Dec 26, 2021-Christmas Dinner with G to G Windward

wingssail images-Sherri Wilkinson

Fred & Judy 

  wingssail images-judy jensen

Greg & Gloria in the Kithchen

We were invited to a wonderful Christmas Dinner at Greg and Gloria's (G to G Windward) condo with some other cruisers. We had lots of fun.

Click here for more photos. Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz, Mexico

Dec. 22, 2021-New Racing Season

wingssail images-judy jensen

Sailing to windward

Richard turned to me with a smile on his face, “It wasn’t much fun sitting there for an hour with no wind but it sure was nice when the wind filled in and we won!”

“Yep.” 

We’d just come in first on the first day of the Banderas Bay Blast, the kick-off race of the season but it wasn’t easy.

Oh yeah, we got a good start but all the smaller or slower boats had already gone before our start was called. So we started behind. 

But we were fast and we immediately started passing them. That was fun. 

 Then the wind died. 

I mean zero wind. Everyone stopped including the one boat still ahead of us, a Gulfstar 50, and several fast boats who were close behind. Whoever got the wind first would win. We tried our lightest spinnaker. So did the Gulfstar. So did a couple of boats behind. Our the ancient ½ oz kite sort of filled. Same with the boats behind, their kites filled slightly, looking like deflated balloons, but nobody moved. 

Boats started to withdraw. There was a parade of boat motoring past, headed for home. 

“It often is flat calm like this for a while then the wind springs up all of a sudden.” I tried to cheer up the crew, and maybe I was reminding the wind gods that we were still out here. 

But it worked! The wind came in; we all got it at the same time and we were off. It was a northerly and that meant it was a beat to the finish; our strong point. We pulled out from the boats behind and closed in on the Gulfstar. They tried to cover us. Finally, we broke out of their wind shadow and passed them from leeward, pointing on them and sailing faster. Soon they were directly behind us. 

wingssail images-judy jensen

Happy Crew

First place was very sweet. 

That was day one of a three day regatta, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. 

After Saturday’s race the following two days looked to be repeats. We would start behind all the boats (except a few which were deemed to be faster than us, but weren’t; they started behind.) and then try to pick them off one by one. On Sunday we did just that. We sailed well and were first by a mile, literally. We’ve sailed that course before and this wasn’t a record but it was close. We finished in one hour and 41 minutes. The best we’ve done was 1 hour and 31 minutes. Comparing the tracks for that day in 2019 and this race we could see what cost us the extra 10 minutes. It was a little less wind and much less of a right hand shift. The Gulfstar was second. 

On Monday the Gulfstar stayed ahead all the way to the finish but we won our class and won overall and that sewed up the regatta: First in class and first overall. 

After that we’ve been racing Beer Can Races and doing well, so the season is off to a good start. 

I give a lot of credit to the crew and a lot to Judy who has taken over the navigation role and she is doing great. Judy needed to move off of running backstays and while she didn’t want the navigator job it was the right move for her and she stepped up. It's more work for her because she still has to do her old role of being crew boss. She's a busy lady but she's handling it well. 

From now on however, the racing gets tougher. 

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huancaxtle

Dec 19, 2021-B&G Instrument Project-Part II

We said good bye to a long time friend this month and it was sad. I escorted the B&G Hercules instrument system off the premises, in a box, and wished him well.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold How I'll Remember B&G

For nearly 40 years, like a loyal employee, B&G served quietly onboard Wings providing accurate and timely wind and boat speed information. We did have our ups and downs; I had to work hard at times to keep B&G operating smoothly, but I was proud that the teamwork was successful, that we had our forty year old instruments still going! And even though it was 40 years old, B&G gave us information and flexibility that few modern systems could equal. I loved that system.

But there were signs that its time was drawing near. Accuracy was becoming questionable and, some functions were unreliable. I’m sorry to say so but it was clear that it was time for B&G to go.

I brought a replacement system, a newer B&G Hercules system, onboard for a tryout. The old B&G must have seen the handwriting on the wall, retirement in a box? What an ignominious end he faced ; but what could he do? Nothing.

One day at the gym when I knew I was going to go home that day to disconnect B&G for the last time I actually had a tear in my eye. But all good things must end.

Now the newer B&G Hercules 2000 system is in place. The old B&G Hercules 390 is gone.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold New B&G H2000 system in place

Things with the new instruments are not completely smooth, and at times I still miss the old system and wonder if we made the right decision, but we had to move forward.

It wasn’t cheap though either in terms of time or money. The new system came in a couple of boxes filled with used pieces with no guarantees that they would work. I spent about 100 hours testing and installing it all. I still needed quite a few pieces, so I was on Ebay most days.

Some of the software was out of date and though I had the latest versions of it stored on my PC, they have to be burned into Eprom chips and physically installed to be useful. I bought an Eprom burner and learned how to use it.

The mast head unit I built works, but I have doubts about the 40year old cable to it which we still have installed. I may need a new one of those. The performance CPU is not outputting data and even a new Eprom didn’t help it, so I had to find a another one on Ebay and it’s now on the way. Then there is the issue of spares. For the old system we had boxes of spare parts. I now have to find some spares for the new system. Keep in mind that while it is 22 years newer than the one it replaces, it is still an old system, and spare parts are rare.

But in the end we should have a better system at a pretty substantial cost savings. A new B&G Hercules 5000 system would cost over $10,000. We’ve got one a little bit older (but still an improvement over our previous system), at a fraction of that cost.

Now if only it will be as loyal and reliable as old B&G.

Click here for more photos

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz, Mexico