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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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One of my vivid memories from childhood is that of my father endlessly working on the trailer for his Hobbie 18.  It was a rusty orange old trailer which I can remember him rewiring the lights on at least 3 times.  Inevitably he would have a bad ground or get wires crossed so that the right light would blink with the left turn signal.  Well as is inevitably the case I have become my father and it is time for me to work on my own trailer, and the first item of business. . .  is the lights.

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It is 2008 and I for one am looking forward to an amazing year.  I hope that everyone out there in San Juan 21 land had the happiest of holidays and got lots of great sailing gifts from Santa.  I also wanted to post some pictures of the 2007 Fleet #1 award ceremony and congratulate Jack and Stephen on their respective victories.

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The final San Juan 21 Fleet 1 Race of the 2007 season was at Coulon Park in Renton WA, on a day which would have made penguins look for a nice dry place to get out of the rain.  A hard rain is a rare occurance in Seattle where we prefer our precipitation accumulations to be slowly drawn out over weeks if not months.  But for this race the skies opened up and dumped almost ½ inch of rain between 11AM and 2PM.  I was soaked by the time I got my mast up, and found myself thinking of Noah… “Hmm I wonder if the Arc had an adjustable backstay?”  Six boats were willing to brave the risk of drowning while still sitting in the cockpit: Habagat, Rascal, Compass Rose, Charmed Juan, PGS Juan (sporting a shiny new mast) and of course Limpet.  Chris Popich left Wooglin at home but crewed aboard Rascal.  On board Limpet I had my Father John along as brave and experienced crew. 

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What is wrong with this picture?  After Gene found himself dismasted last week I got to thinking about my standing rigging.  In particular my spreaders have always been extreemly wobbly whenever I lower the mast.  I decided it was time for a closer look. 

 After some quick measurements and mechnaical review, I realized that my spreaders are 4 inches too long, and that there was nothing holding them on but compression force.  Originally SJ21s came with 29 inch spreaders, but latter years the spreaders were cut down to 25 inches (which is the minimum allowed by class rules).  This reduction helps pointing ability if you are sailing with the 135% Genoa.  I don’t sail with a Genoa but some day I may try so I decided if I was going to replace the bolt which was no longer holding the spreaders on I might as well cut them down to the minimum lenght.

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This weekends San Juan 21 Race in Elliot Bay ended up being more of an obstacle course than a sailboat race, and not all the boats came out unscathed.  The course featured a starting line with a heavily favored starboard pin just off the rocks, a weather mark protected by a giant bull Sea Lion, a dead zone ¾ of the way down the down wind run, and an imposing leeward mark surrounded by 3 foot seas and a crazy wind shift.  The only thing missing to make the vision of a visit to Camp Pendelton complete was Clint Eastwood firing an AK47 over our heads.  If you think I am succumbing to my tendencies for over-embellishment, just look at the photos of PGS Juan demasted while attempting to round the leeward mark on the final race of the day.  I am not kidding. . . it was so treacherous that Scout’s crew didn’t even take our their banjos. 

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