We Can Learn

"I can't do it. I can't do it!" My little four year old hollered yesterday as I tried to help her along on her bike without training wheels for the first time. "Of course you can, sweetie. We just need to practice a little more." I was struck by how little confidence she had and then remembered my own recent experience being pressed into a situation for which I had little prior practice.

Last Sunday was the third edition of the monthly Small Boat Midwinters at Richmond Yacht Club. As was the case last month, Sunday came on the tail end of some Winter storms, but this time we had some lingering strong winds and rain. When the heavy squalls rolled in, I was hurtin'. This boat is a bit too big for me when it's blowing like that. After a really bad start in race 1, I managed to finish second about a boat length behind a 17 foot Daysailor--a boat that is supposed to be slower than mine. It was really blowing hard for the second race, and I had a hard time keeping the boat moving well to windward. The Daysailor and a Flying Junior had a nice lead over me at the first mark. Then as I rounded, the "MonsterByte" leapt onto a plane and went screaming after the more stable and modestly canvassed boats. As I approached the leeward mark, I had the lead, but was freakin' over the impending gybe. "I can't do it. I can't do it!", my mind was hollering. I guess I coulda chicken gybed it (spinning all the way around and tacking), but went for it instead. Ended up spinning out but lucky not to capsize. Then, the rudder cavitated as I tried to get her pointed downwind again. Needless to say, the DS and FJ got past. Anyway, that was it for me. It was really starting to honk, and I didn't feel like going swimming in a "fun race." Went home and watched the Superbowl instead. What a wuss.

I was personally bothered all week by that poor gybe and early retirement from the day's racing. That is, until our little bicycle lesson yesterday. I realized that gybing a boat like this in a lot of wind is really hard if you haven't done it before. But with a lot of practice I should be able to pull off a planing reach to planing reach gybe and blast on past that Daysailor next time. And that will be thrilling, not scary. Kinda like learning how to ride a bike, I guess.

TunaMegabyte

Flat, fast. Weight aft, slow. No hands, fast (and fun.) 3 knots, hard Cunningham, fast. 6 knots, hard Cunningham or none, undetermined . . .

Yesterday, I finally had the pleasure to meet Steve Berger after a couple of months of online exchanges relative to setting up the new Mk II rig on our Megabytes. He had invited me out for some boat-to-boat on the water tuning. I'd never done this before in any boat--it was great and surprisingly fun despite the light and variable winds. I think we both came away with a better feel for our boats, how slight changes in hull and rig trim can affect boat speed.

Next on the agenda as I learn to work this boat around the race course? Basic boat handling--maintaining speed through tacks and control through gybes.

Small Boat Midwinters!

The weather was pretty dang good in Richmond this past Sunday considering the storm that blew through here a couple of days earlier. We got 8 to 10 kts. with no rain and nice flat water inside the breakwater. I pulled off 6 bullets, but that's not saying much considering the only other boats in the Open class were FJs and CFJs which rate slower than the Megabyte. They could just about hang with me upwind, but I smoked them going downwind.

Although not in the same class, we shared the starting sequence with the three-boat Snipe class. The Snipes seemed to be well sailed and made for closer competition than the FJs. I was able to beat one of them each race and another a couple of times out of six. Upwind, they were markedly faster than I was. I certainly couldn't point as high as these sloop rigged boats. Downwind, I gained slightly but not enough to catch them.

Hopefully we'll see a few more Megabytes from Fleet 3 at the Feb edition to make for some closer boat to boat racing.

Three For Five

Last Thursday, I got the Megabyte wet for the fifth time and managed to go swimming again--that's three for five. This time was particularly embarrassing as I capsized at the dock while trying to belly my way up the foredeck to the dock. A couple of nice kids on the dock where pretty confused by the old guy swimming in the bay. They helped out by retrieving my floating hat and water bottle, but unfortunately the handheld VHF which I had just unclipped went straight to the bottom. Bummer.

Prior to the dunking, the sail was quite nice, though. Very light wind made for some good practice time snapping the full battens when tacking and getting my weight well forward. One thing I noticed is that this boat is too light (and probably too wide) to ghost through the lulls. When the wind stops, it sticks.

RYC Small Boat Midwinters this coming Sunday.

Screaming Reaches

Got some good practice time in the Megabyte's aft hiking straps yesterday. Turns out they're pretty dang useful when screaming along on a full plane. I sailed out of Martinez with the old rig and headed under the Benicia bridge for the mothball fleet. Found some big wind over there on a broad reach down the inside of the fleet. Had to sit about as far aft as I could get to keep the bow from plowing into the backside of waves. The boat was just screaming along on a plane for about a mile. Wow. Fun.

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Death rolls for turkeys

Finally had a chance to meet Megabyte Fleet 3 for some friendly racing at the annual Lake Washington Sailing Club Turkey Shoot Regatta (yes, they do give turkeys as prizes. ) Very nice group of enthusiastic sailors. We had six boats all with the new Mk II rig, and the gusty wind was certainly testing the new rigs. The last race of the day got pretty nasty with big gusts and large shifts. Headed for the final leeward mark, I managed to build up a lead. I was flying downwind on the edge of control with the vang eased off on that big old windsurfer-like sail --bad idea. A big gust hit, the boat got all squirrely, and death rolled (as my friend Dean says, "upside down is slow.") That whole de-power thing with the new rigs doesn't apply downwind! Too much twist, and bam! More vang next time. With the boat now upside down, I thought for sure, that was the end of it for me. Then, I saw Charles (#338) do the same thing right behind me. I got my boat up first and pointed at the mark. 50 yards later I rolled it again and Charles went on by. By this time, I was tired and struggling with the boat. Charles swung by to see if I needed any assistance--very nice gesture. Once I finally got her back up, Charles sheeted in and I followed his transom to the finish line as usual. :-)

Megabyte Mk II first sail

Picked up the new rig for the megabyte today and headed straight for the water at Rio Vista. Wow, fun sail. The thunderous cracks as the full length battens snapped the Mylar to each new tack gave me flashbacks of windsurfing in this place many years ago.
This new sail is going to be fun to play with and learn how to setup just right. After one sail, I see that some rigging modifications are in order. I will need to lengthen the control lines for the vang and outhaul. Most importantly, I'll need a bit more purchase on the cunningham which seems to be the major shape knob for this kind of rig. That's just like the old windsurfing days, too. Pull on lots of cunningham to bend the mast and make the leech just floppy enough.