Something wicked this way comes!

Everyone is waiting for their ship to come in and this week it looks like my ship is arriving! I live aboard a Beneteau 331 which is a 34 foot coastal cruiser like the type of boat you would charter in the Virgin Islands or along the coast of Europe. There are many classes of sailboats that fit certain applications. For example there are truly lake boats that are very light weight and fun to sail but should never be on open water. There are coastal cruisers that are about as light but are equipped to stand up to tides/currents and are safe for open water navigation. There are blue water boats that are heavy and full of tankage for long ocean voyages and then there are race boats.

Now race boats also break down into classes from one design where everyone has the exact boat to PHRF (pronounced perf) racers. PHRF is a handicapping system used in yacht racing, so that boats that are not alike can race with each other and still have a chance to win. Yacht racing in many cases really isn't about the boat is it about the crew. The idea is to see who has the best crew so the boats are handicapped to give everyone a fair shot. Now there are several different systems and they all work in a common way of trying to take into account how a boat should perform but none of them work all the time and under all conditions.

The PHRF system is the system that most lakes and costal organzations use. Boats are given a number of seconds that they are given as an advantage based off of the baseline boat "a boat with a 0 rating" so a boat with a 150 rating gets a hundred and fifty second "head start" on the boat that rates a zero. So for example if the first boat crosses the line in 10 minutes (600 seconds) and the next boat finishes in 20 minutes (1200 seconds) but the first boat rates a zero and the second boat rates 120 and it was a 5 mile race then the second boat gets to subtract 120X5=600 seconds from their finish time so that both boats actually finish in a tie! Talk about shocking to find out you finished first eat lunch and still lost to the next boat or a boat that finished twentieth!

Well our teams race boat Second Star was a Beneteau First Series 33.7 and rated 123/126 depending on the event which is ok for cruising boats but very slow for serious race boats. Other elements come into play as well. As the boats get longer the theoretical hull speed also increases along with the sail area that they can carry. The math is pretty simple when you have a full displacement hull the boat can only go a limited speed as the boat will never get on top of the bow wake and plane. The formula is pretty simple even thought there are things it doesn't take into account it is relatively accurate; the square root of the waterline length multiplied by 1.35 is the basic equation. These aspects are all taken into account into your PHRF.

So what racers do is they lighten their boats and make them out of very strong but light weight materials like epoxy and carbon fiber! They also take great pains in engineering everything for a well oiled crew (that becomes movable ballast) to ensure that they boat can keep herself upright under the increased pressures. Everything in the boat is designed to go fast; hulls are not always built for the greatest stability race boats have semi displacement or even planing hulls. So one thing that happens is as boat get bigger (longer water lines) their PHRF typically goes down and as they rip everything including the seats and the microwave out the rating goes down even more. In the end we would not be complete without overloading these "shell" of a boat with incredibly large sails to bring the boats to life.

Now that I face my 4^th race season I will get to graduate to a new level of racing! Originally starting in the cruiser fleet or the "working class sails" group then to graduate to the "spinnaker" class group but be one of the slower "boats" in that class to now racing a brand new one design sport boat in the spinnaker class. We have been diligent and it has paid off for our team. We have seen a good amount of sailors come and go but the core team is still intact. When I started there was the skipper and his wife and whomever else he could con with food and drink to show up! Typically that meant 2 other people. Between the drinks, food and strong winds we would surely finish the race in the same day that we started, but that was not good enough. That first year we pushed very hard (at a pirates request) to raise the standards for crewmanship. Before having a way to get to the lake and a pulse was all that was required. By the end of the year we actually asked people if they had sailed before! By the end of 2006 we were ready to compete. Averaging a crew of 4-6 we started making our mark in the working sails division. By Spring of 2008 we were full time Spinnaker Class racers and as of Lakefest we will begin a new chapter in our racing careers! Now Second Star has new meaning as we will not have anyone in front of us to show us the way we will have to look for the "second star" As you may remember from your childhood:

"The second star to the right
Shines in the night for you
To tell you that the dreams you plan
Really can come true"

Except from "Second star to the right" song from Peter Pan

2005
Who is Second Star?
2006
Icebreaker Series Regatta 8th Place
Lakefest Regatta (I am not 100% sure on this one)
Leukemia Cup Regatta 1st Place (crewing for Sealake Yacht Sales)
Solstice Series Regatta 5th Place
Texoma Classic Regatta 5th Place Wunderlick Regatta 7th Place
Sundowner Regatta Did not compete
2007
Icebreaker Series Regatta 2nd Place
Lakefest Regatta 2nd Place
Leukemia Cup Regatta 1st Place (crewing for Sealake Yacht Sales)
Solstice Series Regatta 1st Place
Asbury Smith Memorial Cup 1st Place
Texoma Classic Regatta 9th Place
Wunderlick Regatta 1st Place
Sundowner Regatta 1st Place
2008
Icebreaker Series Regatta 1st Place
Cedar Mills Yacht Club 1st Place (Spinnaker) Beer Can Race Series
Lakefest Regatta 1st Place (Spinnaker)
Leukemia Cup Regatta 1st Place (crewing for Sealake Yacht Sales)
Solstice Series Regatta 4th Place (Spinnaker)
Asbury Smith Memorial Cup 4th Place (Spinnaker)
Texoma Classic Regatta 2nd Place (Spinnaker)
Wunderlick Regatta 2nd Place (Bob Sittle & J124) Spinnaker
Cedar Mills Regatta 2nd Place (Spinnaker)
Sundowner Regatta 6th Place (Spinnaker)
2009
Icebreaker Series Did not compete
Lakefest Regatta 5th Place (Spinnaker 1st Fleet)

Something wicked this way comes… Second Star Racing the saga continues…

From a PHRF of 123/126 to a renewed opportunity and a rebirth at 33 Second Star Racing is taking it to the next level. Almost a half a million dollars later and what do you get?

Perfection… See you on the water…

Pirate Mike