Hissar

Most people don't knowingly punish themselves; simple as not touching a hot stove, avoid inclimate weather or pay their taxes. Sometimes though, there are the people and circumstances to test one's spirit and grow. The captain of the aforementioned yacht invited some hardy characters to do a delivery from Annapolis north to Newport.

The weather started out fair, northbound in the Chesapeake Bay to the C and D Canal. Half way through the canal the wind started picking up from the southwest. The canal is no spot to sail, narrow and big traffic are the two basic reasons. Once we were in the Delaware Bay the true wind speed went up near twenty knots. It was neat to go through that area, I had never been.

Once we were 'outside' in the Atlantic the true wind angle was around 210 to 218 at 13 to 18 knots. Perfect, we put up the delivery jib and main and set our proper course. Thursday morning came and the air is still warm. We knew a big, fast low pressure system is on the way so we enjoy being warm and dry.

Looking at the projected system and the breeze strength and direction coming we start talking about a plan of action. The goals are: to not break the yacht, sail fast and on course and to stay warm and dry. The weather reports called for the wind to clock around to the 300's and high as 330's with increasing velocity. They even called the time it was going to happen; 13:00. With sea's 5 to 8' and sets big as 10 feet.

Our plan; when the wind shifts past 230 we gybe and hopefully keep getting headed while staying close to the shore. When our plan meet reality we were pleasantly surprised... The wind shifted about an hour earlier than expected and much faster. The wind direction came to 230 and we gybed. The breeze did not stop there, oh no it went all the way to 309 before it stopped. The only hesitation is that we are a little farther offshore than what we had expected. Mature waves and wetness is the concern.

The wind shifted so fast and with such force it ate those mature waves and spit them out. Now we are dealing with growing cross waves. This lasted about four hours, then the waves came from the west north west even bigger. Oh man the water is cold and unforgiving.

The ride was fast, wet, cold and fun. It took us around 36 hours to arrive in Newport at 0330 this morning. Up next: a delivery the right way- from Newport to Antigua. We leave on or around Thanksgiving.

IRC East Coast Day 3

Wow, only two races today. Coming into the first race we are tied for fourth place and about seven points out of second. The first start was money mid line and about one second late on the gun going full speed. Then 'Numbers' gave us the one and only chance to get a look at her bow. Two seconds later she was over the top of us and forced a tack.

Nice and breezy today not as cold but I've got the kit on anyway. We did well in the first race, not too many fowl-ups and in a good mood. We still finished fifth but who's counting...

The first Leeward mark rounding in the second race was madness. Some reason this yacht likes to do a spike dowse. We were on port headed for the left gate, left turn. About three boat lenghts out the shackle on the port guy snaps free. Boom the pole smashes in to the forestay.

"Transfer!"

The tack line is getting ground on and the tack of the 2-A is making a circle. The midbow and I are pulling like crazy to get the sail under control. In my fingers I could tell its getting loaded up and wants to rip. A nano second later the schute is in the drink and stopping the yacht. A shrimp advisory is now in effect. Then I see it, the head getting sucked into the water, boils of trapped air and the meat of the spinnaker are churning us to a screeching halt. I run to the back of the yacht to get the thing out of the water. At this point most people have left their stations and are trying to help. One set of people are on the windward side pulling up and the other group is on the leeward side pulling up, not good. Meanwhile its me, the owner and some other geriatric trying to pull the schute in from the stern.

I could tell the rudder was fowled and needs to be cleared immediately. I am pulling very hard and see the owner is struggling a bit. I hand him what I had in my left paw and grabbed what he was pulling in. Shortly after a teammate came by with a knife in his hand. We are in the back of a TP52 with breeze on and nothing secure to hold onto.

"We are going to have to knife it, its already cute forward!"

I reply, "you had better get away from me with that knife, man!"

I've never been to jail and I've never been stabbed, I'd like to keep it that way...

I reassess the sitcho and deem it necessary to knife the luff cord. I turn to the owner as I pull out my knife and say:

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to cut it."

"That's alright son." he replies going to the rail.

Now most of the spinnaker once cut was easy to get on board. We are in full up wind mode and still there is about twenty five feet of material around the rudder. To clear the rudder I put my right side on deck and streached out my right arm to grab it. Just out of reach. I readjust, now my paw is just inches away, I stick my hand into the water to create an eddy for the spinnaker to flow up into. After a few attempts I have succeeded.

We finish the race with a second place! That's the most amazing part about it. We corrected over 'Numbers' and they subsequently got a second in the regatta. Nice.

IRC East Coast Day 2

Four scheduled races today. We ran all four. It was awesome! All legs were 2.2nm and went around twice. Nice long races, this is what the big boats need. Give us a chance to open up and scream down wind. The highest we saw was 17 knots, not too bad for a five year old yacht.

I think the race community did us justice and ran the longer legs. Plus the time in between races was not that long. I felt the over all flow of the regatta went very well. My hats off to AYC-RC. Not a bad day but plenty to improve on. Some of the guys went out the night before and anyone can tell.

We corrected as much as possible and moved on. A solid day of racing.

IRC East Coast Day 1

Today we had a fifty mile distance race. The wind is blowing from the North West and expected to be breezy. The carbon main is on and the battens are in. The last minute call to switch the main is an odd one. This is the main that we took off shore and I put my shoulder through. There is a big square patch just above the second reef point and is almost a two foot square patch. Not fast. Our train of thought; if we blow out a main it would be better to blow this one out and be DNF or DFL versus blowing out our carbon one and be out for the regatta.

This helped to be mentally unfocused. Myself and Don feel relieved and happy to be hoisting the main. The rendezvous point was not too far and we had about twenty five minutes to the gun. It was blowing hard enough to make the call for the reef line to be installed. Who doesn't like more weight aloft? This was a safety incase our main ripped and was able to save boat speed by using the reef.

The reef line was never secured properly and went into the piss. It got wrapped around the prop. Not good. The next plan of action is to get the reef line unfowled. Engine off! I went down below to get the anchor. Don and I are up forward getting ready to drop the hook while Guinness is stripping down getting ready to cut the rope loose. Hook set, Guinness is in. There were lines over board for Guinness, when I got to the back of the boat Guinness just popped up and was in arms reach. I dove down and grabbed his hand and pulled him in.

No one knew what to expect. The majority of the line is off the prop and its time to put up the main and get to the starting line. I think we were already into our five minute sequence and we had to go up with the jib and get on the line fast. Don and I are up front trying to sort out the mess and got soaked by a wave. From that point on I was never warm. I had my shoes on instead of my boots. Lesson learned.

The race was fun. The two reaching legs at the beginning were fast. Once we got to the second make Numbers was gone. Up and around the 'Bay' we get to our windward mark. Turn and burn baby. We were in the twenties in no time, screaming down wind and ready to go. We caught up to 'Hissar' but could not quite pass her.

It was a long upwind beat back to the start/finish line. The main did not break. Time to get warm.

'Fearless' delivery

I have been in Newport but two days and now am getting ready to go on another delivery. Hopefully it will not be crazy like last weeks.

'Fearless' is an Alden 72' currently for sale. Nice big yacht, looks like she wont fall apart like the race boats...

We left on 23Oct07 headed for Charleston, SC. The wind was coming out of the south again but with a little more velocity than last week. Our sea plan is to go through the 'Sound' and anchor for the night at Port Washington. I like to know what the safety measures are before heading offshore. I asked the captain about the usual; where are the life rafts, life jackets, dicth kit and flares. One thing i noticed that struck me as a bit odd; no jack lines. the captain told me that we would not need them and thinks they give a false sense of security. Interesting, I'll take this one in stride. The yacht has a rolling furler jib, controllable by one person in the working cockpit. The traveler and main sheet are also easily accessible. The radar is right there too.

When carrying on about the watch system we were told that it is going to be single man watches day and night. This struck me as odd. No jack lines and single person watches at night? Life is an adventure and I'll try it knowing that the captain's only feet away if I need help. Plus we have autopilot.

I try and drive most of the time on a delivery. This yacht was no different. We pull into the shelter of Port Washington early in the morning. My alarm woke me up in the morning. To my surprise and delight we were at anchor. I looked out into the 'Sound' and saw some big waves crashing into the bow of a barge. The wind was blowing around 25 knots. Our original plan was to wait for favorable tides to go through 'Hell's Gate' and down the East River. We just got through 'Hell's Gate' and the rain began. The temperature dropped about five degrees and was pretty nasty. We are making 14 knots over the ground and passing some cars on the G.W. Expressway. Not sure who the sucker is in this sitcho.

We look for shelter on the south end of the Bronks. A little marina where the water is an issue. 'Fearless' draws 12'6". We run a gound real soft and power through it. There we stay Thursday and Friday night. We played chess, drank coffee and went out and about.

Friday 17:30 we cast off the dock lines and are back on track. Hugging the New Jersey shore the sun drops beyond the horizon. With a reef in the main and 2/3rds jib I am back at the helm on watch. When the sun rose the wind went far right, almost NNE. Setting us up for a sweet reach into the Chesapeake.

Back on watch now with a full belly and a caffeine buzz trying to get this big girl to break 10 knots. The wind went back left and the waves followed. There was about 3 to 6 footers and some a bit bigger. Perfect conditions to surf down... I broke the 10 knot barrier and was looking for more. Soon it was twelve-two, twelve- eight sustained and then about eleven for a half an hour. I told my relief that I wanted to break fourteen before I went down, he was fine with that. It seemed to take forever but I got it. The perfect set up. We were going around eleven knots, came up to catch a wave on the bow and get sucked in. The stern got lifted up and the yacht was locked in. Coming down now right into a puff, 'Fearless' loaded up and off we go. Twelve, thirteen, thirteen-four, thirteen-eight, fourteen! Woo man that feels good. I stay on the wave and almost had enough power to run the next one over but she could not hang on any longer. I raise my hands into the air with a feeling of achievement. My relief and another fellow where up on deck and could not believe what happened.

Time to read a book.

'Decision' delivery

We left from Newport Shipyard around 10:30 en route to Annapolis, MD to get the yacht ready for the East Coast IRC Championships. Interim captain Chris Branning and I go over the details of the trip. We thought about going into the Delaware River then through the C&D Canal but declined because neither of us has ever navigated these waters.

The plan was to go 'outside' join into the Chesapeake Bay and go north to Annapolis. Branning and I have the most experience offshore, we took opposite watches to ensure the safety of the crew and yacht. All is well and we are getting settled into our watch system.

Its not that far of a delivery, I think we made it about 550nm. The wind was coming out of the SSW and clocking to the left. Wind had varied a little but was blowing 15 to 25 knots. The wind was forcasted to blow 20 to 25 Thursday night and into Friday morning. Branning and I made the call to double reef the old racing main. All hands on deck and the double reef was in and cleaned up in about fifteen minutes. We pressed on through the night and did not get the breeze that was forcasted. Easy sailing in three foot waves.

I start my day watch at 0600 and notice the waves on wind have picked up. It was not blowing around 20 knots and the waves maxed out around six feet. I am talking to Branning about what was going on during their watch and getting a prediction from him for the next few hours.

"Looks like a squall is coming and will be here in fifteen minutes." says Branning

"Thanks, I have the helm you can go down below any time." I respond

I was telling my watch partner about the synopsis and what we are going to do when it hits us. A very large and dark cloud is looming just in front of us now. When the squall hits the rain is almost sideways and is stinging my eyes and face. With a double reef and a number four jib I am way over powered. We reach off about ten degrees and are fighting the sea to get through it. I had no idea how long it was going to last for, luckily the squall was over in about twenty minutes.

The damage had been done. One of our sail ties had broken in the melay and the main has about ten gallons of water in it. I had told the nipper to go over and push the water out of the main. He came up with some lame ass excuse for not wanting to man up. Complaining about getting wet or something. I gave the helm to Sally and went to fix the sitcho. When I pushed my fist into the main lifting it a few feet the water ran on the inside of my fowl weather gear soaking everything that was dry.

This was not very effective because one of the sail ties had broke and the only was to get all the water out was to climb out onto the boom and try and lift the remaining water up and out. I grabbed a sail tie and climbed out. I reach down and grab for the reef point and try hard to pull up and in. It work with little success and thought if I were to go out a bit farther and repeat it would work better. It did, lucky me, and it was hard to fight the pressure of the wind and the lift of the water. I was getting ready to put the tie on when all of the sudden the bow sticks into a wave. I am facing aft and my left shoulder goes tearing through the main. Crap!

"All hands on deck." I warn.

I go down to get the main halyard and let Branning know he is needed. We get the sail down and tie her to the boom. Cant really use sticky back to fix this one... We were about 150 miles offshore at this point but were able to use our jib to reach into the mouth of the Chesapeake. From there we had to navigate at night to Annapolis. There were a few vessels that came on us quick but we got out of the way. It was nice to get into Annapolis and get to Pusser's for a beer.