Where WhimSea Takes Us

Though I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but WhimSea has taken third in the PHRF C class! What an amazing feat for these guys and the boat. They've never raced before and not only were they able to finish, they took back a flag! These guys should be proud of what they've done. I know WhimSea will be flying the flag with pride.

Dave Olin, our resident historian, tells us that other boats from Knife River have entered, but none have finished the race.

Thanks to everyone for all you've done to make this happen. To helping supply the boat, to working on her to get her ready, to cheering her on on finish day, every contribution mattered. I'm sure Troy will be posting about the adventure soon so keep watching!

Just wanted everyone to know that the site that is tracking the Trans Superior seems to be having technical difficulties. Some of the boats are not showing their updates. I haven't spoken to the company and they are looking into it. If I learn anything more, I'll post it.

Karen

I am home from Canada. The race started and the guys are doing well in their group. If you click on the title of this blog entry you will be directed to the trans superior web site for tracking. You can pick a specific boat as well as the other boats in the class to see how they rate against the rest of the boats in the group.

Remember that they can win overall as well as their group (they're in the third group). Their PHRF rating also impacts their overall placement in the race as points are added or removed based on PHRF.

I heard from Troy today. They are having an excellent time. They visited Isle Royale and saw a moose and her calf as well as a bunch of otters by Rock Harbor. They rested up and relaxed at the Big Island before heading off on the next leg of the trip. They were at Grand Marais Michigan this morning and decided it was too early and too nice of a day not to press on towards the Sault.

This evening they are in a harbor of refuge near Whitefish Bay. The wind is howling (I could hear it in the phone) and they are spending the night there. They did ground on their way in, but WhimSea is fine. Tomorrow they will head to Sault Ste Marie. They hope to arrive for an overnight stay (and rest up) on Thursday. We'll be meeting up with them on Friday afternoon.

More as it comes....

WhimSea is on her way to Sault Ste Marie as I type this message. We saw them off with an excellent breakfast (thank you so much Deb, Janet, Kathy, Karen, Kathy... everyone!) then a bunch of us piled onto Rain or Shine and watched them wing away. They were headed towards the Big Island at 6.5 knots when we last talked.

I've linked to a number of photos taken that day. Yes, I probably went a little bit overboard on the photos, but what the hey, it's the last sight of WhimSea until they cross the finish line. I'm looking forward to a drive up to the Soo and the chance to see the race actually start. I'll then hook up with them in Duluth when they cross the finish line, I'll be watching from the transponder site linked in the message below.

Keep an eye on them!
Karen

Trans Superior Link

Because so many people were wondering how to track WhimSea, I thought I'd put another link on the start of the blog.

I received the new scratch list from Dale today. I'm posting both the message and the new list. This time Endeavor is on the list and in our class. I bring your attention to these guys as they were the folks hulled a few weeks ago by the careless trailer power boater. They have a higher phrf so have a bit of a time advantage over us. We should be crossing the finish line before these guys if we sail a good game.

Message;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/07-26-07_Trans_Corr.pdf

New Scratch List;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/2007_Scratch_Sheet-Provisional.pdf

Troy

I thought I would create a reference book which should contain most everything related to sailing and racing Whimsea. One of the things I'm going to include is Whimsea's sailing instructions. On our training sail it was great to see everyone working together and looking to get done what should be done. We had a lot of folks and were able to get a lot accomplished. However, we need to make sure when we are contemplating a maneuver the watch captain or skipper walk through how it will be executed, assign people specific duties and the cues involved marking the begining of the maneuver. Since we all have our own boats and own way of doing things, we'll need to make sure we're able to meld with each other sail Whimsea efficiently.

Everyone reacted excellently to the situation that occurred on the return trip and we developed a great process for taking in the whisker boom. I think the incident helped illustrate the need for a bit of patience in walking through the process to make sure everyone is working towards the same goal.

http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Whimsea_Sailing_Instructions.pdf

Let me know if you have any additions, subtractions or comments.

Troy

Today I received the following e-mail message that I forwarded to the entire crew. I'm including the text here so that it's available;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/07-25-07_Reg_proceedures.pdf

It included an attachment, for which I'm including a link, that is the crew waiver. Please review the waiver to make sure you are comfortable with the terms. I will make the insurance binder available for review as well, in case you're interested. This will probably be the document we use for customs as well, since I'll need a list to present to the customs officers.
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/waiver_crew_list_07.pdf

Karen discovered last night a note that was made on the invoice detailing notes of the engine commissioning which mentioned the need to replace the engine's raw water intake hose and the squealling belt we heard on Sunday. Jeremy has replaced the hose and tightened the belt. He has even gone so far as to donate a sterio to replace the one in the nav station that's busted and he installed it over his lunch hour today - Thank you Jeremy!!!

Dave will be picking up the genoa on Friday night and depending on the weather and inclination may bend it on and take off the main.

Rock on!!

Troy

Obtaining an LMPHRF
http://lmphrf.org

Here are the procedures for getting the rating;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/LMPHRF_Prodedures.pdf

We obtained our sail number from US Sailing. These folks also provide the rules. Their site is;
http://ussailing.org
which has a link to the racing rules along with all the appendices. There are also some calculators and such that give theoretical max hull speed and some of the other ratios and such.

Here are the racing rules sans appendices;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Sailing_Rules_Intro1-7.pdf

The nav rules are on board Whimsea, along with the light list as required by the race rules. At any rate, here's a link to where the USCG keeps the rules electronically;
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/mwv/navrules/download.htm

And here are the rules - once again, kind of keeping stuff in the same place
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/navrules.pdf

A good thing to review for climate and approach information - we will have this on Whimsea - is the Coast Pilot for Lake Superior. We're only going to have the Lake Superior data on board. Here's the link;
http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot.htm

And here's the electronic pdf for downloading of Coast Pilot 6 for Lake Superior and the St. Mary's River;
Lake Superior - http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Coast_Pilot_6-Chap13-Lake_Superior.pdf

St. Mary's River - http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Coast_Pilot_6-Chap12-StMarys.pdf

Troy

Here's the link to the folks that will be doing the interactive tracking;
http://www.fistracking.com/

The race itself will be tracked at this link;
http://www.fistracking.com/transsup/2007/

The site was loading very slowly this evening as I'm writing this. I'm also wondering if they are going to have any of the yachts that are not on the list presently. Endeavor isn't on the list but they are planning on doing the race (those were the guys that were hulled by that careless launcher a few weeks back).

Troy

I thought it would be a good idea to have this document located with the rest of the race stuff. Otherwise it's a matter of hunting all over the place looking for the documentation.

Notice of the Race
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Trans_Notice_of_Race_2007.pdf

Safety Equipment outlined by the Trans-Superior race committee
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Trans_Safety_Equip.pdf

Here's the finish line too.

Troy

I just want to make sure we don't get caught flat footed with anything. I'm posting the documents for both entering Canada and the US. I'm thinking before we leave we all enter the information required for Canadian entry on a list so I can bring the list to the customs officer.

Canadian border crossing
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Canadian_brdr_xing.pdf

& Arriving by boat in Canada;
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/Canada_arriving_by_boat.pdf

US border crossing
http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/us border crossing.pdf

Troy

I thought I would post all the correspondence I receive from the race committee so that we're all on the same page.

http://whimsea.net/Documents/Trans-Superior/trans_welcome_letter.pdf

I have reserved the last 30' dock for Thursday (if we get there early) and Friday night before the race at the Mary Bondar Marina. Here's a link for the Marina; http://www.northernontario.com/index.aspx?l=0,1,3,16,108,149

There are some pictures of the site. It's also a custom's clearance site as well.

Troy

The preparations for the Trans Superior are well under way. We are one week to the date the team leaves to deliver the boat to Sault Ste. Marie. They are obviously excited about the adventure. More to come as things evolve....

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Just an update for everyone on the adventure of our boom. It has, apparently, taken a vacation to Chicago. Blew Moon's boom decided to stay home in Minnesota. The marina will be switching them out during the week and we hope to have the right boom and mast together again by the end of the week.

Feels sort of like a bad version of the Parent Trap, you know where the kids switched themselves. But at least it appears to be resolved!

Posted by Karen A. Brown

The season has finally started.

After a brief stop over in West Duluth where we were offered the opportunity to, um, support the community via a speeding ticket, we arrived at the marina on Friday night at a relatively early hour, well, early for us anyway. The party started, as it seems to, at the bathrooms with a few of us meeting up even before we get into the marina. There was a definite sign of the season on Superior, Troy was wearing shorts and Claire probably had three layers AND long underwear on! It was a beautiful night though, especially when compared to last week's snow showers.

On Saturday morning, the Yacht Club hosted a sign up/welcome event with donuts and coffee for all. We had a good turn-out, especially considering the chill in the air. It was a good day though for kicking back and enjoying some relaxation.

As you may recall, WhimSea was without a mast when we left the previous weekend. On Friday we found a mast, but no boom. Oh well, we figured, we'll just have to install it ourselves. Unfortunately, a walk around the place failed to actually produce our boom, so we went into the marina office and asked them.

'What do you mean you can't find your boom?' Didn't lend a lot of confidence.

And the hunt was on. After a look around convinced him the boom was not to be found, Dave picked up the phone and started making phone calls. Having no other choice, we made the best of the situation and found other ways to amuse ourselves.

Evening found us eating pizza with the Yacht Club, another membership drive event. It was a great opportunity to get together with people we haven’t seen all winter and catch up on the off-season.

Sunday was an opportunity for an excellent breakfast with friends followed by some marina-wide entertainment when Troy, Mark and Dave all climbed into the dinghy together and proceeded to row around the marina and check the depths. I got some pictures, which you can get to by clicking on the title to this entry.

Sunday we finished up left over pizza and retired to the beach for a beacon fire. It was so warm you almost didn’t need a coat. Since the moon was nearly full and the wind (at the time) was still more from land then water, it was pretty darned near perfect.

Monday morning gave us fluffy Belgian waffles (yes, Dave, they were nice and fluffy and crispy even), some time to do some maintenance (albeit a very, very small amount) before we were forced to head home for the work week.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Earlier today, the Cutty Sark, a 138-year old tea clipper, burned in London. The Cutty Sark is the only tea clipper still in existence. She was built in 1869 during the British imperial grandeur. She made a number of trips to China during her years of service and even saw some service during the First World War.

On Monday, May 21, eight fire engines and 40 firefighters responded to a blaze at the dry dock at William Wark in Greenwich, south of London where the Cutty Sark was in dry dock. They managed to put out the blaze and investigators were going to be sent in to investigate the cause of the fire.

Luckily, much of the historic treasure that was on board the Cutty Sark had been removed for restoration.

Scotland Yard is treating the fire as suspicious and there were reports of people around the boat prior to the fire.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Greetings and welcome to the new season! I am kicking off the season with a new blog entry and hope to be better about blogging weekly this season.

WhimSea's been in the water for about two weeks now and we've been watching as more and more boats join us at the docks. It's exciting to be preparing for another season and we can't wait to get it going. It's also been great to see old friends and reconnect with everyone.

I know it's hard to believe, but we awoke to snow on Sunday morning. What a weird spring it has been. We're hoping for much better weather this coming weekend for the KRYC kick off events.

So what's new?.?.?.?
Here's something. Before the ugly rumors that WhimSea has turned into a powerboat spread any farther (regardless of what Bob might think), we hope she's going to get her stick back sometime this week. Our pirate flags will fly once again, hopefully this weekend.

Hope to see you at the marina in the coming weeks.

Posted by Karen A. Brown

Splash down! WhimSea is in the water! Though later then the previous season, she's still in before Memorial Day which is nice. We'll probably head up this weekend to take a look and see how she's doing and start provisioning for the season. The mast hasn't been stepped yet, that'll probably come next week.