PlusSixteen

Race Summary

2008-08-07T09:34:51Z

Aloha!

We are back on shore having place 2nd in Double-Handed Division I!

The race began in light conditions once we were outside the Golden Gate. It took nearly half a day to reach the Farrallones Islands.

The wind picked up after that with a windy close reach for a day or so, Then it became calm again so we headed south to get back into the wind. This maneuver allowed us to move ahead of Rubicon III.

We then entered the trade winds, they were the strongest I have experienced of the three races I have been in--especially the squalls which came one after another at night with high wind gusts up to 35 knots. Two especially nasty squalls rolled the boat on its beam ends, once when Tony was at the helm and once when I was steering. In both cases we had to let the spinnaker run free to right the boat, The roll down when I was at the helm caused enough water to wash over me that my automatic life jacket inflated.

Our aggressive sailing eventually lengthens our lead to 74 miles over Rubicon III. We finished the race at 10:44 HST. We now begin the party phase.

The crew, though exhausted is in good spirits but not ready to take on this adventure on anytime soon. We attended the parties at the club. Plus Sixteen served us well; due to the high winds we blew out two spinnakers of the 5 on board.

Mahalo for your thoughts and good wishes.

For pictures and more information see:
http://pacificcup.org/08/arrivals/pc08-arrival.php?yacht_id=42

Better Late than Never

2008-08-06T19:46:22Z

OK, I'll admit it.....The idea of blogging our adventures from the middle of the ocean while racing a double-handed 30' boat was a smidgen on the optimistic side.

The bad news is obvious, we didn't keep the blog current as the pressures of things like sleep were bearing down on us.

The good news is we placed second in the DH-1 Division of the 2008 Pacific Cup!

Even better news is, I'll be updating the blog with all the information from our trip to provide you with as much of the adventure as can.

Thanks for your patience and now that we're home, I'll be able to manage the updates and share the race logs, pictures, comments, etc.

Cheers!

2nd day at sea

2008-07-15T16:14:30Z

Light winds persisted all night. We raced the Contessa for most of the
night, trading positions. She disappeared to the south at dawn. The long
awaited north wind just arrived, light but from the right direction. We
won't have to beat anymore.

The weather last night was cold, foggy and overcast. We wore layers of
thermals, foul weather gear and gloves. We could only see a few meters
ahead.

Our morning position put us the north of our competitors. We are hoping we
get the north wind before they do. Based on morning positions, our
competition is Rubicon III and Raindrop.

All is well. We are rested, well fed, and not seasick.

Day 1

2008-07-14T20:45:23Z

Our = first day at sea! We got off the dock at about 11:30. There were several people there to see us off. = Thank you all.

Our start was perfect, we got off = seconds after the bang. We sailed out with a number 3 jib because the winds were heavier than predicted. The wind was out of the west, right on our nose = so we’ve spent the day tacking back and forth. By about 1500 the wind lightened up enough that we switched to a number 3 jib. We pulled of an excellent peel with the big sail under the littler one. Not one wasted = second. We need every second as we have a competitive bunch.

We’ve seen several whales = today and there are a couple of other boats still in eyesight, including the = Contessa, the only boat that beat us last year.

Right now the wind is so light were = only making about 3-4 knots and can see the Farallone<= /font> Islands still. Our current position is N 37.34 W122.58 Or you = can visit http://www.pacificcup.org and follow the links to race tracking and find out that = way.

Our food was very enjoyable, I feel = like it was a good call, so easy to prepare. We ate after listen to childrens = hour on the radio. Nothing notable but still fun to feel connected to the = fleet.

Dusk is coming so were getting = ready for the evening. Paul will stand watch 8 to midnight, I’ll stand = midnight to = 3am and we’ll = rotate on that.

Cheers!!

2 hours to go!

2008-07-14T10:58:14Z

We're down to the wire!

We've been on the dock at StFrancis Yacht Club for two days now. I slept two nights ago on a mattress that was way too thin. The spare tiller handle and the spare udder dug into my back prompting me to emphatically call for another layer of mattress. Last nights sleep was much better with the extra pad.

Other boats have started ariving and are looking ready to go. We ate a light breakfast this morning in anticipation of possible seasickness but it still looking very calm with 6-8 knot winds outside the Golden gate.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours with Richmond Yacht Clubs Team109. Team109 consists of Green Buffalo, Gavilan, and us Plus-Sixteen. The weather discussion really helped to reenforce our conclusions for route planning. We now have our route set and unless something really significant comes up that's what were sticking to. I have the waypoints and route all tranfered into the gps and got the gps set up the way we want to use it.

Check out the pacific cup website at http://pacificcup.org to find the tracking for the race. The whole fleet has transponders on the transoms. The more hits the site gets the better sponsorship we can continue to get for the race. So check it out.

We're getting into our gear as I write this, but have to go pee once again.....nerves. That all goes away when the starting gun goes off

Wish us well!

Cheers!!!

Tony

uncertainty

2008-07-12T15:20:32Z

Hello All,

Well, we've made it to the skippers meeting at the SanFrancisco Yacht Club. The boat looks and feels ready.

The weather is looking iffy for the first day out, but appears to be forming into a "normal year" by tuesday or wednesday. Hopefully we'll get some good info at this meeting that will help us finalize our plan ..... will post more later, standby.

Micro-Monitor

2008-07-03T14:09:46Z

11 Days, The countdown has started!

I realized how fast the start date is coming when I started looking this morning at my list of things to get done around the house before we leave. I'll fly down to the boat from Portland on Tuesday the 8th and help finish any minor projects we need to get done.

Most importantly we'll be doing our last-minute strategic planning. This means I've started watching the weather very closely.

Right now, its looking pretty unpredictable so we'll be micro-monitoring things pretty closely as we get closer so we can finalize our route.

If the 96 hour proves to be accurate we'll start to see a more "normal" settling of the Pacific High. Only time will tell.

Cheers!

Tony

Revised Starting Assignments

2008-06-29T07:52:51Z

The race committee has shifted things around a bit. We are still starting at 1250 on 14 July but with some new competitors. The Moore 24's have moved to DH Division 2 and Giant Slayer is with us again. She was with us in 2006. Rubicon III is very similar to Plus Sixteen in rating and size. We may see a lot of her on the Ocean

Boat Name	Type	Entrant	Div	LWL	Base	DISP	PHRF	PCR	Allow DA:	HH:MM:SS
Division DH 1 Mon, Jul 14 12:50
Neptune's Daughter	Crealock 34	Ed & Earlinda Polkenhorn	DH 1	26.21	PHRF	13200	195	666	15	22:57:00
Rubicon III	Contessa 33	Rod Percival	DH 1	25.5	PHRF	8289	138	640	15	8:00:00
Plus Sixteen	Olson 911	Paul Disario	DH 1	25	PHRF	8500	129	637	15	6:16:30
Raindrop	Cascade 36	Joby Easton	DH 1	29	PHRF	13000	132	624	14	22:48:00
Dart	Peterson 34	John Crutcher	DH 1	28.3	PHRF	10800	120	624	14	22:48:00
Giant Slayer	Santa Cruz 27	David Garman - Debra Lowell	DH 1	24	PHRF	3300	138	624	14	22:48:00

Division and Start

2008-06-20T22:04:43Z

Well, its official now. We start on July 14th just as we thought.

Our start time is 12:50 and we'll be the first group to lead nearly a week of starts.

We've ended up in the DH1 Division and looking forward to some friendly rivalry,....
....maybe a beer or two for the winners

Now that we have the official start date, I'm realizing how close we are and how much I have to get done on the home-front in the next couple of weeks. A day or two at sea and none of that will matter anyway

I'll have the beautiful island of Oahu to look forward too!!

Cheers!

Tony
Team Plus-Sixteen, Navigator

Richmond Yacht Club Team 109

2008-06-17T20:39:43Z

Gavilan, Green Buffalo and Plus Sixteen have joined together to form RYC Team 109.

Gavilan, a Wylie 39 is on her first Pacific Cup. Skipper Brian Lewis was crew on the 1992 Pacific Cup. Gavilan’s crew is Bruce Nesbit and Marlene Benke. Bruce is a Pacific Cup veteran. This is Marlene’s first long ocean race.

Green Buffalo is a Cal 40. She finished 3^rd in Division A in the 2006 Pacific Cup. She is owned by Jim Quanci, a veteran of many Pacific Cup races. Mary Lovely is skipper, Jim is navigator. Crew Members are Andrew Quanci, Stephen Quanci, Robert Nance and John Dillow, all Pacific Cup veterans.

Plus Sixteen, an Olson 911 is about to begin her second Pacific Cup. She finished 2^nd in the Double Handed Division in 2006 Pacific Cup. Paul Disario is skipper and Tony Porche is navigator. Tony and Paul were together on Plus Sixteen in 2006.

109 in RYC Team109 is the sum of the boats’ Lengths Overall.

GO RYC TEAM 109!

Post From Iridium Satellite Phone

2008-06-13T07:35:09Z

Hello All!

This is Plus-Sixteen's first Blog entry via the Iridium satellite phone.

Paul sent me an email saying the spinnaker pole end is now working properly.
After our spinnaker practice on the bay last weekend we noticed that the pin
was sticking on one end. Paul called Forespar to order a new one and they
said to soak it in white vinegar to see if it would loosen it up first. Sure
enough it did and seems to be working now.

Tony has been busy getting the communications worked out for using the sat
phone to post our logs here while we're at sea. We hope to be able to post
regularly this way while underway..we'll see J

The SSB Radio is installed and seems to be working perfectly. The Fugawi
software is pretty cool, but makes the windows laptop run slooooow! We'll
carry the Mac with MacENC for a back up to the PC .. Well OK I'll probably
just use the Mac anyway since I've managed to get it to work with the
Iridium also.

Paul and Kathy will be showing off Plus-Sixteen at the RYC this Saturday at
the party so stop by and take a look. We have only very minor tasks left
before declaring ourselves ready to go! Me, I'll be stuck in Portland OR.
Cross your fingers I get to see some sunshine before leaving for Hawaii.
It's been pretty rainy up here.

We've also been talking to folks about putting together another RYC team for
the race and hope to make an announcement within the next week.

Cheers!

Tony
Team Plus-Sixteen, Navigator

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well preserved body, But rather to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming --WOW!-- What a
Ride!"

Spinnaker Practice on the Bay

2008-06-10T16:41:45Z

Tony and I got together for the Drakes Bay Race. We decided to cancel that plan when the ocean wind topped 40 knots. We felt the practice would be limited to storm conditions. We decided to practice spinnaker jibing. We found that we could fly our asymmetric spinnaker speeding at 9 knots nearly down wind with no pole. This made jibing very easy. Of course it was blowing 15-20. We hope this technique will help us jibe in front of squalls on the way to Hawaii.

We finished up minor final projects such as radio installation, radar reflector, etc. We are ready and excited.

Kathy and I are showing off the Plus Sixteen at Richmond Yacht Club on this Saturday from 1400 to 1600. The club is hosting a party for the 14 Pacific Cup entrant from RYC.

Pacific Cup start is 14 July.

Slideshow 3rd try

2008-05-22T18:12:49Z

Plus Sixteen Yard Work Finished

2008-05-04T14:16:53Z

The yard (KKMI) installed new batteries, painted the bottom and inspected the rudder. All is well and Plus Sixteen is back at RYC.

Paul has nearly completed installing new propane cook stove. It will be a pleasure to have a new stove for the trip. The old alcohol stove was hard to use and produced less heat than propane.

Tony and Paul are planning to take as much gear off the boat as possible for the race. This is to reduce weight and clutter.

Our next race is Drakes Bay, a 30 mile slog north from the gate to the south side of Pt. Reyes. After anchoring for the evening, we race home with spinnaker set.

2008 Pacific Cup Inspection and Final Prep Race

2008-04-28T17:44:24Z

Bob Gray, our Pacific Cup Inspector, inspected Plus Sixteen last Friday. He found only a few items for correction:

We had outdated tethers. They are now replaced with new ones.

Our anchor chain was too short. We bought more.

He will re-inspect our SSB radio installation

We were pleased that our preparation was successful.

Our final Prep Race will be the Drakes Bay Race. It is an ocean race featuring a beat from San Francisco Bay to Drakes Bay on Saturday June 7, overnight in Drakes Bay and a spinnaker run home on Sunday June 8.

After Drakes Bay is the Bon Voyage party at the San Francisco Yacht Club (http://www.sfyc.org/) on July 12.

We leave on July 14 for Kaneohe Hawaii.

Plus Sixteen is presently in the yard for bottom painting and final review of all systems. We checked and she fits on her trailer so we ship her back after the race.

The Skipper and Crew of Plus Sixteen are getting excited to be at sea.

The 1996 Pacific Cup

2008-04-27T09:37:38Z

Paul sailed as navigator in the 1996 Pacific Cup on Lobo, skippered by the late Julio Magri. We finished 4th in our double handed division. Julio was a native of Chile. His nephew Francisco and his sister Flora traveled from Chile to met us in Hawaii to sail the boat to the mainland with Julio while I flew home. Julio died in December 1996. Flora and Francisco returned to Chile. Last week Francisco called me from Connecticut where he is studying. He plans to meet us in Hawaii for the finish of the the 2008 Pacific Cup, if his studies permit. I would like very much to see him and hope he will be in Hawaii in late July.

Double-Handed Farallones Results

2008-03-31T11:10:32Z

Well not the best race we've run, but given the conditions and the size of
some of the boats in our division we did OK. The best part is we didn't
break anything in sustained winds of 27-28 knots and gusts well over 30+
knots. We now know how easily we can reef the main from the cockpit
when needed ... Thanks Kathy!

More about the race to come so stand by .....

Technical Difficulties

2008-03-27T10:00:50Z

Hello All,

It seems our hosting service for the blog made some server-side changes that messed up our ability to post remotely for the last couple of weeks. Its taken several days of convincing the tech monkeys to fix the problem rather than just tell me "it doesn't work". While it seems beyond their ability to resolve the issue back to where we were, I've come up with a workable solution and hope to get Paul's ability to post back soon.

So ... stand by and keep an eye on the blog as we get closer to the Pac Cup there will be a lot of new postings.

And of course we're excited to have you watch our progress while we're underway as we cross the Pacific Ocean. Everything is set up to allow us to post via satellite phone during the race. We'll be testing it late april or early may to make sure its all working.

You'll be able to follow along to get sense of what crosses our minds as we face the challenge of double-handed sailing a race to Hawaii from San Francisco on a 30' sailboat!

Cheers!

Double-Handed Farallones

2008-03-26T19:42:03Z

Our next race is the Double Handed Farallones, March 29. 58 nautical miles
round trip. The Islands, 26 miles due west of the Golden Gate, are
inhabited only by a ranger. The Islands are a sanctuary for birds, seals
and sharks. In the past egg gatherers took thousands of eggs from the
island for the San Francisco market. Later a light house was erected. The
Islands are rocky, windswept and desolate. Often the springs wind are very
strong. We have sailed there uneventfully twice before. If the winds are
fairly brisk, we should do well in the race. See http://www.sfbama.org/ for
race details.

Three Bridge Fiasco Race

2008-01-29T21:45:29Z

We were the first Olson 911 to finish and 5th in the San Francisco Bay 30 fleet.
The race was a typical "fiasco." The race course is start at St. Francis YC, round Treasure Island, round, round Red Rock (under the San Rafael Bridge), to Blackhaller Bouy (near the gold gate Bridge and back to St. Francis in any order one wishes.

Our race plan was to round TI first, then to Red Rock, Blackhaller and then finish. A flood tide at the start of the race favored our plan. We hoped that the ebb tide would begin when we rounded Red Rock. We started in a 15 knot southerly, rounded TI and set the chute and flew up to Red Rock on a following breeze and the flood tide.

The wind died at Red rock then came up to 4-5 knots. We labored at speeds of 2-3 knots closed hauled with a few tacks on course to Racoon Straight (between and Angel Island and the Tiburon Peninisula). We reached the Straight only to become becalmed, but the ebb favored us. We could see the boats behind setting spinnakers on a new fresh northerly. Teh norhterly blessed us and we set a spinnaker again and slipped by our rival Olson 911, Jane Doe. It was then on to Blackhaller where we jibbed too late and had trouble raising the jib for teh closre reach to the finish. Tangled halyards caused the jib smozzle. Nevetheless we stayed ahead of Jane Doe and finished well. WE were elated at our successful day. Our next race is the Double Handed Farallones, Spinnaker Cup to Monterey then the Pacific Cup to Hawaii.