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Transformation from Cruiser to Racer.

Both cruising and yacht racing are important to my family, this is why we set out to acquire a versatile boat. We wanted a boat that had an open and large cockpit for entertaining, accommodations for comfortable family cruising, yet still be competitive in yacht racing. We found what we wanted in a 2008 Jeanneau 39i Performance sailboat that we named Black Diamond. After spending the winter cruising with her in the Bahamas, we brought her back just in time for the summer racing season here in Lake Ontario.

Our cruise to the Bahamas began in August 2008 when we left the Port Credit Yacht Club, crossed Lake Ontario, then through the Oswego/Erie Canal, and down the Hudson River to New York City. The sail from New York City to Florida was completed about 100 miles offshore and in what I believe to be a cruising record of 5 days and 3 hours.

You can imagine all the gear necessary to make this trip safe and enjoyable. I purchased a storm jib, six man offshore life raft, inflatable dinghy with an electric motor that can easily be stored in the storage room. We made good use of our storage room, keeping the deck and transom clear for some offshore racing. We were fortunate to enter a couple of offshore long distance races while away.

At anchor in the Exumas, Bahamas near Big Major Spot.

But now the challenge was turning her back into a racer for the Lake Ontario 300. Once we pulled into our slip, after a winter of cruising south, the process started with completely stripping the boat of just about everything. It is amazing how much stuff can accumulate on a boat! It took a conscious decision to remove everything, and only put back what was absolutely necessary. We removed about three van loads of gear including the dinghy, motor, fishing rods & tackle, scuba gear, beach chairs and toys, extra clothing, cleaning supplies, appliances, books and the barbeque amoung many other things. I estimated over a 1,000 pounds worth of gear in all.

Next, we had to meet the LO300 offshore sailing regulations which has a very long list of safety gear that needed to be purchased and installed. However, we still wanted to keep the boat light for the race. So off came the main sail lazy jack bag and the full enclosure which consists of a dodger, bimini, transition and side walls, not forgetting all the enclosure hardware. This was not only for weight and drag, but also for clear visibility of the sails. We used this opportunity to have minor repairs done to the enclosure after a long winter down south. Then we made sure the water, waste and fuel tanks were emptied, only carrying enough fuel to meet regulations. This saved us another 1,000 pounds in weight. The salon table came out, making room for the crew’s personal gear, and keeping the weight low to the keel.

We sent a crew member up the mast for an inspection. The rig was tuned for racing, life lines and all sharp edges taped off to protect the spinnaker. We lubed all the running rigging, making sure everything was operating quick and smooth. We haul the boat out, washed the bottom then applied a coating of VC-17; this retards marine growth and provides the hull a super smooth and quick surface.

The last thing that we had to take care of before the race was provisioning the boat with food. Our goal was to have good food that was quick and easy to prepare.  This is very important on long distance races or cruises. Many times the weather or sea conditions make it difficult to cook at sea. Fortunately, my wife enjoys cooking and volunteered for this job. She cooked everything homemade, for six crew, for three days. She made meat sauce and put it in a Tupperware, and she even precooked the spaghetti and put in large Ziploc bags so that we just had to heat it, and serve it. Another of the crew’s favourites for lunch was the prepared egg salad and tuna salad that could easily be put between bread for a quick sandwich. We also had a large dish of  homemade chili and chicken noodle soup that could also be heated up at a moments notice.

Overall, the transformation took me about 3 or 4 days worth of work and a couple thousand dollars in safety gear. In preparation, it is necessary to book approximately a week off work. This includes time for Prep, Race and Recovery. All well worth the effort. We had a wonderful experience racing the LO300, excellent wind conditions for about half the race with winds 15 to 20 knots and gusting a little higher. A nice broad reach under asymmetric spinnaker topping off our speed at 10.5 knots. We were up with the leading boats for the first leg. I was very happy with our performance up until then, reaching Main Duck Island in about 19 hours. Then, just before rounding the island we ripped our spinnaker in half. What a disappointment, not for the loss of the spinnaker but for what it would do to our finishing position. The only item that was not taped off, was the radar reflector on the starboard spreader, I believed this may have put a little hole in it, that eventually caused the rip due to a long and heavy spinnaker leg.

Stripped down for the Lake Ontario 300 in 2009.

The next leg from Main Duck to the Oswego Mark was a close haul course in 20+ knots of wind with seas 6 to 8 feet. I could swear I was back on the Atlantic Ocean! It’s the closest you’ll come to experiencing the ocean on a lake. Our boat loves these types of conditions; we put a couple of miles between us and the boats directly behind us. We also passed 4 boats, and caught up to the lead boats again. On the leg to Youngstown we decided to head offshore, which turned out to be a bad decision. Had we stayed inshore and on the rhumb line directly to the Niagara mark, many boats including those in our fleet may not have passed us. The last leg really required a spinnaker with very light winds, this is where we lost all our time in the race this year.

We did complete the circumnavigation in two and a half days, a day quicker than last year.  We endured some rough conditions, heavy winds, doldrums, hot summer sun, cold evening breeze, containerships and even some seasickness, but all of this added to the experience. I would recommend the race for anyone planning a long distance passage down south, it’s an excellent training ground for ocean passages, and a good shake down cruise for your vessel and crew. I plan to continue to participate in the LO300 for many years to come.

Last leg of enjoyment, LO300

During the last leg, there was very little if any wind. The boat was creeping along, and without a spinnaker it made it extra slow. So we enjoyed some refreshments, home made stuffed peppers thanks to my wife Roxane. We watched a movie on the TV, while the on watch crew was enjoying the movie that was being broadcast on the chart plotter as well. A few tunes in the evening and we eventually made.

Roxane was busy for 2 days preparing all the meals. Pre-cooked pasta, and home made everything including meat sause, chilli, stuff peppers, and cevapies. We had breakfast sandwiches, english muffins with eggs and bacon. Roxane had prepared breakfast sausages but I forgot to put them on. Over all we were well taken care of in the food department.

Finish of the Lake Ontario 300

Taken from the second spreader by Will French

We finished the LO300 Monday night at 11:57PM North American EST time. Just 3 min. before Tuesday, so we can claim we came in on Monday. ; ) Thats 2 days 12 hours 57 minutes. Almost a day earlier than last year. We are happy with our results, as a beginner crew, still learning the boat, we found out in this race that the rig is not tuned properly for performance sailing and we ripped our spinnaker. Thanks to Will French and Andrew McAllister for many strategy and tactical lessons which we will focus on more next year. This leaves lots of room for improvement. Hope to be back next year and do  just a little better again.

We tacked in shore, and started sailing the rhumb line to the Niagara mark. We should have done that the whole time on this leg, would have placed much better. Once we rounded the mark, the wind shifted, and it was a spinnaker leg to the finish. We lost lots of time on this leg, at least 3 hours. The wind then died completely, and the last 6 miles took us another 3 hours or more.

We encounter some heavy winds….15 to 22 knots. Our top speed was 10.5 knots, cruising steady at 8 to 9.5 knots on the first leg, Sailing the asym spinnaker at about 110 to 130 degrees to the wind. Then on the 2nd leg, Main Duck to Ford Shoal, we sailed through 6 to 8 foot seas, in about 13 to 17 knots of wind. Our average speed here was 7 to 8 knots, sailing 40 to 60 degrees to the wind. We put 2 miles between us and the boats behind us in this leg. We passed 3 boats and caught up to the fleet ahead of us. After this race, I think our PHRF rating of 87 is pretty fair. I think we have so many areas we can improve on as sailors that in the next many years we will do much better.

For those that followed the Mackinac yacht race this week-end on Lake Huron, you’ll know that the conditions on Lake Ontario were much better. They had very light winds through most of the race. Average boat speeds were around 3 knots.

Everyone jumped off the boat and went home for a good nights sleep. I too slept 6 hours last night, then the family showed up at 8:30am to drop Thomas off at Sailing School. We are now spending the day just cleaning up the boat.

Feel free to e-mail me if you wish, or post comments. ed@sailboatcruise.ca

Lake Ontario 300 Photos 2009

The first photos uploaded from Black Diamond live during the race….Will French went up the mast to release a stuck tickler and to look for wind. America’s Cup style!

Sailing with our solid Black Spinnaker. Photo by Glenn Butt m/v Square Pants.

Photo by Glen Butt m/v Square Pants.

Day 3, Lake Ontario 300

We went out into the lake last night, might have been a bad move. The inshore guys made time on us. Scotch Rocks passed us. But our forecast called for more wind offshore, plus we wanted to postiion our boat for a close haul instead of a spinakker run, since we ripped it. This morning we are heading well inshore. The afternoon forecast calls for winds inshore, so we will ride the in shore to the Niagara mark.

We are h0peing to pull up to Folichon, and borrow a spinnaker for the Niagara to PCYC leg. It will be way too small for our boat, but better than nothing. We will run will 3 sails flying, Main, Jib and Spin if we can borrow it.

Hello to all the folks back home, Ed, Skipper, Owner and Galley Chef, I don’t trust anyone making a mess in the kitchen, Will and Andrew competing for strategy and tactics, Martin, Cez and Kate as trimmers. The way the shifts go, is 3 on, and 3 off, We have separate sleeping accomodations for all 3 that are off at a time.

Will is going up the mast to have a look for wind, and  losen up a tell tale.

After Noon Day 2, Lake Ontario 300

We are holding are own in our fleet. We are happy with the results. Much better than last year. We did not expect to come near the top 5 of this division. Last year we only beat one boat in our division, if we do better than that, and arrive before Tuesday at 7PM, I am will be very happy with that. Not sure we will be able to without our spinnaker. We are now rounding the land that jets out around Rochester. The wind will completely die by this evening, and think we will try to stay close to shore, and try to play the thermals. The wind is 15 knots from the North West.

Kate helped helm the boat for a few hours, and is a great crew member. Kate says hi to her mom & dad in Ottawa, and Ryan too! Martin did not have to use the foul weather gear his wife bought him yet. It truly is a great adventure.

Day 2, Sunday, Lake Ontario 300 Update

We we did a good job going out to the middle of the lake, had good wind all night, and did not get wet at all. The boats that stayed in had similar wind, but got rained on. We gybed in, and around the scotch rocks. At about 3:30 AM, A sail boat in the race, almost hit us mid ship. He was about a boat length away, and heading bow into our mid ship. We were yelling starboard, since we had the right of way. He must have seen us, as we had our blue spreader lights on which light up the whole boat, and  running lights of course. It was a close call, I thought we were going to get holed, and sink the boat.

We made all right time in the rounding of Main Duck Island this morning at around 8 AM. This is 12 hours ahead of our time last year. However the wind has been amazing this year. It was blowing 18 knots true from a stern, about 12 knots apparent. Then the spinnaker just blew out. We ripped it in half. I wonder if it caught on something on the spreaders through the night. It was luffing against the radar reflector all night, and its the only thing we did not tape off.

At this point Folichon was right behind us at about 1 mile. We rounded Main Duck Island, and then it was an up wind close haul leg to Oswego, Ford Shoal Mark. The wind was 15 to 20 knots, close hauled, and 5- 8 foot waves beating. Actually our boat loves this. We took off from Folichon and the fleet behind us. Between Main Duck and Oswego, we put about 3 miles between us, and passed 3 boats in the race, and caught up to our fleet again.

We are now still in an upwind close haul to Niagara, we should slowly gain on some boats. The wind forecast is showing it will die down by this evening, at which time I will try to upload some photos.

** Hoping most of this race is an upwind race, so we won’t lose time by not having our spinnaker any more. **

** Second year in a row we blew a spinnaker, read about last year on this blog. **

** Lost the SPot, updates through this site, on FIS Tracking only **

Saturday 3 Hours into the Lake Ontario 300 Race

We found our way, and are catching the fleet. My guess is we are about mid fleet. but still behind our division. We are cruising at 8 to 9 knots, and hit a top sailing speed of 10.5 knots. The FIS tracking has not send a signal for over 2 hours, and is showing we have not rounded the first mark. However we are well off the Toronto Beaches, almost to the scarborough bluffs.

Some of the crew is having a cat nap on the rail, had our first drinks and really enjoying this perfect sailing weather. God has been good to us with this wind. 15 to 23 knots, right on a broad reach to a beam reach, which is what this boat loves, and we are sailing directly the rhum line to Main Duck Island. The GPS is saying we will arrive in 12 hours at this speed. But I know that won’t happen the wind will die down and shift tonight. But lets enjoy it while we can

Lake Ontario 300 Start

We hare off, close to 170 boats. We were in the 9th start, at 11:05am. We were over the line 5 mins. early, mis-read the start, and gybed back around. Had a little trouble raising the spinnaker. Then took us a little to get the boat going. We are coming up the back of the fleet. We are a few minutes from the Toronto Island Gabraltor mark. We are doing about 7.5 to 8 knots now and slowly catching up to the fleet. Once we round the marks we are pulling out a few drinks, and listening to Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. Thomas’ favorite CD, wishing all the best to the folks back home, Roxane, Thomas & Alexander, and the crew sends their wishes to their friends and family.