From - Mon Mar 10 13:18:05 1997 Received: from beasley.cisco.com (beasley.cisco.com [171.69.2.135]) by cheerios.cisco.com (8.6.10/8.6.5) with ESMTP id MAA21767 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:06:00 -0800 Received: from bolero.rahul.net (root@bolero.rahul.net [192.160.13.1]) by beasley.cisco.com (8.8.4-Cisco.1/CISCO.GATE.1.1) with SMTP id MAA00757 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:05:57 -0800 (PST) Received: from waltz.rahul.net by bolero.rahul.net with SMTP id AA28295 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:05:44 -0800 From: Randy Devol Received: by waltz.rahul.net (5.67b8/jive-a2i-1.0) id AA12525; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:05:44 -0800 Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:05:44 -0800 Message-Id: <199703102005.AA12525@waltz.rahul.net> To: cliff.sojourner@cisco.com Subject: Blade Runnings 2 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 7043 Hi! (If you received this email, you are on the unofficial Trifoiler email list I maintain. About once per month, (or more often if the news is worthy) I try to update list members with information about the Trifoiler and what I have been doing with Blade Runner. If you do not want to me on the list, let me know.) >From the last update: It's winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been working... It's now spring. In fact, it is more like a summer heat wave. The problem is that high heat means that the typical summer winds are not blowing. This report covers two weekends of sailing: 4/20-4/21 and 4/27-4/28. The Boat Show at Jack London Square was a little disappointing. We found a ramp wide enough to launch about a mile from the show and were in the water about 11:30. The wind was running right down the length of the estuary making the trip to the show a beat in about 8 knots of wind. I only blew a tack once. I am getting better at slow speed sailing (due to all the practice. Darn!) Once at Jack London Square, it was clear that sailing the Trifoiler in the channel was NOT a good idea, especially this day. The wind, as I said, was from the wrong direction. There was a fleet of High School sailors racing right at the square, right where I wanted to sail. And, to top it off, there was a fleet of off-shore power boats practicing for their race on Sunday, making wakes that rocked all the boats in the estuary. After about a hour of trying to get up on the foils and almost succeeding many times, I decided to return to the ramp and call it a day. Blade Runner turned many heads and generated interest at the Wind Toys booth. Mission accomplished, even if we did not quite generate the sensational speeds possible under better conditions. Vallejo Race: There are always highlights and lowlights. I guess that's just the way I am. Highlights: Greg Ketterman did show up. I learned good stuff both on and off the water. With two of us (350+ lbs) in the cockpit, we still managed to get up on the foils in marginal conditions and reach speeds of 24+ knots both days. We were able to finish the race on Sunday (thanks to the ebb). This will give Joe a data point for a possible ratings adjustment. For a few minutes on Sunday, we were up on the foils, blasting along at 24+ knots, in the right direction, and enjoyed fantasies of catching up to and even blowing by the fleet. Fantasy is always a highlight. :-) I learned more about Blade Runner, what it can do, what it cannot. Some one recognized me as the "email guy" (Hi Wayne!) Lowlights: Saturday started out horribly. Late to the ramp, late to the start, etc. This had nothing to do with how Blade Runner sails and everything to do with running a campaign, i.e., organization and discipline. I'll do better next time. Saturday winds were light (5-10 knots) until shortly after we quit the race. Sunday winds were also light for most of the day. The entire fleet did a horizon job on us. The next-to-last finisher crossed the line an hour before we did. Saturday Summary Greg launched before us and was only about 10 minutes behind at the start. We got to the starting bouy about 12:35, about 45 minutes after the multihull fleet started and 1:15 after the scheduled start. The committee boat was gone by then. Thanks to the GPS, we were able to follow the course around R4 and then on to Richmond. The wind shadow behind Angel Island slowed us to a complete stop for awhile. We dipped low toward Richmond and picked up some wind there. Passed under the Richmond Bridge about 3:30 and reached the brothers about 4:15. Greg Ketterman was waiting for us, sailing around without his sensors and shocks and literally sailing circles around us. At 4:15, we were getting further away from the only possible ramp (Richmond) until Vallejo, 14 nm away. Even though the tide was about to turn and the wind observation at Davis Point was for 19 knots winds, we abandonded the race. Then, as if on cue, at 5:00, the wind picked up from the west. Grep put the sensors and shocks back on, and gave us a clinic on getting up on the foils. We both had VHF radios so he kept giving us suggestions and they helped. With Chris at the controls, we got up on foils and flew at 26 knots. Sooo... we did not go straight back to the ramp at Richmond. We had about 30 minutes of fun first. :-) We returned to the ramp about 6:30, got to the Vallejo Yacht Club about 8:00, had dinner, and crashed at the hotel, exhausted. SUNDAY SUMMARY: Launching, and all the sailing before the race start went smoothly. With 7 seconds, I under-estimated the current and had to sail upriver some more to start correctly. We started 30 seconds late, much better than Saturday. Greg's brother Dan was sailing his boat on Sunday and even he was not able to keep up with the slowest multihulls. The fleet was about 2 times as fast as we were. After they turned the corner, we never really saw them again. We turned the corner 20 minutes later and so it went for most of the day. We did cover the ground from about Point Pinole to Point San Plablo in about 3 minutes during our one episode on the foils. However, that was the only time during the race we went above 6 knots. I'll bet many of the thoroughbreds in this race spent most of their time above 6 knots. CONCLUSION: The Trifoiler is not a general purpose boat. We knew that already. Weight is a bigger factor than I first thought. I may not carry crew in the future. By myself, I could have gotten up on the foils several times on both Saturday and Sunday. Having an extra body along did not cost the race, but in the future, it might. I will continue to carry crew for the Delta Ditch Run and Silver Eagle. Those races hopefully sailed in more typical summer winds are long and I may need help paddling. :-) In the mean time, I have signed up for some SSS races which I will sail with no crew. After that, I can compare the benefits/costs of having crew along using personal experience. My ground support, Sandy Nicol, was essential. I could not have done either race without ground support. Future race plans will have to include the possibility of not finishing. That means being prepared to have Sandy meet me at any ramp along the course. The Delta Ditch Run is a long race but can be aborted at any of the many fishing ramps in the delta (wide enough to accommodate the Trifoiler). I need to survey the ramps in the Delta before June 1'st. -=O=- Randy ////||||||\\\| randyd@shell.portal.com _______\o_____//////||||\\\\| / Blade Runner ///////||\\\\\|===>\ Trifoiler Hull #42 ||______________________<=====||====>\__> ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ || ~~ \__> ~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~