Hacking Peregine

I haven't been posting as regularly as I'd liked, this is a summary of what went on in the spring and I'll be sending out a summary of the first half of our racing season a little later.

Peregrine spent the month of March on the hard at the Charleston City Boatyard. I did a little work, they did a little work and we launched in time for the CORA Spring Offshore Race, where kicked off the season with an excellent performance. I attribute our finish to a combination of the great work that City Boatyard did on the bottom paint and great crew work with several new people on the boat. The dolphins were out in force and the weather was made to order for us blowing 10-15 with 4 ft seas offshore.

Last fall I had several nervous moments when my 1980's vintage depth sounder started telling me it was 1' deep while we were in a shipping channel. Charleston harbor has more than its fair share of shallow water. While we were out of the water I decided install some new instrumentation, but I'm operating on a budget so I couldn't afford a tear out - upgrade. This post discusses the process of integrating our new Airmax (Garmin) DST 800 sender with the existing instruments.

Here are some pictures of the process of removing the old sender through hull. It was a less painful process than I anticipated and the new unit fit smoothly into place without any drilling or filling. At the yards recommendation the new unit was bedded with 5200. I was pleasantly surprised that the whole thing stayed dry after we launched.

The DST800 I selected was the NMEA 0183 version, I wanted it to be compatible with OpenCPN, which I run on my laptop.

There were two objectives to my project. First, that the sender signals would be available at the navigators desk for the plotter, PC and recording log. Second, that I would have access to the depth and speed information at the helm using the existing displays if possible to reduce costs.

My existing NMEA 0183 setup consists of a Garmin 76 GPS, a VHF radio with AIS and a laptop running OpenCPN. 

The layout for the new system will add the DST800 feeding the PC. The next piece of the puzzle is to expand our display options so we can see the output from the DST800 on deck, etc.

Charleston Race Week 2014

Wow!! - We had a blast this year at Charleston Race Week (we had a blast last year as well). We raced in the Pursuit Non-Spinnaker Class again this year which grew from four to twelve boats. I like racing in the pursuit class because it gives us a chance to recover from small errors and it gives us an opportunity to enjoy a nice sail on the ocean and get back to the marina relatively early in the day (if the wind is good). We were wonderfully blessed this year to have great weather and wonderful people to enjoy God's creation!

In the pursuit class each boat has it's own start time based on it's rating. If everyone sails to their rating we should all finish together so you actually know where you placed when you finish (if the Race Committee doesn't shorten the course).

The wind was variable all three days. Friday was the most consistent and we sailed the long course and finished in fourth place - I was pretty happy that we finished in the top half of the fleet. We had a rough start as a result of a couple of inbound ships that made excellent wind blocks of the light winds in the first few miles. By the time we made it to the channel we were doing better and continued to catch boats as we worked our way around the rest of the course. After the race we grilled burgers and had a little party on the boat so I never even made it to the party at the marina.

On Saturday the race was changed to the short course.  We were off to a better start and we made good progress out to just past G25 where there was a calm spot that caused the whole fleet to bunch up. This hurt the slower boats and helped the faster boats since we essentially caught the fleet. Once the wind filled in we quickly passed several boats and ended up chasing Waterlily, the only faster boat in the fleet, back in the channel. We ended up finishing third behind Waterlily and Direction.

Post by Thom Harrison.

Sunday was another light day race, the fleet stalled just past the end of the jetty's in four foot swells and light wind. Two of our crew fell victim to sea sickness while we were in the swells. We worked our way North to some wind we saw in the distance and were able to get some speed and make it to the G13 and head South to the mark. We passed several boats on the way South and ended up finishing Second behind Direction when they shortened the course by half, ending at the midpoint mark. Along the way to the mark we were passed by a large leatherback sea turtle - you can tell the winds are light when you get passed by a turtle.

Thank you crew for working really hard to keep the boat moving its fastest all weekend. We all learned a couple of things.

1. Having a clean bottom makes a huge Huge difference in boat speed. (We were pretty foul for the Frostbite Series races and it showed)
2. We can be competitive in light wind, we had convinced ourselves that we needed heavy wind to be successful and this simply not the case.
3. Keeping the sails well trimmed is a continuous process and requires constant attention of the trimmers and tactician.
4. The driver needs to focus on driving the boat. Every distraction (like sea turtles or a conversation) costs time.

The weekend was a lot of fun - getting some hardware made it extra special.

The start of Peregrine's 2014 Offshore Racing Season

Last Saturday kicked off the 2014 Offshore Series in Charleston and it was an incredible day to spend on the water. It was still a little chilly but with our move up to C class anyone working the spinnaker stayed warm enough. We had several new crew members aboard as well as many of our regulars from last season. The winds were a little light but perfect for learning to deploy and trim the spinnaker. The tidal currents were favorable for both the inbound and outbound legs of the race which made the trip go a little quicker.

We were still shaking the cobwebs out from winter so we weren't as quick as I'd hoped but we did have a great day out on the water and are looking forward to the next race.

Some interesting history on the name Peregrine:

Peregrine - Wandering, traveling, migratory. Not native to a region or country; foreign; alien.
Extrinsic or from without; exotic.
From - Peregrē - foreign (to or from abroad)

In 1620, Pilgrims William and Susanna White chose the name Peregrine for their son, the first English child born in the New World. Peregrine was born aboard the Mayflower while it was harbored in Provincetown. (At the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts and you can still see his cradle!)

• Emperor Commodus sent the first Saint Peregrine to his death in the late 192 AD. His relics now reside in St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota;
• In the late 200s, another Peregrine set out for Gaul, converted the locals to Christianity and built a cathedral in Auxerre, before meeting his fate during the Diocletian persecutions;
• The sixth century Italian bishop Saint Cetteus is also known as Peregrinus;
• The thirteenth century Saint Peregrine Laziosi gave up his wild youthful ways following a vision, became a monk and is now considered the patron saint for cancer and AIDS patients.

References:
http://appellationmountain.net/name-of-the-day-peregrine/
http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/your-visit/abbey-church/saint-peregrine-martyr/
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peregrine

Ugghh

So far the 2014 racing season has not been kind to Peregrine,  for the CORA frostbite series we decided to move up to C class, which is with spinnaker. We were all set for the first race, but it was cancelled due to lack of wind. Unfortunately we also managed to clog the fuel filter so ended up drifting down the channel and finally anchoring while the intrepid crew changed the fuel filter and purged the fuel system. In the mean time a fog bank rolled in and we stationed a crewman to ring our fog bell since we were anchored at the edge of a channel. After about two hours we were able to fire the engine and motor back through the fog to the marina.

Race two was also a challenge and this time there was more wind than we were comfortable flying the spinnaker in. This was a good safety decision but didn't help our finishing position; we decided to withdraw when it appeared we were going to be lapped. The third race Peregrine stayed at the dock. David crewed on the J-24 Dirty White Bouy and I worked with the race committee at the start/finish line. It ended up being another drifter and was fun to watch from the Carolina YC dock. The fourth race was looking good but when we got to the marina wind was gusting to 30 knots and I decided it was too risky to try to get out of the marina with that much cross wind, most of the other skippers agreed with me and only a few boats started that race. The B fleet actually decided to defer a day and race Sunday instead.

This brings us to the final race of the series, scheduled for tomorrow. Last weekend when we were readying for a pleasure sale we discovered a crab pot float had fouled our propeller. I was hoping to clear it today but the cold weather deterred me and Peregrine will remain at the dock until the weather warms up. We did manage to get a picture of the offender and it doesn't look pretty.

With any luck the weather will warm up so I can get in the water and clear the prop and inspect the running gear. Hopefully this is not an indicator for the season.