A Weekend of Ocean Racing!

[gatorback]

Cool! I missing sailing in the Atlantic. Currently, I'm stuck to Galveston Bay--Which is 1000X better then any lake, just 10,000X worse the off Florida.

[sheclown]

Whisper, the C & C 38, was the race committee boat.  It is hard to get pictures of Whisper as she soon is out front of any other boats during any race, including Charleston.  She's a beauty though, and her crew is amazing.

Here are some other boats.

[sheclown]

[CS Foltz]

You really need to clean the bottom strider................would do  a world of wonder for your downwind leg, but thats just me! Understand all about time to get things squared away!

[sheclown]

CS...are you a sailor?

[CS Foltz]

Used to be long ago sheclown! Was navigator for a Newport to Bermuda race many years ago in 73......placed 2nd in class by the way! Spent 9 yrs,8 mths & 28 days in the USCG, time was split between ships, loran stations and search and rescue! Miss the small boats for sure and have not sailed competitively in years......it was fun though!

[sheclown]

I'll contact you next race --

[strider]

Some asked about the boats.  While you may see bigger boats in Sheclown's pics, the boats actually raced are from the smaller 24 ish to the larger 50 ish.  This race had a range of about 27 foot to 47 foot. Anything from the cheap and old to the almost new.  Our strider is an S2 35c (Built by S2 Yachts in Michigan, 35 foot, center cockpit) that is 24 years old. She is a performance cruiser, meaning that it has real accommodations below and is designed to be a reasonably good sailing boat in most conditions.  In Strider's case, the emphasis is on cruising.  A very fast boat is Whisper, a 1986 C&C 38, also a performance cruiser, but with C&C boats, the emphasis is mostly on performance. As all boats are not created equal, a handicap system is used.  Strider's PHRF rating is 153 with a Spinnaker and 174 without. The C&C38 is 114 with a Spinnaker and 135 without.  This is the number of seconds a mile each boat is awarded above a zero rated boat.  Or, another way to look at it is that the C&C 38 gives us 39 seconds a mile, or they must beat us by 6 1/2 minutes to win on a ten mile course. As you can see, the C&C 38 is much faster than our S2 35C. On top of they, the three classes divides the boats up even more.  To get an idea of how this works, you can go to :

http://www.sailjax.com/

Also, the race committee did not agree with our self disqualification (I guess they saw the start and they decided not to penalize us for the engine issue) and we ended up third on Sunday again as well.  If you go to the link, the results and other information is available.

[samiam]

This is the race i look forword to

http://www.jaxriverrallypokerrun.com/index.php

and this is my dream boat

http://www.aeromarine.com/yachts/fountain_47_sport_cruiser.htm

[strider]

On the way back up the river on Sunday, several of the tunnel hulled and regular cigs passed us...of course the noise was with us longer than the boat itself. Just as a point of interest, the amount of fuel (in dollars) one of those boats uses to go from behind us to ahead of us is about what we burned all weekend. Though I do admit, they are cool!

[samiam]

Fast boats and bikini's gotta love um

[samiam]

Here are a few of my favorite quotes

Boats, like whiskey, are all good." -R.D. (Pete) Culler

"A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder." -ADM. Chester Nimitz

"I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2." -Earnest K. Gann 

"If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most." -E. B. White

[sheclown]

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing, as simply messing about in boats....or with boats."

The Wind in the Willows,
by Kenneth Grahame, 1908

[billy]

My father was the Keeper of the Eddystone Light
and he slept with a mermaid one fine night
and out of the union there came three
a porpoise, a porgy, and the other was me

Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

[samiam]

The wind in my hair, the salt on my face, these things are good,

and about me
12 years at sea on ships from 82 to 210 feet
8 years operating small boats 17 to 44 feet
0 time on sail boats but thats just me