Monday, December 22, 2014

Saturday Sail 20th December 2014

With our regular Saturday sailing, boat had been cleaned up following the recent Summer Regatta with her spic and span again. At the regatta we noted some wear on our mainsail.. We had to retire from that race... (which cost us a podium as there were insufficient races to allow for a discard). We repaired the damage ourselves and the sail was fime for the rest of the regatta...

But to put the sail into proper context... the sail is a membrane sail, with internal taffeta on the one side and film on the other.. it is three years old.. well over 10 000nm on it.. putting that into perspective that can be 10-15years of normal club usage.. the sail is still going strong but the usage is starting to show.. the amazing detail is that the shape is virtually unchanged...

So, before sailing, we decided to go through the sail patching here and there.. to give the sail some extra life... However we will start to look at options of replacing this sail.

Once finished with the sail... we went out for a sail... conditions were ideal with a SW on the bay, a nice flat seaway... with winds between 16-21knots... Yolo broad reached to the Western Side of Robben Island and back. Boat was reveling in those conditions...

It was good to have Yolo out for a social sail.. where everyone gets a chance at everything.

Boat performed well. Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Evan, and guest Antoinio.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

SUMMER REGATTA-16 December 2014-Day 3

We needed a discard to bring us back into the game as we retired from the previous race with sail damage. So two races were needed for the day to make this happen.
Good SE blowing, gusting just over 30 in the start area. Good start with Yolo hanging in there.. and able to blow off a main competitor. First mark being Harken, round the mark, gybe and hoist of the kite and a nice blast downwind. Boat handled well. We could see the transition zones ahead.. no way around it.. just stalling the inevitable... so we transitioned on the lay line.. and caught a early SW. We managed to keep the boat going and stayed within range. The breeze had died near the mark itself.. holding the big boats back and with us, coming in with new breeze, we managed to keep moving all the time and rounded the mark and started to make for the SE again, but we still had to transition. We kited, then J2'd and then as we got close to the SE did a change to the J4. With hanks it takes longer and it a bare head maneuver.. so it lost us some time, but the right sail choice. Once in the SE.. the winds were between 23-25 knots for most of the beat, hotting upto early 30's towards the finish line.
We rounded two more marks before the finish..
We came second in our class in this race. Giving us good results for the past two races... Unfortunately no second race for the day.. and therefore no chance of a discard to us, keeping us off the podium. Boat performed well. Great to have races in strong breeze again.
Aboard were: dale, Ian, Mark, Ross, Shane, Daphne, Mornay, Catherine.

Pic.. of the boat at the V&A with the crew relaxing before racing.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Summer Regatta 14 December 2014- Day 2

This was the Medium distance race. One could see a SE trying to hold on.. but it was not going very deep in the bay..  A reasonable start.. and a quick kite hoist to transit the light areas to the SE.. Which Yolo entered reasonably...Around the weather mark where around 20 knots was blowing, and a good kite hoist and a fast kite leg to the area where we chose to transition.. We did not want to break too far from our main competition as we were expecting a Westerly. Successfully transitioning and then into the Westerly.. giving good sailing conditions to the rounding mark.. We again had to transition a few times more in the race, but the transition was a lot quicker as the winds had settled down. The crew kept working the boat quite hard.. with us hanging in with the bigger boats for a percentage of the race.. Eventually having us win our class.
Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Mark, Shane, Ross, Daphne, Catherine, Mornay.

SUMMER REGATTA 13th Dec DAY 1

Race 1:
First race was in a SW conditions.. Wind was light, not exactly YOLO's conditions. Unfortunately we were shut out by a weather boat at the start line who did not give way as they should.. causing us to stall. Unfortunately our protest flag was down below having forgotten to have in position. It took some time to get going after the slow start.. but we managed to chose the right end of the course and stayed in range of the bigger boats.. followed by a good downwind leg.. keeping us in range. The next weather leg had the start of a wind shift.. with us probably being not so optimally positioned which meant that the fleet that were ahead was able to make distance. Then on the downwind the breeze started to soften.. so those ahead held it longer or were on a beat making better apparent out of a light breeze. This gave us a bad leg.. In the end we had a poor result of a 6th Place.

Race: 2:\
There was a race in a SW which started, but soon after the start the winds started to die.. in the interim were were catching up nicely with the fleet.. The race was abandoned... and a new course was set for the "now building SE"

We could see it was going to be strong breeze... We put up the correct jib in readiness.. the crew were looking forward to a good breezy race. Breeze was in the upper 20's... Yolo managed a good start.. and was hanging in where we wanted to be... when we look up and saw a little tear in the mainsail.. near the batten.. We decided that the mainsail would be damaged further if we continued.. so we had no choice but to retire from the race. This giving us a RTD on the scorecard.  We repaired the mainsail ourselves with Kevlar sticky back.

Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Daphne, Shane, Mornay, Catherine, Ross.

Pic: Courtesy of Trevor Wilkins

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Rudder Calibrations

HAving done rudder calibrations in the water... it is very difficult to measure up accurately, so this time it was decided to remove the boat from the water and do the job with the boat hanging in the slings.

A great experience. On arriving at the hard early to check if they were still on time, they advised that they were ahead of time and we could bring the boat to the crane. This we did. On arrival, club staff were waiting to sling and hoist her..

After lifting her, we immediately got to work, measured up rudders, made some adjustments, locked it off.. We then put the boat back in the water.

From water to water, it was less then 30 minutes.. Well done to the club staff who made it a great experience.

We will now see how the calibrations fare in the upcoming Summer regatta this weekend.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

DOUBLE HANDED RACE -Sat 6th December 2014

With a nice SE breeze building on the bay, typical summer conditions with a freshening SE. Yolo got a good start and was able to hang onto the big boats to the weather mark.. On the bear away immediately hoisted the kite and sailed through the larger boats quite quickly as they had not yet decided on using the kite.. We kept on opening our gap between us and the fleet making good speeds downwind.. The highest gusts on the downwind was in the early thirties. Some of the boats behind us tried using their kites, to varying degrees of success.. or broaches. Yolo made the Leeward mark struck kite and began the beat to weather, well ahead of the larger boats. The larger boats were quite a bit faster on the beat but only managed to pass Yolo just before the weather mark.. then two short legs to the finish. Yolo won this race. After the race, Yolo took a sail across the sail and back as it was still quite early. Hopefully we will get longer races in the future. Aboard Were: Dale and Ian. Boat performed well.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

WEDNESDAY NIGHT RACE/PRIZE GIVING 3 December 2014

With the last race of the series being cancelled due to strong South Easters, the Club held the Prizergiving for the first series of Wednesday night races(first half of season).
Yolo came third in her division...

See pic of Ian Coward at the presentations.. Pic -Courtesy of Trevor Wilkins

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Saturday Sail 27th November 2014

A glorious day in Cape Town.. With a light breeze, clear sky, flat seas and warm conditions.. One of those days that make sailing great.
Onboard we had some guests... experienced sailors.. so we let them take control... and the regulars could sit back and enjoy... On departing the harbour, it was felt that a SE might build and went to what looked like the wind line, instead a SW/NW was found.. so sailed in this to just past Daeyang where Yolo tacked and was planing on heading up a bit further and then a bear away and a kite hoist.. but soon after the tack the winds started to head and the SE filled in over the bay at a nice steady 15 knots.. making for great sailing. Nice sail back to the harbour. Aboard were: Ian, Dale, Sieger and guests: John, Noel, Rob. Boat performed well..