The Cape Cod Mercury is a Phil Rhodes design from the later 1950s.  It is a 15 foot centerboard sloop that is built like a tank.  Norman sailed the type in the late 1960s when a sailing counselor at Camp Viking on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay.  They were round bottomed tippy little boats then and not much has changed.

The day was good New England weather, blustery, rainy, cold, and fun to get out on the water under sail.  Elizabeth had never sailed a centerboard boat.  Rumors of capsizing and turtling dampened some of the enthusiasm.  Norm promised (and delivered) not to capsize.  We raced three starts, took a break, went out for round two and called it quits early.  Too many boats going over.  A swim in the Charles isn't on our bucket list.

Upshot.  We had a fantastic time.  Elizabeth came home sore from hiking and sitting in repeatedly.  AVERISERA will not be replaced by a centerboard boat any time soon.

Wade Edwards, Norman's boss at BSC, with Elizabeth.  One platter is ours for our 2nd.  The other is the best YC prize won by Constitution YC for the best YC combined score.

Anchored under the guns of Fort Warren, Georges Island, Boston Harbor.  The crew went ashore and plundered some silverware.  Darn happy the anchor held as the bottom is poor.

The race day ended well for AVERISERA and crew.  We finished!  A lot of boats didn't make it through the fog and light air.  Club Car, a slippery little S2 7.9 placed first in our class, Averisera was second and Tabu third.

Our crew:  Tom Brown drove.  Well actually that was the plan, Elizabeth drove leaving her usual spot as Skipper/Navigator empty.  Tom coached and we all had to chuckle knowing that Norm the sailing instructor could not have done a better job.  Thanks, Elizabeth for a good job.  Gladie and Mike helped on deck.  Norm ran the bow.  Stacey trimmed.

The upshot of it all is that our little boat placed second overall in the Mass Bay Sailing Association Pursuit Championships.  The season ends on a high note.

Thanks crew.

Over the years, we have had all the random issues with the engine that one could imagine.  In truth, Thumper has also taken pretty good care of us most of the times it really mattered.  Not as if Thumper has a brain and can decide to run nor not run.  It just runs most of the time.

Once in a while, it just loses power.  Thumper may even stop running, require one of us to bleed the fuel system, and then restart.  Recently, these events got to be a bit too closely spaced for comfort.  Bleeding the air is the fix.  Does it follow that air in the fuel line is the problem?

We have checked the fuel lines including some fretting about the fuel pick up in the fuel tank.  That's the expensive and messy "fix."  Check the primary fuel filter.  Check the fuel lines and connections.  Finally, replace the fuel pump.

The problem seems to be running better but never with that steady thrum for which every boat owner searches.  The good news is that we have a high degree of comfort taking the Yanmar 1GM diesel apart and putting it back together again.

Averisera finished 7th out of 22 in class and 41st out of 125 in fleet.  This puts our Mass Bay PHRF Pursuit Race cumulative standing as second with 74 points.  Constitution YC boats, Superstition and Cone of Silence are scored with 84 and 71 respectively.

A few images of the boat taken by the Hull YC photo boat.

The take-away from this race is about clear air.  with almost 80 boats starting ahead of us, the start is a stream of boats all on starboard at the RC.  We cleared our air quickly and beat well to the top mark for a drift around with probably 40 boats in our cluster.  The second leg, we did not sail to clear air quickly as we were looking for the second mark, and lost the opportunity to sail past 30 to 40 boats.  Had we played the game a little smarter, we'd have finshed higher.  Next time.

With wet hands, Luke was able to catch a bubble and stretch it! Pretty neat. Marina seemed interested in the boys antics.

A visit to the USS Constitution is planned.  Here, she is seen during a recent training exercise on Boston's Inner Harbor.

Vasiliy, Elizabeth, Norman, Tom at the Courageous Sailing Center tent

The crew, Elizabeth, Norman, Tom Brown and Vasiliy Gusev concentrated on attacking the boats in our class ahead and defending against approaching class boats.  There was no defence against the Elliot 770, Rockit, and the Melges 24, Rolling Stone.  Static, an Evelyn 32, showed us a new trick for playing the current relief off Deer Island and slid past us to finish third in our class.  Much of our time was spent dealing with a J29 MHOB and a J30.  The J29 rates 111.  The J30 rates 150.  Averisera comes in with a PHRF value of 135.  Getting past the J30 wasn't as hard as defending against the J29.

Thanks for the kite trimming abilities of Vasiliy, we kept our boat moving.  

Rockit in the blue kite, Apeiron in pink, the fleet astern.

We are competing for the Mass Bay Pursuit Cup.  Ten points for entering, a point for each boat in the class we finish ahead of.  Must race four of the six events to qualify.  Three more pursuit races this year. Two of those events have big fleets but the classes are usually set at about a dozen boats.  We'll see.  This is our first run at the trophy.

Norm and Vasiliy work for Boston Sailing Center.  Averisera is moored at Piers Park Sailing.  We all gather at Courageous Sailing.  It is a friendly sailing community in Boston Harbor.

There were eighteen boats in two divisions, spinnaker and non-spinnaker.  The fleet started near yellow nun E at the eat end of the Small Boat Channel, raced out to the green blinker off Graves Light and back.  Light air nearly delayed the start.  The breeze filled in at about three o'clock, building to about 15 knots from the SW.

Remarkably, we carried the kite for the first four of the six mile first leg and four of the first six miles of the second leg.  Usually, we sail upwind in both directions around here.

Images of the crew, the way, way astern fleet, and the Tartan Ten, Tachy, a sloop similar in many ways to the Aphrodite 101.