National Day Regatta, 13-14 November 2015

 This is plot of Race 01, we came second 10 seconds behind Mistress, we overshot FN2 preparing spinnaker.  Winds 310/14Kts, 26C, beautifull weather.

 Race 02 went really well, first place, everything perfect

Race 03 was a disaster, during spinnaker hoist passing FN2 a wave wiped the A2 offdeck, the hole spinnaker ended in the water and under the boat, no fun, the A2 is in pieces.

10 minutes before of Race 04, the head of Quantum Jib#4 tore off, we could not start the race, so DNS for Race 04.  Winds were 280/15kts, 25C.

Race 05 went very well, the very strong North A4 made us reach 16.3 knots. This gave us a win.   Winds up to 18Kts.

Overall the conditions for these two days of racing were fantastic.

ADCA Race 03

This is start of Race 03 and here below the course, IdeesfixVIII came second behind Mistress, need to point higher.

Wednesday evening sail

Here is yesterday's IdeesfixVIII track:

Track recorded with Navionics App.
View it: http://tinyurl.com/pdbep7a
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/pucq2nj

ADCA Race 02

Here is the plot of Race 02, sail time was 1h44m26s placing IdeesfixVIII in first position in real and corrected time.  Both the Qj1.5 and the QA3.1 blew up.

Dr. Hans, Burjeel Hospital

Dr. Hans from Burjeel Hospital screwed a stainless steel place to reduce the fracture, there is no gap anymore.  Fantastic job !

The broken fibula as viewed from CT scan.

Wednesday' night sunset sail

Here is the plot:

View it: http://tinyurl.com/q2x5mf3
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/nm444jt

The Q1.5 got tested then sailing with J3.

The Damage

The fibula (perone) bone took all the load and snapped, an operation is needed to get it back into place.  Braking a bone in a Moth foiling jibe beats tearing Achilles tendon stepping in a water filled pothole.  It's quite a "medical" year....

Fibula fracture

On Sunday 20 September Idefix VII went out for a test sail after having the stays repaired from previous dis-mast.   All went good until jibing from starboard to port close to FN2, Idefix VII pitch poled into a wave just as I was changing sides.  The picture above is from an other jibe some year back, it shows the position my right leg just before the crash.  I think I was not leaning on the knee but more sitting like a kangaroo before been thrown forward.  My weight on my right leg caused then the fibula to snap.
Coordinating jibes in waves is to me an open question that needs further study.

Beating to windward

Here is yesterday's track of IdeesfixVIII beating upwind then A2 run downwind back in winds of 340/12, 35C.

ADCA Race 01

Here is our course during ADCA Race 01, we beated up to U-3 in winds NW 12Kts, then spi run down to FN2 and finish.  Had trouble dropping the jib and exploded the A2, leading to second place after Mistress.  Great sailing conditions overall.

View it: http://tinyurl.com/o5gajng
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/nhu8p37

Idesfix VII Moth dismast

On Monday 24th I sailed out on Idesfix VII to check the ADCA course to Z15.  The foiling conditions were ideal, wind 180/16, 35C.  A speed of 21 Kts was reached on the foil NE bound.  After the jybe arround FWB I rounded Z15 to port beating back.

On Starboard sailing towards Mina the starboard stay snapped at the wing attachement point and the mast fell to port into the water.  I managed to disrig without further damage.  The tub boat Abu Dhabi 1 saw me and came to the rescue.  The captain then called the coast guard and they took over.  We loaded Idesfix VII on the orange rescue boat and they were very kind and brought us back to Emirates Palace Marina.  All this happened in less then two hours, the coast guard is very efficient and kind.  They best can be reached by phone, they do not monitor VHF.

The dots more spaced show the coast guard boat track bringing us back to Emirates Palace to a happy ending, it could have been a long swim back

Saturday 22 August sunset sail

Here is the plot of our track:

View it: http://tinyurl.com/o235m3m
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/q78ztk5

We sailed out on starboard under medium 1.5 then hoisted A1.4 sailing back to EPM, the wind slowly shifted to the east and we had to hoist the jib.

IdeesfixVIII sunset sailing, Wednesday 22 August 2015

Here is the track of last Wednesday sail:

View it: http://tinyurl.com/qcutytz
Download it: http://tinyurl.com/ng7zkja

Sail track to U-3 and sail track to FWB - Z15

 The above picture is a sail to U-3 on 25 July 2015.

The above track is a sail to FWB then Z15 on Saturday 02 August 2015, winds where North East at 12-14 knots making for a great evening sail.

Westerly wind

With winds 280/15 we sailed on port to U-3 and beyond then we taked on starboard for a spinnaker run under A2.5 back to Emirates Palace Marina.

The new belt for the Harken primary pedestal seems good, there are no funny jerks.  It was quite a job to replace the belts.  The mechanics below had to be taken apart.

Training, beating up to M4 and M2

In winds of 320/12 we beated up to M4 and M2 under J3, it is lots of work to keep the boat pointing high.  A little problem developped with the jib grinder belt and also the jib sheets are wearing out and need changing.

Twilight sail

The winds were 310 at 16Kts, temperature 31C, this made for a great sail northbound crossing the Mina channel.  A great spinnaker ride home finished off the sail.  Venus and Jupiter were clearly visible so as the North star.

Night Sailing and day run under A 2.5

The Westerly track represents the night sail, winds were NE at 8 knots, sea calm.  We got a good view of Venus and Jupiter.  A cat had joined us in a clandestine way, he showed up after one hour.  The outbound beat was at 40 degrees apparent wind angle, then a 180 and the wind angle was the same, we were not able to hoist spinnaker due to the very small apparent wind angle, the boat speed being more then the wind.

The Easterly track represents the day sail of 13 May,  winds were 330 at 12 knots.  The A2.5 hoist made for 11 knots speed down wind.

This made for a fantastic night sail and great day training.

Sir Bani Yas Race - broken propeller blade

 Mark Brierley at the top of the mast..

We had prepared everything for the Sir Bani Yas Race on 18 April 2015, we had even fitted the VHF mast antenna and lights however the Wednesday before a propeller blade broke off leading to the cancellation of the whole operation.  We had loaded 120 liters of water, 100 liters of diesel fuel and the food had been purchased.  We know now how to prepare for a 3 day offshore race.

Interesting wind shift

We sailed out under A3 with winds S at 12kts then practiced a few jibes and tore the base of the A3 in the process, a bit of work will be needed unfortunately.
Under A1 the winded turned to the North and we sailed back under spinnaker, making quite an interesting sail.  The wind forced up to 17 kts.

Emirates Open Regartta, 6-7 March 2015

Here are the results from this week-end:


Emirates Open Regatta 6-7 March 2015
numberraces = 5
006 01 02 01 01 01     IMPI
012 04 01 02 02 03     IdeesfixVIII
015 02 03 05 03 02     Mistress
020 03 04 03 05 05     Unwind
024 05 05 04 04 06     FLOOSIE
028 06 06 05 07 04     IdefixV
030 06 06 05 06 07     Escapade

IMPI sailed very clean races and finish a well deserved first place overall.   The Friday strong NW winds made for some real exciting sailing and some hard crew work.

IdeesfixVIII needs reefing

The winds were NW at 20 knots gusting 24 knots with light chops.  J4.x was used together with one reef in the main M5.  When beating up the head of the main got loose from the mast, the main luff disengaged from the mast at the top.  We dropped the main and tried to host her again but then the mid luff got out.  We dropped her for good and sailed back home.
Somehow in the process Mark ended up swinging overboard holding only on to the boom.  We pulled the boom back in with him still hanging, he got away with just a few bruises under the arm. This was a close call to a case of man overboard.
Setting up the A4 in strong winds will be for an other day.

ADCA Race 07

Race 07    Yachts at start: 6
001  01:35:00  005700 * 1.000 =  005700    IdeesfixVIII
002  01:41:00  006060 * 1.000 =  006060    Mistress
003  01:48:00  006480 * 1.000 =  006480    IdefixV
004  02:05:17  007517 * 1.000 =  007517    FLOOSIE
005  02:08:00  007680 * 1.000 =  007680    Saeeda
006  02:34:00  009240 * 1.000 =  009240    Laurentina


Race 07 took place in Northerly winds of arround 10Kts, meaning a beat up to the virtual Flex boy placed at a different position for each participant then a spinnaker run down to the finish.

ADCA Race 06

Yesterday took place ADCA Race 06, IdeesfixVIII maintained a good speed in light winds from North West.  Here are the results:

Race 06    Yachts at start: 5
001  01:49:00  006540 * 1.372 =  008972    IdeesfixVIII
002  02:54:10  010450 * 0.958 =  010011    Mistress
003  02:41:48  009708 * 1.078 =  010465    IdefixV
004  03:50:19  013819 * 1.022 =  014123    Saeeda
005  04:24:14  015854 * 0.968 =  015346    FLOOSIE
006  00:00:00  000000 * 0.968 =  000000    Ines
006  00:00:00  000000 * 0.968 =  000000    ElMahrousa
006  00:00:00  000000 * 0.968 =  000000    Unwind
006  00:00:00  000000 * 0.968 =  000000    Escapade
006  00:00:00  000000 * 0.968 =  000000    Camelot

IdeesfixVIII sailing

Today we had winds at 320/16Kts allowing us to reach 16Kts down wind, great sailing !  We reached U-3 and hoisted A2 for the downwind.  Have to watch out not to broach in the jybes by not easing out main fast enough !

Quatix dump

The run at 43.0 km/h, which is 23.3 Kts, just in front of Emirates Palace, good day !

Idefix VII, Moth sailing: 23.2 Knots

We had great conditions here in Abu Dhabi today and yesterday with winds up to 20 Knots, trained jibes and tacks around buoys and got a to speed of 23.2 Knots in flat water, Moth sailing is the best !

Volvo Restart Leg #3, 03 January 2015

 

 The start of Volvo Leg #3 started in heavy fog with very poor visibility, we were "IFR" on IdeesfixVIII, relying on GPS to remain close to FD2 situated close to the upwind mark.  We followed the VO65 fleet under A1.5, but could not keep up with them under Code 0.  They seem to use the Code 0 upwind and downwind in winds of less then 5 Knots.  Sorry no pictures, however returning to Emirates Palace a cormoran joined us for a free ride home on TP52, good for him.  He was kind enough to leave us his "business card" just before leaving.

Volvo In Port Race, 02 January 2015

SCA did an excellent start then led the VO65 fleet and won the Abu Dhabi In Port race, good job !  She is soon going to jibe to the finish close to FD2.

Volvo Pro-Am Race 03, 01 January 2015

Start of Pro-Am Race #3, ADOR is in good position under the critical eye of Nikola...