I'm going on an international diesel hybrid race (OK... tall ship race)
 

I'm leaving on a several week adventure to take part in a diesel hybrid competition... where we'll be disqualified if we use the diesel propulsion during the race event itself... :)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/mi...rthumberla.jpg

This is the schooner Mist of Avalon - 100 tons, 100 feet tall, 100 feet long. I've crewed on it a bunch of times (that's me sitting in the middle of the bow sprit):

The Schooner Mist of Avalon

Tall ships from 3 countries - Canada, the US, and Bermuda - will be racing around the Canadian island province of Prince Edward Island for a healthy purse:

MBS Radio Tall Ships “Race Around the Island” » Ahoy Mates

On Monday morning, we're departing from the heart of the 1000 Islands - Ivy Lea, Ontario - down the Saint Lawrence River toward the race course about 780 nautical miles (1,450 km / 900 mi) away in PEI.

I hope to be able to post updates as we go.

YouTube - Schooner Mist of Avalon & sloop Yary, Northumberland Strait

That's a beautiful ship. Best of luck with the race!

This is so beautiful :thumbup:

French version of "Best of luck" : "M....".

Denis.

Arrghhh!
 

Ye be a scurvy dog
sailin... while the rest of us be slavin away!
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1220154681

hope you have fun
sailing is truly the ultimate FE transport - & soothing to the soul as well
hope to sail a bit my self this weekend - but not on a schooner... Arrrghh!

if ye be race-un...
Take what you can git, give nuthin back

"M...."? Ce n'est pas "Bonne chance?"

It is when you're not on a deadline! Unfortunately we need to be in PEI on the 10th. The wind forecast looks weak for the early part of the week, and if it's right we'll be using the iron jib quite a bit. ;)

Where & what do you sail, concrete?

Yes it's, but saying it loud can be considered as bad luck, so we say "Merde" (some just articulate it) which is "Sh1t".

Denis.

Didn't know that one! Maybe an old French custom? (Your countrymen were sailing long before Canada was even a country...)

Bon voyage!

Incredible... Just totally incredible. Have a great ride!

Cheney lake in Kansas on dingys mostly - tonight will be on a Catalina 21
fire works display on the water and hopefully some starlight sailing:thumbup:
it is a great sailing lake - Kansas has what it takes - Wind
but not quite the adventure you are on though

sorry about the poor wind outlook
but don't despair - the wind doesn't listen to the forecast ;)

Awesome, wish you best of luck. That is a beautiful ship. Wish I knew how to sail.

Building a schooner is on my post-retirement to-do list. ;)
Have a great time, Darin!
Take pictures!

Greetings from on board the Mist of Avalon!

We're five on board for the first leg of the trip from Ivy Lea to Quebec City. (A little short-handed as six would make three pairs for 4 hour watches.) It's traditional for the crew to meet on the ship the night before to get settled in.

The weather forecast is for light westerly winds tomorrow, so we'll likely be motor-sailing with the foresails up when we can (blended hybrid mode :) ).

The trip starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and the skipper says we may try to go straight through to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (200 nautical miles / 366 km) in one shot of around-the-clock sailing, rather than day-sailing our way down the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Talk to you again somewhere down the river...

Pics will be posted, if I can find somewhere to connect.

The beginning of our first day found us cloaked in heavy fog. We went to bed in the 1000 Islands and woke up in Newfoundland! But confident on our home turf, and with 5 sets of eyes, paper charts, radar, GPS, electronic plotter and a fog horn sounding every minute, we cast off at 8 AM as planned.

The fog burned off by a brilliant sun within a couple of hours, and hot, clear weather followed. Sadly, the wind was AWOL. We've been motoring, ocaasionally (hopefully) checking the telltale we raised to the top of the mainmast. Here's hoping this long diesel powered "pulse" will be followed at some point by a satisfying wind powered "glide".

EcoModder members may be interested to know that another member of the crew is none other than the son of Harry Stevenson, who built his aerodynamic Ford Model T in the 1930s:
http://metrompg.com/posts/photos/frame-icon.jpg

The end of the day finds us just east of Cornwall, Ontario, approaching the Ontario/Quebec border. With no wind, and clear skies, we've decided to push on and make up as much time as we can, so we'll have some in the bank to spend if & when the winds show up, or tuck in to safe harbour should too much wind show up...

Our next stop will be Trois Rivieres, Quebec.

Wow. It's like looking at a dream of mine, to sail around. I'm partial to a full on clipper from the 1700's, but a schooner would be still awesome.

this is what I'd like to commander with a crew some day....
http://www.caphorniers.cl/preussen/preussen01_b.gif

big pic, so I didn't embed.

The ship's out of the bottle!

We exited the last lock in Montreal just before 8AM, 24 hours after leaving the dock in Ivy Lea. Another hot, sunny... windless day.

I woke up with a perfect day for good mpg in front of me. It just shows that once again one man's meat is another man's poison.

I love reading the updates, keep us posted.

I know next to nothing about sailing, so please excuse my ignorance.
What are the horizontal rows of tufts attached to the sails? Are they in a perpetual state of tuft testing? :o

In the picture in the first post? I'm scaling up from sailboard/landsailer sails here, but I think those are battens: small strips of fiberglass or similar that help the trailing edge hold its shape, rather than flapping in the breeze. Tufts on the sails might also be used to tell how close to the wind it's pointing: if it's at too steep an angle, a sail will stall much like an airplane wing.

No, I don't think you can see them in the photo. You can see them in the video. If you pause at 1:35 they're right there. It doesn't look like they're moving with the breeze much.

Those are called "reef points", they are used to reduce the sail area in heavy winds. A simple way of explaining how it works: you roll the bottom of the sail and tie it to itself using the reef points, then raise the sail, wich is now not as high and not as big.

Reef points? Hadn't thought of that (and don't do video), but as I said, my sailing experience is mostly sailboards.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/progress-3r.jpg

Hi Gabier! Looking forward to seeing you when we get to PEI (if you are who I think you are) :)

The 24 hour watch on a boat is a really interesting experience, especially when the sky is clear at night. The high pressure system that's been depriving us of wind has been rewarding us with spectacular, clear views of the night sky outside of the built up areas.

One of the aims I had for this trip was to pick up a little more astronomical knowledge - learn a few more constellations, etc. Fortunately both the skipper, George, and one of my crew mates, Tom, have plenty of experience with the subject matter, so we've had some good discussions & mini "star parties" when not searching for channel markers.

For anyone interested, I've been using a really good open source night sky simulator/planetarium called Stellarium - Stellarium web site . Definitely worth checking out if you ever look up in the night sky and wonder exactly what it is you're seeing.

We're in Trois Rivieres tonight, after a marathon run straight through from the 1000 Islands. Beautiful, vibrant city. Friendly people, forgiving of my rusty French! A non-stop stream of residents has been walking past, admiring the boat, some asking questions about it or our trip.

Tomorrow we're aiming for a very early start to make Quebec City by nightfall. In that distance, we'll be moving from fresh water (we stopped and dove off the ship in the middle of the stinking hot afternoon at Lac St Pierre) and minimal tidal effects (about 12 inches) to brackish water and significant tides (16 ft.) @ Quebec.

Tasdrouille - want to meet up? PM me your contact info, or check at the Bassin Louise around dusk (hopefully).

After Quebec, I'll have limited internet access until PEI.

We're also keeping an eye on the remnants of Gustav and the three Atlantic tropical storms as well...

The square sail ships are impressive for sure, but I'm happy I don't have to go aloft for sail handling on a schooner! Not crazy about heights.

Thanks, downloading now, looks pretty cool. Will play with it tomorrow.

Quick! Someone push Darin in the water!

Darin, how fast does it go with the iron jib and how much of that is Fleuve current?

Am I wrong in thinking that there are a bunch of locks between Lake Ontario and the mouth of the St. Laurence? I grew up not that far away, and seem to recall a school field trip to watch the ships going through the locks...

The opportunity didn't present itself ;P

I met with Darin on the ship last night. What a great guy. We talked mostly about aerodynamics and what's going on at ecomodder. It's really fun to meet people sharing the same interests as you do, especially when said interests are not shared by that many people around you.

Again, good luck for the race, I wish you wind.

Ahh. reef points. Sounds like something you would want to avoid to prevent poking holes in the bottom of your boat... :D
I crack myself up.

Under motor power in still water, it'll go about 6 knots without pushing the 250 hp Cat 6-cyl diesel too hard.

We saw a max speed of 12 kts over the bottom on an outgoing tide approaching Quebec City. Up river, away from tidal effects, the current is more like 1-3 kts.

You remember right. Going downbound, the last lock is at Montreal. It's a pretty cool experience locking through, particularly when we don't have to wait for the freighters (they've got priority). We were pretty lucky this time - only had to hang around for one ship.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_mist-lock.jpg

There are a few lift bridges as well (above pic). Rush hour traffic in Montreal had to cool its heels as we went through around 8 AM Tuesday).

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/map-progress-qc.jpg

Martin had several opportunities to shove me in the Bassin Louise! (Glad he doesn't pay attention to Ben.) Instead we met up with the rest of the crew at a cafe, had some good conversation & got caught up on what I've missed while we've been traveling. (Oh - and thanks again for the beverages & special synth wheel bearing grease - got to love industrial connections.)

The actual trip here yesterday was another hot, sunny day spent motoring. The crew project: hammock building (and testing)!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_m...ll_hammock.jpg

Another pic: Gisele sent us this one of our day 1 departure in the fog...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_mist-departure.jpg

Right now we're just waiting for the arrival of another crew member before heading out again. The bad news: we'll likely be out of range of pilferable wireless signals for 5 days.

The good news: the wind, she blows!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_m...summerside.jpg

Well, the wind, she blew. So last Thursday, the 5 lower sails went up right after we left Quebec City, the engine was shut down and we finally enjoyed some good sailing. A few hours later, the wind, she veered pretty much on the nose, and we got in some practice lowering sails!

Back on 24 hour rotating watches, the days tend to bleed together. "What day is this?" is a common question when someone needs to know for some reason or other.

... Learned to find a new constellation (Taurus) somewhere after Tadoussac.
... Spotted wind farms on shore
... fishing villages
... phosphorescence in the waves
... beluga & humpback whales
... plenty of porpoises
... and watched one fat seal watching us go past as he bobbed in the water not too far away.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...e_gaspesie.jpg

In the dark we left the Gaspe Peninsula behind, the famous Perce Rock's silhouette looming and disappearing in the mist like a passing ship.

Then the wind she blew again - the weakened remnants of hurricane Hanna at this point - so we put up sails in the rain for a good run down to PEI.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_mist_fisherman.jpg

Above: the boat's new "fisherman" sail (highest up) - a successful sea trial.

We're currently tied up in Summerside, along with 2 other boats so far (Pride of Balitimore, and Papa2 out of Lunenburg). We're expecting two more tomorrow. The race around the island starts Thursday noon.

--

And Janet sent us this link with some good pictures of the "Mist in the mist", leaving Ivy Lea: Picasa Web Albums - Janet - The Mist Leav...

We're all green with envy, here, Darin. Green with envy. :p
Thanks for letting us be virtual tag-alongs...
And good luck in the race!

Best of Luck
 

Heard you raced on a shark after your arrival PEI. All the best in the race we will be thinking of you and the crew.

Sounds amazing Darin. Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Good luck with the race!

So Darin, are you going to jump in the water and remove the prop before the race? :D

Hi Sugar Pie - thanks! Yes, Sandy & I literally jumped on a Shark as it was heading out past the Mist for the local club race (only 3 boats out - phrf style).

dcb... If only that were an option. (Also, I'm embarassed to say the thought didn't occur...)

Our boat is apparently the slowest in the fleet, judging by the handicaps assigned to each to level the playing field. The time correction factors are:

0.7872 Spirit of Bermuda
0.7491 Virginia
0.7184 Papa 1
0.6986 Pride of Baltimore
0.6267 Mist of Avalon

... with Spirit of Bermuda being theoretically the fastest. Multiply a boat's TCF by its actual elapsed race time and you get its corrected time. So if Bermuda finishes in 36 hours (28.3 hrs corrected time), the Mist of Avalon would have a statistical tie by finishing in 45.2 hours actual.

They used a formula based on measurements provided by each skipper: sail area, waterline length, displacement, max speed in still water.

So, the fleet's all here, the crew is aboard and the skippers' meeting is under way. The starting gun is at noon.

Race morning preparations, left to right: Spirit of Bermuda, Virginia, Papa 1, Mist of Avalon, Pride of Baltimore

http://ecomodder.com/forum/images/_m...ce_morning.jpg

Extremely cool!! Like TC said, Green with Envy :) Best of luck, we'll be rooting for the avalon!!