Forecast says rain, but it looks OK to me.

Turned out to be very nice on the water this afternoon--for November, that is. Clouds blew off, sun came out, and wind settled in at about 8 kts. Sailed around for a couple of hours with the fam in the big boat. Got her tucked away just as the hail started to fall. Nice.

Our little (censored)

I guess I had better be more careful with my blog titles. Seems the last one encouraged some cross linking that wasn't exactly about the same kind of "old (censored)". Our latest sailing adventure also being about (censored), little (censored), I'll be more careful this time. Dean and I both needed to do some sailing, and both of our big (censored) needed a little break without our little (censored). So, time for Father-daughter sail day. Wind and tide chose not to cooperate making our outing more of a father-daughter motor-sail, but it was delightful nonetheless. Dads chatted about dad stuff up in the cockpit while little (censored) played little (censored) games down in the cabin. Fun time. We"ll have to do it again.

Thanks to Peggy, who was enjoying some quiet time along the river bank without little (censored) in tow, for the picture. First live action shot taken from off the boat. That's us to the left furling the mains'l before returning to the harbor.

My Old Girls

Mothra has been gone for some time now. She was a great little boat--just needed a little more love. Well, she's found it. Current owner, Jim, is doing just what I had imagined doing, but didn't quite get to. He's continuing the restoration process, taking lots of friends out for fun days around Santa Cruz, and taking advantage of the easy trailerability to extend his cruising grounds--all the way to Puget Sound, for example. If you squint, you can just see the little lady waiting her turn among the big boys to get lifted into the chilly Northwest waters.


And, the latest news: Feraligatr has a new home. Another Jim towed her on down to the peninsula last week. Seems he's starting his own little Megabyte fleet. He bought one a few months back, and he and his buddies liked it so much they went looking for another. Hey, local fleet building! Maybe I ought to think about getting a Megabyte?

Farewell, ladies.

Family Big Boat

Yep, definitely more room on here than on the little boat. Great time out with the fam, sister Carol, bro-n-la George, and best bud Dean.


And capped off with a great dinner at Asian Confusion. Funny story there. Carol and I had gone over to BevMo and while picking out beer for our day cruise, a man approached and asked what kind of beer we liked to drink with spicy Asian food.

"Well, I like the Sapporo that comes in these big cool cans, and Singha is pretty tasty, too." "What kind of food are you having?"
"We just got the liquor license for the Asian fusion restaurant I'm opening. It's called Asian Confusion. You should come try it."
"Um . . . (who is this guy?) . . . OK."
"Call me in the afternoon before you come and I'll make you my special black bean crab. Do you like crab?"
"Yeah, sounds great!"
Well, we called, we went, we tried to order crab. It wasn't on the menu. No problem. He made is special just for us. Best crab ever.

And surprise surprise, had had my favorite Japanese beer chilled and ready.

Thanks, Fleet 3

It was just over two years ago that I crewed for my longtime sailing buddy, Dean Fulton, in the Vanguard 15 Nationals on San Francisco Bay. The boat was just a few months old, and neither of us had done any competitive sailing since when we were teenagers banging around in a Lido 14 having outgrown our Naples Sabots. We didn’t do well that regatta, but the intensity of the competition and the pure thrill of punching through, planing over, and occasionally crashing into the tortured waters off Crissy Field had me hooked on dinghy racing again. Gotta get me a racing boat.

A Laser would have been the natural choice, but after seeing how much money people wanted for their old ‘70s beaters, I started to look elsewhere. Poking around the Internet, I stumbled upon the Megabyte. Now that looks like a good boat—maybe what the Laser would have evolved to had it not been a one design (turns out Ian Bruce was responsible for creating both of them.) I discovered a boat for sale in Seattle and luck would have it I’d be up there on business in a couple of weeks. A quick email to the captain of Fleet 3 was promptly returned by Dean Eppley with info about the local fleet and some tips on what to look for in an old boat (the plastic bailers were the only concern). Saw the boat, bought it, shipped it home, and two weeks later I was on the starting line for the Lake Washington Turkey Shoot. I met Fleet 3 that day--very welcoming and enthusiastic about their fledgling Megabyte fleet.

All told, I think I hooked up with Fleet 3 for about seven different regattas, and from the time Dean introduced me to the rest of the guys at that first Turkey shoot right up to the end when they all knew I was on the way out of the class with my boat up for sale, they made me feel most welcome. A chest bump from Mack, a warrior’s grip handshake from Charles—I always felt included. It’s not always like that in sailing. My family often came to watch the races—usually my Mom and her husband, Bill. In other classes/fleets I might have felt a bit silly with the full entourage—maybe more “appropriate” when I was a kid getting shoved off the Mission Bay beach by Mom and Dad for the Sabot Nationals. But, they were welcome, too—invited to pull up a chair at Whiskeytown or join the potluck at Huntington Lake. My sweet Mom reciprocated with her famous shortbread boat cookies customized with sail numbers for each competitor. Of course, other Fleet 3 family were integral to the onshore camaraderie. Sharon and Daria were always there providing encouragement and shore support for all of us.

It’s not all hugs and kisses with these guys, though. On the race course, every one of them will fight hard to get to the front. That’s a good thing. Have you ever sailed against people who don’t try hard? It turns out that it’s not much fun. Give-it-your-all competition is what makes this sailing such sport. I’m grateful for that challenge. It was almost always Charles out front for us all to chase, but everybody had a good look at the front at least a few times. The finishes have been more mixed than ever this year, proof that the skills of the whole fleet have improved, and if Dean had only started droop hiking a year earlier, we might all have been chasing his transom by now! I’ll miss racing with these guys but hopefully will cross paths in the future as I find my way back to the typical regattas as crew on that Vanguard 15 or who knows what.

I picked the Megabyte North Americans as my final regatta before switching my sailing focus to adventures aboard the family cruiser. Dean did a great job getting the event on the West Coast and very well organized. Mack and Charles were ready to go having arrived the previous day and gotten in a test sail on the venue. John who is always a delight to sail with could only stay for Saturday, but it was great to have him out there. Fleet 3 was ready! One might think that the North American Championship would be a huge event, but in reality there just aren’t that many of us Megabyters to go around. Nobody from the West went east for last year’s championship, and this year the opposite was true. We did, however, finally get to meet “Big Joe” from Arizona and also discover that Chuck Hawley had been hiding out in Santa Cruz with a Megabyte for some time. These two guys flew the retro rig and competed well in both the light and heavy air. Back at the dock, they were both full of great stories to share, the likes of which we don’t hear too much of in Fleet 3—like singlehanding a 24 foot boat to Hawaii or “cruising” to Catalina in a Megabyte! I hope Chuck will find the time to fit in another regatta here and there and I like Joe’s idea of a California/Arizona event swap starting with a big regatta in January.

Well with the Megabyte up for sale, it’s off to keelboating with the family. (Geez, this is sounding like a sappy retirement speech!) I’m looking forward to that. If I’m lucky, my kids will take to sailing as I did growing up on my dad’s boat.

I will miss Fleet 3. It’s been a great two years on the Megabyte circuit. I wish each of them best of luck as they continue to build the fleet, connect with other regions, and attempt to reel Charles in! Go for it!

Close

We got it all: 20 gusting 30 to end Saturday and 2 gusting 3 to start Sunday. I won both those races; so I guess I can't make excuses as just a heavy air guy or just a light air guy. I really only had one bad race and one significant mistake all weekend if you don't count the capsizes on Saturday (everybody went upside down and/or broke something that day.) After sailing my throwout in race 5--a lot of little screw-ups just made me slow--I still had a one point lead with just one race to go. Charles would hold the tiebreaker if he won the last race, and since he and I had collectively claimed the first 5, it all came down to who would take this last one.

Pin end of the line was favored as it had been all weekend, and the wind had built enough to make boat speeds a bit more normal. With the rest of the fleet bunched up at the boat end ready to run the line with about 30 seconds to go, I came in from the left looking for just the right spot to slot in. Ah, there it was. I tacked in to leeward of Charles. All looked good except for Big Joe to leeward of me and the pin coming up fast with the clock ticking down slow. As I tried to stall, Big Joe came up to leeward forcing me to sheet in and move out. Joe finding that he was now early and out of room gybed around leaving me right at the pin (where I wanted to be) . . . and praying that my watch was slow. Was it the perfect start in the do or die race? I was the left most boat on a left favored line, and I'd been successfully outpointing the other boats already this day. Two boat lengths after the gun came the dreaded, "OH FIVE OH OVER EARLY." Ugh. Circled back and took up my spot at the back of the fleet. I managed to climb back to third, but that was it.

Three bullets in all to close my final Megabyte regatta, but it wasn't enough as Charles collected the other three and his 2-2 (after one throw out) edged my 2-3. Yeah, it's disappointing to have been that close to winning the North American championship regatta, but I know it was the best regatta I've sailed and I finished just one point behind a truly great sailor.

I'll miss Fleet 3. More on that later . . .

Wind Wind Wind Wind

My little chant this morning to change the conditions in my favor. It worked. Forecast said 8 to 10. We got this instead.


I'm fast in big air. Guess all that weight I've put on is good for something. 2-1-1 today before the race committee called off race four on account of too much carnage on the course impeding safe navigation. I only capsized twice :-)

Three more tomorrow. Wind Wind Wind Wind