windjunkee
Member III
As stunned as I am about this development, I had to report that Voice of Reason, a 1970 Ericson 32-2, just took class and overall PHRF honors in the recently completed Santa Barbara/King Harbor race. This is an off-wind, 81 nm race.
My team and I sailed a good race, so we thought, but we had no idea how well we did. There were, however, some points during the race where we had some indication of our performance. For instance, in very light and shifty winds, the first leg of the course (approximately 30 miles) took us eight hours to make. This is a leg from Santa Barbara to the west end of Anacapa Island. As we neared the gap between Anacapa and Santa Cruz island, we passed a Farr 40 while under spinnaker
.
My partner and I have worked hard on making performance-enhancing improvements to the boat over the past year, including reshaping the rudder, adding a more user-friendly mainsheet traveller system (with bearings and lines, rather than the original slider and manual rail stops), upgraded winches, upgraded instruments, Navtec hydraulic backstay adjustor and a couple of new sails.
Perhaps the most valuable improvement to us came with the instruments. I have always found getting complete and accurate wind data helps tremendously when it comes to playing the shifts and maximizing our performance. I sprung for getting the B&G H-1000 system. Having the display of TWD, TWS and AWS along with the analog instrument for AWD were irreplaceable additions. We were able to chart and anticipate dramatic wind shifts that put us in the position we were in to have the opportunity to win the race.
My partner, my crew and I don't go out with the idea to win races. We go out to be competitive, hone our skills and enjoy the time out on the water. But winning this prestigious race gave us and our boat some measure of validation for the time we spent working to make our old boat go faster and for the time and effort we spent improving our own sailing skill.
I have gleaned valuable information and tips from everyone on this board and just wanted to let you know that one of your own did good this week.
Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
My team and I sailed a good race, so we thought, but we had no idea how well we did. There were, however, some points during the race where we had some indication of our performance. For instance, in very light and shifty winds, the first leg of the course (approximately 30 miles) took us eight hours to make. This is a leg from Santa Barbara to the west end of Anacapa Island. As we neared the gap between Anacapa and Santa Cruz island, we passed a Farr 40 while under spinnaker
. My partner and I have worked hard on making performance-enhancing improvements to the boat over the past year, including reshaping the rudder, adding a more user-friendly mainsheet traveller system (with bearings and lines, rather than the original slider and manual rail stops), upgraded winches, upgraded instruments, Navtec hydraulic backstay adjustor and a couple of new sails.
Perhaps the most valuable improvement to us came with the instruments. I have always found getting complete and accurate wind data helps tremendously when it comes to playing the shifts and maximizing our performance. I sprung for getting the B&G H-1000 system. Having the display of TWD, TWS and AWS along with the analog instrument for AWD were irreplaceable additions. We were able to chart and anticipate dramatic wind shifts that put us in the position we were in to have the opportunity to win the race.
My partner, my crew and I don't go out with the idea to win races. We go out to be competitive, hone our skills and enjoy the time out on the water. But winning this prestigious race gave us and our boat some measure of validation for the time we spent working to make our old boat go faster and for the time and effort we spent improving our own sailing skill.
I have gleaned valuable information and tips from everyone on this board and just wanted to let you know that one of your own did good this week.
Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Congratulations!
