SV Image

After much consideration, step 1 has been completed. Provided we get out of the pandemic, Pac Cup 2022 will start in 18 months, 3 days and 20 hours. Image’s race to the start line has officially begun about one hour ago

Part 2 of the pilgrimage: , the place to be after finishing . On the bucket list... @ Kaneohe Yacht Club

Diamond Head Lighthouse and the #2 buoy in the distance. Looking forward to finish a boat race here at some point @ Diamond Head Lighthouse

SV Image updated their business hours.

The crew took out Image in order to be race committee for the Ballard Cup yesterday evening. Looks like they had a good time.

@ Shilshole Bay Marina

Back home at Shilshole after the

Ending on a high note. Things went our way in the last leg and we were able to sail a shorter distance than many competitors by going through Dodd narrows, a small waterway about 200ft wide. We arrived an hour before slack tide and slowly moved through Dodd with about 1.5kts of current on the nose. Managed to fly the spinnaker in 4-8kts of breeze and kept moving forward slowly but surely.
More pictures to follow.
🇨🇦

Temporary vang... this will hopefully get us through the last leg of the

The vang went boom - is that why they call it a boom vang? Rough jibe yesterday night close to race passage in the penultimate leg of the . 35 knots of breeze gusting to 45.

Wooohoooo!!! After a long day of short racking in adverse currents we finished the 4th leg of the as the 2nd boat over the line in Division 3, just a couple minutes after on Paragon who we had been trading tacks with for many hours. We managed to win the leg on corrected time.

In Nanaimo for the start for the

A couple more days...

2019 Competitors - Van Isle 360 Boat Type Sail Number Skipper 65_Red Roses II J/111 CAN 38 B. ChanA. Smyth Alegria X Dufour 45e 4501 E. Heinzemann Back Bay Cal 39 8939 P. Schoenburg Blue Riptide 41 USA 1717 M. Schoendorf Blue Joy J/120 GBR8416R K. Treharne Boomerang Cal 40 9680 G. O’Byrne Cheekee Monkee Farrier F-45 RC 2 K. Alfr...

About to cross the Columbia river bar. Light winds, 6ft swell. We circled for a bit to let a cargo ship pass and are now slowly motoring up current. Behind us is the Selkie who are going to compete with us in the race next week. @ Columbia Bar

Astoria bound for the race

Spinnaker guy simplification based on a post I saw from . We exclusively fly asymmetrical spinnakers on Image and we use a conventional spinnaker pole to pull the tack to windward in order to project more sail area and run deeper. We used to attach the spin guys to the bail of the tack line shackle or to the tack of the sail, wherever we had room. This meant that during a takedown the bow person had to figure out which of the three shackles to spike away. Yours truly has gotten wrong before, leading to an awkward situation in big breeze. With the new setup, the tack line runs through the .sailing low friction ring and attaches to the tack of the sail as before with a shackle that can be spiked away under load. Now there is only one shackle which means a lot less potential for errors. , what do you think?

Great conditions at . We unfortunately had to retire but we spent a great day on the water. @ West Vancouver, British Columbia

Arrived in Vancouver after a 23 hour delivery. Image is tucked away at West Vancouver Yacht Club. First warning for the 133 mile race is tomorrow at 10:25. @ West Vancouver, British Columbia

85 nautical miles to go to . Riding the ebb out of Puget Sound. Just passed .

Off we go, headed towards Vancouver.

Yesterday was pencils down for boat work. We took the tools off the boat and put the sails on. About to start the delivery for later today.

After burning a lot of midnight oil in the boat yard (working past midnight 2 days in a row), Image is ready to go in the water tomorrow. We got a lot done: cleaned and greased the prop, glassed over 3 thru hulls, replaced two other thru hull fittings, installed a new depth and speed transducer, inspected and measured the rudder and gave the keel some love. Still plenty of work to do on the bottom of the boat but that will have to wait until after . @ Canal Boatyard

prop cleaned and greased. Started sanding one side of the keel where growth had eaten through the fairing into the lead. Lots more work to do on the hull and keel but we are focusing on the urgent items for now as racing starts in two weeks. We also got our ORC certificate.

The head is coming together. Did some glass work on the bulkhead they connects to the chain plate for the forward lower shroud. It is a wood board that is tied into the structure of the boat using an aluminum L-bracket. The bracket was corroded and damaged some wood. We used a router to remove the damaged wood and filled the void with fiberglass. Rest of the head has 2 coats of EZ Prime (on the wood) and 4 coats of EZ cabin coat. Pint is now drying and we are almost ready to start plumbing the head and sink.

Another boat work weekend in the books. Added a couple of fairleads for the new MLX3 reeflines. The fairleads will prevent chafe on the instrument bracket and prevent overrides on the winch. The fine tune for the main sheet is very short and since I could not splice an eye into it with the cover on the rope, and did not have enough space for a proper bury of the cover, I used some heat shrink and a stitched whipping to keep the cover in place. A bit unconventional but effective and it looks OK too. Also spent time painting the head with EZ Cabin Coat. Needs a couple more coats to look good. @ Shilshole Bay Marina

New vs Old. We re- powered Image and replaced our 35 year old Universal 5424 with a brand new Beta 30 in preparation for and the Vic Maui race next year. .marine.services helped with the installation but the crew did a lot of work getting the old engine out and the boat ready for the new one. The entire project took 7 weeks from prepping to take out the old engine to completing a sea trial with the new one.

: 3 years ago today we raced Image in the C*C Seattle Scatchet Head Race. It was blowing 25 kts, we had the spinnaker set up for the downwind start but quickly decided not to set it. The first picture is our cross with Canard right after the start. Looking back to much simpler times with Dacron sails and roller furling.

One year ago, Image got her mast pulled at , what followed was an 8 week two project.

This year we are in the middle of installing a new engine in the boat. All of thisbis to prep for this year and the Vic Maui race next year.

Little unexpected setback today: During final alignment of the engine we discovered that the bell housing did not fit between the new engine stringers. We had to shave off some material. An angle grinder made short work if that. The newly laid up glass is curing now, next attempt st engine installation will be on Sunday

, this is our s**g carpet compatible spinnaker. It has a Catalina Sails logo and most likely came with the boat in 1982. We are not using it a lot these days as it is pretty soft but I’m sure if we ever have a symmetric kite built again, we will go for this color pattern. We would also love a matching blooper. Looking at you, :)

Glorious sanding happening in the engine bay. First coat of paint went on Sunday after dark, second coat coming tomorrow

Thanks for the shout out , we are knee deep in our prep for the race. See you in Astoria in May!