With the destruction of our beloved Strawberry Express we went on a quest to find a new boat and found Boomer. Boomer is a martin 242. It is a 24 foot long fractional rig that is fun to sail and race.

The martin can be raced in a one design class http://www.m242.bc.ca/ or against other sailboats with the PHRF ratting system. Boomer rates in at 168 with is a higher handicap than Strawberry Express (kirby30) at 135. Technically the lower the handicap the faster the boat but not necessarily. The big up side to Boomer is the down wind spinnaker performance. We have yet to set the chute in high winds but are looking forward to the race in which we can do this. It should really move well but time will tell.

So far June and I are still on the steep learning curve. I hope to have the boat in top form for the up coming winter racing season. On my first sail I went out by myself for the day and raced to Mayne and around Prevost island. Since then we have been out about 5 times and think it is just different that Strawberry. Not better just different. Strawberry was a very powerful boat that would track well and tacked like a dream. Boomer (martin 242) is so much more tender and does not track as well through the tacks. The helmsman needs to be extra sensitive on the tacks.

If you would like to come out on a race drop me a email. The races go ever second week all winter long. I really like the winter races. The chances of sustained 10-15 knot winds is much higher. I find this is the optimum racing wind. Higher winds are not as much fun and winds lower than that range are just boring. So bring on the wind, Boomer is ready to show some big boats it’s” stern”. When racing sailboats the other boats look so much nicer when they are viewed on mass over the stern.

Cheers
Scott

Yes it was a great last sail but unfortunately Strawberry’s (Kirby 30) last sail. The race was going great. June and I had decided that we would sail the race double handed without the spinnaker. If the conditions where right this would give us a big advantage in the race. Sometimes you end up sailing up hill against the wind all the way around the island. The extra 15 seconds on our PHRF handicap can be an nice side benefit on a long race.

Thing where going well for us we where in the last division to start and had passed a lot of slower boat and where on a nice down wind reach going north in Trincomali channel. The wind looked way stronger on the Galiano side of the channel so with chart in hand I thought we could go in between the Ballingall Islets and Wise island. Well lets just say the reef was not that deep and we clipped it and rode up on it. June was thrown into the bulkhead and received a nasty cut on her lip that was spurting blood. Now this in not a good position to be in. Wife crying and profusely bleeding boat high and dry on a rock (both the tiller and rudder). Luckily there is a nice man who lives on Walace he came over in his power boat and I threw him the spin halyard and we where over and off and back in the race (technically out). June was still bleeding on my beloved boat so I needed to get her a few stitches so we sailed over to the Fernwood dock and she jumped ship. Wendy Vine from the race committee was nice enough to drive over and meet her and take her to the hospital. The strange thing about dropping her off at the dock was no one rendered any assistance to her. There had to be ten people all on the dock and they just stood there and starred at her. They might of thought it was a domestic dispute and I was throwing her off the boat. It was very weird for Salt Spring. June received three stitches and text me she was OK. I had thought I could pick her up on the other side of the island but she was a little to shaken up.

The race must go on. With just a little water coming in I could not resit the chance to single hand the rest of the course. It proved to be a great race. Strawberry gave her all and preformed so well. Coming out of Samson narrows we crawled over to the cow bay side and had a nice 14knot breeze behind up that made the old girl fly. Truly a magnificent sailing boat the Kirby 30. If this was to be her last sail it will be one I remember for ever. The big main was at it’s best on the run towards cape Kepple. I walked on so many boats it is a great feeling. 10 minutes on a reef will put you at the back of any race.

I have run two 42km marathons one in Greece, Marathon to Athens and one in Paris. During the Athens race I started at the very front of the pack and it was demoralizing having faster runners passing me all day. On the Paris race (30 thousand runners) I was the last one to start and passed people all day. It just makes you feel better. I have the same time on both races (3:20 range) but emotionally I was way stronger in Paris.

The nice thing about being in the mid fleet on a long race is you can avoid the parking lots (stopped boats) and pass by them on the outside or inside (never sail towards a stopped group of boats they are not having lunch). My strategy was to sail way south and avoid all the dead air in Fulford and Beaver Point. The only problem was all the wind died and everyone sat their having supper. I tried to get out side and work the tides and was hoping to get a jump on the fleet and hit the line before them all but the wind filled in from the Salt Spring side and I made a mid pack finish. The only tense part of the race was at the finish. The wind had picked up to 10 kts and there had to be 60 odd boats going in every direction dousing sails. I chose to sail off and do it on my own time.

Strawberry is up on the hard at Canoe Cove with a 25 thousand dollar repair bill. I have to admit it is nice to have boat insurance. If I did not I would be at Canoe Cove with my West System kit. Just waiting for the cheque now. It should be sent out soon. June had been driving me mad with all this talk about a new boat; what about a J24, how about a Santana 525, Martin, etc…

Special note to all who sailed on Strawberry Express Kirby 30 hull #9 a big thanks from Scott Simmons. Hopefully that will not be the end of the boat. Someone (not me) will buy her and rebuild.

On Sunday in December I woke up at 6am to the sound of a howling wind.  I thought to myself, it’s race day, it will be great.  At 8am I had a cup of java and shook the cob webs off and looked out at the water and all I could see on the Trincomali Channel was a sea of white foaming waves.

I had decided the other day that if I was going to race on Sunday I would crew on another boat because of the sad state of Strawberry’s hull. She is going in for a paint job in January and I would rather just wait until she has a smooth new paint job. This race would be sailed on the mighty Electra, a very sleek Aphrodite 101 33′ skippered by the local great sailor Roger Kibble.

Once out on the water the wind was just great blowing 30 – 40 knots. Which makes for fun sailing. We where down to one reef in the main and a self taking #4 head sail. It is too bad we did not have the ability to get another reef in the main or get it flatter. We had to much canvas up and the boat was over powered. You can tell by the state of the tiller (excessive weather helm). This did not stop us from bashing along and having a great race.

On the way back to the harbour we duked it out with Alacrity. Bob Jones put up a great fight but eventually we broke past him and left him in our wake. The thing about yacht racing it is a handicaped sport and the day went to the new fleet captian racing Pete McGovern and his boat Dreky. Well done Pete, as they say those darn Hunters, they can really sail in a strong wind.

It was the end of a great sailing year for me, the highlight being the round salt spring race and the swiftsure. The main highlight is the friends I have made. The sailors and or racers on Salt Spring are really a great group of people. See you all next year and I hope you only see my stern.

Cheers
Scott

It’s over folks and it was fun race for all the Salt Spring Island sailing club members that went on the race. The wind gods gave us all they had for the four day race. We had the first storm of the winter blow all weekend and it made for great sailing. The winds were clocked at over 100km on Saturna Island. I would like to go into details of what happened on the race/cruise but as the old saying goes what happened on the boyz cruise stays on the bozy cruise.

I was nice to see so many out. Over 20 boats and about 100 men. Keith Simpson is still claiming over all victory but the real winners was Salt Spring Island Sailing Club’s “Alacrity”, Skippered by the great sailor Bob Jones and crewed by Tony Meek and yours truly. The sad news is Bob is selling his beloved “Alacrity” which is a C&C 35-2. I do love to sail on the boat it just goes like a freight train. We had 40 knots on the nose and she sailed right along. See the video clips;[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PXaN5P6owc][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZO6AQjkMfM]

What a joy seeing someone with a new (new to them) sailboat out for the first sail. The smiles the fun of it all. Yes a new Flying Junior was sailing on the St Mary lake with a unnamed skipper and family on board. Two small children 2-4 years old. All went find a quick sail out on the lake and back to the dock.

Then came the hey Scott you want to go out on it. The fool I am, I have never turned down a sail. The winds where light 5 knot with gust up to 8 knot. Perfect for a nice afternoon of sailing, the unnamed skipper is very new to sailing so I took over the helm. I just cant help it. I wanted to see how it will sail and point out some of the finer points of sailing. Well things went fine, I did notice that the flotation seats where a little soft. The tiller and the boom where in contact when tacking and other that that it sailed OK. It would take a few hours to tune it up and it would be fine. So I handed over the rains.

At first things where fine until we had a slight wind shift and gust and we did a accidental tack and over we went. No big deal right, wrong the boat just started to gurgle and bubble she was not going to come up. We where on the side standing on the keel trying to get it to come up but there was no way. It just started to sink and down she went. We only had one life jacket and tied it to the main sheet so we could dive on it and find it. There we where in the middle of the lake boat less. Luckily two power boaters (electric motors) came to our rescue. So did my eldest son Keith and his friend Jeff in the canoe.

We manged to pull the boat up to the surface and the power boats towed us to the closes dock. The owner of the dock was the guy in one of the boat and once we had the boat close to the dock he produced a nice electric pump and pumped the boat out and it was afloat again.

To this point the boat has no name I’m pushing for “Resurrected” I think it is a fitting name. I’m just so glad it did not go down with the kids on board. So I’m headed back to the lake with a can of epoxy and some fiberglass mat and we are going to make the “flotation” tanks air tight.

Messing around in boat is what summer is all about.
Cheers
Scott

The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club held it’s annual Jack and Jill sailing race on Saturday the 16 June. Nine boats, with crews consisting of one female and one male, started the race.
The course went from the sailing club out to the Channel Islands and circled them one and a half times and back to the club for a salmon barbeque.

It sounded so easy but the winds were not going to let the boats get their Jacks back to cook for the Jills quickly. Some of the boats just made it out of the inner harbour and some made it out to the islands and then drifted. This did give us the chance to see the Channel Islands up close and see all the seals and beautiful little beaches. After drifting with the current, Strawberry Express retired for home with the old engine giving the battery the longest charge of the year. Alacrity, Imp, Electra (Aphrodite 101), Tigger J (C&C 38) and Arbitrage glided around the islands and made it to the BBQ. Tinker, Aquila Mia and Naru (northstar 1500) had all returned to the dock without the aid of the wind.

The Wednesday night races are in full swing with the skippers meeting at 4:30 and a 5:00 start. The winds have been steady so far.

The Friday night adult Laser dinghy races (5pm start) are a huge success. Last Friday’s strong winds gave all the not-so-young laser sailors a real work out. Every racer (except Greg) had the chance to practice righting their boat and Dr. Woodley even had the chance to practice his trade and dole out some stitches to yours truly who unfortunately forgot to duck.

I received my stitches at the emergency ward in the Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring. I arrived at the hospital at 7:55 pm and was out by 8:10 pm. The Hospital on Salt Spring is fantastic, quick clean and no waiting. What more do you want from a Hospital? Could you get that kind of service in any city in Canada? I don’t think so. The doctors on Salt Spring are young, vibrant and not in short supply. It is comforting to know that we have such a great facility on island.

The next big race coming up is the Vendee Salt Spring race on the weekend of July 7-8. There is a limit to the number of boats so sign up soon.

By Scott Simmons