windsend

Packed

My sea bag is packed and ready to go... hope I'm bringing the right stuff. I took the CO2 cartidge out of my harness/life vest. I decided I didn't want to hassle with homeland security. I'll just have to find another in the Canaries.

I used a lot of ziplock style bags in my packing. You slip your change oclothes into the bag and rollit up from one end, squeezing all the air out, and then seal it. It makes the clothing very compact, and the slippery bags slide into an overstuff piece of luggage with ease. It even seems to make closing the zipper easier. I am hopeful that these will also provide me with fresh, dry clothes far into the trip, when everything else is damp, damp, damp... or soaked.

Another Dinner

Last night was the annual fall meeting of PHRF-NE. PHRF-NE for those who don't know, is an organization that supplies empirical handicaps to boats for sailboat racing. I have been involved with PHRF-NE for several years, first as a owner of a boat with a handicap certificate, next as Maine Fleet handicapper, and finally for the last six years as an officer. Last night was the end of my term as commodore, so I am back to being only a certificate holder.

I could say lots about PHRF-NE, both good and bad, but I think I'll save that for another time. For the moment, let me just say I'm relieved to be done. I'm really a one-design guy at heart.

UPDATE: I've decided that the best thing for me to do is write a list of the good things about PHRF-NE. You see, I leave with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and I am going to give that a chance to sweeten with age and a good session with the mental floss. Best way to start that is think happy thoughts. So, here's a list of the good thing about PHRF-NE:

1) It's not type-forming, i.e., it doesn't favor a particular style of boat over another. Most measurement rules end up being type forming. Examples: CCA (wholesome if slow type), MORC (heavy and underpowered), IOR (high freeboarded, ugly and slooow, especially down wind), and most recently IMS (slab sided, tippy and slow).

2) It handles all kinds of boats. (Except Multihiulls, but they have their own PHRF) Actually, this is an exaggeration - really no rule handles all kinds of boats with just one number. Some boats are faster upwind, some down, some in a breeze, some in light air. So no single number will be fair to all boats all the time. But, PHRF is willing to look at how a boat does in its best condition and include that bias in the handicap. So it does sort of reward all around boats at the expense of one condition boats.

3) It likes production boats. In theory at least, a good sailor with a well prepared production boat should have the best chance ot win under PHRF of anybody. Under most handicap rules, a well prepared, custom-designed-to-the-rule boat has a huge advantage over production boats, even production 'racer cruisers'. In PHRF, if it's doing it's job well, unique boats should get handicapped to toward the middle of the fleet. Best of all are the production boats that have only been sailed by hopeless incompetents. They have always beem slow, empirically, and they have very favorable ("cup cake") handicaps...

4) It's cheap. A basic PHRF certificate is the cheapest handicap there is.

5) It's not made in Maine. (This is an advantage for Maine. In areas where locals make the handicaps, politics rears its ugly head and I mean UGLY. In Marblehead, it would be an advantage if PHRF-NE was made in Maine.)

Jacques Vabre

I have been following the Transat Jacques Vabre because the boats have been passing by the Canaries on their way to Brazil. It's fascinating to see where boats are gaining and losing wind pressure. The Canaries seem to be on the northern edge of the trade winds, and that northen edge dips farther south as you head west, so the best course on the ARC race is probably south of the great circle. It comes down to the proverbial trade off between miles sailed and wind pressure. Unfortunately, the coverage is nowhere near the level at which Virtual Spectator covered "The Race" and Vendee Globe last time.

I'm also still worried about what clothing to pack for the ARC. Seems like a trivial thing to worry about, but I hate being cold. So, I'm looking for clothing cues from on-board pictures from the Jacques Vabre fleet. So far, no luck! But whatever we do will be a cakewalk compared to the task these double-handed racers have undertaken.

Packing

Started packing for the ARC last night. I know in theory that this whole passage should be warm, but, with the local temperature in the teens, it's hard not to throw in a few warm clothes. Because this is a long trip with a relatively large crew, I want to try to limit my kit to one large duffle bag. Last night I put in my foul weather gear (do I really need the boots?) and safety gear - a harness and tether with built in self-inflating life jacket, light, dye marker and personal EPIRB. I wonder whether the CO2 cartridge will make it through luggage inspection. I also packed a little LED headlamp and LED personal flashlight, knife, mini visegrips, hats, spare glasses and sun glasses. Now the duffle is 80% full. Maybe I'm going to need a bigger duffle...

One Week

One week from today I will board a plane for Madrid, then fly on to the Canary Islands. There I will join up with Anthem, the 54' boat I will help race in the ARC 2003. For the first week I will be helping to prepare the boat, which is on the hard in Lanzarote in the marina, shown here under construction.

From there we will sail to Las Palmas where the ARC will start on Sunday the 23rd. The race will end 2700 miles later in St. Lucia in the Caribbean. (Those interested can monitor our progress here).

I am looking forward to this trip with excitement and not a little trepidation. Although I have tried before, I have never actually succeded in crossing the ocean under sail. This passage is about 2700 miles of mostly northeast trade wind sailing. Anthem should be able to average 8 knots in these conditions. So the trip should take about two weeks. Altogether, I'll be gone about 25 days (sorry to say, I won't be able to blog during that time).

Tooth hygiene and the quality of life

I recently got an electric toothbrush. One of the features is that it has a built in timer that lets you know when you've been brushing for two minutes. I guess its designers think two minutes is the perfect amount of time to brush your teeth. Or, maybe, the minimum amount of time to brush your teeth.

I have discovered that it takes about 8 leisurely passes over over each row of teeth, upper and lower, inside and out, to use up two minutes. So I count each pass. If I let myself think of other things while I'm brushing I loose count and spend too much time on one part of my mouth. So I have to give brushing my full attention, which I never did before the electric toothbrush. I can no longer muse on the subject of my next blog. My teeth are cleaner. Is my life better?

[Fortunately, my ARC crewmate and former dentist, John, has pointed out that hygiene has an I in it (unlike team). He saves me from ridicule, just before this post is relegated to the archives...]

Deletum 5000

[Update: Looking for the source for Deletum? Look here]

I just read about a new paint called Deletum 5000. It contains nanometer scale silica particles that each have a water repellent and an oil repellent molecule attached to its surface. Normally these molecules repel each other, but the silica holds them together. As the paint dries, these water and oil repelling molecules are forced to the surface. The result is a paint to which nothing sticks. It was developed to foil graffiti. Oil and water based paints won't stick to it. I wonder how barnacles would do...