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| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
Time To Unload/Rig |
Time to Unrig/Load |
| Jun 20, 2002 |
Connestoga Lake |
SingleHand |
Clear - 27ºC - Winds 5-10 knots |
30 minutes |
30 minutes |
Yep - there's a flag at the end of the gaff |
What an absolutely gorgeous day for a sail. I spent a lot of time
fiddling with my loading/unloading rig at home before setting out and it made things much
easier when I arrived. The winch for unloading/loading the boat worked like a charm
- I never felt like I was straining myself.
Out on the water, conditions were ideal for my first sail of the season - a real
confidence builder. There was just a light chop - no cresting waves and the wind was
consistent at least in direction. The beautiful thing was there wasn't hardly anyone
else out probably because the water was still rather cold.
I sailed from the club-house to the Conservation Authority docks and around the lake a
bit. It took a while to beat my way back to the dock since the wind was dying, but I
was out on the water for about 2 hours. The wind was pretty steady and my wind
indicators worked well in letting me know what was up. Since there are no padded
bumpers at the Conservation Authority dock, I may just sail up to the beach next time I'm
there though, or make up some fenders. I didn't end up with any damage other than
some scuffed paint which I'm quite used to.
My new kick-up rudder worked well, but caught on the ground when I was backing up the
dolly so I'll need to remember to not put it on until I'm in the water. I added a
Canadian flag to the end of the gaff, but didn't notice until I was out on the water that
it wasn't flying well. The 4 wheeled dolly worked pretty well as well. I think
if I had to build it again though, I would certainly go for larger wheels somehow. |
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| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
| July 7, 2002 |
Connestoga Lake |
SingleHand |
Clear -30ºC - Winds variable to 10 knots |
|
Heading out
Photo above courtesy of the Wayfarer Association |
I didn't keep track of the load/unload times this time - it
seems to be pretty consistent at 1/2 hour.
Today was the "all arms" race on the lake which meant that there was lots of
company out there. I headed out at about 12:00 and spend about 4 1/2 hours cruising
around the lake. For much of the time there was pretty good wind with sections of no
wind at all. I even managed to do a couple of gybes without incident. I think
I'm almost ready for passengers. Unfortunately since I hadn't planned well, I
couldn't stay for the social time after the race. I didn't actually participate in
the race - I explained to people that I was to be considered a navigational hazard, but I
did try to round the marks. Many, but not all of the boats were faster than me,
especially a 505 that just zoomed right past. |
|
| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
| July 20, 2002 |
Connestoga Lake |
Trueman - Age 7 |
Partly Cloudy -29ºC - Winds non-existent - 0-1 knot |
This was my first try out with crew. Sadly, conditions
were against us. Firstly, the Ontario Summer Games were on at the lake so access was
an issue. I had been told that I could launch but I was very worried about
interfering with the competition. Also, there was practically NO wind.
Certainly not enough to achieve any kind of speed. If it hadn't been for the Games,
it would have been nice to drift about, but we ended up paddling around to make sure we
weren't near competitors.
Trueman did a splendid job as crew and enjoyed a swim at the club afterwards, but I think
he was disappointed as well since I had warned him that the ride could be rather like a
roller-coaster.
We ended up staying out on the water for about 1/2 hour, but it was a disappointing sail.
In hind sight, perhaps we should have brought the pirogue or gone elsewhere. |
|
| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
| Aug 2,3, 2002 |
BYYB North-East Regatta
Wescott Beach State Part, New York |
None |
Sunny, high 20's - Winds moderate - 5-10 knots |
What a great trip. Too bad I had to camp. The
boat transported well down to New York State and performed well on Lake Ontario.
There's lots of pictures on my North East Regatta Page |
| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
| Aug 9 2002 |
Owen Sound Bay |
None |
Sunny, high 27 - Winds S-W moderate - 5-10 knots |
Fridays are made for "playing hooky". I made
arrangements with Robert Warrilow to head up to Owen Sound and he would take his
wind-surfer out and I'd bring the MiniCup. We launched off of the beach behind the
Best Western Inn and the Bayshore Arena. We had a good broad reach sail out to
the top of the bay where we met up with some relatives of Robert's for a quick visit. It
took about 2 hours to get out there. To get back to the launch area, we were on a
beam reach for most of the way and made quite good time getting back in just under 1 hour.
The sun was shining, the water was warm, there wasn't a lot of other boat traffic -
who could ask for anything better.
I did have a couple of quite hard groundings on the the rocks in the bay. The
daggerboard bore the brunt of the damage, but should still be fine for at least the rest
of this season.
And if my auditor is reading this, yes, Robert and I did talk business for some of the
time <grin>. |
|
| Date |
Location |
Crew |
Weather |
| Aug 25 2002 |
Connestoga Lake |
Trueman |
Sunny, high 24 - Winds S-W light 0 - 5 knots |
Finally, a good day to go sailing with my son Trueman.
We took both the MiniCup and the One Sheet Skiff down to Connestoga lake and had a fine
time sailing around. The winds were fairly light and we were frequently becalmed,
but neither Trueman or I were too bothered by any of that. We sailed from the
sailing club to the beach at the Conservation Area where we installed the wind
indicator. It's amazing how much I've grown to rely on that little piece of
hardware. It took us about 1/2 hour to sail that short distance, but with variable,
shifting winds out of the west, it took us about 2 hours or more to sail back up to the
dock. We put the MiniCup in then to allow Trueman to have some fun in the skiff
while I packed up.
The water is almost gone from Connestoga Lake so this might be my last sail there this
season. |
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