Krikkit News and Blog

With almost all official crewed racing spiked for the duration of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Krikkit saw out the season competing in the unofficial “Thursdays in the Bay” race training sessions, plus the remaining two races in the VARC Shorthanded Series (the first of these was the WVYC/RNSA Not-Nanaimo Shorthanded race in June) and a single, lone official regatta.

For the “Thursdays in the Bay” we competed double- or triple-handed with our household bubble (Simon, Jen and Ian). There were no prizes or overall scoring, but times were kept and corrected finishes calculated (only for training purposes, of course). It was a nice chance to get out and continue our long-running rivalry with Jasmina, and it was very tight racing … uh, I mean training … with the two boats swapping finishing positions throughout the series and indeed throughout several of the individual races. After the nine races it was too close to call without official overall scoring instructions, although Krikkit did beat Jasmina in four of the seven races where we actually went head-to-head. An added bonus was the opportunity to play with Silik and Mast Transit, as the racing was being run on a single start for all divisions, with about 14 different boats showing up at one time or another.

June 2020 - After New Year's Day's promising start, the 2020 sailing season – together with pretty much everything else in the world – smashed unceremoniously into the shit-covered brick wall of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Everything in March, April and May was cancelled, but by June the concept of "social bubbles" was emerging, and it was deemed appropriate to host formal single-handed races, and informal "social bubble" competitive cruises.

So on June 6th Simon slipped on his sailing boots for the RNSA/WVYC Not-Nanaimo Short-Handed Race, reduced this year from an overnight Nanaimo-and-back event to a single-day Bell Buoy-to-Popham-and-back event with a pursuit start format. The breeze was a nice consistent 8-10 knot southeasterly under initially cloudy skies, and Simon got off the start line with speed, if a few seconds late due to an abundance of caution and a dash of confusion as to the exact timing.

Something entirely new for 2019 was the inaugural Crystal Cup women's regatta on Aug 17-18, and Jen took Krikkit out for this one with Denice, Lisa, Natasha, Brittany, Aimee and MC. Day 1 was a cloudy light-air distance race between Passage and Bird Islands ("Passage Island - insert wind hole here"), with Krikkit finishing 6th in the 10-boat fleet.

Day 2 was a real test of sailing skill and crew work, with four round-the-buoys races in 15-20 knots of breeze and sunny skies. Krikkit ran the blade and full main, using the chicken chute for the first few races and then switching to the big chute as things eased near the end of the day. Race 2 was a beauty, with Jen winning the start and the crew getting the boat clean around the course for a 1st place finish. Combined with a 3rd place in the day's first race and a couple of 6th place finishes at the end of the day, it was good enough for 4th overall in the regatta.

Following a weekend cruise to Gambier (with Simon, Jen and Linda aboard, and David joining in flotilla with his boat Freedom), Krikkit signed up for the English Bay Scramble weekend on August 10-11, 2019. For the traditional Round the Bay race on Saturday, Krikkit had Simon, Jen, Denice and Lisa aboard. The start was in light offshore breeze and Krikkit did the inside marks first. It wasn't the winning strategy, as the wind died off almost completely at the Kits Barge Buoy, while the boats that had gone to the outside marks first were able to continue sailing in decent breeze. Krikkit struggled through the finish and headed off to collect the Bell Buoy, but ran out of time to get Passage Island and finished with only three marks, for a sixth place finish in Div 3 (the top four boats rounded all four marks).

For the round-the-buoys action on Sunday, Krikkit had Simon, Jen, Denice and Rob aboard. In weather that started out as Scotch mist and cleared to sun, Krikkit finished near the back of the pack in the first very light air race, raced well for a 3rd place finish in race 2, and then got a little disorganized for race 3 and end up DFL (we'd had to move one of the marks right before the start, and hadn't had time to figure out the lay of the new course).

The weekend of June 29-30, 2019 saw Krikkit do something a little different, heading across Georgia Strait to take part in Nanaimo Yacht Club's SIN (Snake Island Nanaimo) Regatta. Along for the delivery were Simon, Jen, Denice and Kia, with Bev and Dan LaCasse joining us for the racing, and Andrea from OCD making a guest appearance on the Saturday.

The racing itself was pretty epic, with multiple tightly contested windward-leeward races in a big mixed fleet. After spending the first couple of races figuring out the fleet and the local conditions and currents, Krikkit started moving up in the fleet, with Simon getting some cracking good starts and Dan coaching the team and making some great calls on the course. So after starting out with a pair of 6th place finishes we then managed a couple of 5ths, a 4th and, on the last race of the weekend, a solid 2nd place finish - good enough to put us in 4th overall for the weekend in Div 3.

Krikkit then proceeded to win the party hands-down, becoming the destination party boat for the entire remaining fleet and collecting the quote of the weekend from one of the nearby cruising boats sometime around midnight when they came out to ask when we'd be shutting it down because "this isn't a disco."

Au contraire, it was a Krikkit dance party!

Simon, Jen, Denice and Kia then took a couple days to enjoy a little cruising holiday at Newcastle Island before heading back across the strait. Good times!

for Krikkit, on May 9, 2019, because Simon and Jen were in Montreal for the first race, but we made up for it in the third week when we were the only Div 3 boat to show up (so we diced with the Martins and Div 1 fleet instead).Then it was time for the TCYC Sailpast on May 11, which Simon and Jen did double-handed. We managed to somewhat pooch the race by sailing into the lee of a freighter, but fun was had regardless, and then for giggles we went over and did the KYC sailpast as well.

The 2019 racing season got properly underway on March 23 with the TCYC Spring Tuneup race. Krikkit headed out for this one with Simon, Jen, Nick, Alex and Mike aboard. Race committee got three windward-leeward races off in what started as a light offshore breeze with overcast skies, and later switched to a 5-8 knot westerly onshore breeze and sun.

For the first race in the easterly, Krikkit got a merely okay start but made good choices picking which side of the course to favour upwind, and combined with a little luck it netted us fifth place in a tough nine-boat fleet.

For the second race, after a short delay to let the westerly fill in, Krikkit got an excellent start and made good tactical decisions and crisp roundings, netting us a fourth place finish.

For the third race, Jen handed over the foredeck duties to Mike, and Krikkit once again got an excellent start, but then went to the wrong side of the course for the first beat, putting us into a pitched battle downwind to try and gain back some ground. A hugely entertaining neck-and-neck-and-neck finish with Broos and Blowout softened the blow of correcting to sixth, which put us in fifth place overall once all the scores were tallied.

After skipping the RVYC Day Race due to a combination of limited crew turnout, poor weather forecasts and a flaky registration system that ended up with Simon missing the early registration fee, Krikkit next headed out for WVYC's Collingwood Channel Race and it redeemed itself gloriously from the rudder-breaking misery that took place the last time the race was run in 2017. Simon, Jen, Chris and Nick were aboard for the race, which took place under sunny skies in a perfect 10-12 northwest breeze, with inflows up Collingwood Channel.

Krikkit, which had tacked last of the group after the rounding, had just enough height -- barely! -- to ghost past the headland and punch through into fresh breeze blowing into the bay, where we found ourselves quickly lit up again, now close on the transom of Incisor. Rhumbline and Kodiak, meanwhile, had to tack in almost no breeze in order to clear the headland, and the remainder of the fleet ran into similar trouble.

With the fleet temporarily glued in place behind us, Krikkit went to battle with Incisor, getting into a great spinnaker duel once we cleared the channel and popped the chutes. With plenty of breeze, significant chop, and the finish essentially dead downwind, we squared back the spinnaker pole and headed deep, and were impressed to see Incisor essentially matching our angles under their asymmetrical spinnaker. The impressive depth appeared to cost them a bit of speed though, allowing Krikkit to grind them down and finally cut in front for line honours and first place corrected. A truly fantastic day!

As is traditional, Tiddly Cove Yacht Club hosted the annual New Year's Day Race on Jan 1st, 2019. With Simon, Jen, Chris, Mike, and Denice aboard, Krikkit joined a fleet of 17 boats for the LeMans-style anchored start and around-the-buoys race, while Krikkit crewmembers Rob and Kevin (plus a few party crew) took care of race committee duties aboard New Adventure.

September 29, 2018 was the Fraser Lightships Race, and this year it was a long, slow slog. With Simon, Kevin, Chris, Denice, Nick Ashley and Mike aboard, the race started in a very light offshore breeze and strong flood current. On the way out of English Bay Krikkit and Rhumbline make significant gains by dropping anchor twice, holding position as the rest of the fleet got swept back. After spending what felt like two years clearing one of the freighters, a few fingers of wind allowed us to finally sneak around the Bell Buoy and catch a decent bit of Georgia Strait breeze for a nice spinnaker reach to the T10 turning mark.

After rounding the mark it was a close reach back to the Bell Buoy, fighting to hold our distance ahead of OCD. Once around the Bell Buoy, however, the wind fell off again in English Bay, OCD snuck ahead, and the race became an endless slow drift towards the finish line in the increasingly dark late evening.

As Mike said in his best Werner Herzog voice: "When we started this race, we were much younger. As we sat on the boat our journey became existential. We could no longer read the race instructions in their early cuneiform as the language had long become extinct. We waited, pondering the stillness of the water and the capacity of the ship's head."

In the end, we gave it our best shot and did better than XS, Terna III and Kodiak, all of which retired, but we came in at the back of the fleet, 6th out of the nine Division 3 competitors.

Sept 8 and 9, 2018 was the Deep Cove Regatta with Simon, Chris, Kevin, Ashley, Nick, Mike and Alex aboard, but the wind got the memo a day late. Saturday dawned cloudy and with 3-5 knots of offshore breeze. While most of the fleet drifted around aimlessly, Krikkit and a couple other boats played in what breeze there was, but it was never enough to convince committee to start a race, so in the end racing was abandoned and the fleet returned to dock.

Sunday saw an improvement, with thicker cloud cover bringing both rain ... and wind! After a bit of a delay for the race committee to round up its marks, racing got underway in 6-11 knots of outflow wind, with Krikkit racing 5-up (Mike and Alex had other commitments). It was super close and tactical racing between Krikkit, Rhumbline, Godzilla, Kittyhawk and OCD, with boats swapping positions back and forth on each shift and tack. At the windward mark Krikkit managed to get the inside track on OCD, getting around ahead of them, then called for an immediate gybe to escape a soft spot and pull ahead of Rhumbine. It was then a downwind sleigh-ride battle trying to catch up to Godzilla, with Ultraman II in 1st place somewhere over the horizon.

In the end Krikkit wasn't able to catch the leaders, but held on on for a 3rd-place finish with OCD and Rhumbline close behind. Good times!

August 11 and 12, 2018 saw Tiddly Cove Yacht Club host the popular English Bay Scramble as part of an international Shenzhen Challenge regatta weekend. The Saturday dawned partly cloudy and cool, with 5-8 knots of breeze and Simon, Jen, Ian, Kevin, Nick and Ashley aboard. After the usual chaotic Scramble start, Krikkit took a contrarian course designed to minimize our exposure to current, getting the Barge Can out of the way first, passing the Start-Finish and then stringing together the North Shore, Passage and Bell Buoy marks. The first spinnaker run saw us dicing with Fourth Dimension back to the Start-Finish, and the Krikkit crew knuckled down to work on boatspeed, with Nick navigating. It was a quick and steady day, with only one slow section on the way back into the bay, and in the end our strategy proved reasonably sound: The only other two boats to follow the same course finished 1st and 2nd in their divisions (Divs 1 and 7), and Krikkit finished 3rd in Division 3.

Sunday saw Simon, Kevin, Ashley, Alex, Nick and Mike come out to race with clouds and light offshore breeze. Committee managed to get three races off but Krikkit struggled against Rhumbline and Stellar J in the light air, posting up a 3, 2, 3 record in a diminished four-boat division, ending the day third overall ahead of the J/24 Josephine. A challenging but entertaining day!

Summer Shorts Success

July 26, 2018 was the final TCYC Summer Shorts race, and Krikkit headed out with Simon, Jen and Alex, plus Brittany, Aimee and Pam from the Maritime Diva crew. With 0-7 knots of flakey WNW breeze it was a game of trying to find the wind. Krikkit got an okay start, but then got buried under Talisman and Jasmina. Trailing the pack on the first lap, we managed to sneak into the lead when the wind died across the course and the leaders ahead of us parked. With a ribbon of breeze remaining just north of the layline, Krikkit sailed out wide and managed to scoop the breeze and keep moving, getting to the windward mark before the other boats got going again. The result was a commanding lead for line honours, and a 3rd place corrected finish.

The previous race on July 19th wasn't quite so successful. With Simon, Alex, Liam, Kurt, Sydney and Tess aboard, Krikkit got shut out at the start line and had to circle around for a 2nd-row start. We then missed the first wind shift and got punted to the back of the fleet, leaving us in a pitched battle with New Adventure and Cayoosh to avoid being DFL. In the end we prevailed against them, giving us a 6th place finish in the race. But with our early successes in the series, combined with our 3rd place finish the following week, it was good enough to give Krikkit the overall win in the series for the first time ever. Good times!

July 14 and 15, 2018 was the VRC Summer Regatta, and it was one for the record books. For the round-the-buoys action on Saturday, Krikkit had Simon, Jen, Denice, Kurt and Alex aboard, and the wind was on: 15-20 knots of mostly steady breeze and somewhat lumpy seas.

The first race was a long two-lapper. Krikkit got a decent start and managed to hang in to be third around the first windward mark, then poled way back after launching the spinnaker to dig deeper than the rest of the fleet, taking advantage of the good wind pressure to minimize distance, and closing the gap with the leaders. On the next windward leg Krikkit stayed right to catch the ebb tide running up the course, while the fleet went left. It paid off, and Krikkit rounded the windward mark at the front of the pack, holding the lead until a shortened finish at the leeward mark.

Race two was a one-lapper that saw Krikkit get an excellent start, then flip onto port and head for the favourable current to get to the windward mark with a narrow lead at the front of the pack. After a closely-fought leeward leg, with the boats all clumped together, Krikkit arrived first at the leeward mark in very light air, then managed to sneak away just before an enormous wind hole opened up and swallowed the rest of the fleet. Only OCD managed to escape in reasonable time, giving Krikkit a convincing win with a four-minute margin.

Race three was a lap-and-a-half, and by then the tide was starting to change. Unfortunately Krikkit not only got a subpar start, but then misjudged the new current regime and went to the wrong side of the course for the first windward leg, rounding in the back half of the fleet. The fleet was still clumped together like a kid’s U9 soccer team following the ball, so nobody managed to change positions on the leeward leg. But the leeward rounding presented an opportunity when OCD blew their spinnaker takedown, and Krikkit pounced on it, getting past them and setting sights on Talisman for the upwind leg. The opportunity came following a port-tack duck on the penultimate tack to the windward mark: Talisman immediately tacked to cover, leaving Krikkit to climb the ladder unobserved behind their headsail, then punch up above them at the opportune moment, with only a foot to spare behind our transom. The gas masks dropped down aboard Talisman, and Krikkit got the lead around the mark, opening the gap on the leeward leg to finish in 3rd place, 8 seconds corrected ahead of Talisman.

Sunday was a distance race around Passage Island, with Simon, Jen, Denice and Kurt aboard, 8-12 knots of wind, and hot sun. XS and Rhumbline bought their A-games. Krikkit got a decent port-approach start: a little slow off the line thanks to a late tack onto starboard, but well-placed to find a clear lane for the long port tack to the north-shore beach where the favourable current was expected. The favourable current was marked by some major wind-over-water waves, and a little bit of second-guessing (involving consultation with the GPS and speed log, observation of the Div 1/2 fleet, and polling of everybody’s tactical opinions) led Krikkit to tack back into the rough water as we approached the northern edge, while Rhumbline and XS continued to the smoother water but lighter winds further north. Rhumbline tacked back to play the middle ground, Krikkit stayed in the rough water further south, and XS hugged the north shore, and as we neared Point Atkinson the payoff was announced: XS won it by a minute going north, Rhumbline got out next by playing the middle, and Krikkit came in a minute behind after playing the rough water in the south. We made up a little ground against Rhumbline on the close reach to Passage Island, lost it again by heading in just a tiny bit too close, gained it again on the spinnaker run back to the finish line, lost some again on a poor gybe, and ended up a minute corrected behind Rhumbline and two minutes behind XS, who took a well-deserved win.

The 2nd TCYC Thursday on June 28 saw New Adventure come out to play with Krikkit, with Simon, Kevin, Patrick, Mike, Alex, Kurt and Colby on Krikkit, and Rob, Chris, Lisa, Andrew, Shael and Ben on New Adventure. The wind, however, didn’t cooperate and there was a strong flood current. After getting a very slow start (which New Adventure handily won), the wind died off completely with Broos and Krikkit leading the fleet but only halfway to the weather mark, and the race was abandoned.

For the 3rd TCYC Thursday on July 5, the wind came back in spades. Krikkit had Simon, Kevin, Alex and Sydney aboard, along with Dennis LaFeaux who was aboard to evaluate the new headsail. But with 25-28 knots of solid wind it wasn’t a #1 night, so we ran the #4, which we put on in the lee of a freighter. Following a decent starboard lineup start, Krikkit sailed conservatively but fast, rounding in in third place and then digging deep wing-on-wing to minimize distance to the leeward mark, passing Cayoosh and New Adventure who were running angles. On the second leeward leg the wind had eased to about 23-24 knots and Krikkit launched the chicken chute — the only spinnaker to fly in the fleet — widening our narrow lead and sealing our win. Super awesome fun, and some great heavy-air practice.

The 4th TCYC Thursday on July 12 saw Simon, Jen, Mike, Denice, Alex, Michelle Flandin and Jeanette aboard, and 14-15 knots of breeze: Good fun for the regular crew but a bit breezy for training green crew. Krikkit basically won the start, allowing for clean, easy roundings at the front of the pack. The second leeward leg saw Brinehog muscle in and start dicing things up, pushing Krikkit well above course then falling back again, until Krikkit countered by getting separation and then executing a quick gybe onto starboard, forcing Brinehog away. We rounded just ahead, but Brinehog passed us on on the beat, crossing with line honours, but conceding the corrected win to Krikkit.

Summer Shorts and Waves

The final KYC Thursday Spring Series race on June 14 saw Simon, Jen, Rob, Kevin, Liam, Alex, and Ashley aboard Krikkit for the unveiling a new toy: a North Sails 3Di #1 genoa in raw black, replacing our increasingly frayed and brittle mylar laminate #1. With 7 knots of breeze and a massive flood tide, Simon managed to undercook the start, with the contrary current pushing Krikkit outside the layline on the final approach to what was looking like a winning pin-end launch. Flopping onto port to clear the pin and make the line, we then engaged in a nerve-wracking game of duck and cross that put us behind Rhumbline and Jasmina. After that it was a close battle all around the course — Krikkit managed to sneak ahead of Rhumbline on one of the leeward roundings, but they clawed back on the beat and Krikkit crossed in 3rd place, which was still good enough for the overall series win. Fun times!

Saturday June 9 dawned sunny and warm for the 2018 Round Bowen Race, following a drizzly delivery with Simon, Jen and Denice on the Friday afternoon. Onboard for the race were Simon, Jen, Denice, Kevin, Mike, Alex and Ashley. After a decent but slightly confused start (let’s just say our timers weren’t coordinated), the fleet had to navigate a series of shifty, unpredictable wind holes between the start and Passage Island. It turned into an exercise in frustration for the Krikkit crew, tacking away from one calm zone only to miss a puff and fall into the next hole.

When we finally reached the breeze it came on strong, about 10-12 knots, and we got launched somewhere in the middle of the now spread-out fleet. Short-tacking up Bowen’s south shore in lumpy seas, Kevin took a bad step outside the lifelines, necessitating some on-the-fly first aid for a rather nasty (and exceeding bloody) gash on his shin.

After rounding Cape Roger Curtis we launched the spinnaker to begin a truly epic spinnakker run, digging deep (and often sailing by the lee) to push straight through the Hutt Island passage without gybing, then making short work of the ever-present Cape Finisterre wind hole. But while it was a brilliantly fun and fast race, our effort wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit of the first slow 40 minutes, and we finished exactly where the wind launched us, in mid-fleet. The party was up to the usual Round Bowen standards though, with lots of visiting, good food, a great band, and dancing ’til the rain suddenly returned.

May 31, 2018 was the fifth KYC Thursday with Simon, Jen, Denice, Rob, Liam, Ashley, Kurt and Kia aboard, and it was Rhumbline’s turn to teach a master class in light-air sailing. The start saw about 8 knots of southerly breeze, and Krikkit got off the line neck-and-neck with Rhumbline. But with the breeze easing off to 4-6 knots, Rhumbline was able to crawl slowly ahead leaving Krikkit struggling in her dirty air. We eventually crossed second over the line, correcting to third behind Marbella.

On June 2 it was the Easter Seals Regatta, hosted by RVYC. With a “choose your own course” rally-style points format, it was a bit of a free-for-all, and Krikkit chose to go the inside route, picking up the short-distance marks first. Ultraman II, meanwhile, went for the big distance, big-points option, running out to the bell buoy. It turned out to be a close race, in more than one sense: Passing Ultraman II near the QB buoy, the Krikkit crew calculated that we could make the high-points “mystery mark” near Point Atkinson before the cut-off time ... maybe. We got round the mark seconds before our calculated “turn-around” time, then prayed the wind would hold for the spinnaker reach in. And what a doozy it was! With the boat blasting along at full clip and Nick calling the speed made good, we were running numbers in our heads the whole way, and it was going to be close! We ended up rounding the “Score doubling” mark with some 45 seconds to spare, and thinking we’d nabbed the win. But it wasn’t to be … Ultraman II’s stategy had paid off with 10 extra points and they took the win, with Krikkit taking second. Still, it was a super fun day, and the party afterward was awesome.

On June 7th it was the sixth KYC Thursday race, and Krikkit was back in form, with Simon, Denice, Rob, Kevin, Liam and Kurt aboard. With 6 knots of easterly offshore breeze and a pin-favoured line, Krikkit port-hunted the start and flipped onto starboard just above the pin layline at the front of the fleet, with Jasmina and Rhumbline close behind. It was a three-boat battle to the windward mark, and after rounding with the narrowest of leads Krikkit gybed immediately onto port to get to the better breeze on the southern shore. Meanwhile Jasmina and Rhubline got tangled up with each other and sailed into a growing wind hole that stopped them dead for a solid 10 minutes, allowing Krikkit to romp off for the win, sailing in the rivers of breeze and keeping an eye out for the many wind holes that popped up and disappeared at random on the course.

May 4, 2018 — RVYC’s new opener “Day Race” on April 14 (crewed by Simon, Jen, Chris, Denice, Ashely and Dan Eagan) proved to be an interesting challenge, with a 6-8kt offshore breeze for the start and initial run out towards Cates Point switching to light onshore breeze for the beat from RVYC to the Bell Buoy, then switching back to nearly non-existent offshore breeze for the final struggle back to the finish line. With Ultraman II getting pushed into the mud (and out of the race) by one of the Farr 30s, Krikkit ended up being one of only three Div 3 boats to finish, with Rhumbline ahead, Talisman correcting from behind, and Jasmina and Godzilla getting skunked by the wind. In the end, Ultraman II was given redress and tied for 3rd with Krikkit.

Following a weekend cruise to Bowen Island, Krikkit headed out for the WVYC Popham Island race on April 28 under damp skies and in a fleet of 10 Div 3 boats, with Simon, Denice, Kevin and Ashley aboard. After a down-to-the wire run to make the start in time, Krikkit crossed the line under spinnaker a few seconds late but at absolutely top speed, putting us in a good position against the fleet. With a successful downwind run, Krikkit was third around the Popham Island mark, but a single bad tactical choice on the upwind beat saw us stick too long on the wrong tack, catching adverse current, missing a favoured wind shift, and getting spat out near the back to finish 9th. Ouch!

With False Creek Yacht Club handing the Thursday Evening racing over to Kitsilano Yacht Club, things got off to a slightly disorganized start with a somewhat diminished fleet, and even the wind failed to show up the first night (May 3). Simon ended up joining KYC to support the racing, making Krikkit a dual-club boat.

April 9, 2018 - With the season set to get underway, Simon dove Krikkit on March 23 to change the propeller hub zincs and scrub the bottom in preparation for the TCYC Spring Tune-up on Saturday March 24. Race day saw Simon, Jen, Kevin, Alex, Nick and Mike onboard, and shifty, variable breeze out on English Bay.The first race got underway in an oscillating 7 knot westerly. Krikkit got a good start and managed some gains by taking the favourable course on the 1st downwind leg, hanging with the leaders to come second across the line out of seven boats, and second corrected.

By the second race the wind had eased a little and swung south, turning the race into a reach-reach drag race. Krikkit got a solid start, but with no passing lanes and limited tactical options there was no way to overcome the speed advantage of the sport boats and light-air specialists, so it was all Krikkit could do to hang on for 5th.

Race 3 was reset to go around a freighter in light SE breeze, and once again the sport boats and light-air flyers took off, but then Ultraman II ripped their spinnaker during the takedown at the bow of the freighter, luffing up to recover the spinnaker and dropping a couple places back in the fleet as a result, leaving Krikkit in 4th just ahead of Senza.

Race 4 was an intense, super short two-lap windward-leeward dash in a nice 8-knot easterly. Krikkit managed to hang in there and get the spinnaker up and down in short order, getting around the course quickly and cleanly. But still, with no time for corrections to really count, it all came down to the start order - and with a middling start, Krikkit finished in 4th place, six seconds behind Senza despite Senza not flying their kite on the second leg.

Race 5 capped off the day with another, longer race in an easterly breeze. Krikkit handily won the start, and while the fleet managed to sneak ahead on the first windward leg, Krikkit stayed in close contact and then pushed back into the top three by taking a starboard-gybe rhumbline to the leeward mark, coming in with rights and gaining several positions to put us into third place for the race, and third overall. A great result from an awesome fun day of racing!

Nov 26, 2017 - With the series racing wrapped up for the season, the Krikkit crew got out for one last kick at the can on November 11 in the stand-alone VRC Remembrance Day Race, with Simon, Kevin, Denice, Mike, Ashley and Nick aboard. It's the first time Krikkit has made it out to this race in several years, and the weather cooperated with a nice steady offshore breeze, and no rain until after we'd doused the spinnaker and rounded the leeward mark (the Point Grey Bell Buoy). Following an appropriately sombre and reflective two minutes of silence, the race features a pursuit start, with the slowest boat leading off and faster rated boats getting launched incrementally at appropriate intervals after that. Krikkit started with an immediate handicap, being launched at the same one-minute interval as Windyfeat, which rates five seconds faster. We had fun chasing down Horatio, Sorcerer and Jasmina (and almost holding off Windyfeat) during the initial spinnaker run out, and we managed to just about catch up to Sorcerer and Jasmina as we all rounded the mark (Horatio had fallen behind after strong start). Jasmina ran wide on their rounding allowing us to get right on their transom, and then the rain and the upwind battle both got started. Krikkit finally nosed ahead of Jasmina at an anchored freighter - we ducked behind it and caught fresh breeze on the other side, while they tried to clear ahead of it and got stuck in light air on its leeward bow. Sorcerer, however, got us both by going further north into better breeze and favourable current, and meanwhile the rest of the fleet (all the faster-rated boats) ran our same course but put their windward speed to good use, pulling ahead by sheer brute force. Horatio chose to retire, leaving Krikkit and Jasmina fighting it out to avoid being last-to-finish. After trading positions back and forth for several tacks, Krikkit managed to lee-bow Jasmina on the last tack, somewhat shy of the layline for the pin but in a position to hold Jasmina off, climb the ladder, and punch up at the last second clear the pin and cross ahead, 8th out of 10. An entertaining battle, if not exactly a stellar overall result. On November 24 (and with Jen out of town), Kevin, Mike and Ashley joined Simon at the shipwreck-themed VARC awards party, with the Krikkit crew dressed in our finest on the grounds that if you're going to be shipwrecked, you might as well look good! It was an entertaining evening, with drinks, appies, chit-chat and even a bit of dancing, and Krikkit picked up an engraved beer mug for placing 2nd in the Regatta Series and 2nd Overall. Well done, crew, and thanks!

Back to Front

Oct 24, 2017 - The last three official races of the season were the Fraser Lightships distance race, TCYC Last Chance Regatta, and RVYC English Bay Championship Regatta.The Lightships saw Simon, Jen, Marek, Clare and Kurt joined by newcomer Nick, who recently moved from England and is no stranger to sailing. The race started out with a nice spinnaker run, but then the wind shifted and eased, leaving us beating south in light breeze and strong current – not Krikkit's favoured conditions. Windyfeat made huge gains on the fleet on the southerly leg by going out further into the strait (apparently there was either more wind or less current out there). After rounding the mark we got the spinnaker back up, but the wind eased even further and died off. When it came back on it was from the north, so we were beating again, with the leading boats getting the wind earlier and the trailing boats – Krikkit included – getting it last. We crossed the finish line near the back of the fleet and corrected to pretty much dead last, with just one non-finisher behind us on the score sheet. Somehow it didn't really matter though, because it was an incredible day, with a huge range of nature-viewing opportunities: porpoises, seals, a killer whale, a big sea lion eating a salmon, and a massive end-to-end rainbow. (Photo of Krikkit and fleet by Richard So from Ultraman II - https://www.flickr.com/photos/richso/ )

The RVYC Championship/Closer Regatta opened with a bang – 12 to 17 knots of steady (if slightly shifty) breeze and sheets of rain at times. With Simon, Jen, Kevin, Denice, Ashley and Nick on board Krikkit was fully crewed up and ready to do battle with Godzilla for the last two spots on the VARC Overall and Regatta Series podiums (Ultraman II already had the series wins clinched). With the 94-percent headsail Krikkit was nicely powered up and pointing well, and thanks to some truly superb crew work we were able to capitalize on a couple of great starts and pounce on any errors our competitors made, keeping us right in the mix.

Sept 11, 2017 - Transcending what turned out to be plentiful rain and a distinct lack of wind, the 2017 Deep Cove Regatta was a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable weekend for the Krikkit crew. Jen and Simon delivered the boat from Vancouver, with the crew meeting at the cove on a wet Saturday morning. With no wind to speak of at the start, Simon took the opportunity to go body boarding behind Krikkit, skimming around the waiting fleet at 5.5 knots. A light easterly finally filled in, the rain dispersed, and racing got underway. Some dicing with Ultraman II at the first start caused us to miss the favoured end of the line, and we got off on the back foot, fighting dirty air and getting on the wrong side of the shifts to end up sixth out of seven boats. In race two, with the lessons of the course still stinging, we managed an excellent start, port-tacking the fleet at full speed from the pin-end and calling the shifts correctly to stay in the lead as we headed down the first leeward leg. But with the wind dying off again and a freighter coming in to anchor, race committee shortened the course. "Your finish will be when you round the leeward bun," they announced. Which is just exactly what the leading Farr in Div 2 did: pass the bun, head upwind a bit, then go around the top of the bun and back through the start/finish line (which was only about three or four boatlengths downwind from the bun). As they crossed the line, the Krikkit crew, under spinnaker and thinking we were about to finish at the bun, heard a whistle. "That was the Farr's finish!" someone yelled. What followed was a high-speed crazy-Ivan circle: Douse, round, tack, relaunch and carry on through the finish. Which wasn't the finish. The bun was the finish, and the whistle we'd heard was for us, not the Farr! Our circle was quick enough that we were still leading the next two boats in line, and thinking we'd screwed up they ignored the bun and went straight through the line … and therefore got no whistle, and had to douse spinnakers and beat back to the actual shortened-course finish at the bun. We captured first place, and they still haven't forgiven us for the unintentional psyche-out! The day was topped by the freighter captain coming onto the VHF radio and announcing, in a thick Russian accent, "All zee sailboats in zee sailink race, I am large freighter and I am comink to kill-yuuu." It seemed like quite the threat, until we realized he actually meant he was going to anchor in anchorage "K" (kilo)! Sunday saw sunshine but no wind, so there was no racing, and Krikkit's opposite-extremes race scores from Day 1 were good enough for third overall.

May and June 2017 saw Krikkit parked on the hard at Granville Island courtesy of the insurance company, getting its bottom paint repaired, a new rudder built by Idaho-based Ruddercraft, and various occupational therapy tasks (including tiller refinishing) completed by Simon. Meanwhile, the Krikkit crew deployed "the backup boat", participating in the FCYC Spring Thursday Series aboard Rob's Jeanneau Sunshine 36 "New Adventure". It was a nice opportunity to see how the big Jeanneau measured up in short-format racing, and we were pleasantly surprised with its speed and pointing ability, racking up a decent string of 2nd and 3rd place finishes.

In other news, with Krikkit on the hard, admiral David decided to assume command of his own ship, and so after 27 years of boating partnership Krikkit spawned a Mirage 24 (designed by C&C) called Freedom, which Simon helped haul out, paint, polish, and deliver to Bowen Island, its new base of adventures with David.

On April 29th Krikkit headed out for the WVYC Collingwood Channel race with Simon, Kevin, Alex, Ashley and guest crewmembers Miles and Eric (from the Ranger 29 Horatio) onboard. It started out as an awesome day on the water, with overcast skies, mostly flat seas and a nice 10 knot easterly breeze at Passage Island setting the fleet up for a downwind start. Krikkit got across the line in a respectable spot near the front of the pack, and after a quick gybe we launched the spinnaker and got the boat lit, charging along in company with Godzilla. But then it all turned to crap less than five minutes later, when we plowed into a semi-submerged 50-foot log at full speed. The bottom left photo shows the WVYC mark boat standing off one end of the log, which is perpendicular to the camera and pretty much filling the frame - not that you can see it (and no, it's not the obvious dark line, that's just a wave - the log is several yards past that).The log smashed Krikkit's speed impeller, smacked into the keel and rolled all the way under it, and then bounced up and bashed into the rudder, bending and jamming it against the hull. The crew were magnificent, getting the sails down and secured with out any damage (despite the boat spinning donuts in the breeze), and we were lucky the log didn't hit the sail drive, which could have potentially caused serious water ingress problems. But still, with the helm stuck over at about 20 degrees deflection we were completely crippled, unable to make steerage, and had to call a C-Tow rescue boat, which pushed us home on the hip, struggling to stay on course against the bent rudder.

It was a long and disheartening ride back to the marina, with the skies opening up in a deluge of rain to suit the mood on board.The boat was hauled as soon as possible the following Monday and the rudder pulled for examination, revealing a badly bent rudder shaft and a wide spilt along the top of the rudder blade, effectively writing it off. With delays to sort out the insurance, ship the old rudder to the rudder shop, build a new rudder, ship it back and install it, the collision put Krikkit out of action for the entirety of the FCYC Spring Series and made the boat doubtful for Round Bowen. It hasn't put the Krikkit crew entirely out of action, however, as Rob registered New Adventure as our "back-up boat" for the FCYC Spring Series, giving us an opportunity to practice for the SOAR Regatta, which will also be aboard New Adventure.

April 12, 2017 - Following our brilliant New Year's Day race, Krikkit opened the regular 2017 racing season by missing both the TCYC Spring Tune-up regatta and the RVYC Opener regatta - partly due to ratings issues and partly due to the fact that, in the course of servicing the engine's heat exchanger and fuel pump over the winter, Simon discovered that the diesel fuel tank was leaking. Removing the old tank required cutting out a large portion of the starboard quarterberth using a jigsaw, all while working in the smelly fug of diesel fuel.But this was thoroughly pleasant work compared to what was going on in the background: The dreaded Spring 2017 ratings appeal to get our rating back in line relative to the fleet. Folks who want to know all the gory details can visit the PHRF BC web page at http://www.bcsailing.bc.ca/pages/racing/1342131619phrf.php but for those wanting the short story, Krikkit launched two appeals, one seeking a re-evaluation of the Div 3 fleet base ratings as a whole, and one seeking a re-evaluation of the changes made to Krikkit's rating following the Fall 2016 appeals. The upshot is that the committee declined to hear the fleet appeal, but did hear Krikkit's individual appeal, agreeing that there was a data error resulting in an incorrect mainsail code, that the boat's base rating is just its base rating (net of any modifications), and that the mainsail credits had been incorrectly deleted. So they gave some (but not all) of the sail credits back, leaving Krikkit with an As Sailed rating of 120. The good news? Krikkit now has a new diesel tank, and a plan …

Nov 19, 2016 - No one really wants to talk about ratings, but in mixed fleet sailing they're a fact of life. When ratings are set correctly and everyone is in agreement, the PHRF handicapping system under which Krikkit races works well. And of course ratings are always set correctly and sailors are always in agreement, right?Unfortunately, because Krikkit is modified from its original design, when the boat was initially rated in BC its certificate was built in a slightly unconventional manner, leaving the boat's sail area credits somewhat open to interpretation, especially given that like pretty much all boats in BC, Krikkit has a base rating a few seconds slower than in other jurisdictions.The upshot, for those interested in such things, is that because the certificate left Krikkit's mainsail area credits open to interpretation, it also left the boat's rating open to appeal based on the fact that the sail area credits were assigned using the original rig height, not the actual modified rig height. This generated accurate sail area credits, but created wonky sail codes: Krikkit's full-hoist, roachy mainsail showed on the certificate as a Code 3 sail because that's what it would be if hoisted on the original rig.Possibly inspired by their two-second loss against Krikkit in the Fraser Lightships race, Ultraman II appealed Krikkit's rating at the Fall Appeals meeting, arguing that Krikkit's actual modified rig height should be used to generate the sail codes, rather then the standard rig height. In a sense it was a fair argument, provided the credits were shown elsewhere instead (i.e. designated as rig credits). Unfortunately, with Simon unable to be at the meeting to present a defence, the handicap committee ignored the race results and simply changed the rig height number and deleted all of Krikkit's sail area credits, leaving the boat with a rating 12 seconds faster than it was previously (114 versus 126) and unrepresentative of the boat's performance capabilities. Appeals only get heard every six months, and there's no arguing a rating outside of the appeals process, so Krikkit was stuck with the decision until the spring.With life and ratings issues conspiring to leave him feeling less than celebratory, but with an award for second overall in the VARC Series to pick up, Simon attended the VARC Awards all in black.

Oct 30, 2016 - The day after Krikkit was launched following its fall rudder-bearing repair came the RVYC English Bay Championship on October 22-23. Krikkit came out of the gate swinging, catching an early wind shift to execute a port-tack start at the pin end in 8 knots of easterly breeze, and crossing the line some 40 seconds ahead of the fleet, which had gotten bunched up on starboard tack at the committee end. We then sailed to the better breeze at the beach, and lucked out when the wind shifted back just as we tacked, lifting us onto the layline to the pin and putting us into a truly dominant position. With no traffic at the marks we ran a clean, fast race and chalked up a well-deserved win, which we dedicated to Simon's mum (and Krikkit "co-admiral") Shelagh, who the day before the race had been diagnosed with advanced and untreatable bile duct cancer. It was a bittersweet win and was the only one of the weekend,because the wind eased off after that, leaving Krikkit struggling against the more powered-up boats.2016 racing ended with the TCYC Last Chance Regatta on October 29, 2016, and it was a brilliant day of racing that ended with a three-way tie for 1st place, with Krikkit, Senza and Raven each taking one win, one second, and one third in 6-10 knots of NE breeze. Simon turned the tiller over to the crew and concentrated on coaching, with Kevin running the first race (and getting the win), Liam running the second race, and Jen running the third race.

Oct 21, 2016 - Following the Fraser Lightships (which heard the rudder bearing hammering the entire way) Superstition Boatworks on Granville Island finally got a time slot in which to replace Krikkit's worn-out lower rudder bearing. It turned into a long, complicated and expensive project that involved far too many sharp power tools and sledgehammers for Simon's taste, but resulted in a beautifully smooth (and quiet!) rudder action thanks to a new Jefa bearing, a completely stripped down and refinished rudder, and a smoother-than-ever bottom (when the boat is hauled out for three weeks, you might as well keep sanding, right?).

Oct 3, 2016 - Krikkit transitioned from summer to fall with a pair of successful races, starting with the always-entertaining VRC SHAG single-handed race on Sept 24. After a brief postponement waiting for wind, the race got underway in a very light (2-3 knot) easterly breeze and ended up being an exercise in concentration. With race committee using time-on-time corrections there was little hope against the small boats (Slingshot and Mast Transit), but with Simon concentrating fiercely (and Manana retiring early on) Krikkit stuck it out to finish third overall.Following that was the Fraser Lightships race on October 1st, and it was one for the record books: Krikkit got a top-three downwind start in a decent northeasterly breeze, and held with the fleet to the Bell Buoy, battling furiously with Terna III. At the mark the big asym boats were holding their spinnakers for the "reach down the beach", so we decided to try and match them with our symmetrical chute.

We were the only Div 3 boat to do so (everyone else doused), and by moving the spinnaker pole way down and all the way forward we were able to hold the chute for 20 minutes more than any other boat in the fleet, setting new boat speed records in the gusty 20-plus knot breeze and clawing back lost ground against Godzilla and Ultraman II to round the T10 mark with the front three boats elapsed, and well in the lead corrected. We then began the task of trying to hold onto the lead during the close-reach and beat home. Ultraman II gave us a real run for the money, but in the end we squeaked in for the win, two seconds ahead of Ultraman II after three hours and 10 minutes of racing. What a day! What a race!

Deep Cove

Summer Shorts and Fall Series

Sept 9, 2016 - TCYC's Summer Shorts was popular this year, with a big fleet of 15 boats competing in the "fast" fleet including Krikkit, Jasmina, Thursday's Child, the J/35s Senza and Aorangi, the X119 Brinehog and a bunch more. The racing was generally good fun, despite an incident that saw Aorangi, Senza and Brinehog all attempt to occupy the same space at the windward mark, all at the same time. Krikkit nailed the start in that race, avoided the pile-up, and stayed near the front of the fleet in building breeze, crossing second over the line and third corrected. The following week saw Simon entirely outnumbered by Krikkit's otherwise all-female crew, and we had a fun race despite a bit of excitement at the start that saw Simon turn Krikkit into a temporary traffic pylon at the pin after a slightly bad tack during the start. Fortunately OCD was on the ball and skirted around us! The overall series results saw a very well-sailed Jasmina take the win, with Brinehog in 2nd, Senza in 3rd and Krikkit in 4th.

The FCYC Fall Series was a bit of a mixed result - Krikkit essentially won every race we entered, but had to skip the first race due to Simon and Jen's work commitments, and then skip the 4th and 5th races due to our cruising schedule, keeping us out of the overalls (we were second in points, and could have finally gotten first overall if we'd have done all the races!

Aug 15, 2016 - One of Krikkit's most successful regatta performances to date saw us place 3rd overall in the VRC Summer Regatta. Saturday saw the nine-boat Div 3 fleet sent out on a medium-distance coastal race under cloudy skies, with lots of genoa reaching playing into Krikkit's hand and netting us a win for the day. Sunday bought a breezy triplet of round-the-buoys races, with the Krikkit crew enjoying some great crew work, warm camaraderie, and only a couple brief (and quickly recovered) moments of rig-knitting craziness to net us a 5,3,4 record for the day. Then on August 13 we headed out for the TCYC English Bay Scramble. With a big flood tide on tap, we strategized our course to stay out of the current as much as possible, and then stuck with with our strategy, sailing fast and avoiding the wind holes to finish 2nd in Div 3 and 1st in the TCYC fleet. Following the race we swam off the back of the boat, then headed off to the party where for the second year in a row Simon organized Crew Challenge games, which were won by visiting Nanaimo boat Dilligaf. A fantastic day!

June 5, 2016 - With light, flukey winds that kept filling in from the back of the fleet, this year's Round Bowen Race turned into a bit of an exercise in PHRF handicap sorting. After a nice inflow start and a fast spinnaker run around the bottom of the island, the wind died off and the fleet battled through what appeared to be a typical transition zone just beyond Cape Roger Curtis, only to be surprised when it filled from astern and compressed the fleet into a compact ball. This happened several times, with the faster boats legging out each time, only to get becalmed and watch the slower boats catch up again. The final wind-driven restart saw the majority of the fleet – with the exception of a few fleet-footed outliers including Kodiak – take off from Hood Point in a single group and all finish within about an hour of each other, with the results largely reflecting the boats' PHRF ratings in reverse order. Krikkit's biggest excitement of the day was doing a little impromptu log towing: We somehow snagged a crooked 7-foot tree limb around our sail drive leg in one of the slow sections of the race, and didn't realize it was there until the breeze came back on going upwind beyond Hood Point and we simply couldn't get the boat up to speed. In the end Mike held Simon's legs while Simon went head-first over the side at 4 knots to wrestle the offending log off the saildrive, adding about 2 knots to our forward progress - but not before four of our closest competitors had slipped past, leaving us exactly mid-fleet.

May 30, 2016 - Hard on the heels of the winter season, Jen and Simon kicked off the 2016 spring sailing season on April 2nd with a competitive double-handed performance in four short round-the-cans against a fleet of fully-crewed boats, in breezy conditions, in TCYC's Spring Tuneup - all part of the Sailor of the Year Challenge. VARC racing got off to a rousing start the following weekend at the RVYC Opener with plenty of fresh breeze, great crew work, and a grey whale putting on a show right in the middle of the fleet, tail flukes and all. Best of all, Krikkit managed a string of 2nds and 3rds and only a couple 4ths in the tough eight-boat fleet, ending up 2nd overall for both days.A couple weeks after that on April 30 it was the WVYC Popham Island race, which was a fun but slightly frustrating race for the crew of Simon, Kevin and Liam: we'd waited a little too long for a no-show crewmember and ended up having to race just to make the start line, which to compound our troubles had been set further out than its stated position at Passage Island. We ended up crossing the line about a minute late in plenty of breeze, then began the work of reeling in our competitors. But it was tight racing, so in the end the time lost at the start line cost us two positions, kicking us from a potential top-half finish into a bottom-half finish. The final run to the line nose-to-nose with Talisman was good fun though!

Then there was the TCYC Passage Island Race on May 8, which Simon ran single-handed as part of the Sailor of the Year Challenge. It was a brilliant romp under sunny skies and pleasant sailing breezes, and by successfully taking the short route straight through the narrow heart of the dreaded Passage Island wind hole, Simon managed to pull off an excellent finish, placing 1st in the single-handed division and 2nd overall.

March 27, 2016 - Following our great 2015 summer season and VARC Div 3 overall victory, the Krikkit crew convinced Simon that we should continue the fun into the winter by signing up for the Vancouver Rowing Club's 2015/2016 Polar Bear winter racing series. The series, which runs every other Sunday, consisted of five races over three Sundays in 2015 (Series 1), and six races over five Sundays in 2016 (Series 2).

What a Season!

Dec 17, 2015 - Krikkit closed the 2015 summer racing season with a pair of regattas that couldn't have been more different in character:

The TCYC Last Chance Regatta on October 17 was a casual, fun day out in light wind and fine weather, and with a solid lead in the series Krikkit was under no pressure to perform. Race Committee managed to get three races off in 5-7 knots of breeze, and the Krikkit crew sailed well to pick up two seconds and a third in the six-boat fleet, finishing second overall in the regatta and first overall in TCYC Div 1 for the 2015 season. Woot! (Pic at left: The Krikkit crew at the TCYC Last Chance Regatta)

The RVYC English Bay Championship on the weekend of October 24-25 was for all the marbles. With Krikkit ahead of Ultraman II in VARC Div 3 by only the narrowest of margins, we needed to do well if we wanted to stay ahead and eke out our first-ever overall victory in the annual VARC regional championship.

Saturday dawned clear, sunny and calm, with no wind for the scheduled race start. Simon managed to kick things off, literally, by losing a shoe overboard (we quickly recovered it) and then eventually racing got underway, but Krikkit misjudged the start line and ended up "over early" for the first race - even worse than finishing last! In the second, shortened race we struggled in the light air against the lightweight boats in our fleet, winding up fourth out of six boats. Things weren't looking good!

After returning from cruising we wrapped up the FCYC Fall Series with some strong finishes but no overall honours (taking two weeks off comes at a cost!), and then headed out for some brilliant racing at the Deep Cove Regatta on Sept 12 and 13. Day 1 was traditional multiple windward-leeward racing in a competitive eight-boat fleet, with clean crew work and good pace netting Krikkit 4th, 4th and 3rd, finishing the day in 4th overall. Day 2 was a longer race up Indian Arm, with a light-air downwind start. Krikkit timed the start well but almost got tangled up with Jasmina and Radiant, who'd stalled each other out on the line. But we got clear and legged ahead of the fleet for a bit before getting hunted down and eventually passed by Ultraman II. A heavy-air beat back to the finish saw us cross the line still ahead of Radiant and in 2nd place behind Ultraman II. Woot!

Following this on Sept 27 Simon went out for the VRC "SHAG" (Single-Handed Anything Goes) race. An uneven fleet put Krikkit and Thursdays Child in Div 2, and Krikkit got a great start, hanging with the Div 1 boats to finish first in Div 2 (Thursday's Child retired after its skipper pulled a muscle fending off another boat after an unexpected tack).

Then it was the Fraser Lightships on Oct 3, with Krikkit hoping to improve on our mid-fleet result from the spring's Collingwood Channel Race. Simon, Jen, Denice, Marek, and Jillian were aboard for this one, which took place in glamour conditions with sunshine and 12-15 knot northwesterly winds. Krikkit got a solid start and diced for the entire outbound run with the Wilderness 30 LRT, passing them at the turning mark for a close (and slightly overpowered) reach home and a fourth place finish in the 11-boat fleet - a nice improvement over our springtime performance!

Friday, noon. Still beating. Still 25+ knots. Wind-driven surface current knocking almost 2 knots off our true forward progress.Friday, 3:00 pm. Still beating. Still 25+ knots. Retrieve broken leech-line cord that's flailing out of the blade. Six hours is a long time to be on the helm battling 25-knot Georgia Strait seas.

Friday, 4:00 pm. Still beating. Wind only 20 knots, seas calmer in Malaspina Strait. Jen on helm. Shake 2nd reef. Patch hole in mainsail. How'd that get there?

Friday, 6:00 pm. Still beating. Wind down to 17 knots. Shake 1st reef. Wind direction indicator connection jiggles loose, now stuck showing 10 degrees off the starboard bow.

Friday, 8:15 pm. Sunset. Still beating. Texada Island is really frickin' long. But it's actually quite beautiful out here now.

Friday, 9:00 pm. It's dark. Texada Island remains ridiculously long. Why is the tide always against us? Wind getting really light now.

Friday, 9:15 pm. Motoring. Because weather bomb coming.

Friday, 10:15 pm. The moon is a beautiful friend, lighting our way forward and clearly showing the big lurking logs. LIKE THAT ONE! YIKES! TURN TO STARBOARD!

Friday, 11:30 pm. The cockpit display's distance log only goes to 99.99 miles, then it gives up and starts again. On the bright side, I figured out where to whack the hatch turtle to bring the wind direction indicator back to life. Friday, midnight. Hot tea for all, and chocolate. A treat to rouse the spirit. Saturday, Aug 29, 1:00 am. Moon gone. Can't see the logs anymore. Not until you pass six inches from the bastards and the disturbance of your passing makes them light up with phosphoresence. Just missed one big monster. Saturday, 3:00 am. Getting windy again. Tired. Something about Sechelt or something. Do the White Islets actually follow you around, or are they just much bigger than they look? I hate them. Saturday, 4:00 am. Gerfurtent. Pabble-wonk. Oh look, a leprechaun. Salty sandwich. Frangensnicht. Hmm, maybe it's time for a 5-minute power nap. Dream of motoring under a warm sun. Saturday, 4:45 am. Holy crap, there's a lot of wind coming out of Howe Sound! Saturday, 5:30 am. The power of 47 knots of wind is hard to describe adequately, but the seas it drives are easy to describe: Go to the Banzai Pipeline surf break in Hawaii. Take a picture. Now put it in the middle of Georgia Strait and drive your 36-foot boat through it. I make light of it, but the truth is it's genuinely frightening, especially in the dark when you're also navigating past two inbound cruise ships and an outbound freighter. Saturday, 6:45 am. Torrential, biblical rain, and gusting winds. Is this actually False Creek? I can't see a thing!Saturday, 7:45 am. Tie up in your own cosy berth. Haul crap out of V-berth and dump randomly in main cabin. Crawl into sleeping bag and crater for 3 hours. Listen to the wind scream furiously in the rigging. 81 knots at Point Atkinson now. Glad we made it before it got really bad…

Monday July 20, 2015 - The hot weather in June and July generated some steady strong thermal winds, making for some brilliant local sailing. Perhaps it helped that we finally decided it was time to stop borrowing Raven's bottom brush and make one that Krikkit could call its own. It's always faster to have your own bottom brush, right?

On the weekend of June 14 the Krikkit crew headed off for the Round Bowen race, picking up guest crewmembers Alex and Margaret in Snug Cove at the complimentary pancake breakfast (Yup, the Bowen Island Yacht Club sure knows how to treat visiting boats right!).

The race itself was an absolute blast, with sunny skies, a great committee-end start for Krikkit, some heavy-air beating in big waves at the south end of the island, an awesome flat-water spinnaker run up Collingwood Channel, and some great duelling with our closest competitors. At the Cape Finisterre transition zone Krikkit managed to keep ghosting forward in the light stuff, then timed our spinnaker douse perfectly as the wind came forward, pulling ahead of the fleet to finish third in a 30-strong division. (Left pic: Kevin, Mike, Kate, Margaret, Alex, Simon, Denice and Liam at Bowen Island. Right pic: Kevin, Margaret and Alex at the finish of the Round Bowen Race.)

The FCYC Thursday Night Spring Series remained an extremely hard-fought series to the end, with Krikkit eventually taking 2nd overall (yay!), missing 1st overall by a mere seven seconds (boo!). Krikkit won races 2 and 4, but lost to Windyfeat (a Peterson 35) by three seconds in Race 1 and four seconds in Race 7.

Sunday May 31, 2015 - Hard on the heels of Krikkit's late-April haulout was the WVYC Collingwood Channel Race on May 2. It was a breezy and quick one this year, with steep lumpy waves adding to the excitement on the first leg. The wind forecasts had been predicting 8 knots of breeze, and that's what Krikkit saw in English Bay on the way out, so we put up the big genoa. It seemed like a good choice when the wind lulled just prior to the start sequence, but then at the five-minute horn the wind came on hard and Krikkit started well overpowered, beating upwind in 18-20 knots of wind. We ran the the sails with lots of twist to spill the excess wind, and this worked nicely in the lumpy seas, allowing the boat to stay powered up while driving a snake-like course up the wave faces and down their backs. We stayed near the front of the fleet until Cape Roger Curtis, where a wider-than-average rounding cost us a couple of places. From there it was some awesome flat-water sailing in Collingwood Channel, heading north under spinnaker and back south under whites sails before rounding Roger Curtis again for the final spinnaker run home and a solid mid-fleet finish. (Left photo: Mike and Simon at the end of the Collingwood Channel Race.)

Next up was the TCYC Sailpast Race, which Simon ran single-handed. It was great fun threading the boat under spinnaker through the outgoing RVYC Parade and then again through the incoming side, and by digging deep and maintaining a rhumbline course Krikkit was able to pull ahead of the fully-crewed J/35 Senza and nip them at the finish for a 1st place overall finish, and 1st place single-handed. The following week Simon, Kevin and Liam ran Krikkit in the TCYC Passage Island Race with a full crew of guests and teenagers along for fun, running a clean race but adding an extra tack towards the Bell Buoy on the first leg out of the bay, which cost us distance against the fleet and netted us a fourth-place finish.

In the FCYC Thursday series Krikkit has been having some very competitive racing against Windyfeat for top spot, with Godzilla nipping at our heels in third. (Above right photo: Denice and Mike heading out for Race 3). In the fourth race of the seven-race series Krikkit tied things up dead even, making the final trio of races into essentially a best-of-three series …

Tuesday March 31, 2015 - The TCYC Spring Tuneup on March 21 saw Krikkit unveil its not-so-secret winter improvement project: A brand new carbon main, a brand new 0.6-oz spinnaker, and a new-to-us carbon-kevlar 150 percent #1 genoa. Simon and Kevin raced the regatta double-handed to post a double-handed result towards the TCYC Sailor of the Year challenge, and the day began well with an early start to get the new mainsail onto the boat. Things went sideways however when we realized the batten car sliders were one size too big. Some futile attempts were made to file the sliders down to size before Simon abandoned the effort and drove to West Marine to grab some temporary sliders which we zipped-tied to the sail and headed out, too late for the first race but in good time for the second lighter-air race.

We got a good start together with Flaming Redhead, while Windyfeat and Kootka duked it out and slowed each other down. Krikkit was then able to ghost to the front of the fleet in the light air during the first leg, and hold the lead around the course as the breeze built just a tiny bit, finishing ahead of Kootka for line honours and second place corrected. Missing the first race left us in fourth overall though, and we were too busy to take photos, and race committee didn't take photos either.

A week later, with the batten slider issues sorted out (and new jib sheets to replace the worn-out old ones), Krikkit hit the first day of the RVYC Opener Regatta with Simon, Jen, Chris and Kevin aboard (photos above left and at right).

With boisterous but quickly easing westerly winds we got a quick race off right away, finishing fourth in the six-boat Div 3 fleet. We then spent the lunch hour drifting around the start area, and Krikkit got friendly with the committee boat, catching a river of current to cosy up to the boat's bow and leaving us shouting, running around and generally making fools of ourselves. Of course committee had the camera at ready.

The wind then piped up and we got two-and-a-half more races off in shifty 5 to 12 knot southerly breeze, with steadily improving starts for Krikkit. We won the final start just windward of the Ross 930 Ultraman II, and their crew hiked out hard to try to pinch us out, breaking a stanchion in the process and putting themselves out of the regatta. We ended the day 4, 4, 5.

Day two saw Elaine Muldrew join us for some wet and woolly sailing in 16-18 knot northeasterly winds and buckets of rain (far too wet to be taking photos again!). Krikkit ran the blade and chicken chute for the first two races, notching up two second place finishes, and then switched to the #1 and big chute for the final race in lighter winds, but got entangled with the Div 7 boats off the start and never found our space or pace, eventually blowing a gybe near the leeward mark, switching to a disaster takedown, and making another (much higher-speed) run at the committee boat as we tried to get pointed downwind enough to douse the chute. All-in-all it netted us a third-place finish in the race for 2, 2, 3 record on day two and second overall in the regatta -- our best result ever in a major multi-day regatta!

A Great Start

Saturday Jan 10, 2015 - The new year got off to a great start for Krikkit with the TCYC New Years Day Race on January 1st under cool, sunny skies and very light wind. Simon, Rob, Kevin, Liam, Denice, Mike, Shareen and Patrick shook off their hangovers to make it out for this always-popular event (well, maybe Patrick didn't need to shake off a hangover) .

Monday Dec 29, 2014 - The second half of the 2014 season saw Krikkit getting out for plenty of cruising, plenty of racing, and plenty of fun. Following the Round Bowen Race it was the last FCYC Spring Series race (a wet and flukey one) and then off for an overnight Bowen Island cruise in flotilla with New Adventure, and then straight back into racing in the TCYC Summer Shorts series starting in July. Following that was a fireworks night, a long weekend cruise on Aug 2-4 with Denice and Hailey, then the FCYC Fall series starting Aug 7.

The English Bay Scramble ran Aug 16 and Krikkit had a very good run around the course, picking up the inside marks first and then the outside marks, losing to some boats that did even better by picking up the outside marks first. Still, we were one of the few boats to complete all the marks, and had a good overall result.

August 22nd to Sept 1st saw Krikkit cruising Howe Sound and the Gulf Islands, stopping at Plumper Cove, Gibsons, Newcastle Island, Pirates Cove, Ladysmith and Wallace Island before returning home to wrap up the FCYC Fall series (taking 2nd overall) and take part in the Deep Cove Regatta -- a sunny and fun event with round-the-cans racing on Saturday, a run up Indian Arm on Sunday, and plenty of swimming in between.

The VRC SHAG (Single-Handed Anything Goes) race ran Sept 28 and saw Simon get a brilliant start, port-tacking most of the fleet and picking the right lanes of wind and managing the spinnaker reasonably well in the 10-knot breeze to finish in 3rd place behind only Manana and Excalibur. (Photo at right: Simon in the SHAG race).

Following that it was the VARC Fraser Lightships race (a great start, and Krikkit hung in to round the turning mark with the front-runners, and then the wind shut off and most of the racers, Krikkit included, abandoned the race). The TCYC Last Chance Regatta (Oct 18) and VARC Closer (Oct 25-26) closed the season out. Krikkit sailed well in the Last Chance Regatta to manage a 3rd and a 1st (good enough, when combined with the results from the rest of the year, for 2nd overall in the TCYC Fleet Championship). The Closer saw the crew working hard, with mixed cloud and rain the first day, then sun the second day, and good starts and clean roundings throughout (see photo at the start of the blog entry). Despite the excellent crew work Krikkit wasn't able to battle past mid-fleet overall, but it was good fun trying, with some very competitive racing and tight finishes, and on the second day we managed to achieve at least one goal by beating the J/29 Rumbline fair and square in a major VARC regatta race.

(Photo at left: Krikkit in the TCYC Last Chance regatta.)