Century Club: Tim Ford

View Tim Ford's Profile
Monday, September 26, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Boat work, club work and cbyra race work
  • it's gone?
  • west marine bargain ware

Okay, technically, I was only on a floating pier for an 90 minutes or so.  Doing boatwork, including installing some springy lifters on my hiking straps (the cheapest things I've ever bought at W.Marine).  But there was the giant log on the boat ramp that we were going to go to work on (see Sept 24 entry) and drag away.  But what?  It's already gone?  How did THAT happen?

In any case, it's great to be done with it.  The other "boat work" chore, was to glean thru PSA's collection of RC gear and make sure all the flags and misc. equipment were ready for Saturday's Race to Rock Hall.   I figure 4-5 hours of club work on the shore of Blackhole Creek can register a Day on the Water...heck I was too tired to even put a kayak in.

 

Saturday, September 24, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Terps, a big log and a Cows Tongue
  • bigger and heavier than it looks, cow tongue in center of frame
  • pizza & beer and terps vs mich.
  • fall has arrived (sorta)

Shook off some sort of stomach malady to go down to PSA and inventory the RC equipment for next week's Race to Rock Hall. Then a short kayak paddle with rod and reel. Hooked a decent white perch who I inadvertantly flipped way into the air about 8 feet over the kayak, trying to set the hook...perch must've been very close to the surface and went flying over the boat, and mercifully tossed the hook, so that made 'catch and release' a lot easier.  It was a great day for a paddle, with the Terps game on the radio and cool temps it really felt like fall, which is by far my favorite season. 

Back at the club, somehow this massive log got brought up on to the PSA boat ramp.  There's no way this could have drifted in, the tide simply doesn't get this high at PSA.  So who brought it there?  Also adding to the mystery...a rotting cow's tongue right next to it.  Riiiiiiightttt....

Strange days.

 

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BCYA - busy night

I think we had 6 or 7 helicopter flights in and out, next door, while we were getting the boat ready at the dock.  This pretty much relegates crew to screaming at one another to be heard....or just keeping quiet.  Then the race itself featured at least four ships transiting the harbor.  So it was a busy evening.  Beautiful night, but our results were not particularly stellar.

 

 

Thursday, September 15, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Inc. Sail Check

Dave from the Quantum loft came out for the annual sail check.  In an interesting departure from the usual, we had breeze! A nice northerly, I call it the 8 to 18 breeze. 

So we were able to raise the #1 and the #3, not exactly in their range, but close enough to get some advice and Dave took some photos.  The 3 is brand new, so no real suprises that it looks perfect.

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BCYA - Race 4 Series 4
  • puff on
  • blackhawk up
  • daylight over early

Not our best night out and we were joking about a cookie (or something) wrapper that clung to our rudder all evening.  Speaking of evening, man it gets dark early these days.  I just never get used to the transition. 

Coming into the dock after the race was interesting.  A blackhawk was doing bump and runs on the heliport next door.  A blackhawk kicks up a LOT more breeze than the Bell Jet Rangers etc that usually come in for refueling or whatever.  So we had to circle around and wait for the helo to depart, albeit briefly because a minute later, they were back. Luckily we were already attached to the dock.  Fun night!

 

Saturday, September 10, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
NAS race to Oxford
  • DNA cloud in the process of replication
  • Bare Bones and Patriot VII early on

We were late starting due to the strong ebb flushing us down the bay, e.g., too early for the signal, so we had to bail and come back around the pin to get across the line.  But that put us in an OK spot to get the bow out and go to work against the faster boats in our class,  We stayed high (east) of most of the fleet due to a strong ebb coming out of Eastern Bay and that allowed us to lay all the marks easy while the rest of the fleet got pushed to leeward.  We collected line honors, which was nice, on the shortened course but lost 1st place on corrected time and fell to 2nd.

 

 

Thursday, September 8, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Thurs Evening small boats at PSA
  • four FS out for the evening
  • jury rigged tiller ext
  • needs some outhaul!
  • deploy paddle now

I was going to sail on one of the Flying Scotts, but was experimenting with getting my Main up on the i550...it has been a struggle, but I figured it out.  Simple adjustment of the initial feed.  So once up, I figured, well it's really light and sailing out to watch the Scotts and take a few pix for the website might be a better use of time.  Of course, something had to foul up and it was my complete failure to find my tiller extension which is a vital piece of gear on the i550 because there are times you'd better be hiking hard to weather.  Last night wasn't one of them, I think the most we saw was maybe 6 kn.  But in any case, decided to jury rig an extension by taping a paddle to the tiller. Worked!  Awkward as heck, but functional and in a way, sort of served to act as kind of an autohelm.

In case, pleasant enough sail, despite having to assist with a paddle (repurposed from the tiller) for the last 500 yards into the dock. 

 

Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
BCYA - Race 3 Series 4
  • prerace lookin ugly
  • rainbow warriors
  • sunglasses on!
  • found a big hole at the mark and in the middle

Good to be back on BOXCAR and great that the RC got a race in, which looked a little dicey at 5:00 pm.  We had a little bit of everything, upwind, downwind (sometimes on the same leg) and breeze and calms and one attrocious hole that had everyone moving in ther Own Private Idaho except us in the middle.  Still managed a 2nd by going way left on the last leg, where the RC mercifully finished us, to which we owe a large THANKS!

 

 

Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA Weds Night - last race in August
  • UV about to blast by our startboard hip
  • Tight spinn work - I mean REALLY tight
  • I think getting by HEYDAY put us in first for a minute or two until UV got us

It was honkin' when we first started getting the boat ready, but by race time it had laid down quite a bit.  I think it was 6-10 gusting 16 by the time we started - a pursuit race that got us off the line at 1824.20 hrs.  It was fun racing past the slower boats and by the last mark, I think we were in 3rd or 2nd..maybe first, but UV rounded and hooked into some breeze over on the south side and blasted by us to starboard...we hung on to 2nd despite some less-than-perfect transition work...let's just say we had shrimp for dinner. 

But these late summer evenings are gorgeous, in spite of the sunset arriving at 7:37 pm last night.  Sheesh.

 

 

 

Thursday, August 25, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Motor time
  • new homemade composite batten
  • flat calm in the cove
  • ugh...gasoline and noise

Went down to PSA to see if the homemade batten fit (fir strip with layer of biax tape on each side) and go for a sail and maybe join the Thursday Night Flying Scott folks for some casual racing. 

Excpet: there was no wind once a big blob of convection went by to the northwest.  So I used the flat calm to put an hour on the outboard.  It had been sitting for a few months unused, and we all know what that portends with ETOH mix petrol.  So we went for a motorboat ride. Not my first choice, for sure, but pleasant enough.

 

 

Pages