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Newport -Ensenada, wish us luck

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/20/2005 : 11:39:52

Leaving tonight for the big race with 2 Catalina 25/250 National Association members on board (representing C25 and C250s). Boat is packed and loaded. Too bad the engine is still in pieces, but we'll get it together this afternoon (fixing leaking raw water pump). This year my Catalina is staying home, we are taking the S2 8.5 (28 footer) in the Cruising Gennaker B class. We're rated 162 PHRF and its going to be very hard to sail the S2 and beat her rating with 25 year-old sails. There are 28 other boats in Cruising Gennaker B, 13 within 5 seconds of our rating. Its the single largest class. Also the 3rd slowest (we start about 1:30 PM Friday).

Dennis Conner is in this race, on Mongoose, a MAXI A rated at -75.

Pyewacket and Genuine Risk, at -249 PHRF, are the fastest boats.

Tara, in CRUZ SU rated at 300 is the slowest.

I can't tell yet exactly from the entries, but it looks like about 5 C-25s are entered.

Weather report has changed for the better, there is no longer rain in the forecast, but fog is highly possible. Seas are 3 feet and winds should be NW at 10. But is has been cold (low temps in the 55 area). Its a 125 mile race and we can expect to spend the better part of 2 nights at sea, plus getting to Newport and home from Ensenada.

Here are some links if you want to follow the action

Current Race Status http://www.nosa.org/05_races-racestatus.html

A radio report that is also available on the internet

Listen for live update and radio interview on the "Capt. Mike Whitehead's Boathouse Radio Show" on KCBQ, 1170AM with Mary Longpre beginning at 12:00pm on Saturday April 23rd. The broadcast can also be heard via the Internet. http://www.kcbq.com

Race Results http://www.nosa.org/05_races-results.html

Our boat is Endeavor, in CRUZ G B class.

As of now, your Vice Commodore will not be attending to National Association business until next Tuesday.

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - on

ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2005 : 12:08:48

fair seas, good luck. not a racer, but I am envious of the trip...

BTW: how fast does one need to be toget a PHRF of -249? C25's are in the 150-160 range, right?

Edited by - on

John G-
Admiral

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793 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2005 : 12:09:40

<font size="2"> <font face="Comic Sans MS">
Jim,
Sail fast, sail safe.
Stay “clipped in”, it’s a long swim home.
JG
</font id="size2"> </font id="Comic Sans MS">

Edited by - on

andy
Navigator

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USA
228 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2005 : 12:25:16

Jim
Years ago, I used to sail out of Newport and would go out and watch the start. Make sure you get some pictures of some of the topless eye candy/rail decoration!

That "race" is quite an event.

If you've got worn out sails, they'll work better in light air! Good luck and be safe.

Edited by - andy on 04/20/2005 12:28:08

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2005 : 13:00:39

This is my kinda racin'!

Open water, distance, multiday, overnight...That's the bomb!

Good luck,...fair winds and following seas.

Edited by - on

Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts

Response Posted - 04/20/2005 : 15:51:53

"Open water, distance, multiday, overnight...That's the bomb!"
and lots of Southern California Silicone!

We will be sailing out of Oceanside Friday afternoon to watch the procession. Good luck to you, Ken and the rest of Endeavor's crew. You still planning on sending blackberry updates?

Edited by - on

takokichi
Captain

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USA
321 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2005 : 10:13:30

My C25 sr/fk rates 255. Ocean Planet is a member of our PHRF fleet (!!) and she rates -120. -249 is really freaking fast.

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3324 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2005 : 17:42:24

Tako - that's a differential of 504 secs - she would owe you 8.4 minutes per mile!

Derek

Edited by - on

takokichi
Captain

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USA
321 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2005 : 15:07:36

The one time we raced against Ocean Planet was roughly 100 mile course. She owed us 14 hours! She beat us . . .

(techincally, we were in another, concurrent race, but we were hoping)

Edited by - on

Spike
Navigator

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141 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2005 : 20:50:01

From Jim. You have to know that his messages are typed out on a cell phone, so they are kind of compact.

4/22 14:48
Hi we had a good start right on time. Its raining now and the wind is
gusting and veering all over the place. Slightly seasick. Ocean is very
bumpy. Going back. On deck. Will Write soon

Edited by - on

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2005 : 21:45:59

Major difference between, "Ocean bumpy. Going back. On deck." and "Ocean bumpy. Going back on deck."

Hopefully he was going topside and not heading back to Newport.

Steve

Edited by - on

Spike
Navigator

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141 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2005 : 13:03:45

From Jim:
Hi, its 6 pm and my shift at the wheel just ended. After a wild start, we have gone through every kind of weather. For the last 3 hours. Its been sunny and almost flat calm. We are making about 2 knots headed towards the coronados. We are off san mateo point and have a little over 100 miles to go. At this point we'll probably be doing a fair amount of motoring tonight.

Edited by - on

Spike
Navigator

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141 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2005 : 13:08:46

Jim's cell stores text messages until the next time it gets a signal and then sends them all at once. So the previous message and this one both came in at the same time:
*****************
We got a spinnaker wrapped in a big knot around the forestay at 3 am. We can't get the sail down nor can we hoist a jib. We also have engine failure. Vessel Assist is towing us in. The good news is that we were 14 miles off Mission Bay when all this happened.
*****************

And this morning in a phone call, Jim also mentioned that the head overflowed.

Edited by - on

ilnadi
Captain

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452 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2005 : 14:12:52

I believe I am going to put all this in my "be humble" folder and review from time to time.

On the Ocena Planet: let's see: C25 should be able to do 100nm in 17-20 hrs in good weather. That means OP did it in 3-4hrs!!

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2005 : 22:55:01

Well, I guess my cell phone text messaging said it all in 10 second sound-bytes. I'm sure Charlie is going to have photos soon. He documented everything but the Coast Gard boarding that occured just after we got towed in and the head failure/overflow.

Day 1

I locked my keys in the car when going on the final grocery shopping. Spike had to drive down and open my door at about 11 PM. This was not a good start. I got the boat loaded with food by midnight. Charlie arrived at 2. We left at 6:30.

We motored for several hours when the wind finally came up somewhere off Oceanside. Reefed, with the 100 headsail, we were healing 30+ degrees, but making 6 knots towards Dana. 5 hours later, we were being forced too far inshore and decided to motorsail the last 10 miles so we could get to our guest slip by 5 PM. It was a long day. 4 beers and $24 later (expensive harborside pub) we felt a little better. Dinner was very late coming. The guys decided to drive to the Newport yacht club party but I showered and went to bed early. Almost all the guest docks were racers and it was fun to meet them all. We were very excited and quite up!

Day 2.

Friday morning it was light rain, gray skies, and very bumpy seas until we rounded Dana Point and headed for Newport (13 miles). We left about 9 AM and had a 1:40 start. Although we had the main up, it was pure motor all the way. We sailed inside the harbor to check in and wave to Ken's family. Then we got the genny up, sailed out, watched the Maxi's start, and milled about for an hour getting lined up for our start. The wind was blowing directly from Ensenada (this is a downwind race, right?). We ran downwind a mile and then sailed directly for the pin end of our starting line, trying to use the GPS and VMG to time our arrival. We were on starboard tack heading for the leeward end of the starting line. Buddy Melges recommended this start and we did it, getting clean air and no boats as most of the 28 others were very crowded at the committee boat windward end. We were over only a minute late (very good by my standards).

Some boats put it on a close reach and headed far out to sea. We followed the general group of our class and remained close hauled, tacking early over to port and trying to point close to Ensenada. Within 2 hours most of our class had their gennakers up and were heading offshore - not even pointed close to the target. It was raining, gusty, and cold. We stayed under 165 and full main - keeping the gennaker in the locker. We were making a course of 220 to 240 and Ensenada was like 130.

As reported, once we were off Dana we were stuck in very light air for several hours. I was standing on the rear combing directing our helmsman into each and every puff. In 2 hours we made 2 miles. Since we could start motoring at 8 I suggested at 7 we have a barbeque. So we lit the grill and ate steaks and rice watching a beautiful sunset in air so clear we could see San Clemente Island and Catalina.

However at 8 PM were were out of the hole and making 3.5 knots towards Mexico. So we delayed motoring until 10 PM. I came off watch at 9 and tried very hard to sleep 16 inches away from a 1 cylinder 7 HP Yanmar diesel turning for 6 knots. Up at 12:30, we decided to shut down power, hoist the gennaker, prevent out the main, and sail wing and wing directly downwind towards the Coronado Islands, now about 50 miles away. My turn at the helm lasted from 1 to 3 and I did a good job, keeping the speed up around 6. We had a full moon. Due to the hours of motoring, we were well in the middle of the PHRF fleets (these boats can not motor). But they were all flying their chutes in the building wind and soon we were alone again.

The wind was gusty, from the NW, with frequent white caps. Seas were about 3 - 4. But the downwind sailing was easy. We were making a course of 140 and flying good. When the wind would shift, the gennaker would collapse and I would make a hard turn to starboard to fill it, the main would be "by the lee" and then I'd turn back to keep them both driving. This happened about once every 10 minutes. It was freezing cold and we were very tired. I had not slept due to engine noise and found myself dropping into little "micro sleeps" for a few seconds at a time.

At 3AM our most inexperienced sailor took the helm and I became trimmer. I put my hood down and bundled up for the next 2 hours, thinking dreams of bed and breakfast (a Denny's Grand Slam was a frequent fantasy). About 3:30 he got into one of those gennaker collapsing situations. Like I was doing when he was trimmer, he called me to yank the gennaker sheet to get it to pop full. It wouldn't budge. There was a very bad wrap, leaving a big bubble of sail about 1/2 way up the forestay. I woke the other guys up and got all hands on deck. We could not free the sail. It wouldn't go up, it wouldn't go down. We tried to motor in circles to get the sail to unwind at the top. Until turning upwind, I didn't know how windy it really was (I'd guess about 12 knots).

I was afraid, I knew if the wind kept building we could get knocked down by the bubble. Charlie got us a quick course to Mission Bay - 80 degrees and about 17 miles. I could actually see the barbor light. So after a quick huddle we decided to withdraw and motor home, leaving the sail wrapped. We changed watches and I went below to sleep (once again next to the engine).

2 hours later it was dawn and I came back on deck. Ken and Charlie were very cold. I took the wheel. The seas were calm, the full moon was setting over the ocean and the sun was peaking up in the east. Charlie made coffee, which never tasted so good. The wind was down to 5 knots. The wrapped sail was no problem. I was thinking maybe we could get it down and continue the race. The rules do not prohibit anchoring or even stopping in Mission Bay.

However, the motor was not running right. It would not rev up. It kept running slower and slower. It was pumping out lots of thick black smoke. We thought there was a line or kelp entangled in the prop. No line. I dropped it out of gear and pulled the throttle back to idle. My idea was to go into reverse to see if there was a kelp stringer on the prop - reverse will usually back it off. But I didn't think there was a kelp. We were still many miles out. The motor died and would not restart.

I had super light winds directly from Mission Bay and no jib. I couldn't even get the boat to sail. We debated to call for a tow, or try to sail it. Sailing was going to be 7 to 8 hours plus we'd be right into the morning calm probably need to be towed into the slip anyways unless we waited for the afternoon air. Ken bled the engine but still no luck.

We called for the tow. Ken and I are both in Vessel Assist so it was free.

As it got lighter and calmer, Charlie went to the bow and just kept fiddling with the wrapped sail. All of a sudden the sail unwrapped 5 times at the top due to the breeze. With a little juggling it unwrapped 5 more. Ken pulled it free. Its not even damaged.

Vessel Assist was on their way and we were pretty discouraged.

Then the toilet overflowed.

On the way in the Coast Guard boarded us for an inspection.

We cleaned the boats, I took a nap in Indiscipline and then headed home. We were not the only boat to drop out due to breakages.

Maybe next year!

By the way, there was on C25 in the PHRF Spinnaker L class and many C27s. I'd like to try it again, maybe doublehanded or with a crew of 3. I'd also like to take the boat up the weekend before.

Edited by - on

mmac
Navigator

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USA
168 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2005 : 23:51:35

Jim,

This is a sad conclusion to your adventure. I know you put in months of planning, training and boat tweeking to get ready for this and DNF was not the result you expected to see on the finish sheet.
Unfortunately "sometime the bull he no lose!" On the brightside, nobody was hurt trying to fix things so you could stay in the race.

It's time to start training for next year's race and the assualt on the "Frank Butler Trophy".

Edited by - on

ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 04/24/2005 : 10:27:34

That sounds like a real adventure... win/lose/dnf, heck... you'll remember this one for the rest of your days. That's livin'.

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existentialsailor
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1180 Posts

Response Posted - 05/02/2005 : 18:40:04

Probably a dumb question, but why would the coast guard board you for an inspection while being towed?

Anyway, very sorry your trip went less than you had hoped, but as a novice sailor, I admire your tenacity in what to me would be quite an overwhelming situation.

Edited by - on

sterngucker
Navigator

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USA
169 Posts

Response Posted - 05/02/2005 : 19:30:31

The Coast Guard knew they had around 466 boats making a round trip to Ensenada, Mexico and wanted to make absolutely sure EVERYONE checked back into the U.S. through customs. I think it's around a $5000 fine if you "forget". I understand they were patrolling all the harbors in SoCal that weekend.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/02/2005 : 20:19:34

I got boarded Saturday on Endeavor, Sunday on Indiscipline, and Monday night on Indiscipline. Guys in a 25 foot orange RIB inflatable / pilot house with side arms and a 50 cal on the bow. Also twin Honda 200 HP outboards. No ones running away from that boat.

Now a week later everything is back to normal and the Coast Guard is nowhere to be seen, Mission Bay is a sleepy little resort port once again.

Edited by - on

Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 05/03/2005 : 08:39:49

Sorry to hear about your mishaps, but glad no one was injured and no property damaged. Still sounds like quite an adventure. I suspect that if you feel disappointment now, as the months and years go by, that feeling will be supplemented with memories that grow fonder as time passes.

I hope to be able to attempt such a voyage as you just did. As I've said before, you're my hero.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/03/2005 : 11:07:34

I've vowed to complete the race after repairs are finished. It may be in June or July, but we're going to Ensenada!

Edited by - on

sterngucker
Navigator

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USA
169 Posts

Response Posted - 05/07/2005 : 20:41:45

I put the photos I took of the race on my new, very rudimentary, web site www.c-angel.com .There's not a lot of content yet, but it's a start. Excuse the work in progress. I don't know why I didn't hand the camera to someone else at some point! You can't even tell I was there!

Edited by - on

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