Late wrap up of Nacra North Americans

Well we made it all the way out to Michigan for Nacra North Americans. 

I apologize for not updating the blog while we were there... for all of those who have been to Caseville, MI, which is likely nobody, you would have known we would not have had internet access.  There was NOTHING there, this included internet access, I think there was spot in the corner of the booth in one bar the the town that if you sat in exactly the right spot you might pick up a weak signal but that was it.  

It was quite the trip, about 28 hours round trip.

The sailing conditions at this event were great.  Almost every race we were double trapezing.  

We had our ups and downs throughout the week.  We did very well in light to moderate air which included leading 2 races.  However, we the lightest team there at exactly minimum weight and had a tough time keeping the boat going fast in the heavy stuff.

We ended up 10th but we learned a lot!  It was great to hold our own with guys who have been on the boat for years in our first Nacra North Americans.

I think the highlight of our week was the last race, when we were over early and Kirk Newkirk was nice enough to yell to us about 2 minutes after the start that we were over so we turned around and went back to restart.  We decided to sail the hardest we had all week and try to catch back up to the fleet with a few minute late start.  We ended up at the windward mark ahead of two boats and right on the tails of the lead pack.  This felt really amazing as it confirmed that we had improved our boatspeed over the course of the week.

Going to the Nacra North Americans was much more about sailing for us.  It was a great opportunity to pick the brains of great sailors such as Nigel Pitt, Alex Shafer, Captain Kirk Newkirk, and etc.  These guys are all awesome as they are more than willing to help out and offer their advice, this is what sailing is all about!  

We can't wait until next year's NA's in Fort Walton Beach, FL.

We're in for the 2009 Tybee 500

Adventure Online TV - Tybee 500 Catamaran Highlights 2006

Well after lots of consideration... we have decided that we are officially going to compete in the 2009 Tybee 500, to be held in May.  The Tybee 500 is a  500 mile race from Key Largo, FL to Tybee Island, GA in 6 days.  We will sail a Nacra 20 catamaran which is extremely fast but also very physically demanding.  This is the premier small boat endurance distance sailing race in the world. 

This race takes a lot of time, commitment, planning, financing, and preparation.  We have decided 7 months ahead of time that we are going to compete so that we can make sure we are 110% fully prepared to take whatever this race can throw at us.

We still need help though!  Anyway you can help, whether it be monetary donations, product donations, or etc. we would greatly appreciate it!

Please email us at TeamAdrenalin@AdrenalinSailing.com for more information.

We have a sponsorship proposal and other material to give you a better understanding of what we are looking for.

Stay tuned for periodic updates on our progress.

Nacra North Americans here we come!!!

This has been quite the week for me! Working all day Monday and Tuesday packing up all the boats and etc. at the junior sailing program that I headed this summer. Wednesday was spent moving out of my apartment (i'm moving back to CT for a little bit) and finishing up Thursday then driving home to CT. I was so busy I had to skip the last night of team racing V15s Tuesday night and PHRF racing Wednesday night! Friday (today) was spent working on the boat from 9AM-9PM and running a few errands for parts and etc.But the good news is that this hectic week is all over and tomorrow morning at 6AM we are leaving for Caseville, MI for the Nacra North American Championships where we will be competeting in the Nacra 20 class. My crew for this event is Sean McQuilken, who I have sailed with quite a bit and work well with. It's a 13ish hour drive to Caseville so we'll be arriving tomorrow (Saturday) night. Since I got all the boat work out of the way today we are planning on practicing all day on Sunday. Racing takes place Monday through Thursday. This is my first Nacra North Americans so we are shooting for a modest goal of being competitive by being consistent and sailing smart.Stay tuned for updates.... i'll be trying to update this blog daily. If you have any questions about whats going on shoot me an email at Todd.Riccardi@gmail.com and i'll get back to you asap.Since this is the first time i've released this blog address to the public I wanted to make you all aware that we do have a team name in the works to replace "Nacra 20 #642 sailing campaign" but it is staying top secret until our Tybee plans are firmed up for next year.

2008 New England 100

Photo courtesy of Bill Vining

The New England 100 is a approximately 100 mile race, over the course of 2 days, which starts at Quonset Point in North Kingston, RI and finishes at the same point. There are 5 race course options that included sailing around the islands of Rhode Island.

Talk about an amazing weekend! Started off light (practically no breeze) both mornings and just past the Jamestown bridge the trust Newport seabreeze graced us with it's presence and led to double trapping in a steady 15-18.

The days were almost identical... upwind out the West passage, around the tip of Beavertail, down through the East passage, flying through Newport Harbor with the spinnakers up, passing through the Lighting class North American Championships', the N.Y.Y.C. team race, several other regattas, and the armada of boats anchored off Fort Adams listening to the Jazz Festival. It's really and awesome place to sail and a great place to give our boats publicity!

Mike and I led from the start on Saturday, but got sucked into a black hole by the Jamestown bridge and got passed by half the fleet. We managed to escape and find some wind and hang with the rest of the fleet and catch back up to the leaders. Unfortunatley as the day progressed, Mike and I were a bit off pace and let Chris Titcomb and Joe Valente get a good lead on us. We still however were a while ahead of the first F-18s. After rounding the North tip of prudence we tried to make up ground on Chris and Joe by sailing along the shore and out of the ripping current... it seemed to be working. By this time it was beautiful sailing, 18 knots double trapped, we were loving life. Our game plan of sailing along the shore included lots of tacking.. well one tack we slipped up and somehow we went into a tack without either of us holding the mainsheet... as I crossed the boat I looked back and saw it was too late, the mainsheet was cleated in tight and we were going over. After flipping we tried to right the boat as fast as possible as we noticed the current was really pushing us back towards the F-18s and they were coming fast! It ended up taking about 10 minutes to right the boat because the current kept pushing the bows out of the wind! It was really frustrating. We righted the boat and got sailing, rounded the South tip of Prudence and ripped on a screaming reach (top speed of 20.4 mph) to Quonset Point finishing 3rd overall but not so well on corrected as the F-18s were right behind us. We figure we lost around 15 minutes in our little ordeal.

The 2nd day featured much of the same course, we were able to lead off the start just as the day before and hold it this time all the way until the Newport bridge. Chris Titcomb was right on our heels so we had our work cut out to beat him overall, but looking back at the 3rd place boat, Joe, we saw we had around a 20 minute lead! Perfect! We had to beat him by around 15 to beat him overall. At the bridge Chris and ourselves split tacks and did our own thing. Once we convereged again several miles later Chris had taken a 5 minute lead. We were sailing nicely just flying a hull with the spinnaker up, headed towards the bell buoy just South of the Mount Hope brdige we were supposed to round. Suddenly, we noticed a rather large obstruction, a GIANT tanker headed directly towards our mark and in the path we needed to sail. By jibing inside it we were able to stay clear and eventually passed it and rounded the mark just ahead of it then got the heck out of its way! At the bell buoy, Chris still had around a 5 minute lead. We had a feeling we could catch him... but as we turned around we noticed the hole rest of the fleet had cut our lead to only about 5 minutes as the seabreeze had built to about 20 and they were coming downwind much faster than we did! Going up the bay, we again split tacks, Chris went right, we went left, hugging the shore to get current relief and take the nice lifts we were finding on this shore. By the time we convereged again at the South tip of Prudence Island we were in the lead again! We rounded Prudence and just like the day before had a screaming reach to Quonset, our lead over Chris grew from 100 feet to about 500 feet and we took line honors for the day. However, the rest of the fleet finished only 6 minutes after us, putting us in not such a good position overall. Now if only we could have the 15 minutes back from the capsize on Saturday.

All and all we had a blast... we could not have asked for better sailing conditions and competition. This was probably one of the best weekends of racing i've had in a long time!

2008 Statue Race

Our favorite race of the year turned out to be a little bit of a letdown this year!  It was light wind and we ended up turning around only 5 miles away from the Statue of Liberty.  However, this was my 7th year participating in the race and my first time not finishing.  I know plenty of people who it took several tries to complete this race so I am still content with my record.

We woke up to ZERO wind!  It was a pretty dreary sight and all we could do was pray for the breeze to fill.

After a postponement flag was put at 10:00AM they lowered it and announced they planned to start us.  

Taken off guard as there was still no wind, we scrambled around to get the boat in the water and out in time for the start.  It turned out all our rushing was for nothing as we got out with plenty of time before the sequence.  

At the start we noticed a bunch of boats starting at the pin end and we were about mid-line.   We figured our game plan would be that with a few seconds to go we would launch the spinnaker and go for a clear lane above everyone else.  It worked like a charm!  At 5 seconds we were sailing at about 4 knots (in what felt like no wind!) as everyone else sat jumbled up at the pin.  At GO we were still moving as everyone else sat still watching us roll them in dismay.  We got a good lead off the start but somehow a couple boats managed find more wind and sneak by us for the lead.  After rounding the first mark of the race we were in 4th with a good lead on all but one of the 20's.

As the wind came and went for the next couple hours we would accelerate away from the pack, catching the leaders, then we would slow, and so on.  As we were still only seeing winds peaking at about 5 I felt I would be more comfortable not having my harness on.  This was the first time in my life I have ever sailed in a race without my harness on!  Suddenly, like hitting a wall, the wind increased to 12-15 and we were single trapezed with the spinnaker!  But it wasn't enough!  Our VMG angle was way off to make the bridge!  We watched Team Velocity coming on strong double trapezed with a much better angle.  Knowing I needed to get on the wire too, I handed Brendan the helm and scurried around the trampoline trying to get my harness on!  Once I got it on we were double trapezed for about 5 minutes before the wind died back down.  While it lasted, the wind had allowed us to make substantial gains on the leaders.  We were now contesting the Capricorn about half a mile to leeward of us for the lead.   It appeared we were pulling into the lead, as the race committee drove by to cheer us on.  We had decent breeze and were going faster than all boats to leeward.  Suddenly Brendan said with a nervous tone "Todd... look over your shoulder... theirs a giant tugboat and barge!"  I turned around and saw the monstrosity.  I knew this was going to be a problem.  Traditionally, out of the two of us I tend to be much less cautious when it comes to encounters with commercial traffic.  I tend to put us in risky situations in favor for not disrupting our race.  Brendan wanted to jibe away but I told him it would set us back way too much.  I was hoping we could cross the tug, but I secretly knew in the back of my mind that there was no way this was going to happen.

I told Brendan to relax and focus on the spinnaker I would worry about the impending encounter with the tug.  For a couple minutes I continued on course to what looked like we might (big emphasis on MIGHT) cross the bow.  I was slightly nervous but tried to concentrate on the task at hand.  Next thing I knew I heard a few loud airhorns and realized the tug was thinking the same thing I was, we were on a collision course.  Now my mindset went to getting the heck out of it's way but not damage our race.  I turned the boat downwind more and ran on a low reach alongside the tug.  We were keeping pace with it so I hoped we could keep it from passing us.  No such luck, it soon passed us and we got stuck in it's lee.   Still not wanting to jibe back, we sailed slowly for a few minutes and watched the boats to leeward catch up and pass us.

We neared the Verazzanno and converged with the boats that had been to leeward with us including Team Velocity and Team Accelerated Chaos.   The 3 of us sailed side by side, dueling it out for a while, fighting the currents and trying to make it to the bridge.  The Capricorn was the only boat ahead of us and as they crossed under at 2 hours and 47 minutes!  The cutoff time for the first boat making the bridge is 3 hours!  We knew that having taken so long to reach the bridge it was going to be a long race!  We had hoped the Capricorn would turn around but since they didn't and none of us wanted to give up we kept sailing.  We ended up crossing under the bridge at 2 hours and 58 minutes!  We continued to sail up towards the Statue, it was in sight!  As we jibed back and forth across the river with a boatspeed of about 5 knots our GPS was indicating that the Statue was 5.3 miles away and it would take us another hour and a half to reach it.  We were so close!  But the wind kept shutting down and soon we were averaging 2-3 knots, at that rate it was looking like 2.5 hours to the Statue.  Running the numbers through our head we figured we would not return to Sandy Hook til 10PM.  In our hurry leaving the beach, I had forgotten our flashlight.  The thought of sailing in New York harbor without a flashlight did not appeal to me.  Apparently Team Accelerated Chaos was thinking the same thing, they dropped their spinnaker and turned around.  We soon followed suit.  We were astonished when we saw that several boats opted not to turn around.  We informed some of them what our GPS was telling us, as they did not have one, they seemed to debate turning around but as we sailed back towards the beach, they kept sailing towards the Statue.  At that point we could do nothing but wish them luck and think we were making the better decision.  As we sailed back, Team Accelerated Chaos, Team Velocity, Team Moose-Burd, Flash Gordon and several others all joined us.  Apparently, we weren't the only ones who were happy with our decision.

About 30 minutes after turning around the wind filled and we were soon averaging 13-14 knots.  I could not help but wonder if the wind had filled past the bridge.  Brendan and I were disappointed but overall knew that we had made the correct decision, cautioning on the side of error.  It was 4th of July weekend and we had no intention to spend a whole night out on the water!

After returning to the beach we indulged in some hot dogs, hamburgers, and beer, a true 4th of July style beach BBQ.  We derigged the boat and around 8PM as we were pulling out of the parking lot we saw the first boats coming in.  I looked at Brendan and said "Oh well!... We had a blast either way!"

Despite the sailing conditions the Statue of Liberty Race once again did not disappoint and I will be back again next year, hopefully looking for the win!