New Mainsail FINISHED!

After sorting through the ludicrous amount of junk mail I receive on a daily basis last night, I came across an envelope with the Doyle Sailmakers logo where one would find the return address. I opened the envelope immediately when I got into my place to find the envelope contained the final amount due for the sail. First thing I thought was, "Hmm...my sail must be done!"

Today over lunch I shot a quick email to the Doyle loft in Chicago to confirm my suspicions. I received a response in 4 minutes stating, "The sail is all done just need to do a final check...will E-mail you some photos." JACKPOT! A couple hours later there was an email in my inbox with some pictures attached. SAH-weet! I'm hoping the sail gets here by the weekend!

UPDATE 2/28/2011: The sail has arrived! Behold!

Jep Has Officially Joined MAST

Today I finally sent in my membership application and check so that I may race in MAST for the 2011 sailing season. According to the MAST website:

"MAST was organized by a group of trailer sailors who shared interests in sailing. "MAST" is an acronym for Mid America Sail and Trail. As MAST enters 2011, it celebrates its thirty-sixth year. The club provides its members with many social events throughout the year, as well as a variety of sailboat cruises, regattas and competitive racing. While boat ownership is a goal of most of its members, it is not a requirement and many members were introduced to sailing through participation in MAST activities."

I've sailed in MAST for the past three years on s/v Blue Pearl, a 40.5 foot Beneteau First 405. It was a true pleasure sailing for Jim Kerlin on s/v Blue Pearl. Making the decision to "jump ship" and sail exclusivly on Jep was by no means an easy decision to make. However, as my skill level and boat get more advanced, my desire to go out on my own only grows stronger.

Here's to the 2011 season!

Merry Christmas from Jolly Jep

Well, it seems Jolly ol' Saint Jep has a few things in store for the 2011 season. Most notably, Jep is getting a new main sail!

Deciding on which sail maker to go with was a learning experience. My first inclination was to go straight to the North Sails loft here in Milwaukee. While that would be the most convenient, there are a few reasons I opted to stay away.

First, without mentioning any names, my first encounter with the North Sails staff left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Two years ago, I sent my current main in for repair and improvement and it took over 4 months for them to return the sail. Even worse, I had to hunt my sail down by finally calling the Chicago loft. What a headache.

Second, after talking with numerous sailors and smaller local sail makers, it became apparent that the North Dacron sails are not up to par with other sails. The North 4800 Dacron tends to lose it's shape faster as the Dacron sail cloth is lower quality than the cloth used by UK or Doyle. It's also noteworthy that North makes all of it's own sail cloth while the others go to 3rd party vendors.

With North out of the race, so to speak, I requested quotes from UK-Halsey, Doyle, and Nielson Sailmakers. Both UK and Doyle lofts are located in Chicago while Nielson is a "local" loft in Racine. All three lofts had very knowledgeable staff and excellent customer service.

After doing all of my homework, I decided to go with a Doyle 2+2 XC Race Dacron main sail. I'm definitely looking forward to the performance improvement with the new sail! Below is the brochure created by the folks at Doyle Sailmakers for the main I will be ordering. The sail in the brochure has 2 reef points while the sail I ordered has one. I am also having draft stripes put on.



Update 12/22/2010: The sail has been ordered! I should take delivery in late January or early February.

8.3 Knots

Jep actually hit it on the GPS!

MAST Poker Run

This past Saturday was, I think, the first annual MAST Poker Run. It was also the first time Jeff and Molly came to Milwaukee for a visit (well, Jeff has been here but Molly has not)! Anyway, for those confused on the whole "poker run" deal, a poker run is an event where you visit 5 pre-determined destinations and pick up a poker card. There is an official start time and finish time and you must have your cards in to a specific destination in order to qualify. Once everyone has turned in their hand, there is an awards ceremony where prizes are given to boats with the highest hand!

Since sailboats are not lightning fast, the 5 stops were in fairly close proximity in Milwaukee Harbor. You are not required to visit each stop in any particular order, so I'll go through the stops in the order in which we sailed.

First stop was at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center (MCSC). This is where I picked up my registration (which was free) and my first card. There was also a pancake breakfast going on that benefited the sailing center. We actually drove my trusty Trailblazer to register as we were a little late getting the provisions. The morning was beautiful and it gave me an opportunity to introduce Jeff and Molly to some of the superb people I have met due to this wonderful sport.

We stopped to pick up some breakfast sandwiches and beer before heading down to the slip. Once the boat was loaded with crew and provisions, we were off!

We cast off from the slip around 11:30. The crew consisted of myself, JY3, Drew, Jeff, and Molly (Unfortunately Steph had to work and then serve wine at a charity event. Boo!). We had enough beer to get a small village intoxicated and enough sun to change color within a matter of hours!

Our second stop was at Rip Tide, a seafood restaurant and bar at the mouth of the Milwaukee River. After we pulled our card, it was time for a "wake up" shot of soco-lime. It was, after all, 12:00! What else would we be doing?! Back on topic...

As we came back outside, I quickly realized that the wind was blowing like hell! We had a good 17-20 knots coming straight out of the west. We casted off from Rip Tide and motored out of the main gap and headed south to our third destination, South Shore Yacht Club (SSYC).

It didn't take us all that long to get there as we were on a beam reach with plenty of wind. Upon arrival at SSYC, we went over to s/v Blue Pearls empty slip to show Jeff and Molly where I spend every Friday evening. As we were milling around, we bumped into LT's dad (JY3's girlfriends father). Tom owns s/v Senta which is a few slips down from Pearl on B dock. We stopped and visited for a few minutes, grabbed some brats and burgers, maybe another beer, and were off! Oh, and we also got our card!

The next stop was the most unique and fun. We had to find s/v Wild Thing, a big (34'?) catamaran with an obnoxious (in a good way) amount of flags and fun crew! It didn't take us long to see a number of sailboats heading directly towards a floating monstrosity! We set our heading and made our way over. After a few tacks and quick analysis of what other boats were doing, we sailed right by as the crew of s/v Wild Thing held our card on a 20ft (approx) pole! It was a tricky maneuver to get the card, but we got it on the first pass! We were also obligated to dance to the song "Wild Thing" as we picked up the card. By this point in the day we had already been dancing to a certain extent...did I mention I love sailing?

On to the last card! Our last stop was the Milwaukee Yacht Club (MYC). We debated stopping for a visit but decided we'd rather get our card and head back to my slip, so that's exactly what we did! We got Jep all buttoned up by about 3 and headed over to MCSC to drop off our hand and join the post Poker Run party! What a day!

Of course, the post Poker Run party was filled with food, beer, sailors, live music, and prizes for the winners of the Poker Run.

We ended up finishing with 2 pair and I won a very nice Motorola Blue Tooth headset for my Blackberry!

What a GREAT weekend!

Genoa Track Installed

I'm finally (almost) done with my summer installations! On Friday I took advantage of our summer hours program at work to complete the final project on Jep. Jeff and Molly were also coming in from Grand Rapids so there was some additional motivation to leave work early!

The week before I went to the National Ace Hardware to pick up 20 stainless 1/4" x 1.5" screws, nylon nuts, and washers. I inherited the genoa track from Glyn "Obi-Wan Kenobi" Livermore. Glyn accompanied us on the Queens Cup last year and taught me more about sailing that I had learned in the past 15 years.

Anyway, since Steph doesn't have to work on Friday's, she came over to help with the install. I always get a little nervous cutting holes into my deck but since I just installed the deck organizers and cam cleat I was more comfortable.

Both tracks went pretty quick. The biggest pain is cutting a hole in the carpet liner below deck for the screws. Popping a hole in the deck and tightening bolts is a piece of cake. Of course, I siliconed the crap out of the bottom of the track to keep the deck water tight!

New Deck Organizers and Cam Cleat

Today with an ominous weather forecast, I decided to risk it and drill some holes in my deck to install my new cam cleat and deck organizers.

First I installed the Spinlock PXR cam cleat. Steph bought this for me for my birthday and I've been dying to install it since December. According to the product description from Spinlock, "designed for precision control, these cleats feature an adjustable release spring that allows you to control how easy the cam cleat is to release—an industry first. The incorporated three-stage release spring can be pre-set for the prevailing conditions and application. Select lighter settings for continuously trimmed sheets, traveller controls, vangs and similar controls. Harder settings for halyards and occasionally adjusted lines. While sailing, the roller action of the PXR keeps the release effort easy, even as the wind strength increases."

I used #10 stainless hardware. The cleat required 2 bolts: a 1" and a 1.5". I used nylon locking nuts and large washers to distribute load. I also siliconed the hell out of the holes to keep my deck water tight!

Once I completed the cam cleat, I moved onto my Ronstan Series 40 deck organizers. The point behind this piece of hardware is to allow your control lines to route into the cockpit. So far, I only have my 2 halyards (main and jib) and boom topping lift running into the cockpit. I am planning on running a reef point back to the cockpit later this season.

Each organizer required 4 holes to be drilled into the deck. Again, I used #10 stainless 2" bolts. Once I completed the port side organizer, it began to sprinkle. Since the second time around installing is always a touch easier, I decided to risk it (ha) and do the starboard side. Right as Steph and I were tightening the nuts, the rain came down! Again, I siliconed the hell out of each hole so there shouldn't be any water issues.

Next up is the genoa track!

Merry Launchmas!

The launch went off without a hitch! I was able to burn a half day at work to pick up the boat so I could get Jep rigged for the 4 o'clock launch. I chose to launch at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center (MCSC) as their launch fee includes stepping the mast. When I haul the boat out in the fall, their fee includes de-masting and power washing the hull! It's a great deal.

After routing my new halyards, boom topping lift, Lazy Jeps, flag halyard, and a few other miscellaneous items, we got Jep in the slings. The slings were not exactly centered on the boat, but it allowed Pete to use his air gun to finish painting the swing keel and other areas of the bottom. I was unable to change the keel control line. I'll make another attempt at the end of the season.

Both Mike and LT came down to help, so of course, we had a celebration beer once the mast was in place.

Mike and I motored out of McKinley, through the harbor and up the river to my slip. The wind was blowing about 20 knots straight out of the west. Unfortunately, where my slip is on the Milwaukee River, the river runs east/west. I have never in my short time here in Milwaukee seen the current of the river so strong! Mike and I did a bit of a crash landing, but she was in! Let the post-launch projects begin!