A-Class Catamaran North American Championship

This year the A-Cat North Americans was held at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, California. The venue tends to be a sea breeze venue because a marine layer comes in overnight and burns off at about 12:30 pm exposing the land to the sun.  I had experienced this once before when I sailing in the Youth Multihull Championship in 2011.
Our boats arrived on Saturday.  I had enough time after unpacking and measuring to go out for a sail and tune up with a few of the competitors in the late afternoon sea breeze, which was about 17 knots. On Sunday the Glasers ran some practice races for us and helped us with sail setup.  Monday was the official practice race.
The conditions for the first race day were challenging.  The first race was held inside the breakwater in 5 to 10 knots of breeze before shifting right 30 degrees when the sea breeze began to come into full effect.  I finished 4th  in that race.  Later in the day I struggled a bit in the breeze because of my weight but managed top 10 finishes.  The second day was very strange.  The marine layer didn't burn off until about 3:30 which was after our two races had been completed.  I managed to finish 2nd and 5th in these two races which were held in light winds. After day two I was sitting in 3rd place.  The third day we sailed back inside with a typical sea breeze and I had scores of 7,6, and a 9, which hurt my scores a bit and dropped me back to 5th in a tie.  The last day we sailed two races outside and I did what I had to do to finish the regatta in 5th. The conditions for the last day were very choppy with the breeze building.
Overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot.  I would like to thank St. Francis Sailing Foundation. Next years A Class North Americans will be hosted by Peter Johnstone with Gunboat in Wanchese, North Carolina.

Clear coated

The rudder stocks and mast are now clear coated. Now We will move onto sanding and refinishing the boat so it will have the best finish before the North Americans.  Today I sailed in the light winds at the Gulfport Yacht Club in their Saturday series and tied for first. I will return in two weeks and most likely load the trailer for California then.

For Sale!

I have decided to sell my F18. I will become too busy in the future with school so I am deciding to focus on one boat which is the A Cat and excel in that.  It is listed here.   If interested call 804 512 0248.

Cleaning Up

Now that I have gotten all of my arrangements straight to go to Long Beach for the North American Championship's in August I will spend the next month or so preparing the boat.  This consists mainly of a clean up.  A new rudder system will be made and we plan to repaint the boat. I also plan on adding rudder winglets. We will lose some weight with the new rudder heads and sanding off the old finish. In two weeks I plan to sail in Gulfport, then we will sand it down.  All of this work is mainly to make the boat go through the water as easily as possible.

Sarasota Herald Tribune

For Fathers Day, our project was featured in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Read the Article here.  The Observer also wrote an article, which can be found here.

Sarasota Sailfest Report

We had over twenty multihulls attend Sailfest, including five A Cats.  The A Cats were all of the "O" design by O.H. Rodgers.  Both mornings began with strong breeze before dying and shifting.  The first day was all about connecting the puffs and deciding when to go wild or when to go mild downwind. Sam and I both suffered at making this decision, but we applied what we learned from the first day to the second day.  Sam was fast downwind, particularly when the breeze was above 8 knots. Woody and O.H. were quick when the breeze was light, doing the mild thing. Even though the fleet was small, the racing was tight with the top three boats only being separated by two points after ten races. Sam took three races and I won two. I finished first, Sam finished second, and Woody Cope finished third. This was the first regatta that Sam and I both competed in, 14 months after we began building our boats. Here is the link to the results.

On the Water and Two Boat Testing

Two weeks ago, we were finally on the water and super pleased with the boat.  After a few minor setbacks, and some great time testing together, I'm getting up to speed, but we still have improvements to be made.  Thanks to Chris Dilling from Grafik Efx for hooking us up with an awesome paint job.

Sarasota Sailfest April 20th and 21st

Every Spring the Sarasota Youth Sailing Program hosts a youth regatta with opti, laser, and 420 classes.  In 2011, Multihulls were added and every year they have been welcomed back.  Usually it has just been the F18 and F16s, but if we can get 5 A cats then we will get a start and we already have two A cats in Sarasota.  It is also the weekend before the annual Gulfport Regatta. Here is the link to the online registration: http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/6521

Remember it benefits Sarasota Youth Sailing!

Update

It is 3 days before The Hall Spars Admirals Cup at Davis Island Yacht Club. I've been really busy, which limited boat work. However, we did make a spare daggerboard. It came out a little heavy because we used a symmetrical laminate rather than coring the bottom so it can be used as a spare for either side. We also gel coated the mold before the lay up which gave us a very nice finish.

New daggerboard sliders

The last daggerboard deck sliders didn't hold up as we had planned. This caused some damage to the bottom of the trunk. We made a new system and I bonded on a carbon piece to the deck that we made off of a mold. Then we made the sliders fit in the new deck piece.

Coconut Grove Sails and Canvas Invitational and Intergalactica

     I traveled down to attend the Invitational and Intergalactica in Islamorada on Saturday the 11th.  The Invitational was held on the 13th and 14th and we had beuatiful conditions of 15 knots and sunny. After battling with Tracy Oliver, who was sailing on a Barracuda, I emerged with a narrow victory.  Then Ben Hall, Ben Moon, Bailey White and a group from Atlanta showed up for the Intergalactica, which began on Thursday.  After a light day one I was winning a tie breaker with Bailey White for first.  Bailey sailed a DNA.  Friday brought breeze in the morning, which died to nothing in the last race.  Ben Moon, on a Nikita, won the day, but could not overcome Bailey on the DNA. I placed third after tying with Ben Hall, who used a Barracuda with flat sterns and L rudders.

    Overall it was a great experience and I met many good people.  It was a busy week sorting out issues with my boat and I would like to thank O.H. Rodgers for helping me with my repairs and Skip Kaub for donating carbon for a minor rudder head repair.  I also would like to thank O.H. for the use of his molds and the help along the way.  He designed a fast boat, which won all three races on the first day of the Invitational, Woody won the first two and I got the last one.  I went on to win two more the next day.  After some modifications, the next event is A class Midwinters at Davis Island Yacht Club.

from left to right: Tracy Oliver, Jeremy Herrin, Mike Krantz

Downwind in Breeze

Boat Start

Racing Downwind against Tracy