Off on another offshore training adventure today!
This is going to be a 150 mile run with lots of reaching and some decent wind along the way. We’ll start off in Lorient and head south east past Belle Ile with our big spinnakers up. Then, as we get closer to Ile D’Yeu, the wind will get very light and move forward. The big push will be to get around the Island as soon as possible. Before the wind builds up for the ride back. We’ll probably start off with the big kites again, and end up down to a reef and the little kite in 20-25 knots of wind! An awesome training run to build up for the first race in less than a month’s time now!
Diane
March 16, 2013
Check out the latest modification to OGOC! 
Training always shows you the things that work and the things that need to be changed. The wide cockpit floor of OGOC is tricky to climb when the boat is screaming along at a 20 degree heel. It’s also difficult to sleep on the “weather side” of the cockpit floor at that angle. So, in an effort of improving life onboard, I have glased in two rails on the cockpit floor and revised the non skid in that area. WAY better!
March 9, 2013
Another weekend of Mini Training camp with the coach. Interesting forecast…. We’re looking at almost zero wind out of the east for Saturday, and then Sunday it’s supposed to pour with rain changing to snow with 15cm of accumulation! What’s up with that???? K, I’m clearly going to have to put snow tires on the Mini 🙂
Diane
Today was boat measurement day for five of us. There is a new offshore rule that requires Minis to increase their stability index measurement. Now the boats must be able to handle a fifty kilogram weight on the mast head and maintain positive stability.
So today’s measurements included several tests. The first was passing the boat through a jig that was floating in the water at a very specific mark. As we passed the boat through the jig, we had to make sure that the keel passed through without hitting the lower bar in the water. This measured the draft of the boat. You can see the jig just behind us.
Next we had to establish the black band measurements. These determine the upper and lower limits of your sail area…or “air draft”. The measurer uses the same jig as before, but this time with a cross arm and a marker strapped to it to mark the distance from the bottom of the keel to a fixed point on the mast. We litterally drag the jig back and forth a little so that the marker draws a line on the mast, and then take the average of it. Then we hoist the spinnaker halyard to the top of the mast with a tape measure on it and measure.
Once all that is sorted, it’s time to pull the boat over to measure the boat’s stability. We attached a very very long tackle to the top of the mast at the spinnaker halyard, and started pulling and pushing the boat out from the dock. Once the mast head was all the way down to the dock, and the traveler was at 90 degrees tro life, we attached a scale and put all the load between the scale and the mast head.
We measured in at 56 kilos! Perfect! We have 6 extra kilos of stability! Last measurement of the day was for and aft angle and mast rake angle. The cockpit has 2 degrees of slope, and the mast rake is 3 degrees. All is right in the world 🙂
One offshore extravaganza excursion complete!
Let’s set the mood shall we! The wind was out of the North East blowing 15 – 20 knots. The wind chill brought the air temperature down to about zero degrees overnight. Brrrrr!
Katrina, Nikki and I set off from Lorient in our little minis for a 66 mile overnight training passage. Our epic adventure started from Lorient in the top of the black box on the map. The first leg took us from Lorient, south west to Ile De Groix with our big spinnakers up. The wind picked up to about 20 knots on the west side of Ile De Groix….not the most ideal wind speed to be carrying your biggest kite and needing to gybe over to 70 degrees true wind! On the back side of Ile De Groix there was some decent wind. We saw puffs up to 22 knots. As we bailed out heading downwind to take the spinnakers down, I saw 18.9 knots of boat speed! The next leg took us to the south west corner of Belle Ile and then gave us a left hand turn straight into the wind. We had to tack back and forth across the bottom of the island. Our “no go zone” was the depth. We agreed to tack between 20 and 30 metres of depth. Basically we would tack into the island until we got to 20 metres of depth and then we would tack back out again until we got to 30 metres of depth. That gave us lots of room to tack back and forth, but kept us within a well confined area without having to think too hard about it. At the last turn before heading home, we reconveined. The leg home was also the coldest. We were sailing about 90-95 degrees true, but since we didn’t all have a gennaker to carry, we decided to just go back under genoa. The last leg was also the coldest as there was the least activity to do. At least when we were tacking back and forth, the exercise kept us warm. In the end, we got back to Lorient as the sun came up and we could see the channel make our way in. Everyone learned some good stuff about their boats, and I got to try out my new Musto dry suit! What a great training run!
Diane
March 1, 2013
Getting ready for an offshore! Today’s lesson, taught by yours truly, was celestial navigation. My two partners in crime here in Lorient ( Nikki Curwen Offshore Racing and Katrina Ham Racing) are preparing to do their 1000 nautical mile solo non stop qualification. Part of the requirements for the qualification is to complete running fixes with a sextant. The other piece of course to practice, is our offshore time. Soooo, on Saturday at 1700 (5pm) we will set off solo in our boats from Lorient for a little offshore adventure. We’re going to head out around Ile de Groix and then south to Belle Isle and back to Lorient. It will be an awesome opportunity to test new systems and get to do a little kite work as the wind is going to be around 70-80 degrees! We’ll sail through the night and come home to Lorient early in the morning. It will be an awesome overnight experience!
February 28, 2013
The details are now up and running. Click on the “Come To France” tab and find out all about it!
Diane
February 27, 2013
40 miles of sailing 90 degrees true in 20-24 knots of wind! The hardest part was getting off the dock and getting the boat balanced for the start, and then getting back to the dock! There were only four boats in total. I started with a reef in the main and really should have had a reef in the jib as well. Part way down the first leg I reefed the jib and the boat balanced out a little more. By the time we turned around the mark to head back I was about .8 of a mile behind the three other guys. I have a feeling that they got a little gennaker work in on the way back. My gennaker is blown out and deep and large. It doesn’t go well at 90 degrees true when it’s blowing 20+. So I carried my jib barber hauled out as I came back. Plus the temperature only dropped down to about zero degrees…..brrrrrr! The last task after clearing the finish line was to tack my way up the channel to the harbour. The tide was on it’s way out causing some great current around the rocks and the fort was blocking the wind on the other side. After loads of short tacks I was back in with my friend Nikki waiting on the dock to catch my mooring lines as I sailed into my slip. Unfortunately I forgot to put a memory card in my GoPro, so no pictures this time. I’ll get it sorted out for this weekend. We’re going to try to get the three boats out for an overnight run.
Diane
February 24, 2013
Another fantastic training weekend! This weekend’s focus was on reaching, target boat speeds and optimal angles for gennakers and jibs vs code 5s. I have a new list of “modifications” to be done to the boat to move up to a new level of optimization! Plus, on Tuesday there is a small distance training race we can do. I will try to get the GoPro running for Tuesday’s race!
Diane
Wow have we got an exciting opportunity for you! Marathon Sports Travel has organized a fantastic trip for you to come to the start line of the 10 2013 Mini Transat race! 10 fun filled exciting days in France, culminating with you on the start line in a spectator boat, while 90 minis tear off across the ocean to Guadeloupe! Marathon has it all organized…from the flight out of Toronto to landing in Paris for a few days and then a trip to the coast to Douarnenez for the start. Click here to learn more and book your tickets!
Diane
