[Public-List] First time at the Syronelle

Tue Jun 24 06:38:20 PDT 2014

It's my own club! I think I'll make an opportunity to go and talk to them
directly.  A friend doing his term on the board was present so I reckon
there will be something official too.   I can't order a flogging alas...

I'll say again - the racing was great and it was wonderful to see some of
you folks.

Gord

On 24/06/14 9:33 AM, "John Birch" <Sunstone at cogeco.ca> wrote:

> Sorry to read you were so shabbily treated by a few inconsiderates. Suggest
> you write their Club Board.
> 
> Touching someone else's mast - 6 dozen of your best boson, and lay into it
> man.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon Laco" <mainstay at csolve.net>
> To: "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all" <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 9:16 AM
> Subject: [Public-List] First time at the Syronelle
> 
> 
> Hello friends -
> 
> Well our first participation in an Alberg 30 regatta is behind us.  Surprise
> is home at her jetty at Midland Bay Sailing Club now (not quite safely but
> more of that later).
> 
> First, let me say on behalf of my crew Clint Nielsen (with the Viking tattoo
> on his arm)  Steve Parm (who can almost reach the spreaders without strain)
> and Peter Laco (my eldest son) that we all enjoyed ourselves immensely.   We
> had no idea how we¹d measure up as a racing crew in a One Design fleet...
> We¹ve done well racing PHRF here but we¹d never been up against an Alberg 30
> in fighting trim, let along a mob of them.
> 
> It was great to see other boats Olike us¹.   Alberg 30¹s are quite capable,
> shippy looking sailing vessels; the way sailing yachts should look.  We kept
> saying to each other when on various points of sail ³wow, I guess that¹s
> what we look like².  This reminded me of my brother in law¹s comment after
> visiting Holland, homeland of his parents: ³everybody looked like me; tall,
> awkward with receding hairlines....²
> 
> The moments before the first race on Saturday morning were filled with a
> degree of tension... I had no idea how it would go.  We finished fourth but
> were starting to calm down and do what we do.  When we got to the start
> sequence for the second race, we¹d designated JAZZ as our target to beat and
> set ourselves to start aggressively with her.  The action in the last
> moments was every bit as exciting as anything I¹ve ever experienced.  It¹s
> great when crossing swords with an expert  you can both trust each other
> not to do something un-ethical or dangerous... So you can push.  An
> opportunity appeared in the last seconds and we started in a very good
> position.  we managed to stride away from the others but with JAZZ in close
> combat all the way around the course... But she nipped us with apparent ease
> during the run to the finish.  Second in that race was our best finish.
> 
> The rest of the races were in lighter air, some with a chop that I was used
> to during the days we lived and raced in Toronto, but I guess I¹d lost the
> knack of dealing with.  We had difficulty keeping SURPRISE moving and my
> attempts at casting the dice didn¹t pan out.  We were very pleased that our
> worst race, third on Saturday I think, was also one of SAM¹s best, so our
> team mate dragged us up enough that we finished fourth overall in the final
> reckoning.
> 
> Somebody asked me Owhat happened to you guys¹ after the first day  all I
> can say is the chop in the very light air was difficult for me and I think I
> became frustrated and wasn¹t making good decisions with regard to tactics.
> During our best race, aside from still being optimistic, there was enough
> air that we were sailing in the area of 4.5 to to 4.7 knots most of the time
>  we had enough air to keep SURPRISE trudging along and we were able to keep
> up.  A skipper I sailed for and learned a lot from once told me Olight air
> sailing is what really separates the good from the not so good racing
> skippers...¹
> 
> It was a great experience.  I told my wife when I got home yesterday that
> the regatta combined the two elements that make yacht racing fantastic.  We
> had great battles out on the water; with good sportsmanship... And
> comradeship and cooperation in the evenings.   I learned a lot and with
> luck, may be a more consistent threat to the leaders next time.
> 
> So Sunday afternoon came.  With John Kitchener¹s and other¹s help we lowered
> the mast onto SURPRISE¹s deck and motored away to the commercial marina for
> hauling out Monday morning.  On the way across Toronto Bay we crossed paths
> with an Alberg 30 named MADRIGAL III which I recall racing against when I
> crewed in SURYA, an A30 which won the Syronelle when I was a boy back in the
> early O70¹s.  I thoroughly approved of her colour scheme and told her
> skipper, who turns out to have owned her since she was new (same colour as
> SURPRISE).
> 
> I slept by myself in the boat and by mid morning Monday we were on the boat
> transporter and rolling up to Midland.  Two hours later we were in the water
> in Georgian Bay again.  Last night we motored over our Club¹s mast crane and
> that¹s where things began to go wrong.
> 
> The yacht transporter had brought our mast over to the club so we wouldn¹t
> have to carry it off the boat  very kind of him.  Upon arrival we found a
> bit of a disturbance going on... An old member with a drinking issue was in
> the fourth hour of trying to raise his mast and was in an altercation with a
> responsible member who was trying to intervene to resolve their tangled rig
> and get them out from under the crane and clear  the dock.   When we arrived
> with SURPRISE on the tractor trailer rig, the difficult member accosted me
> shouting Oyou can¹t launch that boat here!¹  I thought he was kidding so
> said with a laugh Osure we can, it¹s only 10,000 lbs, I¹ll use the high jib²
> (normally only used for masts)  Then I realized what was going on and tried
> to explain I was only dropping off the mast... He wasn¹t listening.  We put
> our mast on horses and left.
> 
> I went by an hour later to see if the crane was available and found the
> difficult member gone, and another yacht I¹d never seen raising her
> mast...and my mast (complete with new genoa on the furler) thrown on the
> ground; my horses under their mast.  I asked if they¹d done that, they said
> yes.  I said Olet¹s put it back up again please¹...they complied with poor
> grace.
> 
> I went home for supper and when I came back found the mast on the ground
> again with the masthead only on a block of wood.  Not very nice.  Feeling
> cranky, but with the help of friends we began the process of stepping  a
> simple job.  We had the mast over the boat horizontally about five feet up
> (the jetty is high) and were beginning to raise it.  Then a remarkable thing
> happened.  The knot I¹d tied for the crane hook sling line, which I thought
> was a bowline, began slipping and apparently in slow motion snaked itself
> out and we dropped the mast diagonally across SURPRISE.
> 
> I was holding the heel of the mast and received quite a wallop as the heel
> bucked upwards when the mast landed on the cabin top and the head went down
> into the water.  We all stood still for an instant... What an embarrassing
> and potentially very dangerous incident.  Damage?  Only slight luckily.  The
> mainsail, bundled on the boom and laying on deck, took most of the landing
> impact.  The portside lifeline, somewhat slack without the shrouds spreading
> it, took the rest.  Mysteriously the starboard spreader was broken off at
> the tangs, which were bent.  I didn¹t see this happen but reckon that the
> sling line must have snaked around the shroud/spreader and for an instant
> bore the weight of the mast before breaking and letting the mast complete
> it¹s fall.  If that is what happened, I reckon the spreader contributed to
> the relatively soft landing the mast made across the cabin top.
> 
> Looking back on the mast raising operation, I considered the cascade of
> events that led to the accident.  The RCN trained me to watch for such
> things as part of the Bridge Resource Management regime of thinking the Navy
> uses; regardless, I didn¹t see any of the signs.  They taught us that one
> can be on the road to trouble long before one is aware that the cascade has
> started
> 
> I was tired.  I was upset by the drama happening at the mast crane when I
> arrived at the club.  I was further upset by the behaviour of the people who
> put my mast on the ground (new members it turns out  probably didn¹t know
> any better)   The result?  I tied a bad knot. I remember checking it but
> obviously didn¹t really look at it and feel it as I normally do.   That is
> the only explanation I can offer for the sling line releasing.  I don¹t
> believe it is possible for a bowline to snake through itself as we all saw
> that one do.  I tied it with a long tail, so we all had time to see it go.
> 
> We¹re lucky the mast wasn¹t higher...we¹re lucky we didn¹t have the mast
> vertical with people on the boat kneeling to shoot the pins in to secure the
> shrouds and stays when it came down.  I am very lucky nobody got hurt, I
> would have been responsible for what might have been a tragedy.  I am lucky
> the damage isn¹t worse.
> 
> So, the ending not withstanding, it was a terrific weekend.  I¹m sorry the
> explanation of the accident seems to have overshadowed the good stuff  but
> I¹m still getting used to the idea that it really happened!!!
> 
> Gord
> Surprise 426
> (yes, I will race with you folks again.... Can¹t wait)
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