Century Club: Tim Ford

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Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
2nd Tuesday evening - BCYA
  • keel boat levitation!
  • Pre-race condits
  • three Military Sealift Command vessels and a Rukert Terminal offload

Five pm looked nasty at Marine Max.  We were shielded by the three giant SeaLift vessels docked on Clinton Street, but we could see it was blowing 15-20, puffs to 22 out at Key Bridge.  This is not exactly BOXCAR's sweet spot and the periodic rain did help encourage us to trudge off into the river.  Should I stay or should I go?

Well, we were being shamed as all the other sailboats at the dock fired up their engines and untied.  We decided we should at least go out and take a look. And as our astute bowman said, "if we take a look, we're going to race."

And we did. Dillydallying around the dock for so long made us about a minute late for the start.  Plus it was too windy to hear a signal from the RC boat, so we never really had clue as to where we were in the sequence.

But all-in-all?  It turned out to be a really nice night. The breeze stuck to the 8 - 15 kn range for most of the evening and I think the most we ever saw was 18.  We didn't score well, but it was great to be racing instead of sitting at the dock with rain dripping off our baseball caps.

And the O's won!

Saturday, June 4, 2022 to Sunday, June 5, 2022
Number of days:
2 days
June 4th - PRO for the Moonlight Race
  • a good script is hard to find
  • After you, mijn vriend
  • CRCA A goes off
  • RC boat extraordinaire, put something down anywhere, it's still there later
  • Should these guys be having fun? (photo Antionette Wilkins, S/V In The Red)

SATURN'S DAY:

I'd be the first to admit I'm a terrible choice to be PRO for a CBYRA level event.  I can maybe handle club racing on a once a season basis.  At any rate, it was with no small level of trepidation that I agreed to be PRO for our club's spring CBYRA-sanctioned race. But eveything went pretty well.

I'd gone to a lot of trouble to construct a really pretty colour-coded script file that gauranteed no screw-ups, and I printed out three copies, one for each of the crew.  Of course, like a complete idiot I left them on the printer at home...

For those of you have never run a race, a script is the timing you can read out loud to the RC crew to make sure the right flag goes up at the right time and with the right sound.  I find that they are pretty much full-proof, but they have to actually be on the boat, not at home on the printer. 

And so it went! Luckily, the wind gods were bountyful.  The predicted 0-3 kn from everywhere turned out to be a wonderful SSE 10-14 gusting 16.  Perfect.

And we had the perfect RC boat, Bryan A's wonderful Tayana "Vancouver" 42, a Robert Harris design that's solid as a rock, yet quite lively to sail, when we took a breather to beam-reach over to Love Point to watch our fleet on their spinnaker runs.

We knew we had to get back to Balto Light to finish the boats, involving a sprint across the CRAiGHILL ENTRANCE CHANNEL, but the Dutch Bulk Ore carrier "SPAARNEGRACHT" had other designs and we had to lay patiently as she went  by at 12 knots. 

The day was so gorgeous, one of our racers decided to go for a sail after they finished. And the party at the PSA clubhouse was crankin; when we finally docked the RC boat. Thanks again to Bryan and Jamie who made the RC work fun and efficient!

SUNDAY:

Woke up after a decent night's sleep on a boat on a floating dock.  Is that a day on the water?  I suspect it was. It was a solid seven hours and I staggered up to the clubhouse to wash off the grit from all three quarts of sunscreen I used yesterday for the race.  I'm on a scrip for possible Lyme's Disease and it makes folks fry in they are in the sun too long. I figured out why a couple of folks asked me if i "was ok?" the day before.  All that zinc-oxide had turned my face an ashen gray and I looked a couple of days from Death's Door. 

Back at the boat, I tried to find the wasp that kept me company all night and gave up.  It's in there somewhere but apparently it didn't mind me snoring next to it and it left me alone.  The giant welt on my neck is from something else.

Good times!

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Boat work day - new fabrication
  • this is "before," need to snap an "after"

Spent a whole day at the club, did some fiberglass repair and made a new plywood cover for the daggerboard slot. The old one had delaminated to the point of being complete garbage.  Good riddance.

Then an hour or two diving into the Oar House to inventory the RC gear for PSA's Moonlight Race on Saturday.  As PRO for the race, gotta make sure all is fit and fiddle.  As luck would have it, I had all 20-something flags out on the lawn and then the landscaping people showed up to cut the lawn. 

Then a Board meeting for the club. It was a long day and I'm taking it as a CC Log day: boat work, race planning and club matters.  I'd rather be sailing.

 

 

Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Tuesday evening - BCYA
  • Sea Lift boats at rest
  • end of race sideshow
  • incoming
  • hand me my noise-cancelling phones, please

Got a ride on Glenn L's Columbia 30/2 BOXCAR because their bowman was on vacy.  Fun boat.  It absolutely smokes in light air, and we took the gun and saved enough time to take the bullet.  It amazes me how well this boat goes in light air.  And these guys are good too, having owned (at least since I first met them up at HdG) a J24, a Melges 24, an Antrim 27, a Beneteau 10R and now the Columbia.

One thing about sailing out of Marine Max on Clinton Street in the harbor - it's right next to a heliport that services all measure of whirly birds, from Shock Trama to WBAL TV to the BCP.  They zip in for refueling, the truck whips into position and ten minutes later (max) they are gone.  Gasoline Alley at The Speedway at Nazareth got nothin' on this heliport!

But it is slightly disconcerting...the mess of rotarty wing craft operating next to a marina with 60 foot metal poles sticking up and moving in and out of the location...whose idea was that?

 

Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
WNR MRSA series 2 race 1
  • racing rewards
  • quiet, engine-off back to the slip

Well, some of us showed up when we'd missed a two or three races in a row and it destroyed Incommunicado's streak of bullets.  We took second instead, which isn't too shabby when you consider our major CF on the first spinn set. 

I was expecting a consistent 10 kns from the east and instead we had 10-16 which had me regretting I had not brought bibs along, as of course, I took a wave that soaked my (cotton) pants.

Note to self:  be prepared

Saturday, May 21, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Five Forts Race
  • Hats off to Terry B. for putting this shade screen together for us - man did we need it
  • A bit of an issue with their spinn set let us foot out from a competitor in our class
  • thanks to David Furman for taking a ton of photos

There was breeze!  It looked a little unlikely they'd get this race off, and they postponed the start for about 40 minutes.  So we had the traditional Chesapeake bob n' bake for a while.  Thank goodness for the shade screen and putting it up immediately pissed off the wind gods.

And the NWS was right and sure enough, a decent sea breeze showed up and by noon we were off.  The RC reloaded their course boards to get a shorter race in, but they really didn't need to, we were finished a few minutes after 1 pm. 

Well, ya never know, so there's no blame to he assigned.  It's racing on the bay (or river, in this case) and it you aren't used to it by now, well then there's little else to be said. Great time at MYC post-race with a ton of food and beverages.

 

 

Thursday, May 19, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Elegant Solutions
  • good jumoing off point
  • ok its ugly but functional
  • clean this boat
  • back of blackhole creek

Not having run the little 4-stroke for probably six months, at least, I was worried it wouldn't work due to ethanol/petrol mixture separating and gumming up the works.  Once in a while over the winter I'd remember to grab the engine and violently shake it back and forth to re-mix the blend that I'd left in the fuel tank....but not very often.

So it was with some level of trepidation that I mounted the OB and started yanking on the pull starter. Rats, no go. It usually starts on the 2nd or third try.  Then I realized what an idiot I am.  Sometime over the winter II had detached the KILL SWITCH cord and stowed it god-only-knows where.  I definitely did not have it in the car.

Then I got the bright idea of fabricating an emergency switch insert out of cardbaord...and it WORKED!

So I put about an hour on the motor at all speeds and visitied the beach, too.  I love having a sailboat that is beachable and draws about nine inches with the board up.

As I came in, I watched an Osprey chase a Blue Heron all over the creek.  I don't know what these two were fighting about, probably just territory and fishing rights.

Thursday, May 5, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
Before the Board
  • as likely a spot as any
  • pretrial release hearing - conditions agreed
  • whoa...it's not a pickerel

Had a club meeting at 6pm, so decided to try a little fishing beforehand.

I had on a shad dart and a short piece of rubber eel trailing off the hook, and I was figuring on a white perch or two.  Early on, I had a surprisingly strong strike, and a cast or two later, a fish on.   I knew immediately is wasn't a perch, and was a little concerned it would be a big pickeral or even a snakehead.  Either of those two would've been interesting to land on the boat, since I was in a kayak.

Luckily it turned out to be a nice striper.  I know it's Trophy Rockfish season until May 15th (I think) but I was unsure of the min. size requirements. 

Let's face it, I wasn't going to keep it away.  A family member has a severe swimming fish allergy and there ain't no room in our fridge for piscatorial victories. 

So I released it and it swam off, making sure to hit me with a splash from its tail fin as a THANK YOU.

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA Race 3 or something - NOAA fail
  • Swage from the kid's school makes a perfect prod plug
  • Left high and dry
  • nice evening...for something

Man, some days the NOAA forecast is spot-on, some days it's from Outer Space...

Wed morning, I was a little concerned b/c the Fx was for 10-15 gusts to 20 and I knew we were shorthanded, meaning the boat would be on her ear all evening and it would be wet outside of the cockpit.  Well, there was breeze earlier, but like that really attractive person you dated in 1977, each squall brought in some level of optimism and excitement, but soon departed and left you absolutely nothin.'

It was super light. But major MAJOR props to the the MRSA RC for getting a race in. 

They didn't shorten exactly according to the RRS, but hey come on, it's Wednesday Night and live with it.  Someone took offense to the tactics the RC adopted on the fly, and had to mention over VHF that it wasn't exactly kosher.  And yeah, they were right, but they lost any sort of moral victory.

Fact is, the "racing" was painful and folks were happy to cross the finish line.

Nice night otherwise and I did get a little "boat work" in, prior to MRSA.

 

 

 

Saturday, April 30, 2022
Number of days:
1 day
MRSA Spring Fling
  • Pre-start or slightly thereafter with Block Island 40 ALARIS in no wind
  • smiles with kite up DW in 7-10 kn breeze

Breeze in the river gave us a sense of optimism, in spite of the forecast calling for little to no wind.  The nearest isobar was out in the Ohio River valley.  Sure enough, just about at Start Time (for this unusual race), at our location, CBYRA Mark "J" there was pretty much nuthin.'  We tempted the gods by deploying the anchor as the stiff ebb had us pealing away from the mark but in the wrong direction.  That was all it took as, before the anchor found the ground, a little breeze showed up and maintained for the rest of the afternoon. 

But it was not warm...not by any stretch.

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