Valencia Club Race

My Sailmaker, Nacho, asked if I would be interested to come and sail during the weekend, which I answered Yes of course.. The boat would be an X-41 "Experto Catador"

Nacho picked me up ten o'clock sharp at the Marina Juan Carlos Primero, We headed down to Real Club Nautico Valencia where the boat and rest of the crew for the day waited.

I had slight problems understanding what the other were talking about but luckily we are all sailors and have a good idea what needs to be done at any given moment. So if the words were not enough, there were always pair of hands to swing around:)

Once the boat was ready we headed out to the start area. Wind was non-existing so the committee decided to wait for the thermals to pick up. There are many worse ways to spend your Sundays..

Once the decision was made to go ahead, marks were taken out and we started to make ready for the start. Some practice manouvers, concluded that the Committee Boat end was favored by about 5 degrees. We got a good start, first boat off the line, and line honors to add the cherry to the top of the ice cream that was day of Valencia sailing. So we won clearly on Sailed Time and corrected time as well...

After the race we packed up the boat and headed to the terrace of Real Club Nautico Valencia for After Sail... Thank you Valencia!

Test Sail, Cloudiness 0/8, Temperature +26C... :)

So today was the actual test of the new sails by North Sails Valencia. I have to say the service by NS Valencia has been outstanding and very professional, no the least by people with Americas Cup, TP52's, etc... on their resume.

At the end of the day I  was helped by two, among other things, Americas Cup sailors to get the boat ready for the season! That is the kind of experience you can not get with some computer software... Both Sails are within few centimeters from max. size and shape seems to be perfect, so they should be optimal for Light Airs..

Good Day. Thank you Nacho and North Sails Valencia! Boat got new sails and my forehead received a new color of pink/red :)

Tomorrow I think I will do little bit of washing and take a look at the rigging/sheets etc...

P.S Please do not look at the fenders and other stuff lying around... they will be gone when we actually get underway...

Hauling Sails at Valencia - New Main and Light Jib

All the Sails came from North Sails Valencia today. Weather was nice as you can see from the pictures. Shorts and T-Shirts for Scandinavians... some locals were still on double trousers and down jackets... Pictures are in reversed order, do not know how to easily move them around...

 

Nacho marking the spreader enforcements..

 

Out with the old... This North Sails double taffeta sail has served almost ten years, looks surprisingly good.

 In with the new...

 Sail looks good and is max. size for this mast/boom.

 Marina Real Juan Carlos waking up.

 Nacho Braquehais of North Sails Valencia unloading all the sails for S/Y Seanna which were serviced and checked during the winter. Plus two were made of course, 3DL 860's

 Hauling Sails...

Battens on...

Tomorrow we will go for a test sail, Main Sail will get the spreader patches and Country/Sail numbers tonight. Need to check and prepare cunningham, maybe reef and sheets for tomorrow. Sun s setting so that is a nice task to enjoy that and do something useful, oh yes need to remove the furling drum as well...

B&G H5000 Hercules install complete

New electronics are installed:) Gadgets, more gadgets!

Graphic Displays by the companion way. These are nice, large displays that can show at least two lines of information. One nice page is the wind plot, that will probably be used quite a lot. It also has start timer function. System onboard Seanna is with H5000 Hercules CPU so, among other things, it will calculate "time to burn"

Nav. Desk got a 7" Zeus2, mainly to be used as a display for NMEA data, etc. Zeus2 chart can be replicated to a tablet when precision navigation is not needed. PC will run the main navigation software.

One feature of the Zeus2 is the ability to control the whole H5000 system, mast display control, manipulate/adjust polars (below), and so on. It might be easier to do all this stuff from the PC but it is nice to have the option to make adjustments even without the computer running.

Other option is to adjust everything from the PC or tablet via GoFree wireless. Below a sample shot from browser based set-up page.

Seanna will be up on the hard for few days end of this month, get the bottom clean and sleek for the season and color of the decorative lines will be changed to "Charcoal metallic".Can't wait to get to the boat and set sail for "Eivissa"

New home port in Finland

Soon it will be time leave Marina Real Juan Carlos I (picture below) behind and head for Helsinki, Finland. Time will show if we regret this move...

We looked around for different options in Helsinki and decided that HSS, Helsingfors Segelsällskap r.f harbor at Liuskasaari would be the best option. The club harbor is situated right in the middle of Helsinki so it should be a nice and lively place to have Seanna at, and it has a terrace with a view, and discounts for members :) Right in the center of the city.

Just got confirmation that Seanna will get a berth at the HSS, now just have to hope I get accepted as a member to the club as that is mandatory for a berth in the clubs harbor...