WaterTribe NC Challenge 2011

[paul_stewart]

Video

There were some wonderful videos made this year on the water in the NCC; for example, by DogsLife, Macatawa, etc. Chief made an excellent video of the start ("The Launch..."). Scareman's video of the start is equally excellent ("The NCC2011").

All of those are loaded in the Challenge Videos page.

There are other great videos on the WaterTribeAdventures channel of YouTube (select See All). Also some on the ScareManThe channel, the DogsLife23452 channel, and one by JarHead.

Time-Lapse

Here is a post about our experiment with 24-7 start-to-finish time-lapse photography aboard the CS20 Dawn Patrol during the 2011 NCC...

http://cs20dawnpatro...hotography.html

We obtained 5900 photos during our 27 hours on the water. The camera used an invisible near-infra-red flash for monochrome photos at night.

Do any of you have experiences to share regarding the time-lapse approach? Please tell us about it.

NCC Results

BTW, it was a year for kayaks and multihulls in the 2011 NCC. Only two boats started in the monohull sailboat class, "Class 4":

(1) The Dawn Patrol finished in about 27 hours.

(2) Merman and Sqiddly left the CS17 at home (darn!) and instead brought a fast sloop-rigged racer which gave them a fast, wet, exciting ride to Beaufort where they wisely threw in the towel due to serious equipment problems; Merman said he'll probably bring his more comfortable CS17 next year.

Where are the other B&B boats? The NCC is a lot of fun all in one long weekend: arrive Thursday, start sailing 7:30am Friday, ....., Sunday brunch and then head home at noon.

Hurricane Irene's wrath kept them at home this year, but we hope the EC22 Southern Skimmer will return for the 2012 NCC.

Jarhead (who teamed with Bigfoot to win Class4 last year) forsook his SeaPeal 21 Moon Shaddow this year in order to train for and finish the NCC in a sailing kayak. Afterward, I believe he said it was "too much paddling". I hope he returns next year with a Class4 boat.

--Paul

[ilnadi]

Kewl pictures and videos. I had been looking at the WT page last few days wondering how long it would take to get ready for the NC-50 (as in 2012 or 2013). Of course first I'll have to build a boat :^)

[rmays]

Paul is right, we did have a fast sloop that didn't make the grade; neither did we.

The boat, an 18 year old Vanguard 15, had a builder issues that never surfaced on this boat- the port side chainplate was not installed with a backing plate! In hundreds of hours of racing this never failed, but cracks in the deck around the aft screw head were new after the 35+ mph squall experienced in the Newport River so we thought discretion is the better part of valor and tossed in the towel.

The other boat issue was our fault- the thimble at the jib tack bent because the halyard tension for the big beat up the Neuse in 20 knots was high and the wire luff lost about 1/2 the strands. We had no spare, a mistake, but we also didn't have the spool of high tech line we meant to carry to replace such a loss.

The lack of enough sense to either train for hiking for 30 hours or slow down and not treat the race like a sprint is our own fault- both the skipper and I are used to multi-day regattas but the NCC is a different race. After 2 successful years of the NCUM 50 miler, we wanted to do the 100 but we didn't pace ourselves correctly and so had the boat been able, we definitely lost our enthusiasm and most likely would have holed up long enough for the other Class 4 to sneak by while we recovered from the beating up the Neuse. SO it goes.

Next year, the CS17 again, but I've all winter for someone to talk me out of cutting her in half, adding 2-3 feet to the loa and a higher aspect rig- to make her into a svelt version of a CS20. She'll have less beam so more tender but faster? Stand by.