LimpetRacing.com

I never had training wheels on my bike as a kid.  I went strait from a tricycle to a two wheeler with a little courage, quite a few scraped knees, and my dad spending hours running up and down Creso lane holding the back of my seat.  At some point he let go and I was just riding on my own.  I don’t know how I was doing it… I just was.  Something happened, and the same things which had always seemed to end with me in a crying heap on the asphalt, were now allowing me to cruise along with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face.  I felt a very similar feeling on Fleet #1s last race this Saturday, when Chris handed me the helm of Wooglin, and we were able to win the race by our largest victory of the day.  I’m not sure how it happened, it just did.

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I know that it has been quite some time between postings here on LimpetRacing.  It is not from lack of amazing experiences I have had this summer.  I had a couple great cruising adventures with Limpet, and attended the San Juan Western Nationals in Coos Bay Oregon.  I will undoubtedly get together some belated posts on those outings in future weeks.  One of the major insights from my experience at Nationals is that I clearly suck as a sailboat racer.  My traditional back 1/3 finishes in Fleet #1 races translated into near dead last finishes with the increased competition of Nationals.  Luckily I went to Evergreen where I learned one of life’s most valuable lessons… “You can learn anything. . . if you know how to learn.”  The first step in learning you ask?  Get a good teacher. 

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On the second day of NOODs I was the last boat on the water and the first into the marina.  The delicate balance of managing family obligations and campaigning a sailboat tipped in favor of the family, and I missed the last two starts of the day.  Despite that Saturday was a beautiful day and it was great to get out even if it was just for a few starts.  I had Dave Coons with me and we challenged ourselves to once again fly the spinnaker despite the freshening breeze from the south. Continue Reading »

The National Offshore & One Design Regatta (NOOD) made its first ever date in Seattle this past weekend for three of the most beautiful days of sailing this city has experienced in a long time.  Even better was the fact that the San Juan 21s managed to bring 10 boats making our class one of the more respectable showings of the regatta.  Another great addition was an agreement from fleet #1 working sails boats that we could fly spinnakers and still get scored as working sails for seasons points standings.  So I rigged Limpet up with some donated cleats from Chris Popich, and some donated lines from my boss Jim, and headed out to fly my spinnaker for the first time ever. 

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Fleet #1 had originally planned our Saturday race to be on Lake Union.  Upon realizing that this was opening day of boating season we quickly decided to hold the race anywhere but Lake Union.  In our attempt to avoid the crowds we decided to swap out the venue to Don Armeni park in West Seattle and hold races on Elliot bay.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find every space in the launch ramp (and half the street) full of trailers from the hundreds of boats which were swarming Elliot bay like roaches when you flick on the light.  What was the cause of this flurry of activity you ask?  Opening day… of the Seattle shrimp season.  Seriously who in their right mind would eat something which lives on the bottom of Elliot bay?  It is literally hundreds of feet from the mouth of the Duamish river (one of the nations worst super fund sites).  “Another shrimp cocktail sir?”  “No, no, I am just going to mainline this lovely blend of arsenic and heavy metals!”  Why bother wasting time catching the shrimp?  It would be far more efficient to just wander around licking the streets of Seattle.  But I digress… Continue Reading »

Saturday ended up being a pretty good day of racing considering it started with the fleet arriving at a closed launch ramp. The day had a little piece of everything. From an emergency trailer repair on the side of 405, to a race finish during a hail storm. By the time I got home we were even getting some wet snowflakes falling.

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Our first Fleet#1 San Juan 21 Race of the 2008 season ended up being a serious drifter with light and shifting winds.  Of course most of the work I had done on Limpet since last season was for an adjustable backstay, and Cunningham.  Both of which are only needed during a serious blow.  I was off my game with the starts and we never found much boat speed in the light winds but it was still a great way to spend a March day in Seattle. Continue Reading »

Each year San Juan 21 Fleet one in Seattle puts on a rigging clinic in February to get the boats of the fleet ready for spring racing.  This year we hit the Washington weather equivalent of a trifecta: sun, mild temps, and a 10-15kt NW breeze.  It was as close as a winter sailor in Seattle can hope to come to a perfect day in February.  The beautiful day also brought out the masses, and we had 10 boats, 12+ skippers, and several Sea Scouts who took part. Continue Reading »

Those of you who have been reading about Limpet for a while now know that in my first ever attempt to race the boat my keel cable broke.  This resulted in a freewheeling 500LB lead keel almost ripping the bottom of the boat apart.  One of the major reasons that my cable broke is that both of the brass sheaves (aka pulleys) had frozen up, causing the cable to grind the pulley like a drunk sorority chick on frat boy with a trust fund.  This weekend I set about to fix the offending sheave.

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I have discovered a cheap alternative to caffeine… capsize your boat in Lake Union during February.  If I could just manage to bottle the exhilaration of being thrust unwillingly into 40 degree lake water (without a drysuit), I could be then next Howard Schultz.  Truth be told it was not actually my boat.  I left Limpet at home and headed out for a race with my friend Jim on his Vanguard Nomad.  He was kind enough to hand me the helm and in my first time flying a spinnaker I discovered how to broach. Continue Reading »