July 14 - Vanguard 2012

The Vanguard cup was light this year, with 8 boats starting the race and only 2 finishing. I had my wife's cousin Dominic with me for this hair raising event!

On this day, most of the fleet headed out/south into the middle of the Lake for better wind. The day was hot and humid and land breezes were within 1/2 to 1 mile from shore. If you were outside that limit you were screwed. We were 1 of the lucky 2 boats that finished. Here is our track:

https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&q=http://www.newcastleyachtclub.com/bart/Vanguard2012_new.kml&ie=UTF-8

Race duration was about 2 hours. This race was almost won by Dave Thompson and his son on Patricia if the wind hadn't died when they were within 200 meters from the finish line. Weird and fluky day for wind.

March 3 - Steady 50 Knots against Port of Newcastle Pier

Wicked weather on the morning of March 3rd

May 15 - Race Barrel Taping Complete

Newcastle Yacht Club race program uses plain blue barrels, with rode, chain, counter weight and anchor to hold their position during the summer race season. Our addition this year was 3M reflective tape to the barrels. IMHO, these barrels have been amazingly visible on sunny or cloudy days. This tape is super reflective. On a sunny evening, each barrel appears to be "burning" at certain angles to the sun.

May 7th - Red October in Action

Yes, Red October is my name for an above average bright red LED light as noted previously here:

http://ablepoitin24.blogspot.ca/2011/12/red-october.html

The light is installed as was especially useful during the Whitby 50 where the normal white cabin lighting was too bright and distracting for the driver 

April 28th - Electrical complete

Installed new electrical panels and wired all existing electronics to the 2 panels. Also installed a 12 volt cigarette receptacle and USB charger.

May 7th - LED Navigation Lights

Installed the navigation lights as mention in my previous post.

Bow Light

http://ablepoitin24.blogspot.ca/2012/01/new-led-2-nm-navigation-light.html

Stern Light

http://ablepoitin24.blogspot.ca/2011/11/stern-navigation-running-light.html


Picture of Bow Install

Picture of Stern Install

Mast Blocking

After launch, I fashioned up 4 separate pieces of Meranti Mahogany blocking for the mast where it goes through the deck as shown here. This is meant to eliminate the mast flexing at the deck. 1/2 hr was spent custom fitting the blocks with a wood file to the shape of the mast.

April 14th, 2012

Santeria hit the water early this year, second boat on the pier.