Monday, December 14, 2009

eXtreme 40s and the monsoon

The Singapore leg of the extreme 40 Asian tour is in town. 6 boats have been put in a small basin next to the Singapore Flyer. For those who have watched the Singapore F1 Night Race, it is where the entrance to the pit straights is. Not a big spot, but you are close to the action.

So managed to have a sail on the Red Bull boat on their training day with the local sailmaker. They needed some adjustments to their C0 to improve luff tension. Great getting on a boat with Roman Hagara steering and Hans-Peter on tactics (these guys got gold in the Tornado in 2000 and 2004). Very calm and collected.

Robbo managed to get on the Oman boat and the Almeira boat with Shirley. And Thierry Martinez was snapping pics too. He was wanting our moths to line up against the 40s for a few pics. Would have been good, but think next year as the local authorities don't too kindly to people randomly sailing on their new freshwater drinking supply reservoir.

Otherwise somehow managed to cover 75km over the weekend. Stuffed now. NE monsoon has just started and should last for 3 months or so. 15 knots and gusty due to all the condo's lining the beach. Had to go amongst all the parked ships to get good breeze, but catch 22 due to the big wind shadows from them.

Boat felt great too. Feel as though I am improving slowly and using what I learnt at the Gorge and applying in practise. We will see how when Robbo finally gets out on the water.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

From negatives to good pace


Big contrast between Sat and Sun sailing. Sat saw a lot of drifting and trying to balance, and Sun saw a gusty NW which provided quite a few good runs.


So whilst Bora may have breached 30 knots, I think I was setting records for negative vmg or staying on the spot. Started out in a light 6-8 knots, but due to lots of small storms in the surrounding vicinity the wind kept dropping out, coming from a new direction, and then repeating. Very frustrating.


Worse was that the tide was running out a strong 2-3 knots and there was a big jetty in the way which I was being dragged towards. Not wanting to do a Robbo and sail sideways underneath it (done when the Puma moths were in time), spent an hour just trying to hold station. Some breeze finally came at about 10 knots from the west so went looking for Will who managed to miss the jetty and was stranded a few nautical miles away at the National Sailing Centre. As soon as I got to him and did some circles waiting for him to get going, breeze shut down again before filling in from the east.


Somehow I managed to get home after 3 hours of balancing, where Will completely gave up and headed to the nearest shore and trolleyed his boat back to the club.


Sunday was a complete contrast with a gusty NW in from early morning. Normally a strong wind in Singapore doesn't stay too long, but this actually lasted all day. Was a good test for the front foil hinge which I had redone during the week before. Since the NW was coming off the land, and there are heaps of high rise condos along the beach, there were some big gusts and holes.


So down to the National Sailing Centre to fly-by past the Opti and Byte kids. There were hundreds of them out sailing in some event, but they all seem to stop and bang into each other when the moth goes past, haha. I am sure the maintenance guys must hate me doing that, but good to hear them yelling at each other to look at the moth.
Otherwise went for a cruise around. Hit one major gust and just sent it. Managed to hit 26 knots which is my highest speed so far (only got a GPS after the Gorge worlds). Had ships either side too at anchor which was a bit scary. One wrong move and would have been toast. Wish the global recession would piss off and the ships would start doing their routes again so my sailing area was a bit bigger.

The attached opti pic (found on http://www.sailing.org.sg/) will be able to give you idea of the thunderstorms we get daily, the countless ships at anchor, and the high rise next to the shore. All makes things interesting for sure.



Monday, November 2, 2009

Mesmerizing Carbon

Always love the look of carbon and how it changes in relation to how the light strikes it. But I am one who prefers to let someone else do the carbon lay-up and get their hands stuck together rather than getting too involved.

However, I found this method of dealing with carbon on the net. Really quite amazing how they do it. I am sure quite a few moth homebuilders would like one of these:

Though not too sure about the $375k price tag of the car as the result.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Ambassadors

This isn't a post about being ambassadors for sailing or mothing or foiling. No, this weekend sees the big event of the Singapore yachting and catamaran calender, the Ambassadors Cup.

For some reason a lot of the other local yacht and cat regattas suffer from poor attendance, poor race management, or restrictive sailing areas, or some other mediocrity or combination of this and more. But everyone turns up for a white sails yacht race around an island off Changi Sailing Club where you have 1 to 4 or more Ambassadors from various countries. And it is scheduled for a time between monsoons when the wind is fickle, driven by storms and all over the place.

Or maybe people turn up because of the great prizes. First year I did this race the winning catamaran got a Bulgari watch. Which was me, but then I got DNF'd as I went the wrong side of a channel marker. Had only been in Singapore for a month and hadn't sailed the area and was 10 mins ahead of the next cat so my random guessing of which marks to go around didn't pay off. I went within 50m of the mark and wouldn't have lost or gained time. Bugger. But what was hilarious was the winner didn't know what a Bulgari watch was worth so gave it to his crew/date and didn't see her again a few weeks afterwards. Was kicking himself when we told him a few months after that.

The second year a made amends and got the chocolates. Magnum of Moet that year, nice. Third year was a write off as they changed the course a bit so was an out and back. Well the out was with a spring tide, and when it got turning around, well I kept going out to sea and the shipping channels as 2 knots of wind against 3 knots of tide doesn't make for any positive progress. So towed home by one of yachts throwing back a regular supply of beers for the long trip back.

Doing it on the A-cat as opposed to the moth. 50 yachts and 20 cats in narrow shipping lanes and strong tides and light winds not a good idea or situation for a moth. So we will see what comes of it all this year. Sounds like going to be a big one based on the yachts entered already.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Drifting...

Weekend of not much happening on the wind front. Saturday had morning storms which sucked the wind out. Sunday was a glass out. Fortunately did not really plan to go sailing, but since a 10min bike ride from the club if there is ever breeze I can head out quickly as it generally doesn't last too long otherwise.

But do have the latest accessory for moths with an altitude adjuster now. Took the JPZ adjuster seen at the worlds to an ex-pat in Singapore who replicated it quite nice in his workshop for Robbo and I. Done a couple of mods with the barrel a bit wider in diameter and diamond-pattern knurling so the rope actually grips nicely, plus it has bar ends incorporated into it to stop the rope falling off the ends. Should be a beauty on the water, just need some wind!

Heard a local misadventure by a couple of guys on an Inter17 cat. They were sailing around and the breeze was quite light. As is common around Singapore waters, there are lots of ships at anchor and they sailed into the wind shadow of an Oil Rig Platform. Little did they know that the Oil Rig was doing testing and had the bow thrusters on full. Well the Inter17 did the sailing impression of the Millenium Falcon getting tractor-beamed into the Death Star and in a very short period were actually on the Oil Rig Platfom themselves!!! Fortunately sails and dignity were the only things hurt in this misadventure.


Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hungry Ghosts Fasting

Spent the weekend on another moth as mine is getting fixed up and not back as yet. Meant having to do a few things on my mates boat to tune it as the owner generally doesn't get out too often as he overtrains on the "Tiger Program". But was weird that he took out the bladders from the tramps. Made it all a bit hard for the times of little wind.

Surprisingly the wind cooperated over the weekend and able to get out for long periods. Normal procedure in Singapore is waiting for a small storm cell to drive through 15-20 mins of wind. But had 8-12 on Sat and consistent too, so went off to the National Sailing Center a couple of nm away to cause havoc/mischief with all the kids out training on the Opti's and other things. The sight of a moth going through their training is certainly an easy way to distract their attention.

Sunday the cat fleet came out to play. The wind was a bit over the place. Went from 20+ zero visibility due to a storm front that was fast coming through, to 5 knots and bobbing around, and lots of variability in between. Decided to be an unofficial starter as they can't rate me against the cats as the moth doesn't have a Texel handicap. There was also a brand new Nacra 20 on the water as well, so good chance to line up against this monster. Rather crazy how big and heavy it is, esp at an on water weight around 200kg, and asked them if they needed a crane to put the mast up as they had 4 guys trying to right it.

So moth v nacra 20? In 10 knots was matching them upwind despite starting late, but they weren't stretching away so around 100m ahead of me at the top mark. Downwind, well quickly reelled them in and passed them. They were going along really fast compared to the Taipans and Vipers, and a bit shocked when I passed them.

As for the post title, that time of the year in Singapore with 2 big religious events this month. Hungry Ghost festival celebrated by the Chinese Buddhists with the belief that the dead or "hungry ghosts" return, so lots of incense and "hell money" and other items being burned to appease these ghosts. Also the Muslims have fasting month where no eating/drink etc during daylight hours. There is a Mosque in my narrow street (as well as a Buddhist Temple next to it), so have to time coming and going as it can take 15 mins to drive 200m or so to get to the main road.


Monday, August 31, 2009

Sheep Stations


Well an interesting contrast going from great race management and a no protest moth worlds, to a local yacht regatta where the owners believe they are racing for the deeds of sheep stations.

We didn't have the race to the Pulau Pisang to get bananas as the local immigration officers decided they didn't want to turn up and check all the boats and crew out. Some miscommunication beforehand, usual stuff, but reckon they weren't keen on the 5am start time to process everybody.

So some makeshift "passage races" were arranged instead. Again local authorities limited our sail area so we were only allowed to sail in a narrowish 2nm corrider, rather than an open area where a true windward/leeward course could be set. They were worried that would run into some of the hundreds of ships at anchor. Good thing they didn't see our second start where a Mumm30 tried to hold the fleet on starboard.

Anyway, usual crap start lines where you couldn't get off the line on starboard. Mumm 30 tried to hold the fleet on starboard by being most starboard, but when you are 10 ft shorter to the next boat, never going to work. So owners were called Arrogant Bastards ashore, protests filed, and they finally left the room at 1130 on a Sunday evening. Ridiculous stuff.

But onto moth-ish stuff. Boat is all back safe in Singapore. Having the sexy carbon/kevlar boxes (organised by Robbo) meant we didn't have the delays that some of the other guys had getting their boats back home. Now it is time to sort it all out. After seeing other moths and how they are prepped, doing the big program of making sure it is ready for Dubai and no alphabet scores!








So whilst that is going been taking the A-cat out for a spin. Hadn't sailed it since Feb so good idea to sweep the cobwebs out of it. Amazing the difference in feel on the water. The A-cat doesn't feel heavy and shouldn't at all up weight of 75kg, but can certainly feel it in the water. Also really noisy too. But otherwise went to normal flat water location off Pasir Ris Beach near Changi Sailing Club. Super flat water, though bit shifty at times, just plus have to watch out for all the Kampong fishermen (see pic for an example).



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Beginnings

Well I have just completed my first Moth Worlds at The Gorge and it was certainly a heap of fun and a massive learning experience for me. Having never done a Moth race before at any level, having a boat for just a year, and with the number of times that I have sailed in winds above 15 knots on a moth being able to be counted on one hand, it was certainly an eye-opener.

The Gorge was a great venue, and the organisers did a great job with race management. Big creds to these guys. Certainly a high quality field with the depth quite high. Looking at the entrants and some of their achievements, really quite impressive.








As for my results, didn't complete all the races as I kept having breakdowns. With 3 races back-to-back and breaking down in the first race of the day does not do wonders for your performance. Really frustrating. But for the time I was on the race course, wasn't great but wasn't bad. Just too many tacks that ended with me being on the centerboard, or the famous AMAC tack. Except I don't have his fantastic boatspeed to make up for it.


So back to work for now and catching up on the world after tuning out from the world for 2 weeks to go sailing. 2000+ emails greeting me ensured that my holiday was surely over.

But no rest from sailing this weekend. The big local regatta for yachts is on in Singapore and is called the Western Circuit. Runs over 3 weekends and normally quite good fun. Missed the first weekend, but back for the second. Got to be at the club at 445am!!! for immigration checkout as we have a 60nm race to Pulau Pisang (Banana Island) in the Malacca Straits so in Malaysian waters. Racing on a TP52 so we should be back just after lunch for afternoon beers waiting for the rest and watching the Bledisloe Cup rugby.