How I did the Translemanique 2019

Amazing Learning experience, I have learned and improved my sailing skills more in those 24 hours than in the last year of sailing. I am sure of that. Being alone on the surprise is amazing. First of all the boat is so light, that reacts and sail much better that I was used to during the club practice, and then, the regatta sails, allowed me to do real sail trimming,  that I had little chance to experiment during the year on the short - daily sail. A long race made me focus more on the wind-navigational aspects than to the fast tack/gybe/spihoist  operation that we train so much in short regattas.

I did some mistakes, some things went wrong, but in general, everything went better than I was expecting. It is my first solo sailing, my first time I cross the lake, and first time I do something non stop for 32 hours, so the general opinion is FULLY POSITIVE. I was surprised also on how much the preparation  payed off, and now that I did it, how much more preparation is needed to be competitive with the other amazing skippers I met during the race. I think in the club, we should promote to some expert sailors the possibility to sail keelboat in solitaire, as most of the things I have discover during the race, I could have discover (and fix) before if I had chance to sail alone the boat.


Wind Conditions: Very difficult wind conditions, always shifting, alternating moment of very little local wind, and storm in the night.   The start was extremely slow, and there, the good choice would have been to go to versoix while I have (as many other) stayed on the Hermance side. Spinnaker on most of the gran lac, up to Lugrin that I reached around 21h00, where I start to get some thermal up-wind. Storm as I was approaching the buoy, and then storm downwin by night, where by Main and Genoa I did 9 knots.  Meteo forecast was really not clear, different model were predicting different wind in different areas. Constant wind shift imposed me to change tack many time, and hoist or gybe the spinnaker at least 10 times in the first part of the race. I knew each sail change would have been a loss in time and energy, but I really wanted to use every wind available. 

 Race and Track analysis: In the video, a short track analysis from the http://www.suiviregate.ch/ , you can open the track file on Google Earth, time is in UTC. 

I should go out from the port 1h before, to really identify the starting line that were not easy to see when everyone was out.  Start procedure was different than usual, 10 minutes class flag, 5 minutes  preparatory signal, 0 start.  I was not positioned on the starting line, for the reason I sayd before, was almost zero wind and I had lot of dirty wind from the boats large than me. Despite all my effort, the genoa in low wind did not took shape at the top, there  I decided like some other sailors, to hoist the spinnaker and use it a large code zero, not optimal, I know, and made me loose 15-20 degrees but at least I had some speed and I managed to move away from the crowd.
Up to versoix I was in front of the Gran Surprise  Bachi Bouzouk with skipper Dee Caffari the Translemanique testimonial that than won the GS class., that than won  Unfortunately at the start at the port tack I had to bear away to give priority to some boat, and I probably took the spi up too long. Super-slowly with many stuck moments, I continue on the east side, convinced that with low speed, was strategical not to add miles going on the other side of the lake. Many other skipper did my choice, so I do not regret, who went on the jura side after Hermance, did the best.  First big obstacle was to pass Yvoire, there I knew the wind would have been changed, and I had to stay away from the Thonon gulf. I tried to stay away as possible from that area, were clearly there was no wind. Mirabaud1 the winning surprise, passed in the centre of the lake there, Mordicus the second surprise,  passed at the east coast, I was in the middle (but much later than them) but I do not regret again of my tactics.
Between Thonon and Evian, wind went down, and down...  I was where 2 hours before I spotted with the binocular some surprises going very fast.... while I got stuck completely. Around 18h between Thonon and Evian I was really upset. Am I still here??  If you look close to the track on Google Earth, you will see I even have made a 360 in the desperate search for some wind, and in a tentative to move away from that dead zone. Then, with the evening approaching, the sun going down, big cloud start to develop in front of me. It was a super hot afternoon, so thermal wind was expected. And it came.

I decided so to stay as close as possible to the coast, and follow where possible the geographical profile of the coast, knowing that the wind would have done the same.  Even if tired, I decided I had to try to hoist the spinnaker by night and I did it successfully. Of course it was on the wrong tack, but I found a mechanism to put it on the right side, without the spinnaker pole, to avoid the gybe, and then mount the pole once the spi was hoisted.
 In front of Lugrin, the storm develop, and a strong upwin came. So I put fast the spi down, and very soon after I saw the blinking buoy, and the port of Le bouveret lights. I did 6-7knots upwind, lighting where illuminating the sky and the black mountains, I was so close to the coast that I had to check many times the map to be sure not to hit rocks or other obstacles. I knew there were like 50meters of depth there, but my brain really could not accept to be so fast and so close to the coast in the night without cross checking the map.  I prepare the boat  for the storm. I passed the buoy at 02h30 moment of happyness and then full downind. Here maximum speed, I touch 9knots, and I went so fast with just the Main and the Genoa. I thought many times I should hoist the spinnaker but I was so tired and start to move so badly that I felt safe to wait a bit. So I continued downind following the VMG with multiple gybe, trying to avoid the gulf of Evian. I stayed in the middle of the lake, as I saw the boat on the coast getting stuck in dead wind. It went very well up to the morning, then at 05h41 my biggest mistake: the gybe.  Worried to end up inside the Thonon gulf and not getting out, I pointed in the middle of the lake... It went fine for a while but... Wind start to go down. I hoisted the spi, and I was not doing more than 4 knots... than I got completely stuck in the middle of the lake in front of Rolle at 07:30h. I have waited, and waited for the wind,  but the situation disaster when the sun raised. Flat water, high clouds typical of a slow warm front approaching... There I realized that it was really bad, compared to the previous situation, I was really the only boat stuck, all the others around me, even if slowly, had some speed, and they were going southwest...
Around 08h30 a survelliance boat from SNG came closed, and asked about my intentions. I really appreciated the fact that the survelliance boat came to check if I was ok, and I was, but they told me that many other boats have been abandon and I was one of the last surprise one between the one still racing. I reply that I would have waited a bit more. I have waited. At 09h45 I was stuck for 2 hours, no wind expected until the afternoon, no chances to move away from the centre of the lake, so I decided to abandon, and I start the engine.
I have checked the track today, and I realized how unlikely I was, half an hour before, and not gybing at 05h41 would have been give me a chance to complete.


Mamma Mia: Mamma Mia is in perfect conditions, I really have found no issues with it, and it is very pleasant to sail. The shape of the cockpit to me is more comfortable than MicMac. Now with the racing stripes it even looks more beautiful so I hope we will continue to improve it and invest on it!

Sails: The sails I will use are from Arnaud Top Voile : Su Main 16, Su Genoa 17 the big Sui Spinnaker 19 and I had board also the Solent jib 19, and the small gauge spinnaker 12. I realized that in case I really had to change the head sail, would have taken me immense amount of time, so luckly I had not to do it.
According to Rob, those sails  require 5 cm of pre-camber which is what I got, The lateral deflection of the mast was of 1-2 cm. 
Su Main 16:  I had a problem with the top batten that went loose at the start, so I had to put the sail down, fix it, and lock the batten again. For the rest, the sail really respond to the fine tuning controls, and easily get the perfect shape. Upwind, quite a lot of tension on the main sheet and the right position traveller really makes a difference. I had almost no tension on vang and cunningham in the low wind part. In the storm, putting tension really made the sail flat. Another problem is the reef point, that is much higher than the standard sail: the reef line was too short! luckly I had not to reef, but I had set it up connecting directly the reef line to the reef point with a bowline, without going back to the mast, and having a stripe ready to be used to keep the reef point close to the boom. Traveler got stuck many time, and the traver lines are not optimized at all, they sometimes goes down in the traveller itself. To be improved.

Su Genoa 17 : The Genoa is to me very heavy compared to the genoa I saw on the other surprise, and that is the sail that created more issues. First of all, it can not be rolled, when you are alone, this is really a difficult point, as you have to put it down all the time you hoist the spinnaker, and can not be reduced. Also the sails to me is not optimized for low wind, and it has issue to take it shape around the top batten in light air. However, during the storm, was a pleasure to sail with it. Genoa Traveller also got stuck under tensions, probably the bearing have to be replaced.

Su Big Spi 19 : A wonderful spinnaker, that I managed to use in light wind as a big genoa. No issue with that sail, and I had no problem to report with it. The new spinnaker sheet, are 16m each (2 more than the standard), and that lenght is really needed in solitaire. As they are new, are a bit rigid, so they got stuck in the pulley many times.


Rigging comparison of other surprise: I had a chance at La Nautique to have a look to the other surprise. Most of them have a much more modern and high tech rig. Not that I am at the level to benefit from the weight saving of 6mm dyneema or low friction rings, but I had the impression, their rig was much more smooth to operate, and for sure, having lines that never got stuck, at the exact lenght... could play the role. Most of the suprise had only 2 winches, and a pulley system for the head halyad tension.

Engine, Autopilot, battery, lights and windex. 
All the surprise I saw sailed with NO ENGINE on board, but it is also true, some of them,  had a team behind the skipper, that helped them  un-mounting it and taking care of it at la Nautique, helped the skipper preparing the boat the day before or had an auxiliary motor boat around them.
Autopilot  was really a winning choice, and I am so happy I had installed. It worked smoothly. To be honest, I had to use it only during the tack and gybes, for the rest of the time have been left in standby and I was at the tiller. The backlighted display is very good, and be sure to have set it ON before as I did.
Who had not an electronic tiller pilot, had installed a 4mm line loop all around the boat attached to the tiller and  kept in tension at the mast with an elastic, to be able to control the tiller from all the places on the boat. It is for sure an alternative better than the tiller-lock mounted on MicMac.
 Main Battery (60Ah)  was sufficient to let the tiller pilot run or being in standby since Friday, so the second auxiliary battery (40Ah) was not necessary, but having a spare made me relax a lot. A possible improvement here in weight saving, is to go for  a lithium battery, of witch the capacity is really tuned for the 36h of operation. The nav light at top of the mast was working, but is very dim, also would be nice to have LED there, to be sure it will not fail, so I could have avoided to bring with me the spare navigational lights.
Windex was not working as I knew, but I am so used to dinghy sailing that I really did not feel naked without it.

Instrumentation: Navionics on my mobile,  was very useful, kept running with screen on all the time, auxiliary battery back to charge the phone have been essential. I had really no time to check the mobile phone for meteo update,or picture or do fancy stuff. Velociteck was partially useful, I had no time to set the start mark positions, and to press buttons, so I used only as an additional compass and speedometer reference. However, around 15h, it went in an error state, and I had no time to reset. I do not know if the memory was full or what was the problem. Also it is not back-lighted and unreadable during the day with polarized glass. Magnetic Compass is essential once you know which route you want to follow, to calculate the best tack. It has a shift of 10 degrees compare to the GPS, but I had found no screw to tune it. Log is also essential, but very hard to view with polarized sunglasses. It was displaying 0 for the first 1hour of sailing on friday, maybe the little propeller in the hull was stuck, than it worked flawless. Again a difference of 1knots is between gps and the log, so not sure if it has to be calibrated. Clock with alarm was also essential.

Safety: I focused a lot on safety and I am happy I did it. The lake is very big, in few hours all the boat are very far away from each other, and if something happen (worst is falling overboard) nobody will see me even during the day. In the night the idea of falling outboard is very scaring and that is really what made me proud of the  Jack-lines I had installed all around the boat. I have always been connected with the harness: this slowed me down a lot, but was necessary: I was surprised other skipper did not have the jackline installed. When I was very tired, I realized I moved like a drunk-elephant on board, so having a connected line to hang to in case... really relaxed me a lot.
I always had my auto-inflatable 150N life-vest with emergency light attached and my whistle, however the whistle would have been useless as in many moments, I think I had no boat around for 1 miles. Also during the engine-transfer,  I always connected to me the shut-off chord, and when I had to do something away from the engine, I put neutral.

Physical and mental conditions: I still had pain for the rib dislocation I got on the catamaran the week before, however, I was in quite good physical conditions. The day before, where I prepare the boat and the sails, was for sure essential to relax and being ready to start after a sleep in the boat in SNG. However, was very hot, and I am sure I have consume a lot of energy already on friday. The start, and the morning has been extremely tiring  because of very little wind and very hot temperature.   Being at 1600 just in front of Lausanne was not encouraging at all, I start thinking more about the tactical mistake I have done but I never gave up, and I was motivated to continue.  When I start to understand the thermal wind,  in late evening, I start to do 4, 5 knots upwind. There my brain re-activated and with  enthusiasm came back, there is where I really sailed at my best. AS you can see from the track, I went most of the time very close to the shore, and I am sure I have really used a channel of wind that was following the geographical path. Once I saw the buoy blinking at 24h, even if very tired I push at my maximum, and I pass the buoy at 02h30. There is where the brain start to slow down, on one side the emotion of having cross the lake for the first time alone relaxed me a lot, on the other side, the storm pushing me downwind. Night however was very warm, but also very dark, no moon in the sky, so concentration has to be kept always at the top. No chances to sleep at all, I tried to rest for 10 minutes,  around 03h30, not having boats around,  but at minute 3 of my rest, the wind shifted again and I had to gybe.
Around 04h00 I start to make mistakes  : small things but like a gybe without opening the Genoa, a tack instead of a gybe, pulling the genoa halyard instead of the spi sheet, and also start to confuse what I was seeing at the horizon: I confused some lights and some trees with a profile of a boat in front of me. Also decision makin becomes hard, my body was telling me to do as less as possible to not loose energy. It was also hard to make stupid calculation, like a subtraction of compass angle to get the best tack :-)

Food and beverage: Water was essential, was so hot, I had 8 liters plus 2 liters of tea convinced to have exaggerated. I did not. I ended up with just 1.5liter bottle left. I During the days before, I tried to have a bit more carbohydrates. I did not drink coffee, energy drinks, just some tea and cola. This to me was important, coffee and energy drink can give you a push for some hours, but on the long term are usually counter-productive, at least on me.  On board, I had cheese, bread, chocolate, apple. nothing special. Unfortunately, I had no chance to have a warm food since the Friday afternoon, but that was not an issue. 

What I should do next time to be more competitive (what I have learned):

• Sail more alone in high wind,  to experience the  real the boat limits.  I am sure I could have push much more but I was not confident to stress the rig too much.  The boat with no equipage is so much lighter and responsive, that the tension on the mast is for sure much lower than the one I was used to experience. 
• Fine tuning of regatta sails before, with tape-marks for the optimal positions for upwind, downwind.
• Arrive 1h before to the start line, wait there for the start, and check the latest meteo forecast there.
• Tack and gybe as less as possible, in the petit lac expecially, the difference in distance are minute compared to the time lost in changing tack
• Hoist the spinnaker downwind even during the high wind, most of the winners did it. 
• A regatta-rolling genoa would have really help.
• Invest more in rigging, (lower diameter / right lenght of sheets, low friction rings, sail connector...)   not to save weight, but to be sure everything goes smoothly and things not got stuck in the pulley, or the genoa got stuck during a gybe.
• Engine, auxiliary battery, fenders, material I have not used, maybe I could have saved 50kg in total.
• Ask for 1 week for the preparation to YCC :-) and ask for help. I really wanted to do it alone, but the energy spent the days before to bring regatta sails, mount the jack lines, move the battery, sail on friday to La Nautique, could have been used to sleep a bit more.

What I recommend to do (as I did this time) :
  

• Focus on safety, install jackline and tiller pilot,  It is really easy to do stupid mistakes, the pilot allows you to have a moment of rest with hands free. 
• Do not stress yourself to much for the race, the regatta aspects are minutes compared to the navigational ones.  Every translemanique is different, and it is really a nice experience, independently by the result, it is impossible to win at first attempt.
• Boat preparation was essential and payed off (I would do more last time). Cleaning the hull, doing all the small repairs, bring the material on board.
• Use the navigation instrument you TRUST and you know very well how to use it.  I used Navionics on a dedicated phone, with 2 additional battery charger,  plus I had printed maps on board (but I would not have many chances to use them). The Velocitek for example, has been almost useless for me, and I discover as I said, that went in error state after 15h. 

Conclusions

  

You can't change the wind, 

but you can adjust the sails

 to reach your destination.

 

 My first Translemanique en Solitaire has been for me a wonderful experience, an arrival point after many years invested in improving my sailing skills on the lake, and a starting point for my future sailing adventure.
 It has been a race mostly against myself,  a way to discover my confidence in sailing, and to learn, learn, learn so much that I could not still believe how educational it was.
 I would like to thank you the YCC for the opportunity and for giving me access to MammaMia, I am sure I have left the boat in a better condition that I thought.

 A final thank you to who has supported me before and after this experience,  and understood the reason why I ask to let me do it alone... en solitaire.
 

Next post: hopefully some pictures!

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.

Jacklines for safety

Safety is my first priority, and as I will be alone doing night sailing, I think it is a must to prepare the boat with a jackline, to prevent to fall over board.

We already have on Mamma Mia the jack-line connectors, that I will attach to my personal auto-inflatable life vest 150N, what is missing on Mamma mia are the jackline itself. Many websites suggest how to install them, and I will follow the suggestions to mount them as close to the centerline as possible (the aim is not to stay attached to the boat when overboard, but not to fall!). 

For the dimension: Most site recommend a load of 1.5-2tons for the jackline, it seems a lot but it is reasonable if you think it should sustain more than one people during a potential fall, so the dynamic factor has to be considered.  So I got a 9mm Polyester rope with 3.5tons load and some spectra that I will use to fix the jackline on multiple points, using the beautiful prusik knot.

In addition I also got some elastics lines, that will be very helpful to keep the sail down in case I will have to switch from Genoa to Jib.


Image found on :
http://www.velablog.it/utilita/legarsi-alla-barca-le-jacklines
https://www.animatedknots.com/prusik-knot

ST1000 measurements

A first video about the autpilot installation .

2018 track analysis

Thanks to google earth, I managed to plot the track of the previous edition 2018 of the Translemanique. Unfortunately wind data are missing, but we could easily guess from the track which kind of wind they got.  I have decided to plot below, the first 4 surprises, here almost at the middle of the race, Nelson Mettraux on CER1 Sophies was the winner skipper, followed by Skirimm and Allegretto. It is impressive how close they sail all the regatta. 

 It is clear what everyone says, to avoid the middle of the lake in the gran lac.I see no real difference in the performance between who choose different side in the petit lac. It is clear that good skipper do a minimum number of tacks, that is also quite surprising. 

I can already see some reference waypoint for my navigation: A passage almost in the middle between Nyon and Yvoir, completely avoid the Thonon gulf, stay on the Evian side in the directrice NyonMontreux. 

First challenge ST-1000 - Most expensive connector ever!

Thanks to Andrin and Dirk, I discover we have an ST1000 autopilot at YCC, and I do not have to buy a new one.  According to notice of race of  Translemanique 2019 , rules 52 is not applied (that forces that everything on board should be human power driven). So I think it is  essential to have a proper Autopilot. 

Previous YCC Members, did the full regatta only with the tiller-lock rudder blocking system. I am really impressed by that, as I have tested sometimes it and even tried more advanced  elastic-based auto-tiller systems, and I have always found that downwind, the probability to have a stable configuration for enough time to raise the spi is a pure gamble. 

So I will focus on my first challenge: to Install the ST1000 on Mamma Mia. 

This is the Raymarine ST1000 plus as installed on the gibsea, I think they choose the port side configuration just because the electrical system is installed on port. This is sub-optimal when going by engine, as the skipper usually should sit on the port side, to see who is coming on the starboard side... by the way, I have tested it on the gibsea, and it works, so good news!

ST1000 uses a (crazy) connector, it is a round 6 pin. After some research, I discover it is a out of production Bulgin Buccaner 6 pin connector, specifically designed for Raymarine, not directly avaialble from Bulgin, but only via RayMarine parts. D338 is the female I need, D337 is the male that is connected to the tiller-pilot. 

Guess what: the most expensive connector ever, only available in UK, luckly should be given with installation screw and gaskets. The cheapest I found, is 33 euros (but I have seen up to 80Euros). 

If I had not to keep compatibility with the gibsea, I would have just cut the cable and switched to another connector. I only need the 2 wires for 12v DC , the other ones are for NMEA Raymarine gps integration, that I will not have. 

So... let's at least place the order, and next step, do the measurement. 

Mamma Mia, something about the boat

 Mamma Mia is a Surprise class sailboat
bought brand new by the Yachting Club CERN in 2009.

Boat preparation: I will work hard to prepare the boat for the regatta, as priority:

Check all the components in particular the electrical system, and make a list of items to improve

Design and build the mount for the ST1000 autopilot and do the electrical connection properly

Clean the hull (at least, first big cleaning)

Why I like Mamma Mia: I immediately liked the Surprise class not only for the well known maneuverability, but mainly for the general purpose design of the boat, that performs extremely well in almost all the weather conditions I managed to sail it on the lake. It offer a lot of space inside, and a compact cockpit, perfect for solo outing.

Knowing the boat I am sailing: Surprise is the most popular sailing boat on the Geneva Lake, it is a Class C 6 people boat (10 people in class D according to constructor plate). First designed and builded by Archambauld Chantier in 1976, it has a fiberglass hull 7.65 meter lenght, a beam of 2.58m, a draft of only 1.6m, and a displacement of 1.350kg of which 600kg are cast iron ballast.

An aluminium Deck stepped Mast is 9.8 meter, with a classical Sloop Marconi 7/8 rig capable of hoisting a Main sail of 16.5 sqm, a Genoa of 14sqm or a Jib of 10sqm and a symmetrical spinnamer of 45 square meters. Total sail area upwind: 30.5 sqm, Downwind: 61.5sqm.
Mamma mia is equipped with a modern outboard Yamaha four stroke 6CV, that I will probably keep on board during the regatta... just in case.

A 12v battery power the navigation and interior lights, and will be crucial to validate the efficiency of the electrical system, as disqualification is expected in case of issue on navigation lights, plus, I would be happy to install and power properly a Raymarine ST1000 autopilot.

Registration number is GE-19209, I will sail with number  SUI 702 

Approximate hull speed (2.43xsqrt(LWL of 7.5m)) = 6.65 knots

I will sail the Translemanique 2019 - Thank you YCC !

 A first post to share my happyness! YCC committee has approved my candidature to be Translemanique 2019 en Solitaire.

 I will have the pleasure to sail the YCC Surprise Mamma MIA with Sail Number SUI 702

Below is the screenshot of my registration... that is now official.