Well, this past weekend I loaded up the car, hitched up the Rocket, and headed south to the fabulous San Francisco bay to compete in the famous Delta Ditch run. This is one of those competitions that was conceived over a few too many rum and cokes as a sort of “dare to do this” event. The idea is to launch the boat in Richmond and then drive the trailer an hour and a half east to Stockton. Spend the night, and then take a chartered bus back to Richmond in the morning. The race starts just off the breakwater from the Richmond Yacht Club, and then heads north (downwind) into San Pablo bay. At the north end of the bay, the race turns east (also downwind) up the Sacramento River, and then up into the delta of the very narrow San Joaquin River. Total length of the race is 67 miles or so to the Stockton Sailing Club, give or take about 300 jibes -- that extends the race another several miles. Except for one short reaching leg, you basically put up the chute for 8-10 hours, and enjoy the ride and flat water.

We left Seattle where it was raining and in the 50’s. and by the time we got to Richmond it was in the upper 80’s, no clouds to be seen, and it felt like someone had turned on a overheat heat lamp! We started in the second wave with ten Melges 24s, a few Mumm 30s, Cheetah 30s, and other light, downwind roadsters. During the first leg up to Benicia Bridge it was fairly light, and we managed to be ahead of just about everyone in our start except one Melges. Entering the delta, the wind started to come up, and the river began to get narrow. Doing jibe after jibe, we started to lose distance to more polished crews and boats flying symmetrical chutes.

We had a few rookie mistakes and equipment issues, but we managed to stay out of the mud and away from other hazards (there was some major carnage out there). It was a fun race and an event not to miss in one’s sailing career. Have a look the following YouTube videos for a few scenes from the start of the race. Sorry we were too tired at the end of day to pull out the camera for the finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrVx5y-7rE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GBvc3jXt1U
Also go to Peter Lyons site for some great photos of the event.
http://lyonsimaging.smugmug.com/gallery/5119711_5ok4w#309747826_5uKvW

Big thanks to Sandra for crewing in the race and helping drive the 1750 miles down and back. And also to Alan for coming down to the bay to make my boat go fast.

Spring is in the air, and the Rockets are a buzz in Seattle. Check out the most recent You tube video I shot of the two Rockets on a tight reach across Puget Sound. Kind of fun clipping along at wind speed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOP7Ns3PPtI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcAz_TUwOmA

Summer series racing

Earlier this year I decided to sail our club's summer series with my wife and two kids as crew. Allison raced on our other boat last year, has some experience, and is good with a spinnaker sheet, but this was to be the first real round of racing for the kids. For those that don't know us, Amanda is 11 and Jonathan is 8. While they have both been sailing for the last 5 years, this would involve the kids having real jobs on the boat. After all, that was one of the primary reasons for buying the Rocket - get a fun, fast boat that the entire family could actively sail.

We sail on an inland lake in the Dallas-Fort Worth area out of the Grapevine Sailing Club, a smaller club on Lake Grapevine. You won't see Pyewacket or Trader here, but we do have a bunch of good people who are good sailers, a fairly active program, and even a number of anarchists. We are slotted in our club's Fleet 1 which is comprised of several J80s, two Santana 30/30 GPs, a Wavelength 24, two Olson 30s, an Olson 25, and anything else with a handicap of less than 190. All of the boats in our fleet are fully crewed by adult crews, and most are typically well sailed. We are the only boat with kids as crew!


We are now midway through our series with 4 races run. The first day the winds were averaging 15. During the first race we only flew the chute the last of three downwind legs, but in the second race we flew it on every downwind leg. We were pleased since that was our first real day to race as a team. Our positions were Allison on jib and spinnaker trim, Amanda on foredeck and furler, Jonathan on sprit, tack, and cleanup, and me on helm, main, and spin halyard. Despite some slow points while we went through maneuvers, we scored a third and second.


Our second race day was this past Saturday. Winds were a little calmer at 5 to 10, perfect for us. The first race was a little rocky - we were over early right at the committee boat so we had to find a lane back down, we had some delays at the first chute hoist due to my bad driving while hoisting the spinnaker, we shrimped the chute at a leeward mark during a douse, and made some bad tactical decisions - all of which led to a fourth out of six boats.


Here we sailed through a S30/30 to leeward in the first race, not a good decision, but the little guy got through:








The start of the second race:



The second race started out looking like we would have the same bad luck. During the pre-start we decided to head right after the start because the wind looked better on that side. It was a short W2 with a mid-line finish to weather, so we knew we had to do a good job to get a good finish. At the start, we were last across the line and were behind a Santana 30/30 and getting gassed. Shortly after the start, the S30/30 tacked to head to the right. After getting clear of his air, we tacked to the right as well and rolled him. We played the right side following the puffs, and surprisingly found ourselves at the weather mark first with no other boat close. We rounded, had a good hoist, sailed cleanly downwind with some good jibes, had a clean douse this time, and rounded the leeward mark still in first. The kids were excited, but we had to remind them not to ruin the mojo with talk before the finish. We headed on a short tack to the right, tacked onto starboard, caught a lift and rode it to the finish for our first FIRST!


The battle flag came out, beers and water were popped, and Jonathan helmed as we sailed triumphantly back to the dock.


At the dock, our crew was met by several crew members from other boats asking the kids in disbelief, "Was that you on Shark!?" I could hear my kids respond proudly, "Yeah, and we won!" knowing they beat the big guys.

My first You Tube

Last night I downloaded my first You Tube video (see link below). As Anthony will tell you, it is a bit of a learning curve to get yourself published.

The short clip was taken in 6 to 8 knots of wind and flat calm seas. The wind is on the beam with the asymmetrical and jib baberhauled out for balance. Obviously in a race, one would probably never sail this angle, but it was fun on the day sail.

I will try to get some more videos out soon. The photo above is from the next pirate movie "Pirates of the NW Caribbean". Arrrrhhh!

Jonathan Little

Take a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRdZQLTyiJo

New Owner in New Mexico

Hello Everyone,

Please join me in welcoming Tim Star aboard as the new owner of Rocket #12. Tim divides his time between New Mexico and Hawaii (very nice!) and will be taking delivery of his boat in New Mexico in late August or early September for some lake sailing. I've invited Tim to join our blog and hope that he'll jump in when he takes delivery or sooner.

The April issue of SAIL has generated a lot of interest for Rocket Boats and will be up on our website as soon as I can track down our elusive webmaster. If anyone would like a PDF copy now please let me know and I can email it to you.

Thanks and welcome to the club Tim!!


Anthony

Here are some pictures of our first race day. It was blowing, and Alan was on the boat. That is one fast Rocket! Good times.

Here is the beginning of the tuning and trim guide I have been developing for myself with the Rocket 22.

This IS NOT a definitive, sanctioned or official tuning guide. I haven’t had the chance to go head to head with other Rockets, and my boat may be slightly different due to small changes that have been made in set up, etc. Given the dynamic state of trim, tuning, and sailing techniques the following should be viewed as my impressions consistent with my sailing style, rather than guide for how to sail the boat. I’ll leave that up to the first Rocket 22 world champion.

It is a collection of my observations and experiences with the boat, and I hope you all will share the same.

I also hope everyone is planning on coming to the Best of the Okanagan this summer to rub elbows, share tips, and have a great time. If you haven’t seen the promotion for the event it is on the Rocket site.

The next phase in this guide will be determining base settings for rake, shroud tension, forestay length, mast jack turns, etc. I am playing with lots of different variables but I think there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This boat is so much fun, because it can be a real challenge in all conditions – but SO rewarding when you nail it. It’s not hard, but occasionally confounding. By this I mean taking a traditional keelboat (e.g. J22) or sport boat (Melges 24) approach only gets you halfway there. It wasn’t until I talked with the 5o5 and 49er guys that the whole thing came into focus…blurry focus. Since throwing my preconceptions out the window I am making leaps and bounds in understanding about how to sail the boat and set it up. I find it a very cool process.

Upwind, the boat is operating in three modes:

Mode 1: 2-8kts we are adequately powered up with the boat being quite weight sensitive.
Mode 2: 9-12 we are already overpowered, but with the right recipe she finds her groove, and the application of some special techniques (like heeling through waves) makes a huge difference in performance
Mode 3: 12-25 doing all that we can to de-power the boat.
Note: I’ve sailed in 25+three times. That’s not fun on any boat, and this is no different although remarkably dry comparatively.

The lack of backstay and mast jack make tuning the boat different than the keelboats I am used to. Normally as the wind comes on we crank on the rig…that doesn’t really work with the Rocket – in fact it is the opposite in some cases. Rig tune at the dock becomes pretty important and the associations of what each shroud is doing needs adjustment.

Sails

The jib

We are asking A LOT of this one little jib. But there are plenty of controls to change the shape. I found it is really important to get the tack low, otherwise the clew height is thrown out of wack.

Jib Halyard

The set up on the boat allows for a ton of range in the halyard tension. I put in enough tension to get the wrinkles just out of the luff. This winter the breeze has been up just about everywhere I have sailed so I have taken to cranking on the jib halyard to round the entry, pulling draft forward. This is helping de-power the sail too…a need that comes on quickly. It is hard to repeat settings without marks on a luff so much of these adjustments are feel/look driven. In the 8-12 range I find that playing the jib halyard is fast.

Jib Sheet

The boat really responds to active jib sheeting. Legs in hiking will make these sorts of changes easy, and should keep the jib trimmers VERY involved in the game. Interestingly, I like to use a leech telltale for the trimmer (leech telltale for the trimmer, luff telltales for the driver). I have placed tape on the top and bottom spreaders to get a better reference point data. Because the clew is so close to the lead block small adjustments make a huge difference. I have found that a very twisted jib (at least matching the mains leech) is quick, and doesn’t backwind the main. I am trimming the bottom of the sail pretty hard and twisting off the top. Again the leech telltale tells the story – but as the wind comes on I sheet hard and if we get stuffed I ease (an inch) and start over. As the breeze comes on I move the lead aft and then ease slightly (two-three inches. Then I move to barber hauling out and sheeting hard again – repeating the process. I have been sailing in big breeze with a luffing main and a hard sheeted jib, but think that easing the jib a bit and keeping the main working might be faster. I am used to using IN-Haulers instead of out-haulers. It might be interesting to see if out-hauling out of a tack and then shifting gears in, on, and forward would be fast. I am treating the barber haulers like the traveler for my jib.

The main

It is a BIG main. I’d like to see a reefing point (or two) put in, but then again I like this boat for its potential in short distance races (under 200miles).

Luff tension

I am going for max hoist, and in fact would be a fan of a halyard lock, adjusting the tension in the luff with the Cunningham.

The Outhaul

The outhaul controls the main more so here than on most boats I have sailed. It really can be eased off and seems to have major impact of the power of the sail. I ease it to add helm/power. In light air the rounded leech seems to help with pointing, but you can go too far with this allowing air to stack up and stall in the sail. The bottom telltales tell the story.

The mainsheet

I drive the boat with a combination of sheet and traveler and because of that am constantly adjusting them. My sheet range is about 6 inches in most conditions. Again, unlike many keelboats that like to stall the top to promote pointing this boat seems to REALLY like flow. I try to keep flow going ALL the time. Unlike the jib, which seems to like over sheeting in most cases the main stalls early, and when that happens the skinny foils stall. I ease the main quite often. In the big breeze I am carrying a lot of luffing – but because I have dropped traveler I try to sheet as hard as possible. As the sheet is tensioned it acts somewhat as a backstay, you can go too far…and you’ll know when you have☺

The traveler

I play the traveler quite a bit. In the light stuff I bring it up to promote pointing and add a little helm. In puffy/moderate conditions I get a serious workout. In big breeze I vang sheet and drop the traveler.

I rarely change the traveler without adjusting the sheet. Under 10 the traveler brings the boom to centerline and the main is twisted – i.e. LOTS of sheet adjustments, as the breeze comes up play both mainsheet and traveler, but more traveler than sheet. Above 15 the traveler is all the way down, vang on hard, and I am back to using sheet.

Vang

In the light air I have it all the way off, because it impacts the leech and stalls it. Above 15 I pull it on hard so that when I blow the main the whole sail dumps and then comes back on quickly when I need it. At the windward mark it comes off again initially otherwise the boat will not come down in breeze. Off the wind it is the throttle! I have mine run differently so that it can be played better from the back of the boat when on plane.

Steering the boat

I think you could remove the tiller and lock the rudder in place on this boat. Upwind, I drive with the sails and weight as much as possible. The rudder doesn’t really steer the boat that well anyway, so when you try and steer with it you are just creating drag that is getting overpowered by the sail plan. I also have had to go away from my point/feather ways and drive with the bow down. I move forward as far as possible in order to stop the gurgle at the back of the boat (note: DON’T leave the motor on the back!). FYI - I think the tiller could be quite a bit longer and recurved.

Downwind in light air I like to stand and help drive the boat with my weight. Downwind in heavy air I am outboard and steer pretty aggressively with weight AND tiller. It is important to get ahead of the boat because the time from stall to wipe out is VERY short. But once you have a groove going weight will get you where you need to go. I also have two downwind modes. The hot and the deep. Deep starts with LOTS of weather heel. Until the helm goes to lee helm. It is a good skill to learn because it makes heavy air jibes a snap. And then hot. The transition is still being worked out. I sail pretty hot until the 9-11 kts zone. I think we loose in this zone because it is pre-plane and we are about 10 degrees off of symmetrical boats. (NOTE: I fly the A-kite almost exclusively). That said, a wavy 10kts and we can work the waves pretty well and sail just as deep as anyone. Over 20kts I switch to outside jibes, keep the jib out and ROCK AND ROLL. You can sail pretty deep (by the lee) and still plane – then the boat trips. We are experimenting with this as our jibing technique in big breeze. It is scary but we think it works and it is WICKED fast…so long as you don’t mess up.

Just a few other things. I am generally sailing with three. I really like the way that works. I am driving and trimming main, my middle person is working the tweaks upwind and trims the kite while the forward person trims the jib and runs the pit. While I’d love the extra weight on the windward leg, I really like the mobility in the boat and think that in the light stuff we’ll crush.

This is pretty darn fun! When my rig numbers make more sense I’ll forward.