Så, vad händer den här veckan i seglingsvärlden?
Eftersnack efter Hyundai Cup, som traditionsenligt inte kan få till en resultatlista, och Saltholm Runt, som av någon anledning tappade 25% av deltagarna jämfört med 2012/2013.
Nordic Yachts Open med 70! båtar. Gran Prix, 606 Nordic Championship i Nynäs med 389 båtar, SMS i 5O5 i Åmål,
Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup & Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship i Porto Cervo. Go Rán! 8mR World Cup i La Trinité-sur-Mer.
Nåt annat?
Per Ottar Skaaret är kanske mest känd i Sverige för att han seglar shorthanded på sin X-50 Jokerman. Nu senast på Bohusracet. Men han verkar ha högre ambitioner än så och har nu köpt VO70 Camper. Den skall ingå i Wolfpacks stall… de har ju tidigare uttryck visionen av ett helnorskt lag i Volvo Ocean Race. Se filmen nedan.
Sverige, och svenska företag, har varit aktiva under många race; Volvo, SCA, Berg Propulsion, Ericsson, Assa, … Även Danskarna är ju på G den här gången med Vestas. I Norge har det inte hänt så mycket sedan Knut Frostad tog över VOR, men nu kanske det är dags igen?
I’ve covered our downwind inventory here, and there’s been some questions on how we set up the code 0.
There is a Dyneema loop that slides on the sprit. This makes it easy to connect the furler when the sprit is in, and it doesn’t affect the normal tackline. There’s a small Dyneema strop that pulls the loop out as the sprit extends, and another bobstay that goes down to the bow right over the waterline.
This accomplish two things; taking the load of the sprit – as most of it is on the bobstay – and center the furler. As the sprit extends on starboard, ideally you want the furler on the left side of the sprit.
We needed a 2:1 halyard to get the proper luff tension. On the Hall Spar mast the two spinnaker halyards that exits the mast on top of each other. We replaced the lower one with a 2:1 halyard in Vectran.
The dead end needed to be attached somehow, so we mounted a Seldén dead end bracket. It needed some carbon reinforcement that Magnus Mørk, Norsk Riggservice, helped with (we needed the work done between Færder race and Seapilot 2star).
(Older photo without proper tension).
Bättre sent än aldrig. Här kommer en kort rapport från vårt Tjörn Runt.
Även i år hade vi värmt upp med en kryss ut genom Stigfjorden redan på torsdagskvällen tillsammans med Xp-38 Blues. Det är alltid skönt att få lite känsla för denna kritiska etapp innan det blir allvar.
På lördagsmorgonen så blåste det nästan inget alls, men det var utlovat ökande vind. Vi testade lite vinklar med vår code 0, men det stod snabbt klart att det skulle bli en ren kryss ut genom fjorden.
Vi valde att starta på sydsidan av den ganska korta linjen och kom iväg bra. Vi kunde ganska snabbt skala av oss de båtar som var med och segla i fri vind. På laget till babord såg vi ut att passera de flesta utom de riktigt stora båtarna. Vi ville till höger, och hade ett bra spår tille sen av First 40-orna slog rakt i näsan. Vi hamnade då på ett mellanspår mitt i banan där vi inte riktigt kunde segla vårt eget race.
Det är många snabba, lite större båtar, som man måste brottas med. Framför allt First 40 och Arcona 410, där vi har svårt att hänga med när vinden fyller på. Även Finn Flyer 36 Zlatan hade grym speed på denna första kryss.
Vid kraftledningarna hade vi tappat en del, framförallt till de två snabbaste First 40:orna, men hade ändå kontakt.
Kryssen ner nod Dynan och Punten blev mycket mer taktisk än förra året. Normalt står stark nordgående ström som gör att man vill in bakom Pater Noster-skären. Men i år var skiften viktigare än strömmen och vi kunde hämta in lite på båtarna framför samtidigt som vi ryckte på J/111 Dacapo.
Sedan en brant slör in mot Skallens fyr och rundningsmärket där.
Vi satte en lite planare slörspinnaker och kunde lätt ta spinnakerbåtarna i lovart.
Hyfsat peel till stora länsgennakern?
Från Åstol och in blev det ren plattläns med ganska många gippar. Vi seglade bra på det tryck som låg lite väster om rhumbline men hade mycket svårt att hämta in avståndet.
Vi slutade till sist 7:a av 27 startande i startgruppen vilket få anses ok på en kryss/länsbana i mellanvind. Bra seglat av de fyra första båtarna som var i en klass för sig.
1 Erik Krister First 40 1.379 07:55:06
2 Ola Sandell First 40 1.386 07:55:55
3 Anders Nordström Arcona 410 1.378 07:58:09
4 Bengt Falkenberg First 40 1.388 08:00:48
5 Lars Wikander Finn Flyer 36 1.344 08:05:17
6 Magnus Hansson IMX 40 1.375 08:06:02
7 Peter Gustafsson J/111 1.386 08:06:25
8 Christian von Trepka GP42 1.538 08:06:28
9 Pär Larsson First 40 1.381 08:06:45
10 Heje Jørgen J-111 1.375 08:10:33
The 2014 Chicago to Mackinac Yacht Race aboard Chief was 289 non-stop nautical miles. For 106 years the race has been many things. It’s an annual ritual, a reunion, a test of skill, of boat handling and navigational judgement and once in a while, sanity. When it’s all said and done it’s about relationships, stories and the greatest of memories. This film short was captured on GoPro 3 and 3+ black edition cameras. The aerial footage was shot with a Phantom 2 quad-copter. Mike Noble wrote the narration. The video editing was done with Adobe After Effects at Froeter Design. Morgan Fingleton of Shaggy Dog Productions did the sound design.
I’m very stoked to race in the Silverrudder Challenge in September. I’ve worked hard on both the boat, my systems and put in some serious training to be well prepared.
Saturday we all got the Notice of Race, and I read it carefully. One line caught my eye.
“Motoring for charging is not allowed.”
OK, so we’ll race 24-30 hours solo in September and are not allowed to use the engine or even a generator to charge the batteries? Apparently a fuel cell or anything else is ok, but not a diesel engine.
I thought this was a bit odd. The race prides itself in having as few rules as possible; they’re not using the ISAF RRS, there’s no rating rule or limitation on sails or tweaks to get the boat to go fast and the safety rules are pretty low key as well.
But suddenly they forbid something that most of us rtely on for longer races.
I decided to ask:
Hi!
Is “Motoring for charging is not allowed” correct? Are other means of charging, i e fuel cells allowed? What’s the difference?
Many boats are dependent on running the engine once or twice in 24 hours to keep batteries charged for navigation & lights.
As no other restriction on sail area and performance enhancing gear is allowed, it’s very strange that your not allowed to charge your batteries?
///Peter
The answer stated the reason. Apparently some racers have been motoring through some tricky parts last year. Seems more like a question of sportmanship – and maybe an effect of not using the racing rules:
Hi Peter,
we had some incidences last year where we had reason to believe that people used the engine and “idled” through the tricky parts in light wind.
So as it is a sailing competition we found that the right decision is a total ban the use of engines and generators.
Well planed use of the auto-pilot, solar panels, fuel cells and/or extra batteries is the way to go.
Best regards
Morten
My answer today:
Hi!
In all other areas the race is very liberal (sails, safety, rules etc) so I’m very surprised that you introduce new rules that I havn’t seen in any race around the world. It has always been sufficient to report the times you run the engine for charging. Works in all Watski 2stars, Færder, ÅF Offshore race etc. And those races are much more competitive.
If people want to cheat, they’ll do it anyways. This just signals that there’s some really bad sportmanship in the fleet.
Now it just adds cost and complexity to the rest of the fleet. I can’t see that boats >40 feet really have stored power to sail safely in 24-30 hours in September when it’s dark. Have you surveyed the fleet on this?
I need to rebuild my electrical system and add a fuel cells or wind generator of some kind. The added cost/complexity will probably lead to me not participating – or participating and breaking this rule – and welcoming any protests :-)
I strongly advise that you use/adapt rule 42 PROPULSION of the racing rules. Works for all other racing.
///Peter
This just feel a bit stupid. I’ve designed my system to be simple and work well for the type of racing we do in Scandinavia; max 2-3 days of racing in summer conditions. And as we use diesel for the engine as well as the heater we decided against other smart, but complex and expensive, systems. I have a boat that would be ready to do a Fastnet or any major race – but it won’t work for a fun solo race in Denmark.