Elias 13 week update!
Elias is now officially 3 months old. He’s getting a ton bigger and more active. He can roll from his belly to his back pretty much at will now. He’s talking (baby talk) up a storm these days. We try to keep him going as long as possible asking him questions and whatnot. I’m sure we look ridiculous, but it’s fun regardless. Nikki’s also back to work officially. She had her first week with a full shifts and Elias was at “Debbie Daycare”! He’s here at the house with Debbie when Nikki’s working. It’s been a huge relief for us to have her doing that for us. Not only is it at our house, but more importantly it’s someone we trust him with w/o a second thought…
This weekend was a bunch of fun for us. Leo Bontiff is still in town (up from avalanche’s delivery from Antigua) so he, dad and I sailed sluff around Jamestown Sunday. Check out the video:
That’s Leo driving at a solid 10kts of boat speed. He’d never driven a small sailboat, but has sailed on larger boats plenty, and was accustomed to tillers from motorboats. He picked it up w/o a second thought. We (the boys) did get into a little trouble Saturday though as we were supposed to be home by 5~6pm for Dinner with Mom, Nikki and Elias. We went around the island, but the problem is you can’t cut it short when you’re late… So we ended up getting home a bit after 8 for an awesome dinner…
Sunday Nikki had a girls day out in preparation for Laura’s wedding. I got to watch Elias all day and was with him alone for a solid 6 hours. We had a ton of fun, but didn’t do much as it was well over 80º and humid all day. Luckily I’d put the AC in for Nikki Saturday morning.
First Tuesday night race…
Raced sluff for the first time last night. It was the last race of the spring series. Yarrow offered to help me as Dad’s “stuck” delivering avalanche right now. We haven’t gotten our real rating yet from PHRF (they’re having a meeting for us this week) so they gave us a provisional rating of 108… :lol: It’s funny because that’s way too low IMHO (the open rates 130~156 in other regions). I’m sure they’re just being cautious for now. Regardless it looked to be a perfect night, but the wind dropped from 10~15 before the race to 5~8 for the race. Light air isn’t fun for me ever, but our boat will not sail to it’s eventual rating, never mind 108 in light air. We still had a great night and a ton of fun. Going sailing, getting around a course, and NOT breaking anything are always good things. It’s also the first time I’ve moved the boat with my car which felt great.
Wednesday night sailing.
We normally sail Tuesday nights, but I couldn’t last night so I went tonight. I also didn’t manage to track down crew in time (part of the reason we wanted a smaller boat) so I decided to sail alone. I ended up ramp launching the boat alone (first time ramp launching, and first time sailing alone in the open) and it was quite easy. Honestly the only concern at all was the water depth which was just enough. Once I was set, I took off out of Newport and sailed down to where the NYC RC was near Rose and gybed right in front of them (in case I didn’t something stupid). Then back over to goat, then I took the chute down and went back up towards clingstone. From there is was one more chute run back towards Rose/Goat and back to the dock.
It was blowing anywhere from 12~18kt I’d say. It was basically our usual Tuesday winds, but with a few stronger puffs. The boat sails very well with just one person. You can hike all you want, or sit there and enjoy it w/o working if you like. The tide was coming in and I was hitting 5~5.5 upwind (into the current) and 8~9.5 downwind with the tide easily. It was a great night. My max speed for the night was 11.4kts and my best 10 second average was 11.1kts. Not bad I’d say… I managed to get 2 videos on the way out of the harbor while I was still in the lee of the fort:
Sluff:
Dad and I have both been going crazy w/o a boat… We sold High Voltage (our old yellow boat we raced on Tuesday nights) because it was too much of a hassle for us. A few reasons, but mostly it needed 7 people’s weight to sail competitively yet 5 people was the comfortable crew in terms of elbow space and getting everything done. Also I couldn’t sail it alone and I needed at least 2 other people and mom’s truck to get it put together and to go sailing.
We’d been thinking we’d take a summer off and not do anything seeing as Elias is brand new and the 20′ sportboat scene is just getting rolling here. But we also figured it wouldn’t hurt to test sail some boats. I had sailed at viper 640 in Marblehead in the fall. It’s a great boat, but it’s a bit too demanding (it’s basically a giant dinghy). My issue was in the typical 10~12 in Marblehead with 3 people sailing the boat, I was told “hike hard” upwind all the time. Sure hiking is great exercise, but 3 up in light/medium wind, no need to so badly? No thanks, I want to be able to sail this boat alone… So we got a ride on an open 2 weekends ago… It might be slightly less powered up, but it’s secret is in the heavier deeper keel. This means you don’t NEED to hike. You can, there are straps, you’ll go faster if you do, but it’s not mandatory like it was with the viper. The open is also very easy to setup, and sail alone, and I’ll be able to tow it with the WRX.
After the test sail we asked some questions and it turned out there was a boat for sail in GA, but they could delivery it to Annapolis for us that week. The price also fell in line with our budget (said budget ruled out the SB3 and M20, but they also seem to be too much boat for solo sailing) and everything just worked out. Mom and Dad drove down to pick it up in Annapolis on Thursday 2 weeks ago. Bad weather delayed them getting home Saturday. We rigged the boat Saturday night, but unfortunately couldn’t sail in Sunday due to mother’s day.
Last night we finally got to sail it for the first time last wednesday. It was a light air night, but we still had a blast. Who knows how we’ll do around a course in light air (the boat likes hot angles) but we were moving quite well last night in 6~8 knots of breeze.
I also gybed the boat “alone” no problem (Dad’s only help was to step on the sheet) and doused the chute alone as well. Seems like I should be able to sail the boat alone easily in ~15, more w/o the chute for sure, but I’d bet ~20 with the chute will be possible alone once I have more time in the boat.
Check out 2 videos I snagged last night:
We’re thrilled with the boat. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up on Tuesday nights, but it’s the perfect little boat for us. So far my only complaint is it really needs a main feeder. The mainsheet is easy to adjust to. It’s not hard or bad, it’s just different, but after ~15 minutes with it again last night it’s getting pretty easy.
Trip south gallery
I finally had some time last night to edit a few images from the trip south. These are here and over at syavalanche.com. I still have to sort through the shots I took in Antigua. Hopefully I’ll get those up tonight.
Here are the shots from Antigua:
