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.

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 **

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.

Susan Hood, 75 Mile over night race on Lake Ontario

Well Guys, Black Diamond is back in Toronto….It was a grueling two weeks, stepping the mast down in Catskills, NY and after navigating 33 locks through the Erie & Oswego Canals, then an all night crossing of Lake Ontario, lengthwise about 125 miles (200 km). We stepped the mast back up on Thursday, the day before we entering the Susan Hood (The Susan Hood is an all night race from PCYC to Burlington to Niagara-on-the-Lake and back to PCYC). Doing all this work in one shot felt like a marathon. I can definitely see my self in a trawler when I get tired of all this.

Cezary took this picture while we were stepping the mast just before the Susan Hood.

While stepping the mast up, Cezary took this picture half way up our 60 foot mast, standing on the spreaders and taking a little picture of me on the fore deck. Look at the dark water, what a contrast to the Bahamas. Anyways could not have had the boat ready in time if it was not for the help of the crew, namely Cezary and Kate Thomas. Cezary even installed a new HD TV Dome on the mast while it was down, what a trooper. Also thanks to Uncle Paul Thornton for making sure all the wiring was connected properly.

Calm before the storm

Start of the Susan Hood at Dusk, the calm before the storm.

My father George took this beautiful picture at the start of the Susan Hood race on Friday May 29th. The race started at 8PM, just before dusk. At the starting gun, a squall rolled across the lake, 25 knots of wind (50km), and a down pour of rain ensued, everyone got soaking wet before the race even started. For awhile there, we had less than 10 feet of visibility. Then we proceeded around the lake without much sleep all night, arriving by 11:02AM on Saturday, 15 hours later, and 1 minute faster than last year. We should have been far faster with the extra wind, and the use of a spinnaker this year. We lost almost 2 hours due to a strategic error, we choose to stay in shore between Burlington and Niagara thinking there would be more wind. In addition to not providing any more wind, this increased our sailing distance. Oh well live and learn. We’ll be back next year and give it another shot. We are now looking forward to Monday night racing around the bouys at PCYC.

Just before dusk a squall hit all the boats!

 

 

Safe Arrival to Toronto, Home port of PCYC.

Just completed close to a 1,000 kilometer trek back to Toronto. Continuing up the Hudson River to the now familiar Hop-o-nose Marina in Catskills, New York. Very friendly, professional staff and ownership. The only place I would recommend on the Hudson for stepping your mast and storing your wooden mast supports, or even building them right on site. We had left ours here for safe keeping in the barn. I found them just as we left them. I was on my own now for a couple of days, and it took me about 1 day to set up my mast supports, take down my sails and boom, disconnect all the mast wiring and electronics. Then the very capable and always willing to help staff stepped the mast down for me in no time. I was ready to leave the next morning.

My next stop was Albany, NY. This is where the new crew would be meeting me to assist in navigating the Erie and Oswego Canals back to Lake Ontario. The crew this time around was my mother in-law, Mary Hook and her sister Judy Horvath. I had pretty much tapped out all willing and able crew personnel from the Black Diamond crew bank. So these ladies were nice enough to volunteer their services. We had successfully made it through 33 locks, escalating a total of 460 feet above the Hudson river, and then back down about another 100 feet to Lake Ontario.

At first I wondered if these ladies could handle this, but Judy was one of the best fore deck hands for going through the locks you could ask for. And my mother in-law, well you could not have a better cook in the galley stirring up your favorite meals one demand. All in all, I think we enjoyed the trip, the weather was perfect for the whole trip through the canals. We made a few stops in a couple of towns. But mostly kept a steady pace back to Toronto.

We arrived in record time of 5 days from Albany to Toronto. On day 4 we started at about 10am, and went straight through for about 8 hours to Oswego, and just kept on going without stopping from Oswego at about 6PM straight across the lake to Toronto in 19 hours for a total of 27 hours non-stop motoring. It took us 22 hours last summer to cross the lake, this time in 19 hours. This record time was due to a 20 to 25 knot wind on our back, 6 to 8 foot seas pushing us along from behind, hitting speeds of 8 knots under power. I felt like I was back in the Ocean, it all looked to familiar. However the seas were 4 degrees celsius, almost freezing, and it was a cold windy ride home right through the night and most of the next day. 

The next couple of days I plan to step the mast back up, unload some cruising toys, clean her up, and on Friday night we are entered into the Susan Hood Race. This race is from PCYC Mississauga, to Burlington to Niagara and Back to PCYC. This is a 75 knotical mile non-stop, over night race, starting at 8PM and finishing sometime the next morning.

Cruising the Caribbean and then without missing a beat, arriving just in time to hit the Toronto Racing scene. I love this sport!

Day 1 – PCYC, Toronto to the Oswego Canal

August 21st, 2008 – Port Credit Yacht Club to Oswego across Lake Ontario.

Dear Friends and Family,

Our friends and family have expressed an interest in our trip and asked that we keep some sort of a blog to keep in touch. We thought that we would send periodical e-mails about our whereabouts, and the whereabouts of Black Diamond, because the two won’t always be the same.

I spent the last week and a half putting the final details on Black Diamond for the trip, while Roxane on the other hand, was trying to figure out what to pack. Normally we would pack for a week or so, to a certain location. With this trip we had to think ahead and stock the boat for our future trip to Bahamas as well.

 

Taking care of a few things up the mast!

 

Black Diamond was at the Angus dealership’s port during this time, I must say they have treated her well, and have taken care of all the details. She had the last few warranty items and installs taken care of, plus an oil change and all systems checked. We can not sail all the way to New York City due the many low bridges, therefore, we had Angus take the mast down with a crane. It was then mounted on a cradle that was designed and built by Angus.  Once we clear the last low bridge, around Catskill New York on the Hudson river, we are scheduled to meet Uncle Paul Thornton. He will help us raise the mast, and ensure all the electronics are re-connected properly. Uncle Paul just happens to be in Catskill working on his own boat, which is enroute from the Bahamas to Lake Ontario. His final destination is Port Credit Yacht Club, where he is now a new member.

Lord willing our trip will go something like this….

August 20th Port Credit Yacht Club to New York City by Sept 1st.
October 27th to November 8th (Ed and crew) New York to Florida (off-shore)
December 1st to January 15th Cruising the Bahamas Islands with the family.
March Break working our way home north along the US east coast.
April to NYC
May to Lake Ontario and home.

Yesterday, we started our first leg of the trip from the Port Credit Yacht Club at 10PM in the evening. After a nice dinner and a swim in the pool with the kids, we packed the final items in the boat. The boat is loaded down, the water tanks are full 400 liters, the fuel is topped up 130 liters, and the head is pumped out! The storage room is loaded with Sails, a new Dinghy and Electric Motor, Scuba Diving gear, Tools and Safety gear. The Bilge is loaded with 100 bottles of water and drinks, and all the other storage compartments are loaded with clothes and linens. Amazingly, the boat does not feel crowded at all, there is a spot for everything! Not the same as a week-end on the MacGregor, a lil’ R&R.

Ready to set off across Lake Ontario.

 

Last night the lake was calm. 4-5 knots of wind on the nose, but no worries since we are motoring. We averaged 6 knots at 2100 RPM. The trip to the Oswego Canal will take a total of 22 hours non-stop. By 9 AM this morning we covered 1/2 the distance with out complications. We only used an 1/8 of a tank of fuel. We encountered no containerships or traffic until about 7AM, at which time Roxane spotted three. The auto pilot did an amazing job, while we watched David Letterman in the salon, mind you, we did poked our heads out to have a look around every 10 minutes. Roxane went to bed at about 1AM, while I stood watch in the cockpit until 5AM. Then we switched positions, while I got some shut eye until about 8:30AM.

Enjoying Lunch in the middle of the lake.

 

The remainder of the day we did not see a single boat until we were about 1 hour from Oswego. There we encountered 40 recreational fishing boats, dodging trolling boats into the harbour. At exactly 8PM and 22 hours later, we radioed the Oswego Yacht Club, and we were guided to the visitors dock. We met the friendliest husband and wife, they invited us into the clubhouse to sign in, very informal. With our PCYC membership we are allowed free docking at the Oswego Yacht Club for the night. After some refreshments, they offered to drive us to the Customs Check-in. We never would have found it otherwise. After the video phone check-in with customs, we were dropped off at the local ice cream shop, then walked along the main street along the river back to the club. Oswego is a really cute and happening town.

 

The rig sailing away from the sunset.

22 hours, 136 knotical miles which is about 250 kms, the boat is getting about the same gas economy as my car. Actually it would have cost us more to drive around the lake, and not as much fun.