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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Newport Ensenada 08 - photos added!

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/29/2008 : 12:56:05

We placed 9th out of 15 in PHRF K. It was grueling. Two Catalina 25/250 owners (Charlie/Sterngucker and I) crewed on an S2 8.5 (28 feet) with the owner and his son.

Friday we had a good start and then a hole developed after the start line. We drifted for about an hour then a decent breeze came up and we were able to reach south for many hours under the asym. By the time the wind died around 9 PM we were about 25 miles offshore of San Diego and it seemed in the lead of PHRF K - the asym was just the sail for Friday.

The owners son, a first time sailor, was violently sea sick the whole time and locked himself in the V berth and slept for practically the entire race. So we were a crew of 3.

Friday night was tough as we were way offshore with no wind but kind seas. Sails and boom slatting all night made it hard to sleep. Most of us got at best a few winks. We probably made about 5 miles to the good. PHRF K boats were all around us at dawn.

Saturday morning a very light breeze came up and we were able to reach inside the Coronado Islands headed towards Pt. Loma. We gybed and headed out to the islands, then gybed again and headed towards Tiajuana. Although this was the subject of much debate on board, we were committed to the inside course by this time.

Saturday afternoon the wind came up and up. Eventually we doused the asym and were heading straight down wind in about 25 knots of breeze. Wind waves were steep. We tried to pole out the jib but it seemed the pole would break. As bowman, I got a really good workout during this time. Several boats in our class passed us by under spinnaker (we only had an asym). We ran about 30 miles under this fortuante big wind, then at 7 PM it shut off like we sailed through a door and someone shut it behind us. We were at a PEMEX plant venting off a big flame plume and other sailors I talked to later dubbed it "the eternal flame" because it took so many hours to pass.

It took us 14 hours to sail the last 20 miles. Saturday night/Sunday morning we were all falling asleed for seconds at a time, having microsleeps, vivid dreams, and weird hallucinations. I "dreamed" that Charlie came down, told me to get dressed and on deck to take over. I got up, got my foulies on, came on deck, and reported for duty only to find out this never happened. So I went back down below, dropped in a heap, and slept on the floor in foulies for 2 hours.

We also got the seasick crew up and had him take the helm during this critical hour. Charlie was especially tough during this time, helming most of the night.

When I got up it was light and there were 4 or 5 PHRF K boats around us. I took the helm and we worked the boat towards the finish on every puff. A good breeze came up and we sailed the last 2 miles at 5 knots with a headwind and good degree of heel. It was great to finish like a race boat and not a raft.

The winner of PHRF K was 6 hours ahead but all other boats corrected to within 2 hours of each other.

Although exhausted, Ensenada was fun, we had a good lunch at the fish market, a beer at Husongs, ice cream, then the awards ceremony. We went back to the hotel for a swim and afternoon nap. We took a taxi back to town for a nice dinner at Sanborn's (like the Denny's of Mexico). It was fun talking race with all the crews.

Monday we left at dawn and joined a line of boats motoring all the way to San Diego. We checked in with customs at 17:30 and were back in Mission Bay by 20:30.

click here for more

http://www.indiscipline.org/cat25/newportrace08.html

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - JimB517 on 05/01/2008 19:37:38

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 13:59:32

coo

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JohnP
Master Marine Consultant

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1520 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 14:02:27

Jim,

Wow, that's a long race! It's about 120 miles from Costa Mesa/Newport Beach to Ensenada as the crow flies.

Sorry about the seasick crew.

How did Ken's new sails perform? I bet the boat looks great!

Edited by - on

piseas
Former Treasurer

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USA
2017 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 15:02:51

Jim, that sounds like a long race! As I didn't get any invites and would not sail my C250 to Ensenada, I sailed Friday AM to Catalina. We motor-sailed wanting to get there ASAP to get mooring in Avalon, which we got. Winds going there were 10-15. I had a very relaxing 3 nights 4 days there. We came back Monday with NO winds. Yuk. So know what you mean.
Steve A

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 15:24:33

We were 42 hours elapsed time underway and sailed about 155 miles (the rhumb line is 125). The new sails performed well, tacking the full roach main is a bear. We suffered the lack of a symmetric spinnaker on this downwind race but we had every kind of winds from all directions.

I was at sea for 5 days: Thursday run up to Dana Point, Friday run to Newport and the race start, Saturday working south, Sunday the finish, Monday the return trip. I figured we did about 300 miles round trip.

Charlie gathered a lot of data and I'll have race photos up in a few days.

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Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 16:32:37

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">coo<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Frank, is that Kansas for "cool?"

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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 04/29/2008 : 19:37:50

"tacking the full roach main is a bear"
Jim - I have a very large roach on the boat and I find that, as you prepare to tack, if you ease the mainsheet about 4" it gives the sail sufficient "drive" to blow past the backstay.

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stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2008 : 19:54:26

Awesome pic. Was the photog a pro, or a competitor?

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/01/2008 : 20:52:23

thanks, I took all the photos.

Ever seen a boat like this??

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