E 32-2 in Long Offshore Race

[Seth]

Local fun

Well, I hope they didn't trash me too badly-that group and I have lot of history together. I'm glad the Choate thing worked out. Trust him-you will be happy with the result.
I'll make point of speaking to Sammy-while I definitely have my opinions about the A-sails, I would defer to him since he is working with you.

My feeling is that sure, a .5 is very important to have in your quiver for a long race-A-sail or otherwise.

For me, I think a full sized .5 AP A-sail and another AP or runner A-sail of 100% Airex 650, or maybe 600 in the back and 700 in front-they weigh . 6 and .7 respectively) would cover 90% of kite carrying conditions and get you into more wind than you want to carry a kite in.

I assume you have an old heavy air kite for a backup-just in case.

In light air, these will reach very close to the wind, and he is 100% right that your boat will do better genoa reaching if it is breezy-and this is why a reaching kite is probably not of much value.

The reason I would go with A-sails instead of symetricals is that they will certainly reach closer-with or without a pole than a sym kite, and when heavy running, they will not oscillate nearly as much as the sym kite-making the boat significantly easier to steer than it would be with the sym kite-and this WILL be an issue if you get into some heavy running (although the new rudder will help a lot). It is no fun doing the death roll dance, and these sails help reduce this. In normal conditions a full sized A-sail of the right design can sail just as deep and just as fast as any symetrical or faster-just use the pole as you normally would-squaring back more the deeper you go.

I will get a message to Sam over the weekend-he knows our mutual friend Bob Lane-and Bob has my #.

He might be thinking I was suggested reaching-type A-sails as opposed to the AP/Runner/Full sized.

Regarding instruments, the top of the line would be B&G or Ockam. They are not cheap though, and while the Raytheon race stuff is certainly not up to the standards of either of those, for many it is worth looking at. The Beneteaus I have sailed the last 3 Macs on all had the upgraded Raytheon stuff and it was certainly adequate-once it was calibrated-and it had all the functions you would need: TWD, TWS, TWS, Target speeds from Polars, etc.

Add that and connect to a good GPS/Plotter and you can optimize VMG to a waypoint-taking your sailing angles into consideration-very handy stuff.

My .2 Cents.

I'll be in touch,
S

 

[windjunkee]

So, an update seems in order.

The rudder is off the boat and down with Dennis Choate being modified. Dennis determined that the rudder was in such good shape, the improvement in performance by manufacturing a completely new blade would not justify the cost difference, so he suggested that we change the shape of the leading edge and then add about 2 1/2 to 3 sq. ft of area to the existing blade, making it deeper and improving the aspect ratio for increased lift.
I went with his recommendations.

Second, we're getting a new Ullman .5 oz chute. We're staying with the symmetrical right now, but may still consider an A-sail for the Puerto Vallarta Race.

As for instruments, everyone seems to be recommending B&G and I still haven't received an answer as to whether installing B&G wind instruments, whether they will be compatible with the Standard Horizon Speed/Depth that we have, in terms of receiving input for true-wind calculations.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134

 

[NateHanson]

How is he extending the existing rudder? Do you know if he has to add on to the stock, or can the add-on be glassed to the existing blade, without metal reinforcement in the new part?

 

[windjunkee]

Nate,

I believe he is just adding fiberglass work to the rudder, though I am not certain of that. I'm following Seth's advice -- I give him the rudder, tell him what I want, ignore it until he calls me to tell me its ready, give him a check and pick it up. I've heard nothing but good things about the work he does and trust he will do what's right.

When I pick it up, I'll ask how he did it and report back.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134

 

[windjunkee]

Hello everyone,

Just renewing the thread here. Our E-32 -2 is set for the Marina del Rey - Puerto Vallarta race, beginning on February 16th (3 weeks and 3 days, not that I'm counting)
We have chosen to race in the "Salsa" Division. This is a 1200 nm course, taking us down the Pacific Coast of Baja and then across the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Vallarta. Rather than a straight offshore course, the Salsa Division races in three legs, with lay overs in Turtle Bay and Cabo San Lucas. We expect to be racing for 13 days. Our PHRF rating is 180 and the next closest handicap is 114.
Each of the boats involved in the race will be fitted with a GPS transponder so that race progress can be tracked. For those interested in tracking our progress, you can follow along on the race website, which is www.pv07.com.
We are thrilled to be participating and feel, with the skill of our crew and our handicap advantage, we will be competitive for leg and overall honors.
In anticipation of the race, we have made significant improvements to the boat, including the addition of several new sails, modification of the rudder, new instruments, new computer software for race and weather routing, new communications (new VHF and SSB), new running rigging, etc., etc.
For those with the E-32 layout, we have modified the starboard settee by removing the cushions and building up a storage area in its place. This will accommodate a large icechest (no more icechest on wheels rolling around on the cabin sole) and most of our gear. With the addition of the icechest and our refrigeration, we have room now for provisions for 4 persons for two weeks. Obviously we will be able to re-provision in Cabo as needed, but plan to carry everything we need with us.
Wish us luck! We can't really tell what the weather will do right now, because the Pacific Coast is still suffering under an unusual weather pattern, i.e. there are still northeasterly winds clear down the coast of Baja, when the prevailing pattern this time of year is for northwesterlies.
We have elected to have the boat trucked back from Puerto Vallarta. The estimated cost of trucking it back is $7500 inclusive of insurance, loading and offloading. We considered all sorts of alternatives, including sailing her up into the Gulf to a more convenient location following the race. The least attractive option was to bash back up the coast, especially given the limited motoring range of our original-equipment A-4.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[ChrisS]

Jim-- I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing some stories from the race. These are nice boats, and it's great to know that people such as yourself are making memorable voyages with them.

How many in your crew?

 

[Chris Miller]

shoot! We'll be on vacation during your race (hoping that bars in Barbados have good enough US tv to carry the daytona 500 too ), but I can't wait to hear all about it.
Jim, good luck to you and your crew!
Chris

 

[Seth]

Awesome

Jim,

So cool that you are doing this (again), and that the mods have helped..

Not to beat a dead horse, but be really careful about provisions-you are a race boat-not a frieghter....right? I imagine you need enough to feed everyone during the race and stopovers, but apart from some emergency rations in case you lose a rig or rudder and are out there a couple of extra days (and MRE's are the lightest stuff for this), it will make a big difference to buy what you need in PV for the time you are there.

I'm sure you are on top of this, but I would hate to see all that preparation get washed away by carrying too much "stuff"...this should apply to clothes, etc. You can have the crew clothes they want to use in Mexico sent down with the race support resources rather than use your boat as the Mexican UPS run...

Best of luck-you know I will be watching you!!

S

 

[windjunkee]

Seth,

Thanks for the advice. DRYC has set up a shuttle for gear we can have delivered to Puerto Vallarta and we will be taking advantage of that. There is no question, however, that we're going to be heavy. For instance, one of the rules of the race is that we have the fuel capacity to motor a minimum of 150 miles at 6 knots. With our 1970 A-4 engine and a 17 gallon fuel tank, we have a range of slightly over 100 miles, which means we have to carry fuel on deck. Additionally, we have to have water sufficient for the crew for the duration of the trip. Since our water tank holds 40 gallons, we're going to have to carry extra water. We're carrying a bin of spare parts for the engine, plumbing, electrical and sailing gear.
We're carrying a light #1, medium #1, #3 blade, .6 oz symmetrical, 1.2 oz symmetrical, chicken chute and there are those who are trying to convince us to carry a blooper (the jury is out on that one). We've opted not to bring a liferaft, but we're bringing a dingy and outboard.
Anyway we look at it, we're going to be heavy. We're very weight conscious and we're stripping the boat of everything we absolutely do not need for the race because we're out there to compete. In fact, we going to be doing a crew exchange in Cabo and we're sending our cold weather gear home with one of our crew who is leaving the boat there.
One of the cool things about the Salsa division is that we can motor when the wind is very light. In fact, the club has calculated a "cross-over" speed where the motor penalty is eliminated and a sailing penalty sets in so it is to our benefit to motor. Our target cross over speed is about 3.5 knots.
Sam Heck told me that two years ago on Magnitude 80, they were on their way to setting the speed record until they got becalmed in Banderas Bay. They covered 20 miles in 24 hours and missed the course record by 4 hours.
As for provisions, we have to consider taking provisions for 13 days because we don't believe we'll be able to re-provision in Turtle Bay and don't know how much time we'll have in Cabo to do any shopping. It all depends on the wind. I'm still uncertain whether I'm going to ask our crew person joining us in Cabo to bring an extra case of food with him on the flight down.
3 weeks and 2 days to go now.

 

[SingPilot]

Race Update.

They won. Geez, they won their class. The results are now posted on the PV07 website. I'm sure Jim will post when he gets back stateside!

 

[JMS]

Well shades of Doc Holiday.

Great job VOR.

 

[tenders]

'You owe us 78 secs a mile...if I can see you, we've got you.' --VoR

What a great race that must have been. Well done!

Snipping from

http://www.pv07.com/releases/030407_mdr.php

...That [various awards given for dubious distinctions] was the lighter side after a race dispelling notions that the Salsa side was all clear and casual sailing. The last few days hanging out at the Opequimar Yacht Club and Marina offered the competitors their last chance to expand on their tales of adventure.

Jim McCone and Mike Verla, the Lomita, Calif. sailors who won the Salsa Spinnaker B class on Voice of Reason, the smallest boat in the race---an Ericson 32 they bought an eBay---told of approaching the end of Leg 2 at Point Lazaro on a moonless night.

"It was big seas and 25 knots of wind," McCone said, "and we were doing 7 knots under sail trying to find our way by GPS. We weren't sure how far out the rocks extended."

Their closest competitor was Arlan and Sean Roll's Classic Impulse, a Catalina 400 from Long Beach that ultimately finished second in the class.

"We could see them most of the time on all three legs," McCone said. "Both of us were using our engines as little as possible. We were seriously racing, but they owed us 78 seconds a mile. Once they called us on the radio and said, 'We see you.' I said, 'Yeah, but if I can see you we've got you.' "

At one point when the escort vessel, Larry Silver's 68-foot motor yacht Divergent, lost contact with some of the fleet, Voice of Reason relayed information on its powerful radio system.

...

Spinnaker B

1. Voice of Reason (Ericson 32), Jim McCone/Mike Verla, Lomita, Calif. (180), 39/240.

2. Classic Impulse (Catalina 40), Sean Roll, Riverside, Calif. (102), 40/251.

3. Jungle Jim (Jeanneau 49), Jim Maslon, Marina del Rey (69), competed only on Leg 3.

 

[windjunkee]

Mike, why are you so surprised? Voice of Reason is a good boat.
As a race update, VOR took first in class on all three legs of the race and first overall in Spinnaker B class. We also corrected over all boats racing in the "Salsa" division (the racing division raced a slightly different course so we could not be compared heads-up) and finished the race in a corrected time of just over 149 hours. The next closest boat was a J-133 which corrected in at 151 hours.
We made many modifications to the boat over the past year to prepare for the race. The best modification -- was our rudder, which was modified to be more high aspect ratio and deeper. We certainly appreciated the extra control. The most useful modification inside was the starboard settee. We removed the cushions from the starboard settee and manufactured a board with a handrail on top. Thus, we turned the starboard settee into a deep, firm storage area. About half the area was taken up by a large, well insulated cooler so that we could supplement the small refrigerator we have. The rest was used for storing crew gear, which left the dinette, quarter berth and forepeak relatively uncluttered.
For off wind sailing, the 32-2 is not the greatest boat (sorry VOR). With winds over 25 knots and a short-period following sea approaching 15 feet, the back end was very difficult to manage. It really took incredible amounts of concentration to drive and, on those nights where it was really really DARK out, we had nothing to drive by but the instruments. We realistically couldn't hold a shift at the helm beyond an hour. Maybe a half hour would have been better, but it took 5-10 minutes just to get the feel for the helm. Of course, we were driving on the edge, almost DDW, and had to anticipate what the swells would do to the stern. It would have been easier to sail with the wind and seas off the quarter (30-45 degrees off DDW), but we would have been sailing much further.
As for damage, we did break a few things. Two upper battens in the main shattered. We don't know when. Our autopilot broke, but it seems like something easily repaired. The steel support structure for the steering quadrant loosened up and, from what we can tell, those supports are glassed to the hull. We're going to assess the problem when the boat gets back.
All in all, it was a great sail. We would wake up in the morning and see boats around us. With the next-closest boat in rating giving us 78 seconds a mile (our PHRF rating is 180, the next closest boat in rating was 102), the fact that we could see boats meant we were doing well. We saw too many whales to count, one swimming directly under the boat in very very clear water. We saw dolphins coming in at night toward our boat from 200 meters away, as the phosflouresence shimmered as they glided through the water. It was a memorable trip, all in all.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Tbear]

Great Job -- Any Suggestions

Hey Windjunkee,

Good job on the race!

I'm entered in the 2008 Pac Cup race with my E32-3. I don't know how similar the boats are. My PHRF, however is 156 so I would think there are some changes.

I keep my boat in LA and would love the chance to talk about your race and glean any advice about managing the boat that you may have. Feel free to email me!

Don Saunders,
SV/ Northstar

 

[JMS]

Just noticed Voice Of Reason finished second in their class in the Santa Barbara to King Harbor race -> 2007 SB-KH Race Results

 

[Rocinante33]

Santa Barbara to King Harbor

Way to go voice of Reason! Next time, we expect you to beat Afterburner (52' catamaran, PHRF = -155).
http://archives.gibbscam.com/afterburner/index.htm

 

[windjunkee]

Thanks guys,

The SB/KH race is our favorite, especially since we took PHRF overall honors last year. However, it was really fun this year. Up in Santa Barbara we were rafted up to another Ericson 32, Aries. We see these guys in several races a year and we trade off wins. They won the San Pedro-Dana Point race in May. They owed us 40 minutes and 30 seconds on this race though, and when it was light enough to see, they were about a mile to seaward of us. It was nice to be in the mix like that. They ended up having a better angle to the finish and pulled away, but not enough to overcome the handicap. We were pushing hard for the last hour and a half to make sure we stayed ahead of them.
The best complement I heard after the race is that the boats in our class were all concerned with where we were. The boat that won our class keyed his race off us. When we rounded Anacapa Island, at least 3 different people told me they had the binoculars out to see which way we were going. When we finally had the wind angle to raise the chute on the final approach to the finish, I told my crew "lets get the chute up and let everyone know we're here". One of our competitors saw the chute and knew it was us and said ..."Crap!". I find the respect of our peers to be the best complement in the world.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Tbear]

Hey Jim,

Once we get Northstar in shape maybe we'll be able to come join the fun with you! It'd be a great way for my crew to gain more experience!

Don Saunders
SV/ Northstar
E32-3 #731

 

[Seth]

Atta boy Jim (again)

Don,

The 2 versions of the 32 (yours and Jim's) have almost nothing in common. The 32-3 is in family tree of the 38, 35-3, and 34 (new), which evloved in the mid 80's, and Jim's boat is a design of 1970's vintage, and had a totally different design brief. More importantly, sailboat design has evolved so much between these designs-structure, keel and rudder, rig, etc. are all of a very different nature-as is hull shape of course.

Both are great boats however, but your boat will sail and tune quite differently than Jim's. As long as you don't load it up too much with junk, keep a fast bottom, and some decent sails you should do fine in the same type of races.

Enjoy!!

S

Hey Windjunkee,

Good job on the race!

I'm entered in the 2008 Pac Cup race with my E32-3. I don't know how similar the boats are. My PHRF, however is 156 so I would think there are some changes.

I keep my boat in LA and would love the chance to talk about your race and glean any advice about managing the boat that you may have. Feel free to email me!

Don Saunders,
SV/ Northstar

 

[Tbear]

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks Seth, and everyone else. I really like the boat and it meets my goals very well. I promise, I'll keep the bottom clean and keep the junk out during races.

I'll keep everyone updated about my progress toward the 2008 Pac Cup. Any and all advice is surely appreciated! By the way, I am looking for some good used sails - especially spinnakers.

Thanks!

Don Saunders
SV/ Northstar
E32-3 hull# 731