NCC2014 - what worked, what didn't

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NCC2014 - what worked, what didn't

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Started 6 years ago by sharpie
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sharpie
Member
I'd love to hear about things that worked and didn't work for everyone. Here's our list:

Highlights
- Beating up the Core Sound with seven or eight watertribe sails in view!
- Beautiful row through the Harlowe Canal.
- Sailing into the finish with the last rays of the sun, cheered on by enthusiastic watertribers.
What worked
- Core Sound 20 - awesome boat
- Aires boat rollers (from Duckworks)
- Auto-release jamcleat for the rudder downhaul (also from Duckworks).
Failures
- Both of our spiderco stainless safety knives failed. The spring lock rusted and popped out.
- Something made a cracking sound in the tiller while getting off the beach. Luckily, the whole assembly survived the challenge.
What we need to improve
- It took us three tries to get off the beach. We almost made it on our first attempt but I forgot to put in the clevis pin into the pintle and the rudder popped out. I had trouble controlling the boat and so we went the wrong way on our second attempt. SOS thought we didn't have enough sail up and I think he was right. It would have given us more power through the waves and increased maneoverability. My real mistake was that I saw a video of SOS leaving the beach last year and I though "ok, I'll just do what he did". Turns out you need to be as good as him to do that.
- Food system. We packed like we do for our typical pleasure cruise. This didn't work so well on the second day with 10 hours of beating up the sound with constant spray over the rail. It was hard to eat our cliff bars, fruits and nuts before they got drenched. Next time we will bring liquid nutrition drinks.
- Shoes. Again, we packed for a cruise. The shoes I wore were too slippery and I almost fell over once. I have foul weather boots, but I think I need something in between - probably some neoprene dinghy racing boots or something like that.
- Sail balance. I'm still learning the CS 20 and think I can probably get another 5 degrees on the wind by learning how to set the proper sail shape and proper centerboard angle.
- Waterproofing electronics. I didn't bring enough dessicant and as a result had a hard time reading my GPS on the second day. This led to a few humorous misunderstandings on our boat.
- Navigation spotlight. I mistakenly bought a dive light for my night navigation spotlight. It turns out that dive lights are too diffuse to act as a good narrow beam spotlight.
Posted 6 years ago #
CleanSlate
Member

Things worked fairly well for the NCC. I have my TRIAK pretty well figured out and I didn't try anything different this time except bringing my hammock and relying on finding suitable trees to hang it.

I did make a couple of little mistakes at the beginning of not having fresh batteries in both my GPS and Spot. I needed to beach it on Racoon Island near the start to put in fresh batteries for my GPS and I had to make an extra unscheduled stop in Core Sound when I realized my Spot had stopped transmitting.

Also, since I was married to finding some suitable trees, I was trying to get to a particular place on Brown's Island Friday night to camp. It was more convenient to get there via going South around Harkers Island and onto Core Sound a bit. I wasn't quite able to get there before dark do I beached it on Harkers Island to get my night navigation lights set up and spotlight ready. Even though I knew it was blowing like stink in Core Sound, I didn't think to take my Spinnaker chute retrieval cone off my bow. That was a mistake. I could barely tack through the wind even with paddling like crazy with the wind blowing my bow (and it being pitch black out there in Core Sound). I had to struggle to get upwind to my camping spot (with convenient trees) on Brown's Island. You can bet that I took the Spinnaker chute retrieval cone off for the Saturdat beat up wind. On Saturday, I probably would have been better off taking longer tacks.

I did wisely change into some dry clothes and dry suit towards the end of Saturday so I could finish the race warm and dry.

My one regret is that I forgot to change my GoPro battery when I camped so I didn't get any Core Sound footage of all the fun and excitement of beating all the way to the finish that 2nd day.

But once again, I was fortunate with a relatively clean slate and not
much went wrong and I finished. Ironically, compared to 2 years ago, I got into Beaufort many hours earlier than last time but I actually reached the finish sooner two years ago. This year I actually set up camp, cooked a meal, slept 8 hours and had to beat up-wind. 2 years ago, I skipped cooking dinner, only took a 2 hour cat nap, and Hadith more favorable wind in Core Sound. I did finish this year with a little more in the tank, though.

Posted 6 years ago #
MisterMoon
Member

On the CS17, the best angle for the board to windward is all the way down.

Do you have telltales on your sails? The best upwind strategy for us has been to trim the sails for upwind: mizzen sheeted pretty tight with the end of the boom directly over the cockpit coaming. Then trim the main so that the telltails on both the main and mizzen are streaming.

I don't look at my windex at all going upwind. I keep my eye on the telltails near the luff of the main and steer to keep them streaming. I lighter air I tend back off on the snotters a bit and flatten more in heavy air.

My boat points OK for what it is, but it can make a lot of leeway if you overtrim or pinch too much. I think my rudder foil is poorly shaped and my centerboard and bottom could be a lot smoother, all of which will help if/when I ever get around to fixing them.

Posted 6 years ago #
Feks
Member

Re spiderco knives wher thay the H1 salt series ? Iv yoused ther salt se Aries for the last five years without a hitch, I youse them as safety knives on all my pfd s and as work knives when rigging as well.
Spiderco have a good reputation , thay may se it as a woranty or be abel to mend them at a small cost , ther one of the beter of the shelf knives around.

Posted 6 years ago #
sharpie
Member

Feks,

I too was surprised that they failed. They are "Spyderco UK Rescue Blade Folding" (http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=435). We did a cruise in June and I may not have washed away all of the salt water after that. I tested both of them before NCC and they were working fine. Strange. Good idea about checking the warranty.

Mistermoon,

Thanks for the sail setting tips - I will give them a try. I had a long talk with Graham Byrnes and SOS after the event about different things to try. Grumpy Cat and Tweety Bird in their Hobie Cat passed us twice beating upwind in the Core Sound. They were really sailing well and had at least 5 degrees on us. With the board all the way forward, I get too much weather helm so I was luffing the mizzen considerably in order to get the right balance. I also think I may have had my sails a bit too flat.

Posted 6 years ago #
MisterMoon
Member

I never get very much weather helm unless the mizzen is sheeted way too tight. Easing the mizzen sheet takes care of it right away. I never have ease to the point of luffing, however.

A cat ketch isn't going to point as high as sloop. Focus on VMG and don't worry about the angle too awful much.

Posted 6 years ago #
DockWater
Member

What worked......
1.NRS C Vest ,we have had them all summer,comfortable,very adjustable ,high back for sitting ,lots of pockets. I was able to carry all of my survival kit plus it has a dedicated VHS radio pocket. It may not be a good choice if you need a smooth front jacket to self rescue in your boat.
2. LED stern/mast head light from Duckworks. We used it on the mast and after demasting we used it on the stern of the TI. Runs several nights on a set of AA batteries.
3.Handheld Bayco Nightstick Pro XPP5420 140 lumen flashlight . It runs 7.5 hours continuous and has a nice tight beam . Reaches 300+feet and is smaller than a conventional D cell flashlight. It is sealed waterproof and spark proof. It does not float. Seems like it is bullet proof.
4.NRS Grizzly Farmer John Wet suit. Cut comfortably for portly fellows like me. Very comfy. No rash or discomfort after having it on for 40+ hours ! I even sleep in it. It keeps you warm in the wet ride of the Hobie TI. Lower temps would probably be 60 or so before you need a dry suit ( I use a dry top with a wet suit - a different combination but it works.
5. MapTech waterproof chart number 91. Even with the Gps AmaBouy used, it was good to have a big picture when trying to orientate to lights at night. Easier to estimate distance too.

What did not work......
1.Vivitar ActionCam too hard to change modes and too short battery life.
2. Cheap dive knife off EBay. Rusted the first day but did stay sharp and was used when needed to bind the mast during an urgency and cut spam at breakfast.
3. Glasses . My glasses continuously we're coated with spray and salt making it very difficult to see at night. I finally resorted to an old Go Pro trick and licked the lens. At least it worked for a little while.

Posted 6 years ago #
JustSurf
Member

Sharpie,

Very nice to meet you an your wife this past weekend.

I have a great pair of shoes I use for SUP, Sailing, kayaking etc.

Astral Porter or Brewer, both really nice.

http://www.astraldesigns.com/products/Porter.php

Posted 6 years ago #
sharpie
Member

Thanks Justin! It was great meeting you too. Those shoes look perfect for us.

Frank

Posted 6 years ago #
KayakVagabond
Member

DockWater,

What works for me for glasses is to lick them or spray them with a water bottle (to get off sand, grit and some salt) and then clean them with CVS lens wipes or something equivalent. I keep a bunch in my PFD pocket. The lenses dry quickly, and clear. You do want to rinse (or lick) them first or any sand will damage the lens coating.

Posted 6 years ago #
SeaDawg
Member

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Sharpie,

Let me know if you want some Astral Porters. I'm overstocked on them.

SeaDawg (aka Marshall)

marshall@the-river-connection.com

Posted 6 years ago #
DockWater
Member

Thanks KayakVagabond , I'll give it a try . Here in West Virginia its usually just river scum and not crusty salt!

Posted 6 years ago #
Feks
Member

Re spidaco the mentiond knives arnt part of the salt series , the H1 steel is bomber , I often don't wash them for weeks on end with no problems, best to get them direct from the spiderco web site.

Posted 6 years ago #
sharpie
Member

Feks,

Yeah, I noticed after your first post that the "UK Rescue" knife isn't salt-proof. I just bought two Spyderco "Salt I" knives. The UK Rescue knives failed in the spring that keeps the blade open/closed. It doesn't seem right that a little bit of rust would cause these metal parts to snap in half so I'm hoping that spyderco will fix or replace them.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Posted 6 years ago #
whitecaps
Member

Knives caught my attention in this post. As with all S.S. stuff, the ss refers to less rust, not rust proof.

I built knives for awhile and always told my clients my knifes would rust even though some were built from SS.

If a magnic sticks to it, it will rust. I have done scallop cleaning knives out of Ti. These work well for thiere intended purpose but are not any good for what we do.

A Boye knife will not rust and is non magnic. I carry one clipped in my shirt pocket with a ti spike that unties wind knots. Spidys may be a good bet, I just like the Boye as I do a lot of this stuff in hard places and trust it more. Oh yea I carry one of mine for a fixed blade. Damaskas, and horn, but only fresh water trips.. .

toby

Posted 6 years ago #
sharpie
Member

Whitecaps,

Thanks for the pointer to Boye knives. They look really nice. I had already ordered Spyderco Salt I knives and I just got them in the mail. Been clicking them open and closed all day :-) Little things make me happy.

Posted 6 years ago #

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