Official Watertribe EC/UFC 2016 event discussion.

[alexscott]

As far as I can tell from the Tracking Map, only Roo, Lugnut, (both past CP3) and Millarkey (almost to CP3) are still active in Class 4

[Wetfoot]

 

Roo zigging to Key Largo on a windy night.

 

[Joe Anderson]

Looks like Graham anchored off a small key last night. As if he was on some sort of holiday. Those conditions that would make me feel nervous and anxious to get to the finish line are undoubtedly well within his comfort zone.

[Wetfoot]

Doing ducky in the lee. Whatever lee that little bit of sand offered.

 

As of about 11:30 this morning, he was in Key Largo. A fast finish from last night's anchorage. And by that time Alan was in Miami. Photo by PaddleDancer and clipped from http://www.sailnaway.blogspot.com/

 

[MisterMoon]

We had a really good run this year. Zero was a great team mate. Bandaloop held up well with no major issues. It was great to finally meet Graham and spend some time talking to him today after he arrived. He did sleep out in FL bay a couple of nights and I envied his accommodations!

Couple of things we learned:

 

-surfing across the bar at Stump is the fastest and safest way. Roo and the Sea Pearl who rolled his boat had just passed us as we all approached Stump together. We took the inside, surfing across the bar, Roo was in the middle and the SP tried to out around the marker. We blew in Stump in no time with no drama and passed both other boats. I think we were well inside before the SP rolled and Roo had his little incident there. We pulled out of CP after about an hour stopped wondering what happened to Roo. 

- Missing the tide gate at Choko is bad. We got to Indian Key Pass with an outgoing tide and foul wind on Sunday afternoon. It took us several exhausting hours of tacking and rowing to make the five miles into Chokoloskee Bay to arrive just in time trudge through the mud. We knew we weren't going back out until an ebb tide so we set our alarm for about 4 hours of sleep and went to bed after eating some freeze-dried. We awoke to find the boat high and dry where the tide had deposited it after the high tide. Inflated the rollers and got into the water and played video-game sailing navigating out of Chokoloskee Pass by GPS, mostly under oars. 

 

- Screws landing on the deck are bad. My mast track has few rivets in high stress areas but is mostly held on by sheet metal screws installed by the original/owner builder. We were about 4-5 miles from Northwest Cape when a screw bounced off the deck and we realized the mizzen sail track was pulling out. Made it middle cape, pulled the mast and repaired it with some larger screws No further problems. 

 

- Conditions change. After fixing the mast, we got to Middle Cape and could not get around it due to the high winds and wicked tide ripping around the point. We tacked out a bit and came back pretty close to where we started. At that point we beached and figured we were probably not going to make it. We pitched tent where there were no saltwater croc tracks and slept 11 hours. The next morning realized we were mentally impaired after two days on the boat working hard and of course the conditions would change. The tide had changed, the wind was lighter. The boat was beached high above the water again and we inflated the rollers and did our third beach launch of the race. Sailed under full sail to East Cape, the double reefed for the bash to Flamingo directly upwind in 18-20 knots. Big washing machine off East Cape and a hard slog most of the way to Flamingo. 

 

The last night was the hardest sailing either us had ever done, and Zero is VERY experienced. Big winds, big gusts, nasty nasty nasty chop with big amplitude, short wavelength. Wet, very wet and we often could not bail at all because the crew had to be far to windward to keep the boat upright. I was thinking at the time that I'd be scared if I wasn't so busy. 

We were very happy with our boat and our result. We were the 10th boat overall in the EC out of ~100 entries, fourth Class 4 boat overall, and third in the double male class.  Looking forward to next year. Unfortunately ZeroTheHero isn't available next year or the year after as he's committed to doing the EC with his wife for 2017 and his son for 2018 and I'll need to find the a new team mate. 
 

Also, Alan's boat is stupid fast. The first night after leaving CP one, he snuck up on our transom to within about 15 feet before we noticed him. He sheeted out with his boom nearly over the bow while we chatted a few moments, easily keeping pace with us. When he sheeted in, he was off like a rocket and we never saw him again until we arrive to find him asleep on the Murphy bed at the finish line. 

[frowley]

Congratulations MisterMoon, on a job incredibly well done!!

[Wetfoot]

Great race report, John! Thanks for sharing it. My wife (she has a CS17) and I enjoyed rooting for you from the tepid comfort of our house.

 

Big winds, big gusts, nasty nasty nasty chop with big amplitude, short wavelength. Wet, very wet

Looking at the winds on the NOAA graphical forecast, that's pretty much what I was picturing. I thought, man, those guys are really going for it. They must be soaked!

 

 

Pete

[LennieG]

Congrats John (Mister Moon) and Graham. Nice meeting you in Ft Desoto.

glad you all made it safely to the end.

[alexscott]

I have updated the results for all classes in the EC and also the UF (no CP times posted for them). I hid the columns for average speed to the CP's to fit on the page. Everyone who finished in 5 days or less is included (I hope).

 

MisterMoon,

Congrats and I really enjoyed the things you learned. Hint Hint Graham

EC & UF 2016.pdf

[alexscott]

MisterMoon

 

Do you have Anderson Bailers?

[Chick Ludwig]

For us ignorant types. Who were the final top finishers and in what place did they finish per class and overall?

[Docpal]

Chick,

 Here's a link to the Water Tribe "results" page-  http://www.watertribe.com/Events/ChallengeResults.aspx

[alexscott]

Chick,

 

If you click on the attachment to my earlier msg, you should be able to see it. If not, here are the finishers in the first five days, their class, and the finish time in hours. I hope the columns line up kinda OK

 

Challenger                                Class                             Time
twobeers and Morsailesed           Class 4, Triple               36.77
tenzan and Pagan                       Hobie C, Double Male    51.58
SewSew                                       Class 5, Single Male    61.13
SwampMonkee and ChainSaw    Class 5, Double Male    63.15
SkinnyGenes and Skinnyjeans    Class 4, Double Male    65.65
halfbaked and Clacker                Class 4, Double Male    66.18
DancesWithMullet                       Class 5, Single Male    66.25
IronBob and TheJuice                 Class 2, Double Male    85.17
sos (UF)                                      Class 3, Single Male    89.10
LRock and CrazyRussian v         Class 5, Double Male    101.35
PrivateHam and ImOnABoat        Class 5, Double Male    90.38
mistermoon and zerothehero      Class 4, Double Male    93.25
MosquitoMagnet                          Class 1, Single Male    96.48
Kayakvagabond                          Class 1, Single Male    98.47
Jarhead    (UF)                             Class 4, Single Male    107.10
Coastie and ClamCounter           Hobie C, Double Male    101.48
beav                                            Class 2, Single Male    108.40
lugnut and HavanaMana              Class 4, Double Male    116.50
Roo                                               Class 4, Single Male    124.60
WindwardMark and LeewardLauren    Class 3, Double Mixed    126.82
Triman                                         Hobie T, Single Male    127.23
RockingBaby                              Class 6, Single Male    129.47
BustedRudder (UF)                    Class 1, Single Male    132.47
junglejim                                      Class 1, Single Male    132.68
spiritwalker                                  Class 2, Single Male    133.32

 

Not to be a wide ass, but the best way to handle computer stuff you don't understand is to ask a teenager.

[Wetfoot]

And in First Overall and first and only in Three on a Monohull, we have twobeers, moresalesed and Ninjee (the designer, O. H. Rodgers, who said "I didn't realize how much running aground we would be doing.") on the purpose-built adventure racer Spawn (white, with a safety-orange underbely) boiling the bays at at elapsed time of 1 day, 12 hours! !!!

 

A 22-foot long sloop, with a sliding rowing seat and a centerboard, Spawn's chockablock with upcycled parts: a used Melges-20 carbon-fiber mast, twin rudders from a Hobie 16, a narwhale-like bowsprit fabricated from a Captiva mast, Frankenscot's old shaped centerboard, a massive carbon-fiber boom constructed from an A-cat mast that met with an unfortunate accident, big wide hiking racks made of aluminum tubing, borrowed oars. -from the very well written and often funny blog http://www.amysmithlinton.com/blog/category/sailboat%20racing

 

For Florida waters the clever use of horizontal keels with crew as the bulbs seems to have worked a treat.

 

[MisterMoon]

MisterMoon

 

Do you have Anderson Bailers?

Yes and it doesn't work below about 6.5 knots. Self bailing is the way to go! I'll install an electric bilge pump before the next EC. 

Graham's boat is really nice. I'm sure he'll have a report of some of his thoughts when he gets home. Right now he's still sleeping in the boat on the beach in KL. 

 

[Dnjost]

I hope to join all of you, once I get up to speed and more comfortable with my boat.  Sorry to hear about the Anderson bailer, I had high hopes and have it in the box waiting to put it in.  Small electric pump would be nice, could drain right through the CB case.  

[Ken_Potts]

My Anderson bailer worked above 3.5 or 4 knots.  Mistermoon, is yours installed behind the centerboard?  If so, there might be turbulence interfering with the bailer.  Southbound's board is on one side and the bailer is on the other.

[Sandy Dancer]

Mister Moon,  I really enjoyed following you on your spot readings.  Thank you for posting how to follow you. I'm building my CS17 and ready to glue down the seat tops but I keep thinks of things I want to add. I have installed a cooler similar to the one Graham did on Carlita. I have put 2" pipe into the forward locker to be able to stow my oars.  I have installed oar locks forward as you suggested. I have run a conduit forward to be able to have a masthead light.  Now I'm thinking about a bilge pump location.  Do you have a suggestion?  Maybe opposite the Anderson baler?

[Tom Lathrop]

 

MisterMoon

 

Do you have Anderson Bailers?

Yes and it doesn't work below about 6.5 knots. Self bailing is the way to go! I'll install an electric bilge pump before the next EC. 

Graham's boat is really nice. I'm sure he'll have a report of some of his thoughts when he gets home. Right now he's still sleeping in the boat on the beach in KL. 

 

 

 

John,

 

Something is amiss with your Andersen bailer in some way.  I have used them on every dinghy from a Spindrift 10 to 18 footers for 50 years and they always work unless I have done something wrong.  They work going upwind in the Spindrift 10 when wind was high enough to need bailing so the speed could not be all that high.  On CS boats, I put them on the other side of the keelson from the CB.  On the Spindrift 10 it was behind the DB but it worked anyway.

 

Tom

[martywarner]

I was able to intercept Alan today.  We stood on the Hwy 520 bridge in Cocoa, FL when Alan sailed by at 1245 this afternoon on the Indian River.  He was going at quite a nice clip with a strong following breeze.