PUTTING ADRENALINE AWAY

Ryan, Kyle, Everett and I sailed Adrenaline from Chicago to Waukegan on Thursday, October 9th—the day after our last Unofficial Beer Can and some serious ‘trophy’ emptying. Fortunately Kyle drove the first 3 or 4 hours as we motored into headwinds, but we got a break the last two hours and were able to sail. The weekend before we had begun taking things off the boat—about 8 big Tupperware bins of stuff but when we got to Waukegan it was remove more gear, making it home just in time to meet the pizza delivery guy. I went back the following Saturday and began taking the cushions and remaining gear off the boat and began the process of winterizing systems—oil and filter change, drain water tanks, clean the bilge, etc., all the glamorous things that boat owners look forward to. I got most of it done and now only have to make one more trip back to do a little cleaning and make sure that all the thru hulls are open and drained.

Last Wednesday night I headed down to the club to see if anyone was going out but the weather wasn’t cooperating and I found the regulars in the bar. The Obama/McCain debate came on and silenced the crowd. Maybe I can grab a ride this Wednesday night.

 

Adrenaline and her hula skirt

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BEER CAN AWARDS, 10.11.08

The Beer Can Awards for the summer of 2008 were held on Saturday, October 11. There was a buffet dinner at Columbia Yacht Club and a keg of Goose Island Beer, one of our sponsors along with UK Sails and Mt. Gay Rum. None of the kids came because it was Home Coming and apparently ‘jukeing and grinding’ was more important than sharing the glory of a 1st Place finish with their crew members. Although given the choice I might have done the same but we ended up with a good representation by the ‘old’ guard anyway.

After dinner we headed to the upper salon where they began handing out the awards for all the sections. Adrenaline was awarded 1st Place for JAM1 with slip neighbors Veloce taking 1st for Spin 2, Whisper for Spin 3, and Accord for JAM 2 — congrats to all! We were awarded a brag flag, and of course, more rum. What we didn’t know was that Columbia was also starting a new Beer Can trophy to remember John Finn and Jason, a J35 that we raced against in 2007. John along with two other crew died in a tragic boating accident in October of 2007 while delivering the boat to be put away for the winter. The trophy recognizes the Best Overall JAM and SPINNAKER boats of the summer. ADRENALINE was 1st overall for 2008 and is the first JAM boat to be listed on the trophy along with CANCAN DEUX from the spin section. And of course there was a lot more rum . . . and another party into the evening.

The evening ended in the bar with a lot of talk about ramping things up and doing the Beer Can spin section next year, along with the MAC and several other Area III races. But most of all we had a lot of fun. It was a terrific summer—what a year 2008 was!

 

1st Place JAM1 winner and 1st Place overall JAM and SPIN section winners, 2008

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UNOFFICIAL BEER CAN, 10.08.08

We didn’t get out for the last two Unofficial Beer Cans. On September 24th I had to deliver my committee report to Columbia Yacht Club and got a lot of crap for not sailing instead. And then of all things, the following Wednesday October 1st was canceled due to the weather. On October 8th we got the usual suspects together and it was once again a beautiful evening, Jason stunning us with his fine sailing outfit. We headed out of the harbor with the 135% on the roller furler so it was an easy evening to get going. We had a great start and were the first boat over the line only 2 or 3 seconds late. The wind was out of the SSW at about 8 knots so it was a reach to broad reach out to the CRIB. Some boats flew their asym’s but we successfully fought to keep clean air and rounded the CRIB in good form with only 2 boats rounding ahead us. Cutting tight inside we overtook one and came up on the transom of the other and played cat and mouse for clear air. First we’d head up for clear air and then he’d protect his position. We came close to overtaking them but couldn’t quite get the job done.

It was a cool but clear evening and the Chicago skyline was incredible with an indigo sky above, then revealing all the colors of the spectrum behind the buildings lining the lake front. Only one other boat seemed to gain on us and came up close behind. Sometimes we’d open the gap while other times Whisper was only a boat length behind us. We ended up crossing the finish line with a time of 42 minutes, 15 seconds. After cleaning up things we began working on the remaining 2 bottles of Mt Gay Rum and never made it up to the club for food or to hear the results. With 4 of us working the rum over until late in the evening, Pat finally ended up being driven home and Tom took a cab. Tom from Whisper came back out to the docks and told us that he had beat us by 1 second for first place. Not bad for another casual evening and flying a 135% to his 155% headsail.

With plans to take Adrenaline to Waukegan the next day to put the boat away for the winter, ee spent the night on the boat. The idea was to leave bright and early, say around 6am, so that we’d get in around noon but the rum had it’s full effect and we didn’t leave until 11:15am. Besides the wind was now blowing 10–15 out of the NW—basically the direction we needed to go. It was a long day and Kyle drove for the first 3 hours or so leaving me to catch up on my ‘beauty’ rest. Taking over for Kyle I eventually found the wind backing enough to allow us to put up our main and 135% which increased boat speed significantly. We got into Waukegan, unloaded everything we could into the van and had a Lou Malnati’s Pizza meet us at the door.

At the start

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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BEER CAN, 8.27.08

FOR MOST OF THE SUMMER the winds have been up and we haven’t been able to fly our light #1. Well the light air that Chicago summers are famous for has finally arrived and this our next to last Beer Can for the summer was a classic. Most of the JAM 2 boats barely crept across the starting line in the 2knt breeze, some stealing each others winds and not able to clear the line and pin before our start. I wanted to stay close to the line but got there too early and had to find ways to slow us down. Luffing the boat and the #1 trying to buy us some time almost had us over early.As we fell off the line we could see Nautilus and another boat to windward of Cookie Monster who promptly sandwiched Nautilus wacking her on the port side despite the owners protests. Cookie didn’t appear to give Nautilus and the boat above her room to tack away and kept on going. By now we were near the pin end still buying time where two other JAM 2 boats we dead in the water and Cookie going above us. I called out that he need to stay up as the windward boat, that he couldn’t fit into the space, but he came down anyway to go between us and the becalmed boats. Rather than be right and exchange paint, we fell away to avoid a collision with Cookie. Both of us missed the pin and had to come around and start on port. One of the worst starts I can remember. 

Once over the line we tacked back onto starboard which was favored by some 15 to 20 degrees but we found ourselves below everyone else sucking their dirty air. We tacked over and got clear of the fleet with cats paws developing on the water. We had sailed into a lift with the starboard boats getting knocked and eventually over standing the first mark. We were able to sail higher and faster and crossed Cookie Monsters bow giving her our bad air. We rounded the first mark with clear air making 3-3.5knts to the next mark. Cookie got buried under a bunch of sails and chutes that were now rounding with her and the committee could be see steaming ahead to once again shorten the course. While not a stellar race, we finished in 2nd place with Cookie in 3rd some two minutes behind but Turning Point taking the Fleet Prize two weeks in a row. 

We’re still in 1st place but now 3 points ahead of Cookie Monster. Last I heard, Nautilus filed a protest against Cookie Monster because of the collision, but so far I haven’t heard the result of that. I really hope that future races are different. Beer Cans are supposed to be friendly competitions—not demolition derby’s. It was other wise nice weather and a beautiful evening.Current standings are:
20pts Adrenaline
23pts Cookie Monster
32pts Phantom
45pts No Reverse (go Bob!)
46pts Nautilus
47pts Turning Point

Today was my 25th wedding anniversary and the 31st anniversary of the day I met my wife Barb (yes the the same date, 6 years apart). I feel blessed—it’s a wonderful life.

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BEER CAN, 8.20.08

IN THE AUGUST 20 BEER CAN we ended up in second place behind Turning Point but beating Cookie Monster. We raced with out 135% to keep the boat up as winds were about 10knts., making the apparent wind 16–18knts. We ended up ahead of Cookie Monster at the first mark, and after rounding the Crib polled out the jib allowing us to sail faster and more directly to the next mark. Most of the boats in our section sailed wider angles but we sailed almost dead down wind keeping pace with the +40ft Beneteaus. After rounding the mark we found ourselves on a course below the finish line and had to tack to make it, finishing in second place. Cookie finished 60 seconds behind us, or 10 corrected seconds. The weather has really been nice all summer and this was no different, but we can tell that fall is on its way as the sun is setting earlier and is dark when we return.

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BEER CAN, 8.13.08

THE WIND WAS VERY, VERY LIGHT. So light that our wind speed indicator saw mostly 2-3knts true for the entire race! We had a perfect start at the pin end away from all the other boats packed in around the committee boat, fighting for the line. We were all alone with clean air while the boats at the other end had to tack onto port to get clear of the mess. As we progressed the wind filled in on the left side and we found ourselves in a big lift headed almost directly to the first mark. Those that went right got knocked in a dying breeze. We were the first boat to round the windward mark having passed all the boats in the section that started before us. At times we were sailing faster than the true wind speed. I was initially concerned how well we’d do with 9 people on board in such light air but the extra ballast helped us to heel the boat and keep the sails filled. Because of the light wind, the committee boat ended up shortening the course making the second mark the finish line.

We were the first boat across with two JAM 2 boats right behind us. We finished ahead of the next two boats in our JAM 1 section by 12 (Nautilus) and 21 (Cookie Monster) minutes in what ended up being a 2 mile race. It was our fifth 1st place finish in eleven races, missing the fleet prize by only 35 seconds. Can’t tell you how excited everyone was—the adrenaline was surely flowing!

We’re in first place by 2 points.

 

View of Chicago from Adrenaline

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