Zoe gets a new Tack Shackle!

After months of worrying about dropping the little shackle bits, I
finally went to the marine store. Thanks to Edward for lending me a
temporary shackle and to Dave and Adam for not losing it!

The new one should do Zoe for many years to come.

First Afterwork Sail of 2009

After three weeks of snow and two weeks of fog the sun finally
returned to Vancouver. About an hour later, Dave sent me a text
message asking if I would like to skip work and go sailing. Several
messages and a couple of hours later, sun deprived Adam, Dave and
Denise joined me for our first outing on the bay (after work) for
2009. We had a great time even though the wind has not yet returned!
Thanks for the prompting Dave!

Same guys, different boat

This morning Dave and I joined Trevor on his Express 37 for an adventure on the bay. Unfortunately there was tons of fog and no wind. After a couple of hours of bobbing around, we headed for home and spent an eventful hour avoiding a freighter as we all tried squeezing under the First Narrows Bridge at the same time.

Quack Quack it's Dave in the rain!

Dave takes Zoe out into the rain while skipper Rick imparts his vast knowledge onto the new crew, while staying dry.

Zoe takes the first RVYC Hot Rum of 2009

Dave, along with his two friends Jeff and Chris, joined me on Zoe for the first Hot Rum race of spring. With 10 to 12 knots of breeze and two guys that had little to no sailing experience (but lots of enthusiasm)I chose not to fly the spinnaker on the downwind start. This put Zoe into last place as we reached along watching the rest of the fleet struggle with their kites. Soon after the start I realized we couldn't just "sit" there so with a grin on his face, Dave happily agreed to launch the spinnaker. Coming from behind, Zoe managed to slowly reel in the other Thunderbird and the lone Dragon in our fleet, as well as narrow the margin between boats in the two divisions ahead of us. With sailing school in full session, the fearless crew of Zoe managed to not only fly the spinnaker with control, but douse it with out damage and in a timely manner. On the final beat to the finish line, Zoe tacked away from the stern of the other Thunderbird as we headed to the beach. The other Thunderbird tacked to cover and we headed off towards a freighter. One more tack (forced by the freighter)put us on port tack and a collision course with our competitor, the other Thunderbird. As we prepared to duck, the other Thunderbird tacked under Zoe's bow. Zoe powered over top of the competition and stretched her legs on the final beat to the finish line. After an hour and a half of close racing, Zoe managed to come out just three seconds ahead of the Dragon and a minute and change ahead of the other Thunderbird.

I'd like to thank Dave, Chris and Jeff for an awesome day. Considering that these two guys had never been sailboat racing, I think they managed themselves very well and it was a pleasure to sail with them.

For full results of this event see Hot Rum Race Three Results

Weather:
Wind Direction: NNE
Wind Speed: 10kts
Cloudy with intense rain all day and occasional snow flurries.

*** Please note, this blog and its postings, are meant primarily for the entertainment and benefit of Zoe, her crew and her skipper. Others that may read these pages should do so with a sense of humor and the understanding that Zoe is a fun boat with a bunch of people that mean no harm to anyone. We fully support fair play, honesty and good sportsmanship. We do not tolerate Whiners. We do however encourage everyone to be winners.

Sure why not!

Famous last words, as my father would say, Famous last words! And so I agreed to go sailing with my friend Trevor on his new Express 37, just the two of us, for a VRC Polar Bear race. The winds appeared light at the start, but the forecast called for 30+ knots in the bay by the end of the day. Off we go with the #1 up and yours truly driving on a downwind start as Trevor runs around hoisting the spinnaker. Twice around the bay had us changing head sails down to a #3 and contemplating NOT flying the spinnaker again. But with competition closing in, up went the spinnaker again for a bloody great ride down the bay at an easy 7 or 8 kts. After dropping the sails to head home, the real wind of the day showed up and in a matter of an hour it was snowing with winds gusting into the mid 30's. A great ride on a great boat. Looking forward to more of that kind of fun.