Jeff Potts: Sailing

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 21:56:50 GMT

I'm falling down on the blog job here. No updates recently. I'm on a killer project. Plus, I spent a week sailing. Check out the story here.

Last sail of 2004

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 02:09:24 GMT

Last sail of 2004 was New Year's Eve day. The wind was perfect. It was a bit chilly but uncharacteristially warm for late December. I was good in a long sleeve t-shirt. Christy came with us for this sail which was also uncharacteristic. We sailed from 121 to Sneaky Pete's and back. The return trip was in record time and on the same tack the whole way. We sailed her right into the slip.

I was impressed with my kids--they didn't get bored (or at least didn't express it) like they sometimes do. My son actually took a short nap in the v-berth. My daughter was excited that she got to take the helm for a little bit. Neither of them love sailing enough to suggest it on their own but given the choice between going and not they always choose to go. I think a lot of that has to do with wanting to be with their Dad and their Grandpa. As they get older it'll be fun to see if they catch the bug.

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 03:43:41 GMT

Read a couple of good sailing-related books recently. Both are very quick reads and very interesting. The first is To Harness the Wind, by Leo Block. It is a history of the development of the sail. It really covers more than just that. I learned all sorts of useless tidbits like the origin of the terms starboard and port.

The other was a gem I stumbled onto at Half Price Books called Those Vulgar Tubes: External Sanitary Accommodations Aboard European Ships of the Fifteenth Through Seventeenth Centuries by Joe J. Simmons, III. If you've ever wondered how early seafarers "took care of business" look no further. Like To Harness the Wind, you can pick up more from this book than what you might expect from such a narrowly-focused title.

Summer Sailstice

Sat, 03 Jul 2004 02:48:12 GMT

Summer Sailstice was a lot of fun. I invited some friends to join me on the lake to celebrate the longest day of the year. We hit the water at about 10:00 or so to try to beat the heat. Unfortunately, this time of year in Texas, you aren't going to win that battle. We were dripping with sweat before we left the slip. And, the 17-20 mph winds that had been forecasted were nowhere to be found. They were more like 0 to 7.

We had a little bit of excitement starting off. This was my first time alone in the boat with crew full of first- or second-timers. I should have taken a little more time checking the rigging before we left the dock. When I asked for the main sail to be raised, the boom goes swinging to windward detached from the mast. What made it worse was that the bolt rope on the main hadn't been fed into the groove in the mast so the whole thing was swinging with the halyard as the pivot point. Luckily there was no wind.

I quickly realized that the downhaul had come uncleated. That allowed the boom to rise out of its groove and detach. Prior to this day, that downhaul didn't look like it had been touched in 30 years but my Dad just threaded a new main sheet so maybe it came loose during that or maybe it just worked itself free.

In any case, no one took a boom in the face and we quickly recovered. After that we sailed a bit before heaving to and enjoying a refreshing dip. We actually did that a couple of times in between breezes. All in all, a below-average day of sailing but a great day of hanging out with friends on the boat.

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 03:17:24 GMT

Open Source meets the Open Ocean. Even the lobster fishermen get it...

Seafaring the Smart Way. The mariner's life has always been fraught with danger, especially in the treacherous North Atlantic. This will never change, but 'smart buoys' -- which contain information about sea conditions -- can buy a sailor valuable time. Michelle Delio reports from Portland, Maine. [Wired News]

Now, if only we could drop a couple of those buoys in Lake Lewisville, we'd be all set.

Sun, 02 Nov 2003 03:21:40 GMT

Great sailing today. The wind was way up on Lake Lewisville. Lots of other sailboats out. Dad decided to bring one of his dogs, Sassy, along for her inaugural sail. She was pretty excited. About ten minutes after we got the sails up, she decided she'd go for a swim. She had been acting like she was going to jump in despite our reprimands. She finally couldn't take anymore. She took a leap right off the stern. We immediately executed the dog overboard procedure. My son stood lookout while I eased the main sheet and fell off the wind. We then came back through all points of sail, tacked and headed back towards Sassy who was frantically trying to chase us down. Unfortunately, we blew right by her. We had to come about again. I came alongside with her to starboard but we were really screaming. I let the main luff while Dad hung over the starboard rails to snag his dog. We still had too much speed. If Sass had been wearing water skis she would have easily been up and probably could have slalomed. After a good keel hauling, Dad and I managed to pull her in. She thanked us by shaking water all over the place. Our slip neighbor, Randy, was coming towards us. With our jib flying, our main luffing, and Dad and I hanging over the side by our toenails, he probably wondered what in the hell was going on. "Dog overboard," we explained. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. The three of us kicked back and enjoyed the sun and wind while Sassy barked and howled from her confines in the cabin below.

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 12:45:51 GMT

Got the motor back on Dad's boat last weekend and sailed for the first time in a while. The problem with the motor was that over the summer, the gas had moved in and out of the carb, eventually gumming it up. The guy who worked on it said to run the engine at least once a month for 10 minutes at idle and 10 minutes in gear. He also gave Dad some sort of fuel additive that is supposed to help. Another boat ownership lesson learned.

My son is becoming quite the sailor. He's a lot more confident walking around the foredeck than he was initially. He's also been put in charge of winch covers, fenders, and the sail bag so he's happy about that.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 05:39:54 GMT

Dad and I tried to hit the lake today but the wind wouldn't cooperate. Way, way too light. So, we decided to do some work on the slip instead. We put in some spring lines. We used this setup (see image). We ran one line from one of the posts, around a vertical piece of steel at point A and then to the other post. Then, we threaded a buouy on a second line. We ran the second line across the slip from the posts at the middle. We wrapped the second line around the first line about five or six times at each of the two spots where the second line crossed the first line. In addition, at each end of the buouy (point B) we looped the second line around the first line and back through they eyes on the buouy. This kept the buouy from sliding forward when the bow of the boat pressed up against it. If you come in fast enough, the bow will ride up on the buouy. But, you'd have to really be coming in way hot for that to be a problem.

Mon, 28 Apr 2003 03:14:26 GMT

Spent the night on the boat Friday night with grandpa and the kids. The kids seemed to have a blast. I didn't sleep too well--the berths on the boat aren't too comfy for the over 6 foot crowd. The kids had a good time, though. Saturday morning we tried to do some sailing but the winds were too light. Probably a good first outing for them, though. This evening we went back out to a much stiffer breeze. We lost a couple of hanks off the jib. A lot of the steel on the boat is corroded from years of saltwater in California.

Good Sailing on Good Friday

Fri, 18 Apr 2003 20:59:23 GMT

Dad and I took Wendy out today. We spent an hour or so rummaging around on the boat. It's amazing what collects over the course of 34 years. Dad put it best when he said, "Essentially, this boat is a floating Winnebago that a couple of old folks owned for thirty years."

The wind was really howling but Wendy handled it with ease. It had shifted direction about 90 degrees from where it was two weekends ago which made getting in and out of the slip much easier. The last time we went out I put I pretty good gash in the bow thanks to a strong headwind and an inexperienced helmsman (me). This time we had no similar incident.

We're ready to take the fam out next.

Great sailing this weekend

Tue, 08 Apr 2003 12:43:22 GMT

Great sailing this weekend. We moved Dad's boat (Ahoy!) from Eagle Point, where they put it in the water, over to Pier 121. This was the first time I saw her in-person. She's a 1968(?) Columbia 26 mkII. For the last 34 years, she's been sitting in Marina Del Rey, owned by the same guy all those years. It's very different from sailing the J22 for a lot of reasons, but still fun. We didn't have time to put her through her paces--a storm was moving in. We had a little excitement putting her in the slip. The strong headwind and the boat's extreme amount of freeboard (and an early turn) caused me to miss the slip. My pride suffered the most damage. I'm looking forward to more spring sailing and some summer evening sails with the fam.

Slip shopping, Steve Earle, sailboat racing--It doesn't get any better than this!

Mon, 20 Jan 2003 02:05:39 GMT

I had a great weekend. Friday night I kicked back with the wife and kids. Saturday morning I got the kids up, got them dressed, and then headed out to give mom a break. We took Dad over to Pier 121 to shop for slips for his new boat. It was windy and cold but the kids had fun looking at the boats and it was exciting looking at slips knowing there's a boat in Marina del Rey with Dad's name on it.

Saturday afternoon Dave rolled in to town. He came down for the Steve Earle show. It's always good to see Dave. He played with the kiddos and we got to talk and swap music. He also brought his Apple powerbook and he showed me a few cool tidbits in OS X. It got me psyched up about the G4 we appropriated to use as part of our internal KM efforts.

Now, that right there would be a great weekend. But Sunday Dad and I headed over to Lake Ray Hubbard for the alumni sail at North Texas Sailing School. But they were running a regatta and weren't doing the alumni sail. (Normally, folks that have taken classes there can sail with other former students and instructors on Sunday afternoons on the J22's for a reasonable price. Good stuff). So Dad and I ended up crewing on a couple of the boats. Dad got on an Irwin 30 and I got on an S2 7.3.

It was a great day for sailing. 60 degrees or so with a stiff 14 to 18 knot wind. Unfortunately for me on the S2, we were a little overpowered. We reefed the 150 Genoa to about 75 and eventually even less but we still had too much heel sailing upwind. Still, I got good practice working the jib sheets under race conditions, setting the whisker pole, and handling a self-furling headsail. The boat was immaculate and the skipper, John, was friendly and helpful.

All of this and I still managed to get in good quality time with the kiddos. An awesome weekend for sure.

Ahoy!

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 02:20:02 GMT

Dad bought a sailboat! He's had the itch ever since we got our cert. I told him to relax and let's do some crewing and some renting but he was really pumped. When he found a marina less than 20 miles from his house I think that really clinched it. I haven't talked to him yet so I'm just guessing.

Here's the boat.

Here's a good description of the same model, three years older.

The boat is in Marina del Rey. It sounds like the plan is to fly out there and sail it to Santa Catalina to give it one last look at the sea before being landlocked in a Texas lake.

Blue Latitudes author on Diane Rehm replay this morning

Tue, 31 Dec 2002 16:29:42 GMT

On the Diane Rehm Show this morning they replayed a 10/1 broadcast with Tony Horowitz, author of Blue Latitudes. The book is a part-biography/part travel narrative covering the travels of Captain Cook. It sounds like a good read. Check out the book at Amazon.

Dad and I are now ASA-certified sailors

Mon, 30 Dec 2002 02:20:05 GMT

Back after a much-needed break from the laptop. Today I completed my ASA Basic Keelboat certification. It was a great weekend of sailing. Now that I've got my cert I can rent the J22's at Chandlers. Who's ready to go sailing?

The cert covered two classes. The first class was the weekend before Thanksgiving. My wife, kids, sister, and brother-in-law got me the beginning sailing class as a birthday present (thanks again, guys!). The owner of the North Texas Sailing School had asked, "Are you sure you are up for winter sailing?" It had sounded slightly foreboding, but that weekend was one of the most perfect weekends for sailing ever. The wind was up and the temp was warm but not hot.

When we picked 12/28 for our Intermediate class I figured we wouldn't get as lucky on the weather as we had the first weekend. But when Saturday rolled around it turned out to be another beautiful day. The morning wind was a little lighter than we would have preferred but it picked up in the afternoon.

This morning there was some fog on the lake and it was a bit chilly but the wind was up and we were working hard, putting the J22 through its paces, so I barely noticed the cold spray. (On both mornings I was able to take advantage of some fleece pullovers I got for Christmas which worked perfectly as a middle layer).

If I may say so, my Dad, who was taking the class with me, and I executed our sailing skills pretty darn well. I was a bit sloppy leaving the slip but I shook it off and subsequently nailed the slalom course and the race course. We've still got a lot to learn and I'm looking forward to logging more hours in the boat but I was feeling pretty cocky by the time the weekend was over.

The written test was 130 questions. We both scored well, just shy of a perfect score. I don't know about my Dad but I was really hoping for 100%. The sailing school owner had said there had only been one perfect score at his school in the last several years and I was disappointed I couldn't bump that up. (Advice for ASA Basic test takers: Understand the different horn signals, night-time lighting requirements for sailboats, and what equipment is/isn't required on a sailboat of a specific length). My Dad beat me by one question. DOH!

I'm still working on "creating a vision" for the rest of the household, but if I can add some advanced creds to my diving and sailing certs, log a bunch of time doing both, and save up cash, maybe I can have a second career as a dive shop/charter boat operator. Now that'd be the life...