Century Club: Tim Ford

With Inc. on vacation, snared a ride on the J92 Dragonfly.  Great night, especially after so many light or no air races.  Thanks John A!

June 14 – Tues:  Arrived at NEB/restive at approx. 3 pm and there was a lot to do on the boat immediately.  Plus we had to get our COVID ducks in order. Spent 1st night of six on board RESTIVE.

June 15 – Wed: more boat prep and pickup our Cat 3 guy at the airport.  Tons of time waiting in line at SailNewport for boat registration

June 16 – Thurs:  we took at least 500 pounds of stuff off the boat and put it in a storage shed.  The boat now floats a couple inches higher off the waterline forward of the mast

June 17 – Fri:  the start.  We were OCS which means a 30 minute penalty is assessed. Windy and very boisterous sea state.  By 1800 hrs I was prostrate with sea sickness

June 18 – Sat: Up and feeling better at 0430 hrs. Took the boat off autopilot and drove for an hour before our Cat 3 person came up on the watch-change.  He immediately found damage to the mast track and a half hour later we were headed back to Newport. Done. Later, on my 1400 – 1800 hrs watch, the breeze built into the 20s and conditions were ugly, pounding into a large chop with a period of 2 seconds.  Retired into berth, but then up again for the 2100 – 0000 watch.  This was brutal, breeze climbed into the 30’s with puffs to 38 kn.  This was a real test for RESTIVE but hats off to BBY who built a wooden boat that can take a lickin’, and to the diesel too that kept on keeping on.  Had the engine failed we would have been in for an uncomfortable night, but had plenty of sea-room to wait until daylight and effect a repair.

June 19 – Sunday:  0430 hrs was rousted “all hands on deck” to assist with getting RESTIVE into a slip. We were laying off NEB about a quarter mile, air temperature 50 and gusting 32. I took one step out of the companionway and turned back below for warmer clothes.  We had sailed back into winter.  Rest of the day’s priorities were: FOOD – highly recommend Cindy’s Country Café out on rt 114, and getting RESTIVE back to cruising trim. 

June 20 – Monday:  woke up at 0355 to get our crew member to TF Green for a 0555 flight.  It was sad to leave RESTIVE but the boat had done well in the category of safety, especially when we learned of a fatality the previous day on the Morgan of Marietta. 

SATURN'S DAY:

I'd be the first to admit I'm a terrible choice to be PRO for a CBYRA level event.  I can maybe handle club racing on a once a season basis.  At any rate, it was with no small level of trepidation that I agreed to be PRO for our club's spring CBYRA-sanctioned race. But eveything went pretty well.

I'd gone to a lot of trouble to construct a really pretty colour-coded script file that gauranteed no screw-ups, and I printed out three copies, one for each of the crew.  Of course, like a complete idiot I left them on the printer at home...

For those of you have never run a race, a script is the timing you can read out loud to the RC crew to make sure the right flag goes up at the right time and with the right sound.  I find that they are pretty much full-proof, but they have to actually be on the boat, not at home on the printer. 

And so it went! Luckily, the wind gods were bountyful.  The predicted 0-3 kn from everywhere turned out to be a wonderful SSE 10-14 gusting 16.  Perfect.

And we had the perfect RC boat, Bryan A's wonderful Tayana "Vancouver" 42, a Robert Harris design that's solid as a rock, yet quite lively to sail, when we took a breather to beam-reach over to Love Point to watch our fleet on their spinnaker runs.

We knew we had to get back to Balto Light to finish the boats, involving a sprint across the CRAiGHILL ENTRANCE CHANNEL, but the Dutch Bulk Ore carrier "SPAARNEGRACHT" had other designs and we had to lay patiently as she went  by at 12 knots. 

The day was so gorgeous, one of our racers decided to go for a sail after they finished. And the party at the PSA clubhouse was crankin; when we finally docked the RC boat. Thanks again to Bryan and Jamie who made the RC work fun and efficient!

SUNDAY:

Woke up after a decent night's sleep on a boat on a floating dock.  Is that a day on the water?  I suspect it was. It was a solid seven hours and I staggered up to the clubhouse to wash off the grit from all three quarts of sunscreen I used yesterday for the race.  I'm on a scrip for possible Lyme's Disease and it makes folks fry in they are in the sun too long. I figured out why a couple of folks asked me if i "was ok?" the day before.  All that zinc-oxide had turned my face an ashen gray and I looked a couple of days from Death's Door. 

Back at the boat, I tried to find the wasp that kept me company all night and gave up.  It's in there somewhere but apparently it didn't mind me snoring next to it and it left me alone.  The giant welt on my neck is from something else.

Good times!

Got a ride on Glenn L's Columbia 30/2 BOXCAR because their bowman was on vacy.  Fun boat.  It absolutely smokes in light air, and we took the gun and saved enough time to take the bullet.  It amazes me how well this boat goes in light air.  And these guys are good too, having owned (at least since I first met them up at HdG) a J24, a Melges 24, an Antrim 27, a Beneteau 10R and now the Columbia.

One thing about sailing out of Marine Max on Clinton Street in the harbor - it's right next to a heliport that services all measure of whirly birds, from Shock Trama to WBAL TV to the BCP.  They zip in for refueling, the truck whips into position and ten minutes later (max) they are gone.  Gasoline Alley at The Speedway at Nazareth got nothin' on this heliport!

But it is slightly disconcerting...the mess of rotarty wing craft operating next to a marina with 60 foot metal poles sticking up and moving in and out of the location...whose idea was that?