Soft Shackles

It's nice to stay put every now and then. This weekend I decided to handle a number of chores at home and research a number of interests in the hope that when I am ready to venture out, my planning is ready and the excursions are successful.

Project 1: Soft Shackles

Start Here (you don't need the D-Splicer -- taping with a fid will do):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY--UwBrem0

Ingredients:

• 1/4" Amsteel Blue (Sampson Ropes).
• 36" Needed for my small shackle. 41.5" for larger opening.
• DutchWearGear - $1.32 on Amazon. $33 for 25ft. (Free Shipping)
• Great to attach jib sheets to clew. I've seen this on one bigger boat that I sail on where the rigger made an eye-splice at the end of two sheets and then used a single shackle to connect to the Jib.
• Soft Shackle with opener line.
• Soft Shackle including good Crown (Diamond) knot tying description.
• http://www.balancecommunity.com/slack-science/comparison-soft-shackle-methods/
• http://www.animatedknots.com/softshackle/
• http://l-36.com/soft_shackle_9.php
• West Marine sells these now for about $26/per for a variety of sizes. For that price you can buy the Amsteel Blue line to make several shackles.

Madison 70.3 Triathlon 2017

Madison was a great venue for the 2017 70.3 Ironman held last Sunday, June 11th. Not only were there a myriad of good restaurants to enjoy before and after the event, but the people in the area were the best! There were supporters mile after mile, and even in sunny exposed hill locations 20 miles
outside of the city for the bike course. But before I get ahead of myself, first let's describe the event.

Swim

Everything finally got underway at 7AM with a veritable seal-beach full of neoprene clad Ironmen and ladies ready to churn water. The 1/2 Iron distance is 1.2 Miles around a long triangle "out and back" course in Lake Monona, the smaller of the two lakes which surround the University of Wisconsin campus. It was honestly hard for me to locate the turn buoys and fortunately I wasn't the very first in the water and had some folks to follow. I was in the water by around 710AM and out by 745AM -- it was quite light by then.

745AM - emerge from the water

Bike

Great tour of the Wisconsin countryside including a few dairy and agricultural areas with plenty of open road and hills! The hills challenged a number of competitors, but were honestly fun for me. I had trained for a lot of climbing and I wasn't too disappointed! Each climb was of relatively short duration. The only regret on them was that I probably expended too much energy, leaving myself depleted for the run. There were over 40 turns and many sharp at the end of descents, so road bike racers with non-triathlon bikes were favored (at times) on this course. Once we hit the flats the aerodynamic racers passed by at 40 mph. I rented a bike from downtown Madison at a shop called Machinery Row Bicycles (Sharron took care of us) located next to a great restaurant "Sardine". Sardine ended up being the place that we celebrated our finishes after the event on Sunday. It overlooks Lake Monona about which much of the competition (swim and run) took place! Moreover, the final run went right by this same place, so it turned out to be at the epicenter of the action!

Trek Madronne for $104/day including Helmet.
Good deal and saved lugging my even less-Tri ready road bike to Wisconsin

Run

This was challenging as I was pretty much out of energy by this point. I hobbled the 13.1 miles over the course of 2.5 hrs. (Not fast...) The run is largely through residential neighborhoods and was a bit different that I had envisioned. Some limited vertical on the run, but nothing to compete with the hills on the bike course. I saw people stream by me as I struggled literally step by step in grueling fashion. Tough!

Food

On Saturday afternoon, the day before the race, I enjoyed this restaurant called Merchant in Downtown Madison. We literally stumbled upon it when I was delirious from my long drive up from Chicago and low on energy. The breakfast with ham and eggs was fantastic and the overall vibe very inviting. I would go back there in a heartbeat, and it rivals the more crowded and frankly not as good restaurants in San Francisco. For dinner we split to two different places, and I went to an Italian place called Tutti Pasta which was overrun by Ironman participants. The wait was long due to this but the food was good and the atmosphere very much as you would expect from a family owned Italian place.

Weather

There was the threat of major wind following the 35 mph gusts we saw on Saturday. Somehow the wind died down to 10-15 kts by Sunday when the race was held. It intensified throughout the day and the earlier finishers were favored with less heat and less wind.

Conclusion

The IronMan 1/2 distance is definitely doable, but is challenging in terms of being not entirely an endurance event. Many people take the individual legs quite quickly and there are some very fast times. Unbelievably, the word record is around 3:30 for this event. Madison was an ideal place to experience this for the first time and I can't imagine a more hospitable place in the summer. I have mixed feelings about whether or not I would have preferred a less branded "original Milkman" version or this pumped up IronMan 70.3 version. However, it was a great day that I won't forget any time soon.

Information Bubble

Much in the same way that the 2007-2008 Housing Bubble was founded on incorrect assumptions, about the housing market, I wonder if Google's PageRank and related algorithms may be flawed in that they are based on what people visit more frequently. The assumption is that more people will visit "correct" or "better" information-bearing sites. With the risk of "Fake News" and Google looking to respin it's algorithm, I wonder what is in store for us online as we seek information unbiased by ads, politics or other swaying factors.

Jasmine - Polishing Hulls

I'm collecting information regarding how to restore my gelcoat hulls. Below are some links:
It seems that the process is:

(1) Wash down boat with soapy water
(2) Remove oxidation
(3) Polish
(4) Wax 2 or more times

http://blog.boattrader.com/2014/06/restoring-gelcoat-like-pros-elbow-grease-required.html
https://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/DIY-Maintaining-Your-Boats-Gelcoat-Finish

Lightship and Great Vallejo Races

The Summer racing season is upon us and I've enjoyed and learned a lot from the experience on Tesa this year. The Vallejo race involved a number of challenging factors, such as closely following a course boundary, extracting performance from light air days, covering and avoiding cover from tacking competitors, and a great deal of spinnaker practice. While I didn't partake in the Saturday night festivities at the Vallejo Yacht club, I did get to see a number of "big" boats such as the always interesting Legalus, Bodacious, Oncore, a number of Melges "rocketship-esque" boats and some new (to me) classes that I'd not seen before. Once skippers and crew freed themselves from the confines of their own side rails and came ashore, the party was on. Our hosts were jovial and welcoming and very organized this year with new docks and plenty of space for the 60-80 boats that I saw on display.

Great Vallejo Race: Image Courtesy of Sandy W.

Before Vallejo, we had a great Lightship race where it was windy as usual on the way back through the gate.

Lightship Race. Courtesy of h2oshots.com (in case you missed the h2o-mark)

Hobie 20 - Rigging Jib and Spinnaker Sheets with Alternate Layouts and Hardware.

I have a few items to address on Jasmine:
-> Jib Sheets were rigged in the original 1992 style with the original 1992 Harken Ratchet Blocks. These are "bullet-proof" and still work, but I'd like to consider a more modern auto-tacking jib from the cross bar. That said, the Hobie 20 Jib is cut "full" so that I don't think I can use the stock Jib in that manner, because the clew comes back too far.

At the moment, I'm trying out some hand-me-down Garhauer blocks on the jib (with no ratcheting feature), and I need Stainless springs to keep the blocks "perky" and pointed towards me when I single hand. That way I can cleat off after I've hauled the Jib in after each tack.

-> Spinnaker Halyard and Sheets. I want to run spring ratchet blocks from the front cross bar to allow the Spinnaker to be trimmed in, and I need a better Halyard Douse System. (1 & 2) Link Below

Below are some links for each topic as I research exactly what I want to do. There are also some instructive videos about what others are doing:

Spinnaker Layout on Beachcats.
(1) http://www.harken.com/content.aspx?id=3913
(2) SNU Site: http://gobarefootstudio.com/PDFs/SNU_H20Spin_1.pdf
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmckx-DuQt0
(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqxpx4gkiro

March: Redefining the Internet as a resource rather than a Distraction

March saw the beginning of a slightly drier period as had been buffeted here in Northern California by a number of tropical storms over the previous weeks. With the clear blue sky came colder temperatures dipping into the high 30's. The Oroville Dam Situation improved with water levels hovering around the 850ft level required to lift the evacuation warning. This weekend we are due for a bit of rain, but from the Northerly direction which is said to be much less severe.

I've identified my yearly to-do list for 2017, and it involves backing away from the encroachment of technology and "screens" into a lot of my daily life. This is much easier said than done however. Youtube and Television in general are the top culprits in my experience that allow one to drift down the river of complacency and inattentiveness. Within YouTube, it is so extremely easy to be distracted as videos are queued up ad infinitum on an array of topics. If you start to stray down the path of casual watching, more "click bait" videos await and to an extent, begin to shape your future selections. The only way to break away is to pull the plug or close the whole thing down. These habits, more than any others are the ones I seek to break this year.

Reading, organizing and gathering with others are high on my list of activities to cultivate. Also high on the list are more carefully considering the effects of emails and other rapid forms of communication before I dispatch them. I may even get some letters written this year, and have tried to do so at a rate of at least once a month. Although my approaches can probably be considered "retro" by many, I see the need to gather and associate now more than ever. The Internet has become commercialized to an extent that unless you know exactly what you are looking for, it makes sense to hold off before staying engaged with it. Every browsing window now has commercials as sub-windows with attention grabbing items that are literally fine tailored to be something that would pull you away to some commercial pursuit.

As ever, what is read and focused on matters greatly. I have started to visit the library more frequently, and have these books on my bedside table currently:

-> Matthew Crawford's - The World Beyond Your Head (Recommended by a friend)
-> The Best of James Herriot -- Coffee Table book.
-> Autobiography of John Stuart Mill -- plan to take with me while traveling.

Within the realm of YouTube, I've tried to steer myself towards thoughtful Documentaries:
-> Chai Jing's - "Under the Dome" - Regarding Pollution in China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6X2uwlQGQM

I also have Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities on my shelf awaiting to be read. I just completed Call of the Wild and White Fang. Finally, for the practical sailing aspect of things, I have a new book on Knots that I found at Barnes and Noble for a reasonable price. Gordon Perry - Knots.