Ready to start and live tracking

The live tracking should be active tomorrow saturday from 09:30
http://www.suiviregate.ch/

Sailing Solo to SNG

2 days before the start

MammaMia has his name, finally

Since we had MammaMia in the club, I was quite surprised to discover nobody took the effort to write the name of the boat on the boat. So, not being able to find the adhesive letter at reasonable price and reasonable size, I decided to improvise some fonts with adhesive tape. Sure I could not do a perfect fonts, I went for a more random-artistic font shape, and that is the result:

Safety first, jackline installed

Port and Starboard jackline installed, using a the single line loop described in the previous post, plus  an additional fixed longe at the rudder. A video and some picture to describe the work done yesterday night.

Racing stripes and racing sails

Saturday, one week before the regatta, I went to BA5 and I check the a full set of sail, Su Main 16, Su Genoa 17, Su Solet 19, Su BigSpi 19, Su Spi Gauge 12, (the number is the year). 

Instrument fixed, gelcoat has dried, but still not able to fix the windex at the top of the mast, and check the light, as the crane was busy. 

However, a new look for Mamma Mia that now has amazing new look with (removable) red racing stripes... Guess where have you seen those stripes already? Of course, on my Velomobile! 

Gelcoat again while the boat is in Founex

While the boat is Founex, I went back yesterday to re-do the gelcoat on the Stern, damaged by the engine support, and on the bow, the base of the mast.
I have also sanded the side of the hull with 240 gritt water-sand paper.
Boat seems in good conditions, however, humidity raised up again to 70%. Can't wait to have it back in Versoix, where I have a list of critical tasks to accomplish:

Regatta Sails, Battery recharge, Windex repair, navigation light check (is very dim, have to investigate why), jack line installation, loading food and water, regatta final registration... and who knows what else!

Mamma Mia at the SdS Founex

A picture of Mamma Mia during the SdS Founex, skipper M. Chevallier, 

as seen from my Nikon.... Here it has the standard sails.

A bit of Italy on board: new spinnaker sheets from Gottifredi Maffioli

As they were damaged and of different diameters, I decided at least to replace the spinnaker sheets, so I went to SUI4616 that suggested me to get 8mm from Gottifredi-Maffioli blu and red. As I like abundance I got 16meters of each, probably a lot but as I will have to deal alone with all the lines, I would like to return the line to the top of the mast while I am hoisting it, such that I can control the sheets also from the mast base.

The history of Gottifredi Maffioli is very interesting, actually was a woman to found the company, and now it is a leader manufacturer of high quality sailing ropes.

and a picture of me while sailing mamma mia, (with the everyday sails).  

https://www.sui4616.ch/

http://www.gottifredimaffioli.com/index.php

Windex is broken, climbing on top of the crane!

Unfortunately the Windex at the top of the mast is not working, but,  it is not possible on the surprise to climb on top of the mast using the halyard. It is probably possible by design, but I will NOT attach my life to 10 years old halyards, and I can't trust the small winches, and the light aluminium mast! Asking to the experts, the procedure is to use the crane in the port, and climb on top of it, and from there, trying to access the top of the mast.  So I moored the boat as close as I could to the crane, climbed to the top with my climbing harness and a ferrata set (that was not easy to use as there is not a safety cable, so next time, I will come with additional safety lines), and I only managed to make pictures of the windex, that seems bended at the base. I could not reach it, as there is not enough space to align the boat with the crane top, and there are no anchoring points at the base of the crane, to pull the spinnaker halyard and list the boat on the port side. However, a nice experience and a nice view. Will try to see what could I do next week, now the boat is going to Founex for the Semain du Soir, so 1 week without the boat. 

below a close up view of the damaged windex. 

And a nice view of Port Choiseul from the top of the crane

Winning YCC internal regatta and route planning

Let's start with a good news, yesterday Mamma Mia won the YCC internal regatta, despite we had 1 protest and we pay our penality, and the day before, also won the mini-regatta during the regatta training. This put my motivation high, but I know very well that the skippers at the Translemanique will be all much more experienced and skilled than me... I like challenges.

Now I started to prepare the navigation route, using both the maps I have generated (of which a copy is in Mamma Mia) and of course the Garmin-Navionics application. 

That is the shortest linear geometrical route I can design on the lake to approach the mark position, ( I took the position form the Translemanique gps track of 2018, and average where boats where turning. It is 34.7 Nautical miles.

Some boats used a different strategy in 2018 and went up to gland, to than have a direct route to the mark, I m impressed they managed to do 20 miles without a single tack/gybe! However, this path is 36 miles longs. 

Depending on the wind, the track could be completely different, so on the Gran-Lac could be necessary to do multiple tack or gybe. However it is interesting to have on the GPS the best geometrical route, such that I can plan to stay as close as possible to it. It is also true, that having a bit more room from the coast, will allow to have probably more maneuverability. 

Approximate Minimal total distance = 70 Nautical Miles  and expected time on different average speeds:

2knots = 35h00m  Minimum race avg speed 2.3knots to complete the race*

3knots = 23h20m

4knots = 17h30m

5knots = 14h00m

6knots=  11h40m     Above this speed is planing! Surprise hull speed is 6.24knots!**

7knots=  10h00m  

*Minimum avg speed has to be 2.3knots, closing of the line start at 09:20, closing at 16h of sunday, so max 30.5 hours.
** Displacement Hull speed calculated as 2.43(sqrt(lwl of 6.6m)). 

Best results of Surprises class last editions (1st classified) Previous editions are to Lutry only.

2018 11h22m result - WOW  CER1 Sophies Nelson Mettraux, 6.25knots average that is almost the maximum displacement hull speed of the surprise!
2017 16h55m  Luna Surprise
2016 16h55m  GVA Areoport
2015 29h21m Luc Forum EPFL



Interesting the need to install a  GPS-Conversion application that allowed me to easily convert from the Google-Earth coordinate systems, Degrees,Minutes, Seconds, fraction of seconds,  into the Garmin Navionics Degrees, Minutes, CentsOfMinutes. 
I think both applications  uses a WGS84 projection.

  

Bilge cleaning drying, pilot calibration, gelcoat fix... and amphibious car in Versoix!

On Saturday: A lot of work performed, I made a short video of some of the steps, thank a lot to my crew Pawel, Giulia K, Ylenia, Magda to help me with the hull cleaning part 2 and the tiller calibration.  Spent a lot of time for bilge cleaning and drying. Nice saling on laser after the work.

On Sunday, Gelcoat repairs, + many small other things.. . I spotted something very rare: an amphibious red car in the port, filmed at the end of the video (03:25) !

From the boat logs:

11 Aug: 1-2bft, Luigi, pawel. giulia, magda, Ylenia. Done auto pilot compass calibration. Discover the backstay was attached by a piece of rotten ropes, re-connected to the metal ring and redone the pully circuit such that it can properly work. Found 90% humidity inside, and the tank of the de-humidifie full. cleaned by hand the full bilge, extrated like 4 liters of water from inside (and a lot of dirt). Removed the broken instrument plexiglass, temporary repaired with plastic bag, however, leave the temporary ducktape please semi-open, such that the instrument moisture can dry. Measured the diameter of halyard that is 9mm, and lenght of spinnaker lines that I will probably replace. Battery still measure 12.5 volt=Battery ok! Left the boat rigged and open to dry on request of Alessandro that will go out for the fireworks soon. CLEANED ALL THE BOAT, PLEASE KEEP IT CLEAN AND DRY, DO NOT GO WET OR WITH SHOES INSIDE, we should try to reduce the moisture, and I want to see if there are some leaks to explain so much water inside.

12 Aug: Fresh gelcoat this morning, on mast base, port side aroud the shroud and on the starboard a small hole close to the seat. CAREFULL WITH THE ENGINE: The engine support was touching the stern and has completely destroyed the gelcoat exposing the fiberglass, so I have remade it but PLEASE DO NOT PULL THE ENGINE COMPLETELYH DOWN. Also a blue tissue installed there to reduce the impact force. Fixed the velocitek support, try to keep boat open as much as possible in the sun to reduce moisture. Silicon lube on cockpit and lithium lube on pulley and traveller.

Regatta in a parking, to explore the Velocitek

My first regatta in a Parking with the Velocitek ProStart :-) 

Sailing to La Nautique, autopilot, de-humidifier, cartographie and more!

Good outing yesterday during Thursday Practice, where I got the chance again to take Mamma Mia and sail with YCC crew to La Nautique Geneve, stop there for a fast mooring and sail back by night. Was important to me to evaluate the peformance of the autopilot under spinnaker, and have a look at the new port a La Nautique, in case I will sleep there before the regatta.

 

While the boat was steering with the autopilot, I was checking and fixing many things on board, and the crew was doing a Knots lesson for Level0, or sailing the boat.


- Lights and battery seems to work
- Autopilot works fine, but it still needs calibration
- Added de-humidifier, meteo station with thermo-meter, hygrometer and retro-illuminated clock
- Tested my headlamp, one is very good, the other two are not sufficently bright on red light, but I will take them as backup
- Navionics GPS on my phone, only works if the phone is outside the cabin. Full charts of the lake on board!

 
Mamma Mia moored at La Nautique Geneve !

Drilling Mamma Mia deck... to install ST1000 Tiller Pilot!

Above a frame from The video with the full work done to install the St1000 Plus on Mamma Mia, in the most scaring moment of my sailing life at YCC: Drilling holes on the deck of the boat!
The full video shows all the steps done,  I have not recorded the epoxy part, and the video of the test done after, but if you have no time to see the 12 minutes video, you can appreciate some pictures of the key moments:

Here the tiller pilot mechanically installed, before the electrical connection: 

Me start working on the electrical panel, see the video for all the explanation!

And the electrical panel 

Me clearly happy after the installation, before the boat cleaning

Here the first autopilot test during a rainy evening after the cancelled regatta training. Thank to my crew to their motivation to go out just for the first test.

Next step, outing with with full test and calibration!

Fare Carena! Hull Cleaning

Thanks to the crew today that helped and accepted to use a practice day with very little wind, to assist me during the hull cleaning operation (first episode!). Mamma mia had at least 1cm of vegetation on it, and I am sure was not cleaned since a lot!  As we say in Italian  :Fare carena (to do the hull)! 

Cleaning tools left on board, for the next cleaning episode.