May 2017 Archives

Averisera- 2017 Figawi Race

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SK_Hyannis-Figawi-Race_5.27.17-27.jpgPhoto credit: Spencer Kennard

The race is Memorial Day Weekend. The idea is to race over to Nantucket from Hyannis, roam around ashore, shop, eat, talk with competitors then have a lay day and race home Monday. The event is in its 46th year and attracts 200 sailboats that race PHRF Pursuit style.

A fun treat was getting home and finding a picture of Averisera in the banner of the Sunday Cape Cod Times. We bought up a couple copies. 

Links to the race and scoring site:
https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=4143



Friday evening, Norm, Tom, and Elizabeth drove to the Hyannis Yacht Club for the skipper's party and final instruction, SWAG Bag, and starting time sheets. Nice party, not too expensive.

We think "swag" means "stuff we all get." Could be true. The SWAG bag had some nice stuff and since it was a cooler bag we used it for that purpose.

During the race we were pretty busy and didn't get many pictures. There is one picture that is important. We learned that when there is a flaky Westerly and the big long, low cloud is in the East, go East. That's where the wind is. Now we know.

The race report is about light air on the rhumb line. Boats that went East early made out. Hmm, boats that got off the line before 1025 made out too. After that, a no wind zone opened up about a mile down the track and piled up the fleet. Averisera made good time through that hole and the next two. We finished fourth in Division D. The top boat in our division beat us by about a half hour or more. Moving vs not moving. We beat the next boat in our division by about 15 minutes. Overall, we were 64th out of 138 starters. The first boat to finish our course was the first place finisher in class D. We'll do better next year.

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Waiting for the launch at Hyannis YC. Next year: arrive earlier. Oh, yeah... parking is $20/day

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Boat sailing South on starboard. Big black cloud is bringing a brisk Easterly. We didn't get trapped by the 180 degree shift just wish we'd been sailing in it for an hour instead of loafing along the rhumb line. 

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It was chilly. Zachary and Tabitha are such good sports for being all-important rail weight. There is a serious advantage to having weight in the right place. Zach and Half-Zach did it right and with a smile.

In preparation for the race, we studied the navigation charts, wind charts and forecasts. Navigation was spot on. Of course we were familiar with the currents in the Sound. The challenge for us was about the wind. Would it fill in from the SW the way it does almost every day? Or, would the Easterly prevail as weakly forecast? We are loath to bet against a SWer and stayed on the rhumb line. Oh, well. 

On the very helpful side, the renovations paid off. The bottom is smooth and fair. On deck and below the gear works as intended. Finally, we got to use our newish inventory of Pope Sails. The new kite was a huge asset. We had only had it out of the bag once before and that was four years ago. Thanks, Doug.

Tom Brown steered. Elizabeth did navigation and crew management. Z & T trimmed the boat. Norm trimmed sails. 

Our crew still smiling at the finish:
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Congratulations to Expedient, Toujours, and Wizard for their finishes ahead of Averisera.

We hung on a mooring overnight rather than deal with the shore activity associated with a dockside space. The mooring is fine and reasonably priced. The moored boats are serviced by a launch company, Waypoint Marine Service, LLC, which is run by a friend from our Boston days, Tim. It was nice to see Tim again and get the inside scoop on things.



Averisera-Tune-up Sail 2

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Thursday before the Friday arrival day at Hyannis YC we sailed to the Club and picked up a mooring. Trying to, and succeeding at, beating the Friday rush. The wind was from the East at 20 knots with some nice puffs in the low 30s. Our course was due West. What a slide. Averisera rolled along at 8 and 9 knots with occasional 10 and an 11! Two reefs in the main. Slippery bottom. Of course it was raining and foggy.

Norm at the tiller loving every minute.
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Hardings Light at the entrance to Stage Harbor, Chatham.


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Noodles for the rail to comfort our crew's legs.


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Averisera: Tune-up Sail

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Sunday, May 21, Stage Harbor, Chatham, MA, USA

We got everyone together and went for a sail. Beautiful day, 8-12 knots from the NE, flat seas and bright sunshine.

Wow, what a day.

The PLAN A was to do a bit of sail training with our FIGAWI Race crew and enjoy the boat. Executed as planned. (wow, what a day.) Zach, Tabitha, Elizabeth, Tom, and Norm sailed, checked the rig, set and trimmed the #3 in a variety of configurations, flaked same, set and trimmed the new Doug Pope kite, stowed same, set and trimmed the #4, flaked same after sailing into the mooring. Wow, what a day.

The FIGAWI is a 25 mile race from Hyannis to Nantucket via a couple of government marks in Nantucket Sound. www.figawi.com 

The race documents are posted with Yachtscoring.  https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=4143  We are studying past results, winners, PHRF ratings, etc as part of our pre-race prep. Our various weather sources include a site new to us, ventusky.com. Worry worry, fret, fret...

Averisera is in Class D and we are one of the faster boats.  Our class includes two division winners or top finishers from previous years. One is Tojours the Tartan 37 and the other is Tabu, a Catalina 34. Both are well sailed but neither are distinctly advantaged over Averisera. We can win this race...

A few pictures from the sail. 

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OK, that's ugly. Cunningham on, backstay on, outhaul on... yup looked better after all that!

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Tags: May 21 test sail

C & C 25- New Boat in Family

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Daughter, Laura of New Canaan, has bought a 1970s era C&C 25. She's pretty excited and so are we. Averisera has a baby sister. A little red boat. What's her name? 

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News as it becomes available! Welcome, Laura.

Averisera: Sailing

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Wind West at 20 kts, temp at 50 deg F. Course to Stage Harbor, East. All good.

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Averisera: Closing in on "Sailing"

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Cape Cod Spring. Warm, dry, cold, wet, windy and calm. During a recent spell of foul weather a seagull visited and dropped a big quahog shell into our mast step. The shell cracked open and the gull had it meal. An amazing sort of random shot. Later, when warm, we got up the mainsail and found a few tweaks are required. Finally, after finishing the diesel tank repair, we made the boat look all nice and pretty.

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Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that Nauset Marine came down with their boom truck and put our mast in place. We did that over at the town dock astern of F/V Sea Holly. Thanks Nauset Marine and son Zachary.

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The above picture shows the pretty Joel White design alongside having her rig stepped before ours. It was "pretty boat" day at the harbor.

When we stepped the mast a few bits and pieces from the tang replacement project fell from the spar's interior. During forthcoming maintenance we will watch the tangs carefully for cracks. One was completely broken. The other two had fatal crack that are hard to see.

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