St. Patrick's Day and SMSA Frostbites #3. Out on the BR, where the always-intrepid Steve thought to bring bagpipes to play at the start. Nice racing conditions, and I trimmed headsails for a largely upwind course. We rolled across the finish line with Steve playing "Low Rider" on the bagpipes for entertainment. A great way to celebrate the holiday.
Century Club: Jonathan Nepini
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
The Saturday crew
Afternoon sail on the Barba Roja after finishing up at SMSA clean-up day. Consistent good breeze led us to a course out towards the Bay, but after a little while beating into chilly sea breeze got less appealing so we turned around to sail to the bridge instead. A great daysail, followed by a great evening of people watching on a friend's boat that's currently on the hard.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
Heading back into Solomons
A quick after-work cruise on Knot Enuf to enjoy the beautiful weather. Took a casual course out in front of Solomons and back. I drove for much of the outing, and we all had a nice picnic dinner and a relaxing sail. Looking forward to more of this!
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
The Dangerous crew getting it done!
A fantastic spring-like day out on the water out on Dangerous for SMSA Frostbites #1. The forecast ended up being a bit better than anticipated in terms of wind, with 5-8kts all afternoon. We got out early to get some practice in and get dialed before the race. We ran the boat with 6 today, which worked very well and is someting to continue to experiment with this season. RC put us on a nice course, with a couple reaching legs and a beat. We did well with the details and managed to squeeze out a third-place finish, our best result in a frostbites race to date. Looking forward to another great season ahead!
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
Working out the cobwebs on Dangerous
Evening cruise on Barba Roja
Out for two sails today, a pretty good way to spend my Saturday if I do say so myself.
First sail was on Dangerous for a tune-up prior to the first frostbites race next week. We put up both of the headsails and did lots of practice tacks and maneuvers to get a feel for the boat and shake off the cobwebs. Shifty conditions allowed for lots of tweaks and tuning. We tried having me as a main trimmer which had some merit, but does crowd the already very busy cockpit. Further experimentation required.
Second sail was on Barba Roja. We took a quick cruise out to the Bay and up to the bridge. On the way back we inadvertently knocked a cup overboard, which led to an impromptu, and ultimately unsuccessful, retrieval effort. Good MOB practice!
A great, full day out on the water, hopefully one of many more to come this year.
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
Beautiful day out there, all the summer sailors are missing out!
Took a quick Saturday morning sail on the Barba Roja. Headed out to the Bay, hoping to find reaching conditions, and we ended up with a beat partway across the Bay. Spun around and headed for home after a couple hours. Great to be out there enjoying the cool but sunny weather!
Saturday, February 3, 2024 to Saturday, March 2, 2024
Number of days:
10 days
Hanging nicely after lots of fiddling with the lines
Lots of old crumbly pool noodles - need a new internal floatation solution
The red came back great
The boat's namesake flames without the old, failed varnish
Pressed & clamped to fix a split
Fiberglass reinforcements
Little ding on the end of the rudder blade - just into the core so it gets filled & fixed
Centerboard cap & tiller handle getting new varnish
3 coats of epoxy & 1 of varnish - so far, so good!
Second coat of varnish
Using this post to log my 10 allowed boat work days, as well as any others. Days where I also logged an on-the-water day are noted.
2/3 (also a sailing day) - Spicy Meatball - rewire trailer lights, reposition hardware to allow boat to sit in bunks correctly, replace lifting lines & adjust for correct angle
2/4 - Spicy Meatball - #1 - reinstall rub rail, rebed 3 inspection ports, remove rotten pool noodles from inner hull
2/8 - Spicy Meatball - #2 - Met with my canvas guy to measure for a jib cover, and installed shims on rudder head to fix tiller handle angle issue
2/10 - Spicy Meatball - #3 - Polished starboard side
2/11 - Spicy Meatball - #4 - Polished port side & bottom
2/16 - Spicy Meatball - #5 - Removed centerboard trunk cap & associated hardware, discovering substantial rot to be repaired
2/17 - Spicy Meatball - #6 - Stripped centerboard trunk cap, removed damaged wood, injected epoxy into voids to shore up delaminations & applied first layer of fiberglass for additional structure
2/18 - Dangerous - #7 - Cleaned cabin
2/19 - Spicy Meatball - #8 - Sanded & applied second layer of fiberglass, applied thickened epoxy to repair dings in rudder blade
2/20 - Spicy Meatball - #9 - Sanded & applied first coat of epoxy all over
2/22 - Spicy Meatball - #10 - Sanded & applied second & third coats of epoxy, sanded rudder blade & filled additional epoxy where needed
2/24 - Spicy Meatball - #11 - Sanded & applied first coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle, final sand & polish on rudder blade, cleaned up mainsheet mounting hardware
2/25 - Spicy Meatball - #12 - Sanded & applied second of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
2/26 - Spicy Meatball - #13 - Sanded & applied third coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
2/28 - Spicy Meatball - #14 - Sanded & applied fourth & final coat of varnish to centerboard cap & tiller handle
3/2 - Spicy Meatball - #15 - Reassembled tiller handle & drilled holes to reinstall centerboard cap
Friday, January 26, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
The Barba Roja sailing into the sunset, seen from Heart of Gold
Barba Roja & Heart of Gold
Some of tonight's crew, with yours truly at the helm
Out for a sail on the Barba Roja with friends to enjoy the unseasonably warm, spring-like weather. Not much wind left by the time we made it out, but we enjoyed a great leisurely run up to the bridge anyway. Found some friends out on their new boat Heart of Gold and had a little friendly racing action. I took a long turn on the helm, and we turned around at sunset and made a leisurely ride back down to Solomons. I'm glad I was able to take advantage of the fantastic weather and get out on the boat with some friends for the first time in quite a while.
Monday, January 1, 2024
Number of days:
1 day
A couple snapshots of today's crew
A couple snapshots of today's crew
Participating in Century Club was one of the highlights of my 2023, and with 156 days on the water it certainly helped me get out there often. I'm going for it again this year, and I started off the year with our traditional New Year's morning sail on the Barba Roja. It was cold and cloudy, with good breeze coming out of the river. We sailed out to the Bay, and beat up north until we could see the Cove Point lighthouse. We set a nice reach back, and passed by Arctic Tern, the Coast Guard Academy yawl sailed by NPSC, in the river basin. We sailed out in front of Solomons and then headed for shore. A nice brisk morning and a great way to start the new year!
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
About to round the lighthouse
Some of today's crew
Out on Barba Roja today for the last sail of 2023. We decided to take advantage of the steady, moderate breeze and run down to Hooper's Island. Nice sunny conditions made for a pleasant run down to the lighthouse. Our intent was to round and beat north far enough to reach back to Solomons, but after a couple hours of beating into 15-19kts apparent the wind shifted and we had to beat back anyway. I spent a good turn on the helm and enjoyed spending time with friends. A great day out on the water to close out what turned out to be my best year on the water yet. Here's to doing it all again in 2024!