There we go, she’s ready to get wet again! (us too, apparently)
And everyone got a sip of mousseux for the occasion Thanks Roger!

Here is Salsa Verde with all her coats… a grey bottom, a red-brown botto and a black bottom!

Third week-end at the boat, Ted did his magic and reinstalled the cutlass bearing (with 3 set screws!) and the prop.

I also volunteered him to drill a 3 inch hole in the deck!!! (Too hard for me…) But here’s now a nice solar vent that will pull some moisture and hot air out of the boat year round

JC worked on peeling the varnish off the toe rail

While I went around the hull for a second time to fill in the little blister holes with epoxy.

Hey! We’re ready to paint!!!!

Here is an update on Salsa Verde’s hull:
- The bottom is on the gelcoat, thanks to Bottom Dave’s great work!
- The Awlgrip is shining, thanks to Ted’s Poli Glow contribution!

Here are some photos of the haul out and beginning of the work…

First race of the 2009 Women Series. Small turnout, we were only 4 boats, 2 non-spin and 2 cruisers. It was a duo between me and Rosanne on Liberty Call (C&C 30) in the non-spin class. It was fun because she’s the only competition I care about this year! We were only 4 on board (Nicole, Andrea and Deva from Skimmer) ok for non-spin. The course was 10.2 nm (start – 7S – 3P – 9P – 7S – finish), with a SW wind between ZERO and 15 kt…

We did an awesome start, first boat on the line for once! Then we called a tight ”STARBOARD” to Liberty call on the way to 7, but she rounded the mark before us. I passed her upwind and gained major distance on her on my way north. The winds were west and light, but they DIED on me on the east side of the river just passed marker 5. She stayed more west and kept just enough wind to catch-up and pass me like I was not even there. I was so mad… damn wind! When the wind ressucitated it was too late, she was GONE! Then the wind picked up pretty good for the last part of the race and everyone’s effort made us gain distance on Liberty Call, but not enough. I owe her so much time (155 vs 180), I was cooked as soon as she passed me.

This series is going to be really interresting, thanks to Charlie for letting Liberty Call compete

The tide was so low that morning that the bottom of the river was uncovered near the marina. The mud was trying to dry in the early sun. The dock was empty. I knew a few people who were going to do this race, I guess it was too early. I dressed up as if I was going skiing, and started preparing the boat. Installed my proudly home made lazy jacks and started to unroll the main sail into them. Wow, I was sweating after 2 minutes… So I removed some layers, I was not really going to ski anyway! This main is heavy, let me tell you that. Then I removed the intruments cover, the tiller cover and started the engine, with my other hands’ fingers crossed! It worked!!! Yoohoo!!!

At 8am, I was leaving the dock. Stuck in the mud because of the particularly low tide, it was not as pretty as usual. I managed to back up the wrong way (that prop pitch just wins over the rudder when mud is involved…) and u-turn around. That was the start of the adventure.

Winds were 10 to 15 kt out of the north turning to north east during the day. I thought hard about raising the sails to get some practice on the way to the rudder club. But motoring out there in an icesicle position, I had to remove my sailing gloves because the tip of my index and my thumb were frozen. When I put on the big mittains, the sailing option had frozen too. I kept looking back to see if anyone was following… no. The only other boat I saw was Ted, coming from the Navy Jax marina. We arrived at the rudder club at the same time. We were the first ones. Docking by myself at the rudder club was worrying me a little bit, but it went fine. As long as you line up that board against the mean pilling, nothing gets a scratch. Fiew!

Bill, who was in charge of the race, eventually arrived. The other boats too. We were 14 people registered. 3 of which were flying scotts and 1 lazer. At the skipper’s meeting, Bill announced that this was only the second time that a woman participated in the 18 years that this race has happened. The course was announced to be Start (E) – G5 – G7 – G9 – finish (E), all to starboard (approx. 8 miles). So everyone hurried to their boats, and here we went.

I motored off and raised my mainsail. Without a mast person, it takes some time and effort! I was able to raise it by hand until the last 2-3 feet, I had to winch the rest. Then the #3 jib, this one was much easier. I was so happy that the winds were strong enough for me to justify using the #3 that day! The #1 is so much harder to tack…

I made a few tacks around the start line area to get comfortable. I was surprised how easy it was to tack that jib. I had learned a trick at the Christmas party the night before the race. Dave Whites told me an easy way to figure out which end of the starting line is favored. You sail on the line and trim your main perfectly, then you turn around and sail on the line the other way around without adjusting your mainsail. If it is undertrimmed (luffing), the end in front of you is favored, if it is overtrimmed (too full), the end behind you is favored. Magic trick, I quickly figured out that the port end (the pin) was favored. Dave had also told me how the port starts are sometimes beneficial. I told him that I was not going to do it on that race because I did not think I would be quick enough at tacking in front of the crowd. Well, I did it anyway, just because there was too much traffic on the other end of the line. And it worked!!! I was the first boat on the line (almost over early, I had to fall off for a few seconds!) and I blew by everybody. I was ahead of the fleet for the first ¼ of the race. Then Whisper caught up with me because I went too close to the middle of the river where stronger currents were against me. I realized it while looking at a crabtrap… I hate them usually, but that day it was helpful! While we were heading towards G5, I was happy that Whisper was ahead, because I was not sure where the mark was. I had a GPS, but it was a little too far inside the boat. Whisper is faster than me on a closehaul. He was going away slowly, but he had his #1 genoa up. So when a good gust came along, he did not reach the main sheet quick enough, he rounded completely! His genoa popped the wrong way around, he was not able to come back. He had to let it go, tack and bring it back around. I’m sure he was not happy, this sail takes a long time to winch! I know because by the time he did all that, I had gotten closer and closer to him! I could almost see him sweat!!! Ok, not that much… but was I happy with my #3? Oh yeah!!! We tacked around G5 and headed to G7, then G9. This leg was a beam – broad reach. Sometimes I think I was gaining on him, sometimes not… It was tight. But the last leg, from G9 to the finish, was a running leg. That’s where he was happy with his #1… And I was not too fast with my #3… So I he gained enough on me to win… by 2 minutes 44 seconds. Not bad for my first single hand race! (Whisper is a C&C 38, with a handicap of 114, Salsa Verde’s handicap is 135. So he owed me 21 seconds per mile…) clic to see results.

Whisper and I sailed back to Julington Creek together on a broad reach under the nice warmer afternoon sun. It would have been fun to wait for the results at the Rudder Club, but the rest of the fleet was so far behind I would probably have had to come back after sunset! And I don’t mind docking by myself, but it’s safer in daylight Plus, why put the sails down, and up, and down again… too much work…

This day was a memorable one for me and for all the little muscles that I feel now and did not even know existed! Thanks mother nature for such perfect sailing conditions. The cold morning just made it a better adventure!
Watch for me next year… I’ll be prepared!

Magalie

VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part 1 : Preparation

Part 2 : Racing

Hello!

Nate has been sketching a lot of different logos for our future shirts… We brainstormed about it last Friday and he did some modifications while he was trying to teach me all I have to know about photoshop! Well, the first thing I learned is that this is a complicated software… Anyway, I’m really thankful for his great work and time. So here’s the latest logo drawing that he did. We are planning on redoing the wave pattern, to make it a little more splashing, but we want to keep it simple. Please let us know what you think!

So I just received my PHRF certificate in the mail yesterday… To my surprise, I got a rating of 135!!! I was expecting 141, like any other J/30 around here. But no… -3 for a SPL of 12.5 and -3 for a 163% genoa. It’s class legal, but it cost a lot in PHRF apparently!
So guys, we’ll just have to work harder!!!
Bring it on

Hi guys,
I did not advertise the site publicly yet cause it’s not quite ready… and I’m still debating on which template I should use! There’s one called “this just in 2.2″ (white background) and there’s also “girl 3.1″ (black background). The main difference is that the last one only allows for one header picture, whereas the first one allows a different header for HOME, PAGES, CATEGORIES, and COMMENTS.
All curent headers are just pictures I threw out there, each is customable of course.

Please give me your feedbacks!

I’ll leave the white one on for 2 days, then I’ll upload the black one.

Thanks for your help!
Mag

PS: here’s a screen shot of the black template and the white one