Hi all,
thought I would stay home for a change, had a fun sail Saturday on the Formula Catamarans Blade. Sailing from Paynesville to Metung a couple hours up the lake and return. My local club had a race for Trailer Sailers and Keel boats which I tagged along with just for fun, Mossies where still coming back from Nats so nobody else to sail with.
Started in the morning with my youngest son crewing for me after I begged him (trying to get some quality time). Was late leaving the beach, wind was very light and variable so took until half way there before I over hauled the leaders a F25 and F28 tri beating all the way. Occasionaly there was enough wind to fly a hull but mostly not, I kept Duncan busy moving up and down tramp and going forward to pull the sea weed of the bow that was building up at times. Can't understand why he doesn't like crewing for me <img src=
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The ride home was great though, Duncan had taken the more comfortable option of a Trailer Tri, mind you I could have done with the extra weight, the sea breeze had set in giving the angles for mostly spinnaker work <img src=
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Popped the kite and took off on trap, passing the mono's in the fleet quickly, however the stronger gusts about 18kts where driving me below the rhumb line, the rescue boat came for a drag clocking me at 15 to 18 kts for a kilometer or so, the FCA Blade was just cruising with the bow high<img src=
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/>, traveller was down a bit and wind had dropped a little so I was sheeting hard with little twist when a big gust hit, bows went down and as I slid up the side the transoms followed, how embarrassing, but worse was to come as water got in the mast and I couldnt get it up, the rescue boat now had something to do. A quick lift of the mast tip and I was back on two hulls <img src=
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After finishing, I still hadn't had enough and some good gusts where coming through on the flat water in the bay. I hoisted spin again and headed off with the gusts driving me down the back water, the water skiers, wake boarders and tube riders, looked at me like I was some thing strange <img src=
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Just another day that reminds me of why I sail a F16. <img src=
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Pity today was too windy gusting over 30kts. So all I got to do was pack up <img src=
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I'm really missing my fun days. The last four races have now been abandoned 3 due to high winds and 1 due to no wind. Therefore, over the past 6 weeks I've only had 1 sail which was a drifter and I only went on the water for some peace and quite following Christmas mayhem. The picture below was taken at a local beach after todays race was abandoned. Please don't stop your reports Gary and some photos would be appreciated.
I haven't mastered the technique of decreasing the size of the picture for the forum. So the picture is best left as an attachment (back to the drawing board) <img src=
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Mark,
use the XP image re-sizer power toy(assuming you are using XP). Linky
You also can use almost any image viewer utility; even PC paint has a resize option.
XP That rubbish <img src=
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/> I'm a Mac mini man, osx panther seems to ring some bells. I've got an idiots guide book here somewhere but this idiot doesn't look at it often enough.
alt=
/> I'm a Mac mini man, osx panther seems to ring some bells. I've got an idiots guide book here somewhere but this idiot doesn't look at it often enough.
No doubt Google will help you out?
Mark,
Do you really sail through the winter?
I guess temperatures are quite the same there as here in Ostend. What do you wear? I always thought it would be to cold... (but that's maybe because I don't drink any alcohol 😉 )
Gill
Do you really sail through the winter?
I guess temperatures are quite the same there as here in Ostend. What do you wear? I always thought it would be to cold... (but that's maybe because I don't drink any alcohol 😉 )
Gill
I sail all winter (well most of it). Inland and so it's colder!
Usually Drysuit with Ski thermals / Polartec underneath.
Yes it gets feckin cold at times...
Hi Gill
We do race throughout the year, only during the Winter November-March we race every other weekend mainly due to the shorter days and tides. Our coldest month is February avg low 4 avg high 7 avg precipitation 7.07cm. The warmest month is August avg low 14 avg high 20 avg precipitation 5.03cm. The Sea temps are pretty good due to the Gulf Stream and range from 6-17 degree C. As for what to wear it's a choice between winter steamer wetsuits up to 6mm thick or drysuits with thermals underneath. It really depends on the conditions but Jan-Feb it's usually drysuit weather.
Hi Mark,
August sounds cold to me. Better put on the heaters for the Global Challenge <img src=
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Wow, I envy the consistency of being close to the ocean. The only thing between us and the North Polar cap and the Gulf of Mexico is barbed wire fences. JAN avg. low -9, avg. high 2 (once a year -23), AUG avg. low 20, avg. high 31 (once a year 43). Local joke is if you don't like the weather, wait a couple of days, it will change. The only consistant temperature (controled by the sun) is the water, today 1, in August, 29.
Keep the great stories coming, they warm the **** <img src=
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I have no clue how the celsius temps relate, I'll look it up later. In my dry suit with sweat pants and sweat shirt underneath I'm comfortable in 40 deg (F) air with 40 deg water. I have to adjust accordingly from there but haven't had to lately. Ed
40F is about 4.5C
40 degree F = 4.4444 degree C. Thats pretty cold!
Simple to remember is that 0 degrees celsius turns water to ice and that 100 degrees celsius sees water boil at sealevel. The other temperatures are interpolated (extrapolated) linearly.
You can actually use google to do the conversions for you :
example : http:/
With respect to Fahrenheit : 32 degrees fahrenheit turns water to ice, 212 degrees fahrenheit boils water at sealevel. 12 inches in a foot; 5278 feet in a (land) mile, 6070 feet in a nautical mile, a liter of (fresh) water weighting 2.1834 lbs. Being an engineer in the USA must be really hard.
Thank God for the metric system !
Wouter
We do race throughout the year, As for what to wear it's a choice between winter steamer wetsuits up to 6mm thick or drysuits with thermals underneath.
Jesus! 6mm suit ---
I can't put my arms down
I have become a wuss since moving to Florida. We used to sail in the Mid west with a 120 rule, where the water and air temps had to add up to at least 120 (32 C) I have sailed in a blinding snow storm and where we had to cross 200 yards of ice to get to broken up slush where we could sail, but this was just to say we did it, not becuase it was fun.
Now the air temp drops below 70 (21C) and I seriously look at the conditions before heading out.
You need a trick you can do in your head. Try this:
1) Take Celsius temp and double it. (easy to do in your head)
2) Subtract 10% of that. (also easy)
3) Add 32 (easy for most)
Example:
15 Celsius; doubled is 30
Subtract 10%; 30 - 3 = 27 (round off liberally if needed)
Add 32; 27 + 32 = 59 Fahrenheit
Do 10 trials and you'll have it forever.
Thank God for the metric system !
We in the USA thank the magnificent Ronald Regan for keeping us from being ruined by the superior metric system.
Wouter
Here's another quick conversion method. Memorize only this: 50F = 10C. You can go up or down from there in 5C jumps, 5C = 9F up and down. So, 15C is 59F and 20C is 68F. And of course, 32F is 0C. Then there are some cute ones, like 28C=82F (just flip them) and 25C=77F (2+5=7 is how I remember it) and 1 degree C is nearly 2 degrees F between those 5 degree jumps, so it's easy to interpolate to -close enough-.
And always helpful up here.
-40C = -40 F
I am currently in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
Google Map
Yes that is Latitude 68 N
Current weather -33C (Windchill is -40 though).
Sun was up for 2.5 hours today.
Who did you piss off to get that assignment?? <img src=
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Wouldn't the sheets get stiff at that temperature?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . <img src=
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