2009 Yacht Racing Season

A few photos from this years Yacht Racing Season.

At the Starting Line just after the Gun! - Photo By Bob Thayer (c) Copyright 2009

Spinnaker Start of the LO300 mile race, Notice Black Spin, Fully Crewed, Photo by Rod Chalmers www.yachtshots.ca (c) Copyright 2009

Making gains on competitors - Photo by Bob Thayer (c) Copyright 2009

I love this shot, Very regal and graceful, Thanks Bob! Photo by Bob Thayer (c) Copyright 2009

Wendy & Gord long time Fans, Tanya a recent PCYC learn to sail graduate. Lets not forget Artyem trimming the jib.

Black Diamond showing off their new Crew Shirts sponsored by RadonicRodgers Design+Marketing.

Ghosting in the Sunset. Photo by Bob Thayer (c) Copyright 2009

Rail Meat - Photo by Bob Thayer (c) Copyright 2009

Rail Meat all line up and doing their job.

Skipper Ed and Our Beloved Coach Andrew McAllister - Thanks Andrew for all your help the last couple of years! The drinking tips came in handy.

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!

 

START OF LO300 (c) Copyrighted Photo by Rod Chalmers, www.yachtshots.ca

 

 

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

Photo by Glen Butt m/v Square Pants.

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.

Lake Ontario 300, Longest Fresh Water Race in the world!

Thanks to the Race Sponsor.

 

Black Diamond’s Sponsor. www.designbymarketing.com

 

Black Diamond of the Port Credit Yacht Club (PCYC) and crew is entered in the Lake Ontario 300 for a second time this year. You can read about our interesting experience last year on this blog. Just click on “Yacht Race” on the right side of your screen, then scroll near to the bottom. The race starts Saturday July 18th at 10:30am. Last year we finished on Tuesday at about 7PM, we hope to finish this year by Monday night or Tuesday morning, depending on wind conditions. The forecast right now looks like a light start, winds building for the first day nicely, then dropping off completely for the remainder of the race. So we probably won’t be back until Tuesday.

We have more experience this year with the our new Asym Spinnaker, the crew is getting a little more comfortable but we are still pretty green. We know one thing, we will have an enjoyable time. Our crew of 5 includes myself, Ed Radonic your skipper, Andrew McAllister, Cez Makowski, Kate Thomas, Martin Boeykens and Will French.

The boat is pretty light and off loaded, we are even taking off the full enclosure canvas this year. We are still however a cruiser and will have a hard time competing against he hardcore racers in our fleet. We have Sirius Satellite weather and internet on board. We hope this will give us a little advantage over some of the boats. I will be updating this blog during the race, with just some of the happenings on the water, competition and general reports. 

The most interesting way to follow this race is with the FIS Race Tracking. There are a 160 boats entered this year, the largest fleet ever. Each boat has been equipped with a transponder for tracking. You will be able to track all the boats around the lake, they are organized in divisions, so find Black Diamond in the Main Duck Course, Fully Crewed Division 2. You will be able to track all the boats and compare how they are doing against each other and follow the race in this exciting new way.

I have posted the link to the race tracking site on my blog, top of the page, click on Live GPS tracking. There are two links, the first is the FIS Race Tracking, and the second is our personal tracking just for our boat.

More information about the Lake Ontario 300 race can be found at their site www.lo300.org

Stay tuned for race updates during the race.