Back in the Ocean - Drake's Bay Race

 Hokulani is back out on the ocean again.  This time for the annual SSS race from SF to Drake's Bay (about 31 nautical miles).  We started of the Golden Gate YC in a nice breeze and the day was looking promising.  Unfortunately, the wind forecast was accurate and once we got past Point Bonita heading up the channel, the wind started dying - settling in at 1-2 kts.  With the flood coming down the coast it was rough going.  We were able to get about a mile up Bonita Channel doing okay on port tack, but every time we'd tack away from the coast on starboard, the current would push us south.  We passed the green buoy off Tennessee cove at least twice.  After five hours, and with over 20 nm to go, we called it quits at 3pm and headed home.  Of course it was blowing 20-25 kts inside the Bay, so we got some nice sailing back to Brisbane marina.

Video of our day can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXg_edqJvg&ab_channel=TracyRogers

 

Parking lot on the way up Bonita Channel.

Finally back on the water to do some racing.  Cris and I doublehanded the SSS Corinthian Race. We had winds from 0-22 kts and from almost every compass direction.  But a beautiful sunny day so sail on the Bay.  Looking forward to some ocean racing in the future.

Randy got this great shot of us during the race (when the wind had filled in).

See the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSjfYi_xZ8o&ab_channel=TracyRogers

 It's official, we're signed up for the Pacific Cup next year.  Starts are the first week of July, 2022.  We've got 18 months to pick up where we left off last year as we were preparing for the race that was cancelled in 2020.

PacCup 2020 Cancelled

Unfortunately we have another victim from COVID-19 - the 2020 race has been cancelled.




We were all set to start provisioning and hit the race course the last week of June. Hokulani has never been in better condition for a trip to Hawaii.  The race committee hung in there as long as they could to see if things would be back to normal in time for the race, but it just wasn't going to happen.  For the safety of the racers, supporters and volunteers on both ends of the race, and potentially emergency personnel should something go wrong during the race, it was decided that the prudent move was to cancel the race.

PacCup 2022 has been announced with starts the week of July 4th, 2022.  I'm going to have to mourn the 2020 race before I'm willing to sign up for 2022...

Boat yard preparation

As we sit four months out from the start of the 2020 Pacific Cup - it's time for periodic maintenance on the boat and handling things that can only be done at the boat yard.  Three main objectives for this trip to the yard: 1) new bottom paint, 2) drop out the rudder to inspect the shaft and bearings, and 3) replace the standing rigging.  First the bottom paint.  We've been using Micron 66 since we bought the boat and it has worked well.  It's an ablative paint that is "self polishing" and only requires a wipe down with a microfiber rag while the boat is in the water (makes it easy for me since I clean the bottom).  We opted to spray two coats rather than roll on the paint as we have in the past.  Came out super smooth!

Before:

After:

When we purchased the boat in 2016 we replaced the lower rudder bearing and it's been operating smoothly since.  Given all the rudder failure problems encountered during this past summer's TransPac race, we figured after four years and +2,500 miles it was time to make sure everything still looked good.  We dropped out the rudder and cleaned and inspected the shaft and bearings.  Fortunately, everything still looks good and now the wheel/rudder turns even more smoothly, if that's possible, than before.

As I went through all the documentation for the boat I wasn't able to prove that the standing rod rigging was anything other than original to the boat (so that's over 20 years old).  We had inspected the rigging very closely prior to the 2018 race and when the mast was re-stepped when we got the boat back from Hawaii.  We didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but we're getting ready to sail to and back from Hawaii again and figured it would be prudent to replace the rod.  This went very smoothly - I had disconnected everything (boom, electronics, etc.) so that all the yard needed to do was pull the mast.  The old rod was removed, new rod fabricated, and everything re-assembled.  While the mast was down I took the opportunity to dis-assemble and lubricate all the halyard sheaves after noticing that the port spinnaker halyard was not running as smoothly as the others.  Just spending time now getting everything re-tuned (proper rig tension) now that the boat is all back together and in the water.

While I was putting everything back together I noticed that the side plates on the triple block on the boomvang control line were broken and the ball bearings about to fall out.  I replaced the triple with a Harken 40mm carbo airblock and as the line was getting pretty worn, replaced that as well with some 5/16" Warpspeed.  Everything runs smoothly now.

One last thing that's always been a pain when removing the mast is disconnecting the wires that run up the mast (electrical for the mast head tricolor light and the steaming light, VHF antenna cable, and two NMEA2000 cables for the mast head wind instrument and the mast mounted displays).  All these cables ultimately run into the cabinet behind the head through a small hole.  This hole is too small to pass the end fittings of the NMEA2000 cables without removing the DC main electrical cable and the VHF antenna cable.  All that means more stuff to disconnect.  Rather than dealing with this in the future every time we remove the mast, I decided to cut the hold bigger.  The hole is covered by teak trim pieces so you don't see it when everything is re-assembled.  Problem solved!

The preparation list is pretty short now that this work has been completed.  Just some minor maintenance - cleaning the water tanks and servicing the winches.  We'll be focusing our time on doing some person overboard practice, re-familiarizing ourselves with the emergency rudder setup and storm sails, and preparing for our inspection.  The count down continues....

More PacCup 2020 preparation

One of the things you experience on a race to Hawaii is that you spend a long time (days) on the same tack. When you have minimal crew on deck it's common to cross sheet (either the jib, or especially the spinnaker) so that you can keep crew on the high side of the boat. We can do this but the sheeting angle causes the sheet to rub on the combing of the cockpit. Not a problem for a short period, but when you do this days on end you can rub a groove in the gelcoat. We solved this last race by taking a thin cutting board (<1mm), cutting a small piece and taping it to the combing to protect the gelcoat. Admittedly a bit of a McGyver, but it worked all the way to Hawaii. This race I wanted to come up with something a bit more refined.

Here you can see how the sheet (in this case led the way the spinnaker sheet would go) rubs against the cockpit combing.

I looked at fabricating some thin carbon fiber (or other material) pads that could protect the area, but found these to be a bit expensive. While I was at the boat I started messing around to see how much I'd need to deflect the sheet to protect the surface and found that a pencil width (about 1/4") worked just fine.

Here you have lines representing both the spinnaker sheet (the forward line) and the jib sheet (the aft line). I'm less worried about the jib sheet because it doesn't get trimmed as often as the spinnaker sheet.

Turns out that a rub strake is exactly 1/4" high and fits the area nicely.  It deflects the sheets just enough to avoid rubbing on the combing, does not interfere with sitting in this area, and looks pretty good. I over drilled some holes (not penetrating the bottom skin) and epoxied them to protect the core material (balsa). Then tapped in some #8 screws and bingo, problem solved.

Check that one off the list...

More boat preparation

This maintenance item has been on my list for some time. In fact, I'm sure these blocks were in this condition when I bought the boat. However, since all the "big" items for the race were taken care of last year, I can now start to deal with some of the lower priority items. The jib leads on my boat are adjustable from the cockpit via a series of blocks for purchase under load. The forward jib leads have a small block (a Harken 1513 control block if you need the detail) that the control line runs through to adjust the lead position. As you can see below, the sheave has failed and the control line is running around the post at the center of the sheave.

Of course, boat repairs are never as simple as you expect. As I went to remove the first screw that holds the control block to the jib lead the head broke off. There was not enough of the screw body exposed to put pliers on it so I needed to drill out the screw body. The only way to do that without potentially damaging the jib lead was to remove the jib lead from the track and drill out the screw body from the back. This got most of it and a hole punch got out the rest, threads intact! The remaining screws came out without a problem. Compared to the new blocks, you can see how much of the sheave was missing.

A little blue locktite on the screws and the new control blocks were installed. I took the opportunity to lube the ball bearings in the jib leads cars while I was at it. Everything all back together and running smoothly.