Rare bird - A Beneteau First 260 resource

A picture perfect day for racing... Sunny, 70F, and 8-12 knots of breeze. The First 260 does not like air less than say 6 knots, so we relish this sort of day. After working out our take-down issues of the week before, we nailed them today. An extra person on boat (Mel back on Pit) helped, and the jib being out blankets the kite enough to make the windward drop work like a charm. A decent 2nd place, but we let the win slip away on the last upwind. A sequence of moments form the race.

Our first race of the season was held on a cool 50F degree day, with a tasty 12-15 knots of NNE breeze. Chris was back on the boat for the first time this year, and Brendan filled in for Jon at bow. Mel was out of town, so we sailed with 4 and not our usual 5. We were VERY keen to see how the new sails would worked out when sailed in anger. The race started out very well, when the start was hit with a HUGE lefty. Noticing this as we approached the line, we tacked, ducked one boat, and crossed three to be the first to head out lifted. At the top mark, two boat that owed us big time caught us, but we were in front of all similar rated boats and all the ensigns. We set up for a bear-away set. As you can see in the vid, that went well and we raced downwind in 14 knots of breeze doing over 7 knots boatspeed, pulling away from our followers and gaining on the faster boats. Things were looking great! Sadly our downfall was our drops. With new crew on the boat, twice we could no...

Last weekend the Wayzata Yacht Club (WYC) hosted a two-day on-the-water racing training session with world class sailor and coach Andy Kerr. The idea is brilliant, but in reality it was a bit tough for us because we could not get our regular Thursday night crew together, as they often have weekend obligations. And our weekend 36.7 Kestrel crew sail on other WYC boats while at Minnetonka. So, we gathered a merry band of sailing friends, and had a go. Everyone learned tons and had a great time. Friday started it out with a pizza party, and several hours of boat-vs-boat discussion. A great way to get our heads back into the game after a long winter. Saturday broke cool and calm, but the wind was forecast to build to 8-11 knots SE, a perfect breeze for training in Wayzata Bay. After some coffee and a quick talk, we headed out to the boats where Andy came boat to boat and offered rig tuning advice and thought on boat dynamics. Andy had great ideas on how we should handle kite l...

Last year we raced with a spinnaker pole that was a bit undersized for the First 260, both in diameter and length. It also had fiddly ends that always gave our mastman issues. It came with the boat, so we figured that we would use it until we sorted out a new one, as well as a correctly sized kite for the boat and our typical conditions. That time has come. New for 2014 is a 2.5 inch OD Forespar pole with UTR ends. Of note is the bridle, made entirely of dyneema, with no stainless steel at all. Even the usual rigging rings are simple loops of dyneema. Very light, and no metal smashing on the deck when the pole is down. One functional addition is a great change to the downhaul control. The 2:1 line can often be in the wrong place when the pole is coming down, as the furling jib's sheets are always in the way. In the past, the meant scrambling to re-ring something. Now, the block is a snatch block, and the holding end is a quick release shackle. Now if the rigged ever get...

In the last week of April, the high hot sun and warmer weather made astonishingly quick work of the thick Lake Minnetonka ice. So on May 3, we were ready to launch! First we head out to the shed to collect BlueJ, where she has been sleeping since last December. Wakey wakey... Last fall, because it was so cold, I decided to wait to clean off the scum line near the boot stripe.  A little muriatic acid, diluted to about 15:1, and it dissolves right off. Check the ties and straps, and we are ready for the 80 mile tow to Wayzata where the crew is waiting. Launching was uneventful, but raising the mast was troublesome because of the very high water level this . BlueJ's mast is so tall that even when grabbed just below the spreaders, the strop needed to be ABOVE the top of the crane to pull the mast vertical. Happily others came over to help slide the boat forward to allow the pinning of the base, and then back to pull the mast up. Sorted! Quickly the boom came on, then vang and...