Designer Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Just to let everyone know, I'm back at work. I want to thank all of the folks here that have supported me....some of you got to see Green Heron in person, others have written words of support and congratulations and obviously, many others have just followed the race via this form. I must thank Tom Lathrop - as he managed to get the directions for following the GPS tracking up so many folks could actually track Green Heron's position along the way. I was so proud of the boat. It behaved perfectly in some very tough conditions. She never gave me a moment of uncertainty, either in her ability to take a pounding or her behavior - lady-like under all circumstances. What amazes me most is that after all she has been through in this race - and believe me it was a tough test - she looks ready to take to a boat show. It brings home again to me, the wisdom of investing the time and money in coating well with epoxy and then using high quality two part paints. I was very impressed with what a great bunch of folks the water-tribers are. I really enjoyed socializing with and getting to know them better. The picture was taken by Gordy a couple of hours after the start. By the position of the stern wave, way back behind the boat, I guestimate that she was doing about 8 knots at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jones Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Hah- WE just followed along - YOU did it Congrats again on a great race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Potts Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Congratulations, Graham and Fred. During the race I saw at least one comment on the Watertribe forum to the effect of "What is this CS17 and where can I get one?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Votaw Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Way to go, Graham and Fred! Congratulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlchenry Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Congratulations, Graham!!! You are doing great things for North Carolina!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Paxton Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 Congratulations! It was a pleasure to meet you and Fred. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt jake Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Ray, check here. There is a fellow expressing interest in a possible build. http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=002514 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Niemann Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Congradulations Graham & Fred. Great Job! I enjoyed seeing you again, watching and photographing the race start this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony Harvey Posted March 16, 2006 Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Congrat's - It sounds like a great race. As I don't know anything about it could you tell me something about the opposition? Why I ask is because all the old sailors I talk to dismiss anything that is not sloop rigged saying "it won't point". So, how does a cat-ketch point? Best regards, Antony (half way through a P22 to be called Cirrus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer Posted March 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2006 Hi Antony, The cat ketch configuration is tough for "traditionalists" to get a hold of and the sailing establishment is a very conservative lot. Upwind the cat ketch rig probably gives the sloop a percentage point or two but takes it back reaching and running. I got to see how well a cat ketch can sail when I raced Antigua race week in 83 when the Stephens 47 (sloop) that I was sailing on came second to a Freedom 41 (cat ketch) over 7 races . I felt that we had a slight edge upwind but they were superior off the wind, and don't forget it was a very large fleet with some very competitive boats. While I hate to give up on performance, the seaworthyness and handyness of the rig more than makes up for any upwind loss. If you watch the video that the chief took of us leaving Flamingo on the watertribe.com site you will see how easily we recovered from a screw up. I did not explain fully to Fred (in our hurry to leave) about pushing the bow through the eye of the wind before casting off so that we could sail out on a starboard tack. Instead we were on port tack and blowing into boats and docks. You will notice that we put the helm over so that with the wind blowing us down wind it would push the stern to starboard. we then backed the mainsail to starboard which pushed the bow to port so that we could sail off into clear water as if it was our plan all along. The EC fleet of 38 boats was a mixed bag of boats in 4 classes but all competing together. The brilliance of the course is that it is long enough where endurance is a factor and the weather changes, the checkpoints bring you into some difficult tidal and navigation conditions, unrigging to pass under bridges, night sailing etc. In our fleet we had a Hobie 16 and a G cat 18, both sloop rigged catamarans, 2 21' Seapearl cat ketches, a Pintail 14 sloop. A 20' Frolic (lug rigged) I don't remember what else was in our class. Don't sell the kayaks with sail assist short, they can run run pretty fast and can maintain 4 knots while paddleing, they mostly win. The fastest kayak this year was a 24' long 17" wide surf ski and with both paddleing can maintain 6 knots. When are we going to see some more pictures of Cirrus? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffM Posted March 18, 2006 Report Share Posted March 18, 2006 Ray, I don't know that Graham is wishing for more orders. I got to counting sales of plans on my fingers a while back and couldn't figure out how Graham and Carla pay the food bill, much less the mortgage! And think of all the new people pestering them over the phone all the time like I used to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Niemann Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Graham said: If you watch the video that the chief took of us leaving Flamingo on the watertribe.com site.... I went to the WaterTribe site but did not find a video of Graham sailing. They were all kayaks or Wizzard sailing. Can anybody tell me which video it is or where to find it on the site? Maybe I just missed it. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Click on this link http://www.watertribe.com/ChallengeViewer/default.aspx then go down the list to "Chief - Roo & F3 at Flamingo." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Click on this link http://www.watertribe.com/ChallengeViewer/default.aspx then go down the list to "Chief - Roo & F3 at Flamingo." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Watching that video, the first thing that came to my mind was "why is the boat moving.....there is no wind"? She took off on nearly flat calm water. An easily driven, light air bomb that can also take on the rough stuff? Tough to beat that in a race. Seamanship and skill was also a factor in the entire race. That wasn't a rookie sailing the boat. That little dock manuver was instinctive and happend without even thinking about what he was doing. Such an unfair advantage of boat and crew aside ( :wink: ), Graham's comments about the kayaks is true. Some of those guys didn't finish all that far behind, and the ones who did it single handed is really impressive. And weather was a factor. The early finishers pushed on and took advantage of favorable winds. If you were paying attention to how the next few days went, about 18 hours after the winners checked in, the wind switched to the east across Florida Bay, with small craft warnings and headwinds of 20 knots plus. That many of those guys finished at all is amazing. As for the plans, the hard part (drawing them) is done. I would think sales of a couple thousand sets would be just fine. All the questions can be asked and answered on this forum. Oh...and my congratulations to the winners! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Posted March 19, 2006 Report Share Posted March 19, 2006 Ooops. Forgot to ask. What was the deal with the broken sprit near the end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Niemann Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Thanks Brad for the link. I don't know how I missed it the first time but I did. Graham and Fred look so smoooooth leaving the dock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer Posted March 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Yes Howard, we broke the mizzen sprit while crossing Florida Bay. Because I had the better night vision and I wanted to take responsibility for the navigation if we crashed, I had Fred steer while I navigated and spotted for markers. We has just passed between the Dump Keys when I could not find anymore markers. I thought that there should be more. We decided to be conservative and anchor to fix our position, in order to find the new course to the next channel. I said to Fred, "round her up", and he had a mental lapse under the stress, and gybed us all standing. I ducked with anchor in hand as both sails flew over me. We heard a loud bang above the other noises. Either the sprit had to break or the snotter fail, as the force of the wind wrapped the mizzen around the mast, tightening the snotter as it went. This normally could not happen as the mizzen sheet would prevent the mizzen from going around the mast; but we had eased the sails way forward to bleed off speed while we were sorting out our position. On sleeve luff sails this could not happen as the mast could have rotated with the sail. On our boat, because we have a sail track, the mast is locked fore and aft. Because of the use of low-tech sprits, with 2 splints and some duct tape we were back in business. You can see the table knife splint printing through the duct tape in the picture. It is our first breakage on the boat and as I said to Fred "it is inly a piece of closet rod". We have a nice new one on the boat already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Whitney CS#70 Posted March 28, 2006 Report Share Posted March 28, 2006 Graham I have been busy - forgot about Watertribe and only checked in the other day. Well done you guys. I was really excited to hear of the win and race record (faster then the Norseboat last year!!!!!) I am proud to be a CS17 owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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