OSTAR 2013

J

Jonathan Green

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NOR is posted at the RWYC site. LOA minimum has been reduced from 30' in 2009 to 27' next year. Didn't see any other material changes since the last running besides the entry fee table in section 9.1.

Anyone thinking about entering?

 
ronnie_simpson

ronnie_simpson

Anarchist
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All over the place
Jonathan Green said:
NOR is posted at the RWYC site. LOA minimum has been reduced from 30' in 2009 to 27' next year. Didn't see any other material changes since the last running besides the entry fee table in section 9.1.

Anyone thinking about entering?
Click to expand...
It's interesting that they dropped their minimum LOA to 27'. I emailed them a couple of times and asked if they would allow a Moore 24 to sail in the event and I received no reply.

 
U

us7070

Super Anarchist
10,316
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ronnie_simpson said:
Jonathan Green said:
NOR is posted at the RWYC site. LOA minimum has been reduced from 30' in 2009 to 27' next year. Didn't see any other material changes since the last running besides the entry fee table in section 9.1.

Anyone thinking about entering?
Click to expand...
It's interesting that they dropped their minimum LOA to 27'. I emailed them a couple of times and asked if they would allow a Moore 24 to sail in the event and I received no reply.
Click to expand...
you realize it can be mostly upwind..., right?

some of the smaller boats have taken over 60 days!

that's a long time in a moore 24...

 
G

gurok

Member
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UK
Potter said:
gurok said:
Jonathan Green said:
NOR is posted at the RWYC site. LOA minimum has been reduced from 30' in 2009 to 27' next year. Didn't see any other material changes since the last running besides the entry fee table in section 9.1.

Anyone thinking about entering?
Click to expand...
Just entered...
Click to expand...
COngratulations!

This is on my bucket list.
Click to expand...
Thanks, this is a bit of unfinished business for me. 2009 ended badly and I have spent from then until now just waiting to put it right.

 
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J

Jonathan Green

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gurok said:
Jonathan Green said:
NOR is posted at the RWYC site. LOA minimum has been reduced from 30' in 2009 to 27' next year. Didn't see any other material changes since the last running besides the entry fee table in section 9.1.

Anyone thinking about entering?
Click to expand...
Just entered...
Click to expand...
Excellent. Glad to hear you're getting out there again. I'll be following your exploits this summer as you prepare.

 
G

gurok

Member
56
19
UK
ronnie_simpson said:
Jonathan Green said:
I'll be following your exploits this summer as you prepare.
Click to expand...
Could you please post up the link you're referring to? And any other blogs/ sites about guys preparing for OSTAR?

Thanks,

Ronnie Simpson

This race is on my bucket list too....
Click to expand...
Hey Ronnie,

Marco ran a pretty good site the last time that pulled everyones online content together however given he is mid GOR I guess that will be unlikely to happen any time soon.

My own blog is http://www.ninjod.org/

Speaking to James @ RWYC yesterday there were another 2 paid up booking fees and over 70 emails received the day the NOR and entry form went up so I suspect more stuff will start appearing online soon. Hopefully Google Alerts will capture it.

Cheers

Paul

 
J

Jonathan Green

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Looks like the OSTAR 2013 website is coming together: http://ostar.rwyc.org/

12 entries listed but I've heard of at least a couple others in the wings, hopefully more than a couple.

I'm planning to depart New England around April 1 for the starting line by way of France. Let me know if anyone wants to race eastward.

 
J

Jonathan Green

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As I take a last look around this area I call home, there's not many signs of sailing season nor is spring really in the air. Sure, there are buds on some trees, even green grass here and there in the better kept parks but there are plenty of signs of winter as well: stubborn snow banks in the backs of parking lots, plows affixed to pickups bearing landscape company logos, white salt streaks across black sidewalks that have yet to be washed away by April showers. People always say it's the changing of the seasons they most look forward to in New England and that spring is an inspiration as life begins anew but it's still too early for me to draw any of that inspiration before I go. There's no getting around the fact that I'm heading out into the cold, wet, unforgiving north Atlantic alone with little to comfort me except the thrill of the challenge. There is no choice but to rise to it as anything less would spell doom. It's just about time for my first transatlantic.

I'm heading for Port-la-Foret, home base to many of the shorthanded French teams and the famous Pôle Finistère Course au large in nearby Fouesnant. Weather routing indicates a quick downwind passage for the first 1000 miles with at least one very ugly low to tangle with in about 6 days time (see chart below) which is to be expected this time of year.

 

Saturday,+April+6.jpg


I'll post updates here on the way over and on the race back as well as to my blog, facebook and twitter accounts. If all goes well, there will be little drama to these posts so I'll try to liven it up with some things the SA crowd might enjoy such as boat mods made for this race, weather routing, sea tales of mermaids, etc.

 
J

Jonathan Green

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Well I suppose I can safely say I'm a third of the was to my destination. In summary, the first couple days were brutal because of a
head cold that hit me hard right before departure from Newport, then there was a pretty bad storm on Friday night and Saturday that
knocked me down, literally. I know you guys love a good a sea story so I included below a recap of the knockdown.

The systems are all in pretty good working order with only minor glitches here and there and generally the boat is performing
beautifully. I've been able to reliably get 6-7+ knots out of Jeroboam with the delivery sails while 'taking it easy,' that is
reefing far earlier than I would if I were racing and waiting far longer to shake them out. But the boat definitely feels heavy with
all this water, food and gear on board. I'll be a lot lighter for the race as all things delivery will be jettisoned and only the
bear minimums will race back.

I'm a little concerned about my rudder bearings. The post is moving around about an eighth of an inch inside the tube so it that
worsens, I may need to stop in at the Azores to change them out, otherwise I'll do it in France.

Here's the storm/knockdown recap for you guys. I've been posting to my blog fairly regularly so if you're interested in following
closer along with the delivery east, check it out at http://jaybirddog.blogspot.com.

When I did the return leg of Bermuda 1-2 in 2009 with my buddy Zoe, we hit some brutal weather as a low parked itself southeast of
New England, giving us a strong headwind for the last 2 days of the race. The boat and crew took a beating as we hammered into 30
and sometimes 40+ knots of breeze on the nose but the seas were never really that bad, maybe 8-10 feet or so. Don't get me wrong, it was still brutal sailing with Jeroboam launching off waves then shuttering so violently on landing that I was seriously concerned
for the boat. Yesterday's storm was different in that it whipped up the waves something terrible. I hadn't been out in waves like
those before. My masthead is about 50 feet off the water so I would guess the wave heights were about half that conservatively,
perhaps as high as three quarters. I know, I know, everyone exaggerates wave heights when they're on the water, and it's easy to do
because they always look bigger than they really are, but I think my range is pretty close here.

As they were building Friday night, I stayed on my easterly course but at a certain point they became too large to make any real
progress east so I began to crack off to the northeast. At first I sailed with a reefed main and my storm jib but as they wind
increased Friday evening, I dropped the main altogether, lashing it securely to the boom and turned another couple points downwind
with just the storm jib. But the wind quickly increased to steadily be in the 40s, and it was clear I was still flying too much
sail. I began to get suited up for a very wet foredeck sail change. Just as I finished donning my boots, I felt a wave really kick
out Jeroboam's stern so that we were no longer stern to the next enormous wave coming at us, rather beam to. This is bad but usually just results in a lot of heel as the next wave hits before the autopilot can get us back on course. As bad luck would have it, the
next wave was a monster that was just starting to break as it hit us. The boat rolled onto it's side very quickly, so quickly that I
just assumed we were going to keep on going from the sheer momentum but somehow we stopped and after a few more seconds, the boat righted itself, though much slower than we'd gone over and enough time to feel a bit panicked as I heard a lot of water rushing into the boat.

Most of it came down the companionway, which was boarded up with the slider closed but not latched and there are two other places I suspect allowed some in, one a vent and the other was the starboard stern locker. Luckily I was in the aft cabin getting suited up
so as the boat knocked to port, I had only a foot or so to fall until I hit the cabin wall. Had I been in my bunk I'd of been thrown
across the relatively much wider salon which would have been very painful. I quickly put on my jacket and looked up on deck to see
if the rig was still there. Thankfully it was, even the storm jib was still attached. The autopilot had us back on course so I went
below to assess the water situation and decided I'd get the electric bilge pump going while I cleaned up the deck a little.

Back in the cockpit, the first thing that struck me odd was that every single line (about 22 in total that control sails, trim,
boom, etc) on both the port and starboard side had been tossed into the sea, including the ones that were uncoiled sitting on the
cockpit sole. But the really odd part was that all of them lead over the top port lifeline first, then into the sea, not over the
rail or down the cockpit drain or out the open transom. This would suggest the knockdown was more than just a 90 degree roll and
that the mast and storm jib probably hit the water. I shined a flashlight into the rigging half expecting to see seaweed up there
but didn't spot any nor could I spot any damage to the masthead instruments; the wind gauge was still working and the masthead
tricolor was still illuminated. I gathered all the lines back into the cockpit then did the same for all the halyards which had been
coiled up at the base of the mast. These too, all of them, first ran over the top lifeline, then into the sea. Thankfully, none were
fouled on the rudder or prop so it was an easy chore getting them back on board.

It was time to get the storm jib down, which was the whole point of suiting up in the first place, so I eased the sheet, got the
halyard ready and waited for relative lull in the wind for the drop. It was soon on deck, wrestled back into the cockpit and stowed
in the sail locker. I checked on the bilge and it was draining nicely at this point. The effective rate of the pump is 5 gallons per minute and after about 20 minutes, the bilge was empty which means in just a few seconds during that knockdown, Jeroboam took on around 100 gallons of water. Imagine if it had been a roll over?

 
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