Yolo is first and foremost a sailing boat.. With no racing, it does not mean no sailing.. So a Sail was in order.
A perfect day, motoring out there were flat windless conditions.. With local knowledge the call was still made to make the J4 ready.. around the corner Yolo continued her motor up to the Paarden Island area where we could see the start of the SE. Once there, motor cut, and beat for a minute or two followed by a bear away and a hoist of the kite. The winds rapidly increased topping out at 30 knots in the Milnerton area.. giving for a great downwind leg. A kite strike and then a sail across the bay. We then stayed in the bay reaching up and down following by a pack away and Yolo anchoring at Granger Bay for an hour. Great sail was had. Boat performed well. Aboard were: Ian, Sieger, Dale and Guest Jan.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
SENIORS DAY RACE 12th April 2014
The rules for the Senior's Day Race is that the skipper/helmsman must be over 60 to be eligible. On Yolo, we need look no further then our active Halyards man, Sieger Smink, so the Yolo entry, remained a truly YOLO team.
For those of you who do not know Sieger, Sieger built is own Buccaneer from a set of plans up.. in the late 70's.. and was active in the early 80's with his boat. She was named WAVE GUIDE.. After this, Sieger purchased a Brand New Ladd27 which was also named WaveGuide. Sieger campaigned both these boat actively, attracting the top skippers aboard. Dale sailed with him from time to time. The boat moved regularly between FBYC and RCYC for it's program. After which Sieger took a break from sailing, at a later stage selling the Ladd27 to Dale, who sailed her for one season. At that time Sieger was attracted back to sailing and became a regular aboard again, staying with the team and being an active part of the team specializing in the Halyard position. Besides this, he has always been part of the delivery team. A well accomplished sailor.. and very handy technically aboard.
Back to the Race:
Conditions at the club were hot and windless.... and people were concerned that there would be no racing. The Race Chairman ensured that the Club Launch was sent out early to see where the wind was and to set the course. This was done, so prior to everyone leaving they already had a course in hand.
With a Pursuit start, Yolo had a nice clear line.. and started with a few boat lengths to spare at the right side of the line. Sieger who had not been helming in a race for some time, quickly settled in and got the boat sailing well. Yolo holding her own with the increasing breeze. Yolo put some tacks into the shoreline in search of a lift... but the conditions were averaged out. Caught up to the smaller boats, around the weather mark, bear away, pole up. Yolo Opted to gybe and sail own breeze and gybed back with 20% of the leg left. Yolo had a good rounding, but by now the bigger boats were breathing down..so Yolo had to work to keep her breeze clear for the remainder of the leg.
Yolo came 11th out of 48 starters and 5th in Age category. Well done Sieger.
Aboard were: Sieger, Ian, Dale, Riaan. Boat performed well. No problems.
For those of you who do not know Sieger, Sieger built is own Buccaneer from a set of plans up.. in the late 70's.. and was active in the early 80's with his boat. She was named WAVE GUIDE.. After this, Sieger purchased a Brand New Ladd27 which was also named WaveGuide. Sieger campaigned both these boat actively, attracting the top skippers aboard. Dale sailed with him from time to time. The boat moved regularly between FBYC and RCYC for it's program. After which Sieger took a break from sailing, at a later stage selling the Ladd27 to Dale, who sailed her for one season. At that time Sieger was attracted back to sailing and became a regular aboard again, staying with the team and being an active part of the team specializing in the Halyard position. Besides this, he has always been part of the delivery team. A well accomplished sailor.. and very handy technically aboard.
Back to the Race:
Conditions at the club were hot and windless.... and people were concerned that there would be no racing. The Race Chairman ensured that the Club Launch was sent out early to see where the wind was and to set the course. This was done, so prior to everyone leaving they already had a course in hand.
With a Pursuit start, Yolo had a nice clear line.. and started with a few boat lengths to spare at the right side of the line. Sieger who had not been helming in a race for some time, quickly settled in and got the boat sailing well. Yolo holding her own with the increasing breeze. Yolo put some tacks into the shoreline in search of a lift... but the conditions were averaged out. Caught up to the smaller boats, around the weather mark, bear away, pole up. Yolo Opted to gybe and sail own breeze and gybed back with 20% of the leg left. Yolo had a good rounding, but by now the bigger boats were breathing down..so Yolo had to work to keep her breeze clear for the remainder of the leg.
Yolo came 11th out of 48 starters and 5th in Age category. Well done Sieger.
Aboard were: Sieger, Ian, Dale, Riaan. Boat performed well. No problems.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Double Handed Race -5th April 2014
First sail back on Yolo since the Cape to Rio Race. The boat had just completed her "clean up" and ready to go. Aboard were Dale and Ian again.
Nice South Easter across the whole bay, flat seas.. not too strong.. just right.
Yolo got a fair start on the weather side of the line.. making for Harken rounding just behind Scarlet Sun. After the rounding gybed and immediately hoisted the kite. Most of the fleet continued on Starboard for a while. Yolo settled down quickly and had a nice sail to Dayang Family mark.. with the conditions being lighter.. due to the good rounding and the quick hoist Yolo was still in the frey.. and managed to round in third place just behind the bigger boats. On the upwind Ylo played the shifts to try and keep up with the bigger boats, while still falling back she managed to stay ahead of the larger boats that were slowly catching.. Back around Harken, Yolo then hoisted the kite but the sheet had flogged loose on the hoist.. so opted to drop the kite for the final leg to the finish(no one else used a kite). Yolo won the race in the end.. A nice time margin made of of the extra kite work and working the shifts on the upwind to try and stay in... Nice to be back on the water.
Nice South Easter across the whole bay, flat seas.. not too strong.. just right.
Yolo got a fair start on the weather side of the line.. making for Harken rounding just behind Scarlet Sun. After the rounding gybed and immediately hoisted the kite. Most of the fleet continued on Starboard for a while. Yolo settled down quickly and had a nice sail to Dayang Family mark.. with the conditions being lighter.. due to the good rounding and the quick hoist Yolo was still in the frey.. and managed to round in third place just behind the bigger boats. On the upwind Ylo played the shifts to try and keep up with the bigger boats, while still falling back she managed to stay ahead of the larger boats that were slowly catching.. Back around Harken, Yolo then hoisted the kite but the sheet had flogged loose on the hoist.. so opted to drop the kite for the final leg to the finish(no one else used a kite). Yolo won the race in the end.. A nice time margin made of of the extra kite work and working the shifts on the upwind to try and stay in... Nice to be back on the water.
Boat clean up
Following the delivery, it was time to give the boat a good clean up and check. The following were done:
- Boat removed from water.
- Rudder work
- Keel bolts re torqued
- Touch up anti foul
- Interior touch up
- Interior clean.
- Sails serviced
- Halyard and sheet chafe attended to.
Boat arrived in overall good conditions, especially considering she had just crossed the atlantic two times.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
RETURN DELIVERY
YOLO is being delivered back by a professional skipper, MArk Devit, with his first mate Ross Cole and one crew member. They Departed Rio on Monday, 3rd February 2014 around midday Brazilian time. They can be viewed on the tracker.
Summary
In summary of the Race:
For us, the Race team, we found the race a light wind event,
this time around, taking longer then expected. The Gale that was had, the winds
were in the 50’s with high seas, but nothing we had not experienced before. We
took it conservatively through that section. The boat performed brilliantly
with no problems being experienced. We had sufficient food, water and
Diesel(for Charging). The start was fantasic, albeit a bit light and the last
18 hours to the finish line were the highlight, sailing continually fast.. the
boat was revelling in those conditions. The crew were a happy bunch..
So, another Race,
another Transatlantic.. Given the weather systems, we were pleased at our Class
2 win.
Some questions that have been asked:
Q. What were your shifts?
A. 2 hours on, 2 hours off.
Q. Did you get enough sleep?
A. You get into a routine and in fact most of the time one
woke up after around 40 min, sometimes going back to sleep.. One tries to sleep
during daylight hours as well in order to accumulate rest.
Q. Did you use a watermaker?
A. No. We carried all our water.. in this way we would be
absolutely sure of what we had and not reliant on a machine for survival.
Q. What type of food did you eat?
A. Largely canned foods, and dry foods like Rice, pasta
etc.. We ate largely oats for breakfasts and snack type foods at lunch. We were
well fed.
Q. How did you manage the storm.?
A. We largely sailed through it fully reefed. When the winds
were over 50, we dropped the main for a few hours.
Q. What weather routing did you use?
A. We used an android app called Sail Grib WR.. which had
all the Polars etc.. we found it very good and simple to operate.
More questions and answers, as and when we get questions it will be posted.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
02h00 GMT 29 January 2014
02h00 GMT
We have 20nm to go...
Winds currently 20-25 from behind...9-12knots boat speed..
Nice swell with occasional surf (just like the brochure said for the race...ha ha)
We have 20nm to go...
Winds currently 20-25 from behind...9-12knots boat speed..
Nice swell with occasional surf (just like the brochure said for the race...ha ha)
"YOLO 25NM"
We have reached the 25NM mark.. and have reported to Echo
21 already.
Currently 20 knots from behind and doing 8-10k
all nicely shaven....TRADITION!!!
With 40NM.. Skipper comes out of the Companionway..
has become a tradition with the Skipper(besides
the last race) where he disappears and reappears as his former self.. much to
the amusement of the crew..
Ian Coward at the beginning of his last night at sea..
He has been challenged to wear his beard for a month on
his return to South Africa.. Lets see if he has the courage.
30NM from RIO...
Hi All,
30NM from finish.
Currently have 20 knots from behind. Doing roughly 8knots.
Expect it to slow down later.
s/y YOLO
Picture of the skippers hands...
Although we wear gloves most of the time while working
the boat, the conditions take their toll...
LAND HO!!!!!
LAND HO
winds are currently 10-20 knots, nice angle.. Land in
sight..
Currently we can tune into the Brazilian radio stations,
We are sailing at good speeds.. 8.5-10 knots. very nice sailing.. and fun to be
at the helm again.
Conditions are very hot, in the 30's.. hot and humid
below decks..
Our ETA is still around just after sunrise or thereabout
as we still expect a light patch.. but who knows...
All well aboard s/y YOLO.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Oil fields and more...28 January 2014
Been some evening.. With a nice breeze up the Chuff..
between knots.. Problem is that there is a SW swell set.. The swell is around 3
metres plus the normal sea state in line with the wind.. So we would go
barrelling along with swells sweeping as side on with some rolling to boot. A
difficult course to hold.. and quite disorientating as there has been no moon
to speak of and most of the sky covered with wind cloud.. Still we did our best
and got some good miles done in this period.
Early AM had us sailing through the Oil Fields.. This is
an area which are full of oil rigs.. and their support craft.. so one needs to
be wily.. So a busy evening.
Yesterday during the day, Yolo spent most of the day
tight reaching in a light breeze of 7-10 knots.. Again with the SW set a
"rolly" day, but due to it being a tight angle (as planned) good
speeds were maintained. At the Oil field we encountered lots of maritime
traffic and then picked up a current change. Right now we have just over 150NM
to Rio. Our wind forecast should be OK till we are in the final
50 miles or so... and then the lottery begins. We will
have to monitor.
How technology has changed.. we now monitor the maritme
traffic with AIS.. where we can view they other vessels speeds, directions,
distance from us etc..
position report 10am (SA time) 27 January 2014
Our position this AM is as follows:
S23-08-95
W37-21-39
almost there....27 January 2014
This past 24 hours has bee reasonable in progress.. still
with its light patches and shifty conditions and the usual cloud effects.
Winds have been low but our angle is quite hot so it has helped to keep up our
numbers. As things stand our ETA is Wednesday.
Saying this, there is a light
pressure zone that is slowly moving Westward behind us we need to be mindful
of.. as if it does there is nothing we
can do.. also not to mention the Caabo Frio to Rio section which is known to be
very light.. We will try for best vector into this zone then the rest is out of
our hands.. Many a position has been won or lost in this last 50 Zone.
24 hours
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
race within a race...news 26 January 2014....
Yesterday started with some good breeze. As the day bore
on the breeze increased and eventually went forward with us sailing a bit lower
then our layline but sailing at a good pace. By mid afternoon we decided to
sail best VMG and did some sail changes and a course adjustment.. soon after,
some more sail changes as the breeze slowly sucked away.
We spent
2-3 hours in
near no wind conditions and then slowly in the early evening the breeze
filtered back, with some more sail changes and during the course of the night
the breeze setting in for a more reliable evening of sailing. Good VMG was made
throughout the night. We are happy with our vector at this point in
time. Hopefully the winds will play ball.
All well aboard. Focussed on Perie Banou to try and beat
them on corrected time. Right now both boats are roughly committed to their
final routings and then there is the inevitable Cabo Frio to Rio Passage...
where it can be a lottery..
news 25 January 2014
Yesterday am started with good breeze.. there was also a
little birdlife noted in the AM. Our highlight was us passing a tanker. It is
really amazing looking on your AIS and figuring out how far away they are,
their heading and speed.. simply by watching a screen. The ship can see us in
the same way as well as we have a proper AIS transponder.. On Yolo we can watch
it on the laptop plugged in or on the tablets via wireless.. we have this
function wireless aboard.
As the afternoon wore on the winds died away a bit
which meant we needed to sail higher then best VMG to keep the kite filled. It
went down to around 6knots.. This carried on into the early evening.. at the
same time there were lots of oscillations so continual trimming was required.
During the Evening we needed to gybe few
times and do another kite change. Early this AM we noted the outer core chafing
on the guy, whcih required setting a temp guy while we did the repair.. As I
write it, the repair is underway.. and then we will switch to the original
again.
Perie Banou is our main competition for now. They are
playing a good game.. and it would seem in the dead downwind in the light stuff
they are quicker. Yolo does not like Dead downwind.. so hopefully sailing
better to our Polars will help.
Currently we are sailing close to VMG Making fair
progress. Our speed is currently 7.5ish knots.. and we have around 612 miles to
go.
position report 10am (SA time ) 25 January 2014
Our position this AM is as follows:
S23-04-75
W32-02-10
Friday, January 24, 2014
BLOG report DAY 20...
This past 24 hours has been quite pleasant, besides a
couple of hours yesterday afternoon when the wind dropped and left us going
slowly for a while, other then that pleasant sailing.. No sightings yesterday
except for some Fairy Terns. Assume they are based off the Island of Martin Vaz
of Trinidade, the Islands we are passing that are over 100NM to the North of
us.
We are keeping tabs on our nearest opponent Perie Banou
who seems to be holding onto the lead.. I think it will come down to the crunch
right at the end who will be the decider.. and who transits the Cabo Frio-Rio
section. This section in known to be a bit of a lottery, windless at times,
with the winds varying with the different times of the day. We are working
closely with our routing software to vector in on the best angles for Cabo
Frio. There is still a lot of distance between us and the finish and need to be
careful.. the weather can also throw some curve balls at us.
Temperatures are now very hot with water temperatures at
27.5 deg. We try to keep in the shade as much as possible.
position report 10am (SA time) 24 January 2014 - DAY 20
Our position this AM is as follows:
S22-51-11
W29-32-92
Thursday, January 23, 2014
BLOG report - 23 January 2014 10am (SA time)
Over the past 24 hours, we have had fairly good breeze..
besides the rain clouds yesterday morning which were quite vicious as they
brought up to 30 knots suddenly with them.
Yesterday YOLO sighted two fishing
vessels.
At the moment YOLO is making good VMG. We are currently sailing in
15 knots, with a cross sea state of around 1.5 metres.. so awkward to steer.
All
well aboard.
position report 10am (SA time) 23 January 2014
Our position this AM is as follows:
S22-21-84
W27-02-19
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)