[Public-List] First time at the Syronelle

Gordon Laco mainstay at csolve.net
Tue Jun 24 08:19:06 PDT 2014 

Hello Eric - 

Where do you sail Dimanche Matin?

Gord #426
(I really want to try to instigate A30 racing here at home now...)


On 24/06/14 11:16 AM, "Eric Chavigny" <eric.chavigny at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi folks, 
> 
> Thanks for the story. i can only imagine how stressfull it was.  I just bough
> A30 Dimanche Matin hull number 541 and we got the mast up last weekend.  As it
> is my firts boat I was quit nervous.
> 
> I will take your advise in checking more then twice the knots and having the
> mind clear before undergoing such task
> 
> Eric
> 
> 
>  A30 Dimanche Matin
> #541
> 
> 
>> On Jun 24, 2014, at 11:07, "Gordon Laco" <mainstay at csolve.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks Mike - so I have to come to Annapolis to hear your story?  That's not
>> so subtle coercion!
>> 
>> We'll try to make it happen.
>> 
>> G
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 24/06/14 10:58 AM, "Meinhold, Mike J." <MICHAEL.J.MEINHOLD at leidos.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Gord
>>>  Thanks for sharing the story and your self-analysis. That's a benefit to us
>>> all. That's an awful thing to experience, especially imagining how much
>>> worse
>>> it could be. (If you don't know my parallel story I will tell you next year
>>> with a rum in my hand)
>>> 
>>> I replaced my spreader "roots" or tangs and can provide them to you for
>>> models
>>> if that helps. 
>>> 
>>> I had a great time at the Syronelle and enjoyed sailing against Surprise and
>>> socializing with her skipper and crew
>>> 
>>> Mike
>>> Rinn Duin 272
>>> 
>>> Michael J. Meinhold
>>> Senior Naval Architect, Leidos, Inc.
>>> 4321 Collington Road, Bowie, MD 21076
>>> michael.j.meinhold at leidos.com
>>> 301 352 4734 office  240 350 6974 cell
>>> 
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Gordon Laco [mailto:mainstay at csolve.net]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 09:38 AM
>>> To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [Public-List] First time at the Syronelle
>>> 
>>> 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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>> 
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