14 October 2008

Maskwa South!

Hey Gang!!

Well, Don and eSteve are down in the BVIs racing around in the Interline (airline) Regatta. Just got word from Steve, on their finishes; dig this!!

Don on helm, Steve, Steve's girlfriend, Carmen, Fred Strauss (yup! That same crazy skier!,) and a local they picked up on a beach probably, they have finishes like such-- 3rd, 2nd, 3rd and 1st! They are in 1st place in their section (401,) and 1st place for team (American Eagle and FedSex combined.) How cool is that?!?!?!?!

Go Maskwa South!!!!!!

04 October 2008

Coming up!

Hey Gang!!

Well, talked to Don, and Maskwa was returned to her winter home safely, which is nice, when you consider that there were really hellacious winds and waves the day before. Don and his brother had a fun run up the lake, averaging 6+ kts under main alone.

We DO have some upcoming events; they are listed at the right. First off, we have Whale's Oktoberfest, complete with Oom-Pa-Pa band, all the beer you can drink, and Dirndles for everyone!! Well, o.k... maybe that is a BIT of an exaggeration, but you know it'll be a good time.

In addition to THAT, there is the Yachting Prom, or the Commodore's Ball, as it is called. Please contact Don regarding tickets for that. He will be sailing down in the BVI's for the next 2 weeks, but you can reach him after that....

Cheers everyone!!

Scott

20 September 2008

fun for this weekend....


Can anyone pick our own Sabina out of the photo??

a glass of rum to whoever guesses first....

04 September 2008

Tri-State

Hi Gang!!

Well end of the season is upon us... and... I still haven't had enough. I'm out on Free Radical racing this week, but I wanted to put some pictures up from this past weekend. We had a great time, and overall... well... we beat Paradigm Shift and Sorcerer pretty soundly. Not bad! In addition, we added Sabu and Doc Holiday as our crew, although Dave had sailed with us before on the NOODs. Sabu, more water!
Team in St. Joe
Dr. Gillespie and the Whale
Have you met my fine nephew, Doctor Gillespie?
Dave and Andrew on the rail
To MI CitySabu
Sabu, More Water!!
Back at Burnham

PTP Boat of the Year

Hi Gang!!

Well, I have been out on Free Radical sailing in the 36.7 North Americans, but the weather was a bit TOO rough today, so I got to spend some time crunching numbers after they abandoned the race.

For Boat of the Year, Port-to-Port, the way they score the races are like this: There are 8 eligible races (all were run this year,) but they only take the 4 BEST finishes. So, if you are finishing in the upper part of the fleet regularly, you can drop out of a race or two and STILL come in first place! (This is why dropped races for scores stinks so badly...)

So I built a spreadsheet, and added things up, and here is what I have. The only fly in the ointment is; I am not sure if being DSQ counts as a throwout or not. Regardless has 1 DSQ. The rules are a bit vague, and there is no guidance with regards to that. If you CANNOT throw out your DSQ, then here are the results for the top 10 boats as of the end of the season:

1) Certainly 9
2) Spitfire 12
3) Regardless 13
4) Sorcerer 15
5) Maskwa 19
6) Michela 23
7) Scheherazade 37
8) Retriever 40
9) Wanda 41

Appendix "A" of the RRS does not state that a DSQ cannot be one of the throwouts, but if the SI says that is has to stay, then we are in 4th, not 5th. Since I cannot find that anywhere, we must assume that a DSQ can be a throwout race. The fun thing, is that with 21 entries, they will award 'brag flags' down to 5th place. :)

Our 'brag flag' for 2nd in Michican City - Chicago will be awarded at the CYA Yachting Ball (see upcoming events on the right.) Hopefully we will also be coming home with a 4th or 5th place flag for Boat of the Year. The truly sad part, is that there are so many throwouts! We have done very port-to-port this year, but Certainly was DNF or DNS on TWO races, but still had fewer points than us. If there were NO throwouts, we would be in SECOND place, three points behind Sorcerer, one point ahead of Regardless, and 13 points ahead of Certainly. But, thems be the rules, apparently!

Pics, etc, to come in a bit.....

Cheers!!

Scott

02 September 2008

GO MASKWA!!

wish I could have been there for the fun

Tri-State Results

I know Scott will post a full story on the Tri-State this weekend, along with photos no doubt. In the meanwhile, here are the results.
Friday (Chicago to St. Joe): 11/21 (8 DNFs)
Sunday (St. Joe to Mi City): 11/21 (Thanks to the magical wind shift)
Monday (Mi City to Chicago): I think LMSRF put it best...

PosOrderSailBoatSkipperPHRFClubTypeFinishElapsedCorrected
1751909FandangoLuken III, M.D.,Martin G.72CYCJ/10914:53:3905:18:3904:44:27
21511508MaskwaWaller,Donald72BPYCC+C11515:12:2805:37:2805:03:16
31642252SpitfireHellquist/Warter63WYCFranklin 4015:14:1505:39:1505:09:20
41752337RunawayGorey,Tom66CCYCElan 4015:20:5305:45:5305:14:32
52640625RegardlessTeam Regardless60CYCN/M 4015:28:2605:53:2605:24:56
628521Dos AguilasGignac,Jim87CCYCJ/10515:46:0706:11:0705:29:48
74041625SorcererD. Draper & G. Fyksen72COLSchock16:19:2906:44:2906:10:17
84342747ScheherezadeAlwattar,Jamal84CYCLexcen 3416:28:5806:53:5806:14:04
94642234SerenityHirsch/Marks81CYCBeneteau 4216:42:2007:07:2006:28:52
DNF2024TallgrassLowry,Miles78MORFBeneteau 10R Fractional Sloop
DNF2425578Paradigm ShiftDickerson,Dave72CYCC&C 115
DNF2336CertainlyDonald Meyer72COLJ/109
DNF51249Full TiltPriede/Stewart72COLJ-109


On top of that, I did a bit of calculating with the posted results and see how it would affect our standing in the BOY PTP series. Unfortunately, the St. Joe to Mi City results are not yet posted but, I'm 95% sure Don will be leaving the CYA ball with a BOY PTP flag. The only question is which one...

- Splash

Leukemia Cup

Hi Gang!!

Well, the Cup started easily enough. I checked in for Maskwa with the R/C at the fundraiser dinner on Friday, the night before the race. I told them, checking, PHRF 3, yadda yadda yadda. I was told that they had changed the section bands to make things more competitive, and that we were in PHRF 2. I looked at their breakdown sheet for the section, and I said "Well, we rate 72, and the section break is at 67. That would make is Section 3." I was told that we were Section 2, as they had changed the section breaks, and they gave me a grey flag to fly for our section. I checked the list, and, well, they had grey for Section 2, and Blue for Section 3; guess that makes us Section 2!

We went out on the racecourse on Saturday, and we saw some of our normal competition, who are faster than we are, with Section 3 flags. Uh oh... that's a bad sign. However, the Race Committee GAVE us that flag, and we were gosh darned well going to start whenever it was flying.

We had a really good start, and as we were working our way up the course on leg #1, we noticed that as we tacked, the wind would shift in our favor. We crossed Jahazi about a boat length ahead, and as we tacked to lay the turning mark, we were at least 10 lengths ahead. Good sailing!

We worked our way "downhill" under spinnaker, and no one seemed to be around us. We moved nicely up into the section that started ahead of us, and as we turned up to start leg #3, we started passing our section coming down on leg #2. Very interesting place to be!

We were first boat to round every mark, and as we finished, we were barely caught by Jahazi at the finish. ONE second! However, they owed us at LEAST 3 minutes under handicap, so we were the clear winners of the section!

I think this photo sums up everything nicely:


Cheers!!

Scott

25 August 2008

Fun Sail on Sunday the 24th....

Hi all!!

Well, we went out and had a fun sail after our scorching performance in the Leukemia Cup Regatta. Here are the pics from Sunday... I am still writing out the story of Saturday's race.

We had a fun group out Sunday, with one of my old friends (Alma,) coming out sailing for her first time, and her friend Lana coming out... although Lana and the big waves didn't get along so well. We all had a great time, and Splash even found the Loch Ness Monster of Seaweed!!

The best part, was a newly married couple happened by, and wanted to take pictures on Maskwa. Splash invited them on, and we made some new friends... that's what it is all about anyways, right?

Cheers!!

Scott
















18 August 2008

Verve Cup Weekend - The Picture Proof

These are in no particular order, Blogger is a pain to load pictures....

:)

Scott



















Verve Cup update

O.k.. so we did not do so well... lol. Actually, we really jelled as a crew. The best part, was; in addition to switching positions throughout the weekend, we really had a great time. Ready for the season to begin!

Seriously, everyone performed very well. Don was very complimentary when we came back to harbor on Sunday. No big mistakes, that was for sure! Sometimes, you just can't win no matter what. We sailed well, and it is hard to ask for more.

So, pictures from sailing and from the various parties afterwards will be posted shortly. Stay tuned to this very page!

Ciao!

Scott

13 August 2008

The Chicago Verve Cup

Hi Gang!!

Well, the Verve Cup weekend is approaching fast, and things are looking good. Here is our section for the race:
1. USA 35234 Aftershock J 35 69
2. USA 32851 Bozo's Circus J 35 69
3. USA 56613 Heart Throb Columbia 30 69
4. USA 42121 Houqua J 35 69
5. USA 40395 Irish Rover J 35 69
6. USA 11508 Maskwa C&C 115 72
7. USA 25634 Nighthawk C&C 115 72
8. USA 41625 Sorcerer Schock 35 72
9. USA 46409 Syrena B-32 69
10. USA 32776 Touch of Grey J 35 69

As you can see, there are no boars more than 3 seconds faster than us, and NONE slower than us. Except for Syrena, whom I do not recognize, we have beaten ALL these boats, scratch. This will be a good tight band of boats for us, nearly a one design section. We should especially fare well if the wind is in our home range of about 14 kts or so. The J35s will be trying to carry their big #1s, and will be way heeled over, and we'll have our full sail plan up, and we'll only be going faster.

Hope you all got the email with regards to the Tri-State, the Leukemia Cup, and everything else we have cooking. The end of the summer is near, and we have lots of sailing yet to go!!

Ciao!

Scott

01 August 2008

Around the Island Race Brag Flag.

As Scott mentioned in the previous post, we almost made third place and just missed out on an "official" brag flag. I still think we should have one...



-Splash

Around The Island....

Hi All!!

Well, we decided to take an extra day on Mackinac, and do the first annual "Around the Island" Regatta. We had had decent weather after we got to the island, and we heard about 30 boats would be doing the race. Could be interesting to see who stayed and sailed. So, we got ready for Wednesday afternoon. We had lost Whale and Steve to work, and had picked up Nicole and Jean to sail with us. NOT a bad trade at all!

So, Don went and got the SIs, section breaks, etc... and.. lo and behold! We are now a Turbo boat! Yes, when they did the section breaks here is how who we were grouped with: Vincitore, a Kiwi-made 58 footer, custom built racing machine... Pororoca, a GL70 Class boat... Jason, the Farr 395 from across the dock, and Scirocco VI, a Mumm 36. O.k.. the Mumm, I can handle... but really, the rest of it? They all owe us at LEAST 45 seconds/mile in PHRF... what an absurd section break, when the boats in the next slowest section were all within a few tenths of a second with us normally. Sheesh!




Well, nothing to be done about it, and Turbo Maskwa was born!! Of course, we did not have a Section 1 flag, so we had to improvise.. :) George managed to find a red pen, and we had all this notebook paper... so that'll work.

We were a few seconds late for the start, but we were having a great time. We had tried to flag down Vincitore before the start, and convince them they had to do TWO laps, but they were not biting. Rats. We fell in line after the start, and accelerated away. The wind was blowing nicely, we had a good crew, and the boat was handling quite well. Nothing to do, but sail fast. We had an advantage, in that we only draw 6'9", compared to the big boats 14' or so... so we could cut closer to the island. We used this to good effect, but were hampered by one thing. We just could not make the first turn close enough. We had sailed close to the island, but could not get past a small shoal that was marked ahead of us. That kind of put us behind a bit, but we were still sailing well. We even passed Jason and Scirocco, because we were the better sailors. ;)

Passing around as we went over the top of the island, I noticed that at the halfway point, we were still in sight of the big guns, AND... we had only been sailing for 35 minutes! This was gonna be a short race! On the West side of the island, we watched Jason and Scirocco get into a little match racing... the only problem for THEM, was that we were still there, and we took advantage of them letting down their guard to pass them both. Jason managed to overtake us towards the end, but they lost sight of the big prize, which is that there were more boats on the water.

We had great wind the entire time, but needed the island to be a big bigger. We finished the race in 1 hour, 20 minutes, just a few seconds behind the 3rd place boat, Scout, on corrected time.

After the race, they had all you can eat free burgers and brats, and all you could drink beer and wine, so we had to do SOMETHING with our time!

All in all, we had a great time; the race was a hoot, even if we only got 4th place. Just kind of hard to beat the big boys in a short race. After the race, we made some new friends, with Stacey, from Jason, who would join our crew for the Harbor Springs Regatta, and Dan, also temporarily from Jason, who needed a ride down. It really was a great time all around....

Scott