here are some more of the boats actually racing.

this is a rocket-ship...i know it looks like some kind of sailboat, but it's not. this is a rocket-ship. 18' long, with the bowsprit 27/28', 3 people, and a whole lot of terror/fun. just to watch them race today was enough to get my adrenaline pumping.

saturday sailing

it really wasn't fun to have something major brake on the boat but better to happen by the dock (where it was easily fixed) then when we were going 16knts downwind!

moore 24 nationals (csardas)

well after a 3 hour delay to the races, which were to be 3 bouy races, the wind finally came up....and up to about 20knts....give or take a puff or two. the moore 24 class is highly competitive and each race had its own drama with 25 boats all trying to start at the same time and about 15 of us all going around the weather mark at once....people crashed alot of yelling..."STARBOARD!!!!"....and what not. being on the fordeck of these boats is probably better done by someone about half my age....i got my ass kicked...i'm sore and bruised from head to toe!....man did i have a good time!

salmon fishing on the "corolina"

we never did catch any thing.

wednesday evening sail

no real top speeds to speak of. the kite never went up. we met a new, and thankfully pleasant, addition to the lightnups ever growing crew base; michelle. thanks for coming along. hope that you had fun.

tri-island race 21 august 2004

This Saturday found the crew of the lighn-up participating in the tri island race in the sf bay. We started just after noon (first to cross the starting line) from the ryc and made our way towards red-rock for the first mark of the course in a stiff breeze and choppy water conditions. We found that these two variables made for a very wet ride (especially for the two most forward crew on the rail). We rounded red-rock to port with two much larger boats ahead of us without much that we needed to worry about…everyone was still onboard…the other boats weren’t too far ahead, and we still had plenty of beer. Tacking over, we headed south, still taking a lot of water over the bow and onto most of us with large splashes. Going along the Marin coast we were greeted by flattening water, lighter conditions, and one of the two boats ahead of us was just sitting there in the entrance to Raccoon Straights…attack!!! We ran out the starboard battery and fired gun by gun as we bore on her stern, sending her crew and pieces of rigg……wait, that’s not at all what happened….I’ve been reading too much bolitho. We, staying away from our bobbing counterpart, entered the strait, passed the other boat (a J105), and made it through against the flooding water that could have been our downfall. Sailing alongside Angel Island (our second mark) we were now headed towards the city, Alcatraz, and when the kite came up, headed for our last mark….Treasure Island…with the flood now off of our beam and slightly astern we were going quite fast (can’t recall the top speed, it was fast, but it wasn’t the record). Treasure Island came and went without too much trouble at all; a jibe, jib up, kite down, everyone back on the rail, strange puffs that I did my best to call but always seemed to call wrong, and another wee tot of rum. The final requirement of our race was to sail back the length of the central bay and pass through the finish line (as all races end; with a finish line). We completed the course without letting the J105 ahead of us again which left just one boat ahead of us (a SC40 I think) but with corrected time we won the race beating boats much larger than us. As always we all had a great time and made our “Admiral”, who couldn’t be there, proud.
Bruce (helm, big booming voice) Tiffany, Karl, and Dave (trimmers, always willing to make a joke jokers) Mom (support, encouragement, bartender, without whom non of this would be possible) Cori (pit, railmeat) Eric (for-deck, sailwhore).

goin' fast on memorial day

its an old picture yes...and you can tell noone is happy...but look how easy it is for us to haul-ass upwind!

just for fun...it's what it is all about!

this is mom, me trimming the kite and her son driving...it was great as always

friday sail

i got the call today that there was going to be sailing at about 2pm and that we would meet for lunch at about 1pm to discuss the race we will have tomorrow. it was delicious (the lunch). we then, bruce and i, went to the boat to await the arrival of the admiral and go over some tactics for the race.......we decided that instead of calling the admiral "admiral" we would call him "karl," because he is as late and so much more than the aforementioned that he deserved the new title..."admiral karl."
well "admiral karl" finally arrived and with the usual "what?... we're not ready?" kind of comments an admiral makes, we got the boat ready (really it was just a jib that needed to be installed), and headed out (now about 2:30-3:00{not that i would EVER disrespect the "admiral" [really, man, i mean it]}). we sailed around without incident for a couple of hours enjoying what the sf bay has become famous for; absolutely beautiful sailing conditions (but still not for the "weak" at heart). [i am writing this and tiffany has just said "bruce is awesome. he can do....what did i say....he can make that boat do whatever he wants; that boat is bruce's Bitch." she also wanted me to add, when i said that it is really gary's bitch that....and i quote..."that's judy's bitch" ("wow" is what i said. being of the lesser rank on the boat i could never say such a thing).] we had a fine sail back to the slip and we picked up a couple of moore passengers, really one was a "moore", the other was a "gillete" (spl?)...wow am i going on or what?....i cannot remember where i was before i went on such a tangent! let me just say that i love sailing on the lightn-up! "if not for you....".......i can't imagine.
we went out again and had another great sail as always! top speed was 10.2 knots downwind (not the record)......we remianed quite dry (even me)....tomorrow is going to be another story; they are forecasting gale-force winds (33+ knots of breeze)on a certain part of our race course!.......we will dominate...or, as they say; "surly in victory, overbearing in defeat"....we will be one or the other.

wednesday beer can

well i cheated on the lightn-up with another boat last night...a moore 24 named csardas (spl?) in preparation for the moore 24 nationals coming up at the end of the month. she was good. we tried our damndest to beat the lightn-up but just before the windward mark we realized that was not going to happen (really i should have known before that but i still had hopes). we had a slight mishap during one jibe when the sheet that i was trying to turn into a guy slipped from my hands and the kite started to collaps....ooops. we recovered quikly though and went on to finish second in our class just behind, well, a number of boatlengths behind the lightn-up. surly in victory...overbearing in defeat right?...i got your wine!!!!

monday afternoon sail

got a call from bruce today..."want to go sailing?"...just tell me when and i will be there...as they all know...i am a "sailwhore", or in these neck of the woods; a "sailho'". we set out about, or as they say, "outinaboat'", 3pm. is became clear that, with just the two of us, and not so windy conditions, we were going to find the wind when bruce grabbed foul weather gear and said "just in case". we headed towards "the slot" out of ryc in a fair but mellow wind, flat seas, and an ample amount of beer for our purpose to find the wind freshening and the "white horses" appearing on the ever increasing swell. after 7.something knots (on a tight reach), and a couple of rather large splashes of water coming over the deck, we decided there was no sense in soaking ourselves for a thrilling ride. so we tacked, headed downwind a bit more on a beam reach and had a nice ride going about mid to high 8's low 9's (top was a "meager" 9.2....not the record but still fun). heading back to the barn it was decided to come up again as to be able to set a kite. watched some pelicans "fishing", enjoyed much milder conditions, tied on the kite, tacked again, and headed downwind. (insert audio blog here) at one point i was given the helm because i thought bruce had to pee but it quickly became apparent that we were jibing...ok where is the sheet and where is the guy...i wasn't mentally prepared, but it happened flawlessly. we had a light air ride the rest of the way to richmond and when asked "when was the last time you backed the boat into the slip?"....let me tell you about backing the boat into the slip....wait if i did i would have to kill you.

what sailors do when there is no wind

float and drink beer

wow what a boat

this is what all little dingies want to be when they grow up; mari cha IV. we got the joy of watching this rocket ship take off for a race from here to hawaii...it took them all of 5 days in light wind. yes that is one sailboat and those are people on the deck.

sailing saturday

well after a windy and kiteless sail(we needed one more or one less person for that)i have come to the realization that gary is indestructable. after a brief outing towards marin on a nice reach there and back, we arrived back at the club for another person and lunch. gary had...well, lets just say he is indestructable, and that he can tell the story. after lunch we poked our head out the channel again and decided it was a better day for braving maritime world and take our chances on a nice industrial sail further down the channel. this was the right idea as we had nice flat water and only the mind inconvenience of the strange but predictable puffs of wind common in tthat area. i wish i had a picture of the large cargo ship from hong kong named "love me tender" (it looked as if it hasn't been loved tenderly in some time), and the sign on its stern which read "beware of propeller". no real speed runs to mention and we all remained quite dry.

not a sailing blog

well this is definatly not anything to do with sailing. but if you want to see some of the paintings go to www.originaloilpaintings.net

i sure do miss that guy

i told hime the only way he could come up on the for-deck, even though he did such a great job sailing all day, is if i got to grab him by the life vest and toss him over....he never did let me toss him over.

friday early night

we were going for a little while after this post and when downwind, with the big red spinkr up, i think we reached speeds of up to 10.something knots. [i will try to get an exact speed for the future]...it wasn't the record....we had a good time! not to mention how the helmswoman was, i hope we didn't offend her.....well we didn't brake anything at least!

its old but wild

this is a picture of an old sqaure-rigger that we passed one day. it was racing, we were not (kicked its butt). moments before, as we passed, it fired a cannon at us!

wed night sail

i didn't mention that the beginning part of the sail was quite windy and a little choppy....we just didn't go back soon enough and it seemed as if the wind was sutting off....damn persnickety wind!

wed sail

went out last night or a very mellow nearly windless sail. there sure are alot of "dooky zones" out there by the richmond harbor entrance, but we, with a big red kite up, found our wind and went in with a glorious sunset and the wind at our backs.

here it is

first posting just to see how it works sure hopei dont get a huge bill in the mail over this