Time For Me To Sign Off

I have been procrastinating making this post but about two months ago I decided to sell Endurance. I let it go for a few hundred dollars less than I had paid. I sold to the first person who found it on Craigslist and came to take a look. The new owners name is Christopher (left). From the moment I met him I knew he would be a great next owner for this boat. He has the same enthusiasm I do. So why sell such a great boat? Ultimately, I got bit by the racing bug. I found myself spending more time on my local waters competing in evening rum races and weekend club races than I did cruising. Where the Sea Pearl 21 is genius in its simplicity I found my self surrounded by sailors who wanted to go fast and spoke in terms that did not exist on a unstayed cat-ketch design. I felt like I had gotten everything I could from this boat before I needed to start tweaking it and that did not sit well with me because it would take the boat away from its strengths.

My hope is that Christopher will start his own blog and continue to keep you informed on Endurance and the adventures that lay ahead.

2010 LMSA Kettle Cup

My first one design regatta in the San Juan 21 was the Lake Monroe Sailing Association Kettle Cup. The race drew 7 boats to our class. There were 3 competitive boats. I finished behind them in 4th. Which was the last boat to complete all 5 races. The other 3 included some good racers but they had equipment failures and dropped out in the 4th or 5th race when the winds started to approach 20 MPH.

SJ21 owner Steve S. agreed to crew on Blackjack. Both of us are very green when it comes to the San Juan 21 and racing in general. I made my share of mistakes that slowed us down. I really have no idea how to properly trim sails for optimum speed. At one point I was concentrating on our own sailing a little too much and failed to notice a Catalina 22 on starboard tack approaching rapidly. By the time the other captain yelled starboard I had to make an emergency course correction that almost knocked Steve out of the boat. It was a major error but one I can learn from. Still our fiddling around kept us finishing within a minute of the fast boats. Primarily towards the end of the regatta.

I found a few things that I will need to correct on the boat. The spinnaker halyard likes to twist so I need to replace it or put a  swiveling snap shackle on there that will keep the sail from going up like a corkscrew tangling the sail and lines. I also need to run a few lines aft. I had to go forward too much during the race. If I can avoid that we may transition faster at the marks. It also rained on Saturday night revealing that I have leaks on my deck. That's going to be a lengthy job of finding and fixing the leaks.

Here is a little video that Steve took. I believe it was during the 4th race. We got a good start on this one. It was fun to be in the lead even if it was only for a few seconds.

New San Juan 21

Here it is. My new to me 1983 San Juan 21 Mark II. Hull number 2430.

I recently purchased the former Olie Opp from San Juan 21 Fleet 29 sailors Carlton and Aggie Brown. I was previously sailing a Sea Pearl 21 at the Lake Monroe Sailing Association and decided to move up into a little bigger and more race oriented sailboat. The San Juan 21 is an interesting boat. Its essentially a vintage racer/cruiser that peaked around 1985. Made by Clark Boat Company. There is a great write up about them here: San Juan Sailboats and The Clark Boat Company