Undated Photo

Psyché's Song

On the Reach

The date on this shot is 29-Mar-08.

Psyché's Song thanks Brisa for our acquisition of this shot!

Last Wet Wednesday Fun Race

The Skipper's job of forcing the wing-and-wing set up looks like relaxation, but it is uncomfortable. It's not pretty, to be sure. Wing-and-wing did the job putting us to the front of the pack. MVP, navigated, JLR, steered wide of the mark until we could put up the spinnaker on the way back on the second and last leg of this shortened course.

This race was a classic situation for the momentum-assisted start: gunning the engine and shutting it down outside of the 4-minute limit; coasting to the line so as to cross with momentum. The only problem was instead of getting there late, we were early and had to round and thread through the starters who were are on starboard. But we go there with momentum. Once were moving in the sub 4-knot wind, we can rely on inertia of the lighter other boats to stop them. There they are, all parked together. We coasted against the current to post an unbelievable - for this wind 3rd Place!

The Ides of March - Quiet Time

Putting away that bottle of hyperbolic acid this evening and picking up a little Botti. . . .

Botti, that's Chris Botti, 000000007

It's 0300 hrs Sozadee Time. The moon is reflecting off the breeze of the Channel into the ceiling of my study. Many who know me consider it insane to get up out of a warm bunk to change the course of my Wyliecat-30 at the Eastern Pacific buoy at LAT-LONG 112'30 W & 45-00 S.

176,000 maniacs behind me in the Volvo Ocean Racing Game (VORG). 28,000 are at their keyboards at this moment. There is good company among the VORG lunatics.

Before I know it, I have bungled my rounding through micro-managing my helm. Hundreds of places have been lost in these three early morning hours. Like all other losses before them, I have to put them behind me. Scoldings from Trophy Wife for my sacrifice of sleep and risk of health are ahead of me.

Through it all - loss and gain - Botti's Emanuel will sustain me.

Spring # 2

Crew was full strength. Weather was not. Attained an excellent start by gunning the motor and shutting it off five minutes to start time. Momentum counts more than being on the line on time. Cutting through the kelp was no problem. We looked good vs the balance of the fleet. In drifting conditions we managed to fouled Zephyr. Then on our second set we snarled the chute and couldn't get it down. Mark & Pat furled around the forestay and we were competitive but lost boats, finishing 13 out of 19 boats. At the dock, Pat went up the mast for the second time in two days - this time to het the spinnaker down.

Another note: Brian (Zephyr) confirmed for me the critical need to hug the break water on the last leg to the finish. Assuming the wind is from the usual westerly, down coast current is less and he captured two boats by doing so.

Notes on the 2009 Calendar

Just a few things need to be updated from last year.

The next CHRF race is this Sunday, 22-Feb-09 at 1 PM with our dock departure time at noon. (Nothing here different from our usual routine.)

The regular start times for all Sunday Staggered–Start races after the commencement of daylight savings time (PDT) will be pushed back to 2 PM. to allow for better winds. This means starting with SBYC Opening Day Race 1-Mar-09, our regular Dock Departure can be pushed back to 1 PM. (previously noon). There are two notable exceptions:

• Platform Grace Race to PCYC (Friday) 17-Apr-09 starts at 11 AM. (Dock Time is 10 AM.)
• Goleta-or-Bust (up & back – round trip) 26-Apr-09 starts at noon (Dock Time is 11 AM.)

All other Sunday Races start at 2 PM which allow us to leave the dock as late as 1 PM. Only the last race in the year (November) reverts to the 1 PM start time.

Psychè’s Song pulls Race Committee Duty on CHRF Spring #3 (22-Mar-09). .Judy and I will have to have at least two smart team members to help us track 20+ boats on the water.

Judy and I will not be able to sail CHRF Spring #4 (5-Apr-09) due to Lee’s wedding. We still want Psychè’s Song to be on the water. This is the race around Platform C, weather permitting, so it will be a mass start. Bhrian will serve as skipper-of-record. Either he or Pat will be at the helm. We’ll have to work that out. Perhaps we can use the 1-Mar SBYC Opening Day mass start as a “dry run”? (I’ll serve as camera-man!) I assure you that if you guys win, my ego will be able to sustain the blow. I’ll be satisfied if everyone gets back and in one piece!

Psychè’s Song will resume H-Fleet Wet Wednesday competition 1-Apr. The starts have been moved up 5 minutes to 5:10. I’m not happy with this. I think we might have to move our dock time up to 4:15. I don’t know. We’ll have to discuss this. Maybe we can keep 4:30 PM as our FIRM dock time. I want to hear your thoughts on this, so, TBD*… (*to be discussed)

So, some of these changes are good news and some mean some inconvenience. In the big picture, I hope everyone is as pumped as I am when I anticipate the fun we will have in the coming year of racing!

Paver

Pearl Harbor Day

In the winter of my discontent and lingering Bush Derangement Syndrome, I seek diversion from politics wherever it can be found. One of the distractions I have found is the Volvo Ocean Race.

Well, actually it's not the Volvo Ocean Race itself. I'm not nearly physically nor fiscally capable of racing around the world in anything as demanding as a sailing yacht. What I've sunk a few hours into is the Volvo Ocean Racing Game (VORG). Instead of eight physical yachts racing around the world in 10 legs in extreme conditions, I get to race with 82,000+ competitors from 191 countries around the world in the moderate conditions of my own study. And, more importantly, it doesn't cost me a dime.
However, it would be more fun and less impersonal to race with friends I know, so I thought I might entice my pals from the Blogosphere into testing the waters of the world.

On 13 December, 8 real yachts and 82,000 virtual yachts will start the 3rd leg which goes from Cochin, India to Qingdao, China, taking Singapore to port. I would like any of my readers to be in that number!

VORG (the virtual race) has been sanitized so that there are no collisions, no rules of rightaway to be enforced, and no piracy! The demands on steerage consist in adjusting sails and course at least twice a day, although more attention is recommended.

Between now and sometime on 11 December - the deadline for finishing the 2nd Leg - there's an opportunity to register, name, design (paint), and launch your virtual yacht. During this interval, you will be able to test-drive your yacht. And I'll have a boat in the water, giving you pointers. The game allows for communications between boats.

So, I hope some readers, you valiant few, will take me up on this invitation. In hopeful anticipation, I'm hoisting my very excellent second glass of Nerello del Bastardo Marchesi di Montecristo to all who do, as well as to an end to a diminution of politics.

Holiday Regatta

We wrap up the 2008 racing year with a 5th out of 23 boats in steady medium breeze of 12-15 knots. What's even better is that the seas were flat and the water ahead of us always sparkled like it was still early morning. And that was despite all the smoke in the mid-day summer-like air. Even better, J.J. and Bill were able to set and drop the spinnaker without any mishaps, which there would have been if I had been up there, slipin' & slidin' on the foredeck. So a big pair of kudos to both of them. The spinnaker made all the difference: we passed a gazillion boats while it was up and yet were passed by none that I remember. For those who weren't there, on the staggered-start, we went off on starboard tack because the current at X-Mark was going straight toward H-Mark, and it looked like if we were ever going to do it, we should be doing it then. That's what we did, despite the high tide minimizing the kelp factor. However, I'm not sure it helped us much past the start, because by the time we got to D-Mark, there was a monster down-wind current. We barely squeezed by D-mark. I don't think many on the crew realized how close we came 'cause there weren't an audible peep or gasp. If Al had been aboard, he woulda been hollerin', as is his job to do. Just as we squeezed by, Prime Time tried to over-take us to leeward but failed to make it and had to tack off behind us and never recovered!

Thanks, also, to Bhrian for shanghaiing new-guy, Tennessee. The time before Tennessee rode our rail there was no wind, so it was good to have him experience a real action-race when the boat's movement could actually be detected!

Next race is Mid- February, 2009

P.C.Y.C Race '08

CHRF Spring #3

Trophy Night 2008