FFR with Andrei and Greg s

My crew was limited.  Only Andrei had confirmed.  Greg wanted to join us as we were walking to the dock

Andrie had very limited experience.  He had taken a sailing course and wanted to buy a Hunter 35 in Lake Champlain.  Greg was very good for a power boater !!.  He raced on Slow Dancer often.  Andrei helmed the start and the first circuit, and Greg took over as we approached (pinching) the first windward mark.  The start was fairly hectic, but Andrei handled it well.

We did fairly well.  Results to come.

Sunday morning sail with Fredric

Fredric, Holly's husband, came out to check out Lake St. Louis. He has an O'day 27 in Memphremagog.

We drove to the club, set sail in rather light winds.  It was warm.  We just set the Genoa.  Sailed to Pointe Claire and back.

Had a fish and chip at the club and went back to NDG for Porchfest.

Shakedown sail with Maud and John

Maud and John came out for a four to five-hour sail. 

We tacked through the channel to Baie-d'urfie and ran back

The weather was supposed to be warm and nice, but it was cool and very gusty.

Spring Prep and launch

Redo the rudder bottom

Redo the keel joint retorque keel bolts

New Shaft packing 5/16

New LED navigation lights

Acid-wash the hull to remove mastache

Nauti Control Wireless Autopilot

Updated Raymarine Axiom firmware

Hull Out 2025

I had an uneventful Haul-out at 12:30, single-handed.  Fuel and pumpout.  

I helped Eric with pump-out, fueling and winterizing his engine. This was not a very satisfying experience.  

Ended up wet and cold.

Note the rudder damage

Mustache is back

Keel damage

Grounding on keel

Thats how I left my dock

Packman boys

Yesterday, Eric finally accepted my invitation to go sailing.  

So the boys took a family day off, and we met at 10, departed the dock at 11 after borrowing life jackets from Norm.  They had outgrown the ones I had last year.

Broad reach to Baie D'urfe and then tacked back through the gut and started the motor just before the club channel.  Almost no fuel was consumed.

The words of the day, everybody had were, "Kill", and "WHY?".  

They kept using these expressions.  I would ask them to do something, and it was always WHY.  Eric encouraged this as he thinks it helps them to understand.  But it did not produce a good crew.  I clearly told Eric not to release the dock line - I told him to hold on to it.  He heard but didn't understand why, so he threw the line off the boat, causing us to drift towards Flirtation.  When I explained why, he understood.  But it was too late.  

Reminds me of

CHRIS, GET ME A KNIFE!

WHY?

— BECAUSE I NEED ONE!

It seemed to me "Kill" was just an expression they kept using.   

Interesting day.  Nice winds.  

Weekend at the club and a race actually 3 races - Frostbite

It was an interesting week at the club. Came down on Friday to help Sylvie if she needed to haul out Tara II.  Had supper with the gang.

Saturday, we demasted the sharks. Lunch with Allan Rheaume and saving the mast of Elixar, who had a broken forestay.

On Sunday, Maud, Scarlett and I raced the last Frostbite.  Caroline had a bad back and could not make it.  The wind was 5 knots when we departed and forecasted to increase to over 20 by the end of the previous race.  That was in the forecast, so I decided to keep the 155 on, aiming for at least two good races and taking a chance on the third in stronger winds.  

Even though we did badly, we came out 6th in the series because we raced every race.

https://gnsracing.com/results/2025/2025-FROSTBITErs.html

We did terribly, but most of the other boats were hardcore racers. Came back to the club and Flirtation had a difficult time docking in 20-knot winds.