UNOFFICIAL BEER CAN, 9.17.08

This week’s Beer Can was Adrenaline’s official end-of-the-year party to celebrate a great summer and thank everyone for all the help keeping us in the beer and rum. It’s also an evening of ‘dispensing’ the trophies yet despite our best effort only managed to empty two of them. And we tried. Maybe it was the weather because I expected better from this group.

It was a bit chilly and as soon as I got to the boat I put my jacket on. I had taken my fleece home the week before and didn’t remember to bring it back. I guess the weather is changing despite my best efforts at denial. Warm sunny days with cool nights. So we motored out to the outer harbor and put up the sails. We saw 12-15knts out of the NE so tonight was mostly a reach out to the CRIB and back. We were 20 seconds or so late to the line but worked our way above the fleet into clear air and saw 7.5–8knts on the speedo the entire evening. There was a bit of fetch coming down the lake out of the North so the boat wanted to gyrate a bit but once we got into a groove, kept the boat speed up nicely. The ‘party’ was under full swing even before we left the slip. Patrick’s brought a CD from the Rat Dog concert in Chicago a few weeks ago so that went into the player and set the tone for the evening.

Despite our late-ish start and being behind the majority of the fleet, we passed up most of the boats by the time we rounded the CRIB and set ourselves up for a broad reach back to the city. Everyone was commenting on how fast we were going this week compared to the previous one. Last week we covered the 4.3 mile course in 52 minutes and this week our time was just under 39 minutes. As we were taking the sails down, a harvest moon in all it’s glory popped up above the horizon. A deep, burnt orange orb slowly rising and changing shape and color. You couldn’t take your eyes off of it.

Well we got the boat back in, put things away, and spent another hour and a half toasting to the end of the summer. But eventually hunger got the best of us despite working hard at cleaning out the junk food cabinet, so we headed up to the club. We made it just in time to hear that we took a 2nd place, finishing just behind Veloce, the Beneteau 36.7 in the slip next to us. Congrats guys!

So the rest of the evening was spent in great conversation and a commitment to do spin section next summer. There was even talk of doing a MAC. The conversations buzzed along and things started to break up around midnight and I made it home just after 1am.

Here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2AGPlXmZ0A

Check out Patrick’s photos on the photo page.

See ya next Wednesday, weather permitting.

Adrenaline’s 2008 Trophy Case

 

Columbia Yacht Club’s 2008 “Yacht Club Challenge” Winners

Read Full Post »

UNOFFICIAL BEER CAN, 9.10.08

Well the sun IS setting earlier these days and with the later start time for the unofficial Beer Can Races, most people had their running lights on by the time the gun went off. The unofficial Beer Can starts at the Chicago Light, or lighthouse on the breakwall just off Navy Pier here in Chicago. While it isn’t a normal course, the wind was out of the East so the first leg to the 4 Mile CRIB was a bit of a beat. We didn’t have a stellar start but found the favored side and once settled down, the boat picked up speed and sailed smoothly in the 15knt winds and 2ft waves. We 3 tacked and rounded the CRIB inside the boat I normally race on, “Measure for Measure” a N/M 36. With the wind and wave conditions I had opted for the 135% on that leg and the boat seemed to move well, playing tag with 7.5knts. We had rigged the boat for a kite on the down wind leg but rounding the CRIB didn’t feel it would give us any speed advantage so we poled out the 135% Jib and headed deep towards the finish line. It was a nice ride and everyone was chatting away as we made good time against the other boats in the fleet, still clicking along tagging 7s. By now it was dark and seeing the competition in the dark was difficult, especially with all the lights from the city skyline. We saw a wonderful sunset and the 3/4 moon high in the sky was so beautiful I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. I wondered who else was looking at it, where they were, and what they were doing. Were they admiring it as much and wondering the same thing.

The start is somewhat unconventional as there isn’t a gun to mark the start. Instead everyone watches the clock on the GPS and at 7pm sharp, everyone is off. with 15 to 20 boats squeezing through the opening in the breakwall, there isn’t a lot of room for error and you don’t want to hit either end too closely. We sailed around the course and marked our finish time as 51 minutes, 42 seconds, crossing an imaginary line created by the breakwall. We cleaned up the boat and headed up to the party for dinner where it appears that we had taken 2nd Place. It was a wonderful fall evening for a sail but with only a couple of more races before the end of the season, the air getting cooler and the sun setting so early, I began to think back about all the fun I had this summer, but the best part were the happy faces and laughter coming from everyone who came out on Adrenaline. You know, I think we all had a really great time this year. The 1st goal this year was to have fun, the second to be competitive. I think we scored 100 on both counts. You can’t beat that.

On that note winning does help to make it fun and we have the trophies to prove it. Traditionally we take one of the unofficial Beer Cans and turn it into a party, or as we call it, the “Rum Can”. So far we have 4 “trophies” and the overall Beer Can Awards won’t be given out until October 11. So bring the Coke, tonic and limes people—the next warm Wednesday night we’ll give thanks to a wonderful summer, good friends, and what a wonderful life it is!

PS: Patrick took some incredible photos of sailing last night. Be sure to check them out on our photo page! We should have them up very soon.

Kyle holding out the boom on our downwind leg, the sun setting behind Chicago.

Read Full Post »

Welcome!

Welcome to the Adrenaline Sailing Blog. We own a C&C 110 and do casual racing with friends and family out of Chicago and Columbia Yacht Club. Take a look under the RACING link for our most recent activites or C&C110 to find out more about this boat.

Read Full Post »

BEER CAN, 9.03.08

Kyle and I were a little late getting downtown but Tom, Patrick, and Chris had already prepped the boat. I had checked the weather before leaving which, by and large, was ok although some storms appeared to be on their way in. However, the wind was blowing quite strong—strong enough to rasie a few concerns. Dialing up the CRIB I found winds 23 to 27 knots with gusts to 30. The Beneteau 36.7s doing the North Americans reported that it was a bit rough going with at least 6 footers out there. Checking with the race committee, they were on their way out to see if they could set an anchor, and after a few boats called in to check, they ended up abandoning the last beer can of the summer. A bit of a let down considering the fun we had but that didn’t deter us. A few other racers stopped by and helped us clean out the remaining beer from the fridge.

After that essential boat cleaning task was done we headed up to the club, ordered dinner and had a couple more celebratory beers. I bought the crew a round of shots of Petrone and Tom reciprocated with a round of Oban. The conversations loosened up and the evening passed on, everyone enjoying themselves celebrating our 1st place victory for the seasons Beer Can. “Boys, the trophies are coming!” Hope you like rum!

Next week starts the do-it-yourself Beer Can and is the Beer Can Bash. The award ceremony will be held in mid-October.

I want to thank everyone for coming out and helping make this a very memorable summer—for me as well as everyone else that came out. I think everyone had a lot of fun, we had great weather all summer, and well quite frankly, taking 1st AND beating Cookie Monster didn’t hurt much either!

Read Full Post »