigated the fatal accident in last year's Chicago-Mac race.  

Reading this report is chilling.  I don't want to be morbid about it, but it is critical to be cognizant of the safety hazard inherent in someone going over the side into the water, no matter what conditions.  And this applies to everyone sailing a boat, whether offshore in extreme weather, coastal cruising, or having a casual daysail!  

Some conclusions from the CYC investigation involved safety equipment (the COB's auto-inflating lifejacket did not inflate), role assignments and executive communication on deck, and the fastest procedures for stopping the sailboat and retrieval.  It highlights the importance of practice to develop the skills for effective COB procedures!  Let's do it!

North Sails How-To Guides

North Sails publishes a variety of "How To" guides that cover all sorts of sailing speed tips relating to everything from smaller one-design boats up through mega-yachts.  Lots of useful reference information that is applicable to us!  Check it out, and bring me any questions you have.  Here's the link...  

North Sails How-To-Guides 

Lake Michigan SuRF January 2019 issue

Here's the January 2019 issue (click on the logo image) of Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation (SuRF) with news and events around Lake Michigan.