The Stem » Sailing

Southern Straits 2006

Brettf — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:21:25 +0000

On Saturday I completed the short course of the Southern Straits Race hosted by West Vancouver Yacht Club. I was on Marc Beaupre’s home built DiDi 26, The Black Pearl. The boat is put together really well and was comfortable if a bit tight while sitting on the rail. Marc has really optimized the boat for downwind sailing with the addition of a huge masthead spinnaker and 9′ articulating bow sprit. We were all hoping for ideal conditions for the boat, read two reaches across the strait, so we could get the boat on the plane and sail to our rating. Disappointingly we ended up have upwind conditions all the way around the course. We had a very brief tight reach but no chance of rooster tailing. Ah well. The crew worked really well together and that made for a good trip.

Southern Straits 2006

Brettf — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 17:20:56 +0000

Amazing Start to the Sailing Season

Brettf — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:33:01 +0000

This past weekend saw the start of another season of VARC racing. Good breeze, sun and a great race committee made this VARC opener one of the best regattas in recent memory. The RC fired races at us as fast as they could and managed to get us on the course 8 times. I was once again at the pointy end of the Mumm 36 Sly’d Away. We finished 2nd in our division.

Dinghies!

Brettf — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:13:02 +0000

Tonight Terra and I will finally get to go sailing (that is if no one bails). The plan is to get out on a tasar and see what we can do. It will be my first time really sailing a dinghy so I looking forward to seeing what it is all about.

Arg

Brettf — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 18:06:45 +0000

I haven’t posted in a bit and that’s because I am busy with other things. I have committed to working on two student projects for the next couple of weeks and they are going to absorbing my time fully. They are both flash and both interesting. I hope to post some links once they are done.

On another note Terra and I are going to be dinghy sailing soon which is really exciting.

So fast

Brettf — Tue, 24 May 2005 19:10:20 +0000

Well another great weekend of sailing is behind me. The J/24 nationals held at the Seattle Corinthian Yacht Club saw some great racing action. I had the pleasure to sail again with the crew from S.O.C.K.S. We meshed well again and had a great time. We managed to get a bullet on the first day and keep the boat on its feet in a large following puff in that race. Saturday we sailed ok in light conditions and crossed the line in 13th. However we were protested and failed to check the protect board before leaving the club. So we missed the protest hearing which resulted in us being DSQ for the day. Sunday brought lots of wind and lots of problems. First tack and we blew up our main traveller. Andrew was quick to lash it down so we could keep racing. We had difficulties keep pace all day as we haven’t had much time in heavy air. In the last race the fleet was hit by a 38knt puff that wiped out most of the fleet (even sunk a boat). We managed to haul ass for a brief moment until our twing blew up, the boat rounded up and the kite shredded. Big grins all around. We recovered quickly and sailed to finish in 15th. All in all a great weekend.

Bump and Grind

Brettf — Mon, 16 May 2005 17:29:11 +0000

This past weekend (March 14-15) I sailed in Seattle at the S.O.C.K.S regatta. I sailed on a boat by the name of Mr. Wiggly and had a really amazing weekend. I have to give a lot of thanks to my skipper Robin Avery for putting the whole thing together and working really hard to make the boat really fast. I am really fortunate to be apart of another great team of sailors that sail hard, fast and well. I have to recognize Allison for her hard work on the bow, Andrew for being so good and teaching so much, and Chris for trimming all day with out letting up. We ended up 5th over all which is amazing since we had never sailed before as a team. What makes this even more promising is we were fouled all around the course which cost us some spots but we just kept sailing hard and made up spots when we lost them.