Chicago Yacht Club's 2012 Verve Distance Race

The 2012 Verve Distance Race is less than 1 month away, running Saturday, August 11. There’s still time to register, but hurry because registration closes August 3.

New this year are predefined race courses of different lengths (8 miles to almost 30 miles) to match different wind conditions.  

The entry fee of $2.50/boat foot includes:

• Race entry including a world class Race Committee.
• Access to social events at the Chicago Yacht Club's Monroe station, including skipper’s meeting with professional weather briefing, live music, and a Mount Gay rum pour.
• A skipper’s bag with sponsor’s gifts (think sailor’s equivalent of a VIP gift bag).
• Dockage at Chicago Yacht Club, Monroe Harbor station.
• Awards include:
  • Brag flags for first, second, third places in each section.
  • The overall best corrected finish will be awarded the 8 Mile Buoy Trophy.

This is a fantastic way to spend the day on the water, either as an experienced racer or someone new to sailboat racing.  Come early or stay late and enjoy downtown Chicago's beautiful Lake Front, steps from Millennium Park, Chicago's Museum Campus, and all the arts and entertainment Chicago offers.

See the Notice of Race for race specifics.

How to register?

1. Go to Yacht Scoring.
2. Select Online Entry Form / Application
3. If you’ve registered before you’ll see your information. If not, you’ll be asked to select an event. Select 2012 Verve Cup Offshore Regatta and click Go.
4. Complete your information and select your desired racing course/class:

• Distance Race / JAM (Jib and Main)
• Distance Race / Cruising
• Distance Race/ Offshore Racing

5. Click Continue and submit my registration to this event.
6. Follow the prompts to complete your registration.

What you’ll need:

• A sailboat
• A crew willing to have fun
• An ORR certification (you have one if you’ve sailed in the Mac race)
• Sail numbers and a number board (see your sail maker)

Please email me if want more information, or see the Verve Cup's official web site.  www.vervecup.com.

Sail Donnybrook and Social Networking

I like learning about new things and generally figuring out how stuff works.  This year the Chicago Yacht Club is promoting Twitter as a way of keeping family, friends, and coworkers informed about what's happening during the 2012 Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, so I've been exploring Twitter and digging more into social networking. 

I've taken the challenge and dusted off my little used #Saildonnybrook Twitter account and added a couple of feeds to this blog.  The first, just below this blog's page title, contains Donnybrook's Tweets.  The second, to the right, shows the #RaceToMackinac Twitter feed.

Facebook is still linked to this blog site via Social RSS, however they've limited their capabilities to one update a day.  The feed also hasn't worked since March, but hopefully it's fixed.

I don't like facebook, but it is a necessary evil in the age of social networking.

I'll still be posting here, but during the Mac Race and return cruise I plan to make more short updates via Twitter.

Sail Donnybrooks Twitter page is https://twitter.com/Saildonnybrook.  The facebook page is here.

Sheared Shift Lever Screw (or, how a $0.49 Part can ruin a day)

The picture is of old and new parts. The old part is what I tried to fix after the screw holding the transmission lever sheared. The new part is what I got from Edson.

Two weekends ago Donnybrook was sailing on Lake Michigan outside of Belmont Harbor, Chicago. It was a beautiful day on the water. At the conclusion of the sail we started the engine and turned into the wind to drop sails, only the transmission didn't seem engaged. We tried shifting into gear again and had propulsion.

At dock the transmission clutch was wobbly. It took a couple of tries to put it into reverse. Thankfully Donnybrook was safely at dock while troubleshooting. After some more fiddling the clutch lever started to spin free.

Why did this happen? The $0.49 screw sheared off! I did some internet investigation and found this happens if the screw holding the shift lever backs off, the pressure of shifting is transferred to the screw and it'll eventually break. Edson support confirmed this--lever screws must be tight.

MORAL OF THE STORY: MAKE SURE THE ENGINE CONTROL LEVER SCREWS ARE TIGHT!

I thought I could fix this. Safely at dock I used vice grips to attach to the shaft to shift gears. It was difficult, certainly not practical In close quarters.

I removed the shifter component (easy once the compass was off) and tried to back the broken screw off with tools on Donnybrook. This was impossible.

I took the shifter component to my parents' where they have a much better workshop than I do. (It's funny how at 43 years old I still depend on my parents. Will my boys still depend on me in my 80's?). I spent 2+ hours and two trips to the hardware store to drill the broken screw out only to fail. The screw is much harder stainless steel than the shaft.

In the end I gave Edson $50+ for a lever assembly and new screws. It took 15 minutes to install.

MORAL OF THE STORY: MAKE SURE THE ENGINE CONTROL LEVER SCREWS ARE TIGHT!
IMPORTANT: PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS as the details keep the major components working.

2012 NOOD Distance Race Results

Grace Anne ran into a wind hold which, combined with big nasty flies, forced us to withdrawl from the race.  The good news for the race is most of the boats did finish.  The results, below, are from the Office NOOD Site:

SPERRY TOP-SIDER CHICAGO NOOD - Saturday Distance Race


Hosted by Chicago Yacht Club, Chicago, IL
June 09, 2012

[View in Media Format]



Long Distance Race(Sat Only) (22 boats) (top)

Series Standing - 1 races scored

Information is provisional and subject to modification

Regatta results last updated: Saturday, June 09, 2012 4:13:21 PM CDT

Click on race number to view detailed race information.

Sail Boat Skipper Yacht Club Corrected 1 Total Pos

7779 Ocean Jim Banovitz [Racing] CYC 03:13:08 1 1 1

39530 Hiwassee John Bell [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:25:02 2 2 2

25578 Paradigm Shift Dave Dickerson [Racing] Chicago YC 03:25:13 3 3 3

40625 Regardless Daniel Griggs [Racing] Chicago 03:26:28 4 4 4

52918 Safir III Robert Radway [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:26:31 5 5 5

43535 On Edge Steve Dorfman [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:30:09 6 6 6

USA 50785 Och! Brendon Docherty [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:32:48 7 7 7

52337 Runaway Tom Gorey [Racing] CCYC 03:32:57 8 8 8

50134 Sirocco VI William & Viviana Fanizzo [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:35:33 9 9 9

USA18 Hope Micheal Leland [Cruising] Michigan City YC 03:35:37 10 10 10

251 Endeavor Julian "Skip" Schink [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club 03:36:05 11 11 11

25123 JUMP Hank Graziano [Racing] CYC 03:40:37 12 12 12

52982 No Reverse Bob Horenkamp [Cruising] Columbia 03:54:01 13 13 13

0076 Mise en Place Paul Thompson [Cruising] JPYC 04:05:57 14 14 14

52891 Lugnuts Tom Dickson [Racing] Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club 04:08:13 15 15 15

40551 Sheet Music Gerald Hughes [Jib & Main] Chicago Yacht Club 04:40:51 16 16 16

30328 Rover Ken Colbert [Racing] CYC 04:42:11 17 17 17

52974 Endeavour Matthew Gallagher [Jib & Main] Chicago Yacht Clun 04:56:30 18 18 18

USA-69 Barracuda David Hughes [Racing] Chicago Yacht Club NO TIME 23/DNF 23T 19

52249 Sail Monkey Bill McGuinn [Racing] Chicago IL NO TIME 23/DNS 23T 19

4764 Grace Anne Todd Woelfl [Jib & Main] Chicago Yacht Club NO TIME 23/DNF 23T 19

52797 Princess M Carl Chaleff [Cruising] Chicago Yacht Club NO TIME 23/DNF 23T 19







Notes

- Scoring System is ISAF Low Point 2009-2012

- Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts

- Click on race number to view detailed race information.





Information is provisional and subject to modification

When a good sailing trip goes bad

Flies. That's all it takes. Lake Michigan is filthy with them this time of year. We lost air. The flies arrived. And our arch-enemy, Matt is ahead of us.

2012 NOOD Distance Race

Donnybrook wasn't able to sail in the NOOD distance race, but I was able to sail with my friend and Mac crew member Todd on his boat, Grace Anne, a Catalina 30.

The weather is perfect, high 70s on the water and southeast winds in the low teens. We're sailing along very nicely and having a great time.

Here, Ryan, Brendan, and Todd are keeping things under control while I'm serving as rail meet.

A Racer on a Cruiser

I rode my brother's old road bike, a Cannondale R1000, to the harbor this morning. It rides like a Corvette (I want a yellow Corvette) compare to my commuting bike, a Trek 7100.

Here it is secured to Donnybrook. Maybe the bike can teach Donnybrook about speed and Donnybrook teach the bike about comfort.