We were not planning on coming to Brazil. Our goal was to get south and make landfall in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, but the man upstairs had other plans for us.

We had a problem with data spikes in our wind data, which of course, feeds our autopilot and steering. It is important that we sail by wind angle offshore, as it not only rides the wind shifts, it keeps us in proper line with the waves for the most part. This problem caused a big crash gybe while offshore.

Luckily the boat and people were OK. Nothing more than a few scratches, but a crash gybe in 30 knots while surfing in double digits is not a laughing matter. It has the potential to bring the mast down, roll us, or be a trip or life-ending situation offshore. It was very important that this problem was fixed at the first available opportunity.

We did as many diagnoses as we could while at sea and determined the problem was coming from the wind data at the masthead (B&G 213 MHU). This wasn’t something we could fix while at sea. We got on the sat phone and contacted our shoreside support (my brother Kyle) to find the nearest B&G dealer in South America. There was one in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and one in Ilhabela, Brasil.

Upon contacting them both it was determined that the best course of action was to go to Ilhabela, a place we had never heard of or researched. Boats were having problems entering Argentina now, as they had closed their ports again while we were at sea due to the resurgence of the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Brazil did not have a problem taking in boaters in need, which was excellent to hear.

We turned more westward and aimed for the coast, just north of Rio. We saw our first land in weeks near Cabo Frio after sailing through massive offshore oilfields and lots of shipping traffic. This was all cool to see but was challenging to navigate. 

We then sailed by Rio de Janeiro and Ilha Grande, as our goal was still to get our parts and keep moving south. What we found was a stunningly beautiful place. Words almost can not describe the first views we had of the rainforest meeting the sea. Amazing!

We anchored to rest a few times as we navigated along the coast. We saw quite a few fishing nets and did not want to tangle with them at night in a place where we hadn’t planned on being, had no local knowledge, and never studied the charts. 

At first, we were very intimidated and on high alert, as we had heard some scary stuff about Brazil in the press and from other travelers. I want to take this opportunity to say that we now know cruising and sailing in southern Brazil is not to be feared, but embraced. It is a wonderful place filled with kind people and a huge and vibrant sailing community. More on that later!

Checking in During Covid-19 Border Closures

Yes, we have our passports stamped, boat cleared, and are 100% checked into Brasil. Brazil was closed to Yachts though at the time, so an exception had to be made. Luckily there is a very high regard for mariners here (Ilhabela is essentially the Annapolis of Brazil) and we were accepted with open arms.

YCI required that we had Brasil paperwork to stay here, but allowed us a mooring and to get a cab to the ferry, etc. YCI was incredibly helpful and has a wonderful manager named Armando, who, lucky for us, has spent some time in England and speaks very good English. 

We communicated via Whatsapp (and also used Google translate to assist at times) with them ahead of time to determine if it would be OK. We explained that we had a problem with our autopilot and the required part was available at North Sails Brasil, in Ilhabela.

We were instructed to report to the Port Captain/Navy first by the YC. We did so. We were asked the reason and the amount of time required to fix it, which was accepted. 

Then we were told to follow the standard check-in procedures listed on Noonsite.

1. Policia Federal*

*We went to the main office in Sao Sebastiao but were told we needed to go to another place, as they do not handle Yachts at the city office. There is a special office (not listed on Google) inside the commercial port, which requires passports for ID and an electronic card for each person to be created to enter. It is quite some distance back, near the water. Just a small unmarked office in a white building. 

We are not sure we would have been able to enter this area alone, as we were escorted by a Receita Federal employee (who was also a sailor).

The Policia Federal officers did question our route and reason for entry. We showed our Predictwind Tracker. 

He asked if the autopilot was an emergency. I responded honestly and said, “In the Caribbean, it would not be an emergency, but we intend to round Cape Horn, and it is vitally important for safety with 2 people in heavy conditions as we sail south.” He agreed, then laughingly said we were crazy. He was a sailor also.

We were stamped in and given 90 days. Upon discussion, we were encouraged to see more of Brazil while we were here.

2. Receita Federal

They weren’t quite sure what to do with us and wanted us to talk to an English-speaking inspector. For that, we had to come back the next day. We were instructed to send them an email with our reason in writing. We did. They replied with an appointment time.

The next day we were asked the standard customs questions but informed we should have gone to an online link and filled out the form and printed it.

The inspector did this for us. She said the screen said she was supposed to now go to the boat. She said photos would suffice, which I showed her on my phone. Dog paperwork was reviewed and cleared also at this time Receita Federal also granted the boat 90 days to match the passport stamps.

3. Port Captain

First a discussion with Navy guards for the reason. Then escorted to the Captain’s office. A form must be filled out stating the movements. We listed a few ports we knew but explained that as this was an unplanned stop I did not review the charts beforehand. I said that I would appreciate any ability to stop on the way south for fuel and to see the country. This was granted.

Along with boat paperwork, he also asked me for my Captain’s License. I explained to him I did not have one as a US-flagged non-commercial sailboat of this size does not require a license in the USA and the licensing requirements stay with the flag. He said he still needed to see a license, so I presented my driver’s license which was accepted and photocopied.

He stamped me in. Then he was very explicit in the importance that I return to clear out before sailing out of Sao Sebastiao/Ilhabela. Which I agreed to.

I returned to the YC and the Nautical Secretary for the Yacht Club also copied all of the papers. Done!

The Paperwork Process

There is really nothing to worry about regarding paperwork in Brazil. It is very straightforward and by the book. The first time will surely take longer, especially for a non-Portuguese speaker that does not know the lay of the land. Could it be easier? Sure, but in reality, it would likely take the same amount of time and paperwork for a foreign-flagged cruiser to enter the USA.

The whole process took over a day and a half. 4 ferry rides, 4 taxi rides, and 2 ubers. The cost of transportation was the only cost (35 brl for a taxi from YC to Ferry, uber is not needed since the trip to PF downtown was not required). 

One more trip will be required to check out.

It all could be done possibly in a morning if you know where all the offices are and have the forms pre-printed and filled out. I would also suggest 3 photocopies of all documents to hand to them to expedite.

Also, one could anchor off the southern beaches of Sao Sebastio to save a bit on the taxi and ferry.

All officials were extraordinarily professional, helpful, and friendly. Especially considering my poor Portuguese and use of Google Translate. I also think it was helpful that most everyone knew someone who was a sailor or boater here.

Now what?

We have now been here for a bit, we are learning some Portuguese and will update you further about what we learn about this magnificent, diverse, and broad country. We have completed all of our required repairs and are ready to go, but it is getting late in the season, so we are weighing our options while enjoying time with our new friends here.

The post Making our First (Unscheduled) Landfall in Brazil appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

We enjoy sailing in weather windows like this. Cruising in a big breeze downwind is really fun, but boat handling, especially with only two aboard, can become a challenge.

That is why most cruising couples and single-handed sailors put so much time and effort into their self-steering solutions. Not only is reliability and performance a concern, but also redundancy.

Old vs. New Autopilots

Our 20-year-old Roberson AP22 was incredibly reliable. Its performance wasn’t up to snuff when we were getting tossed around in large waves or sneaking along in light air swells. Its wind steering features couldn’t keep up, and it lacked speedy compass data and other important data that can help the boat steer.

This is where the new generation of autopilots and instruments comes in. The core is a more accurate compass, along with better processing power to react to wind and wave data.

We spent a year or so looking at a few different options, including NKE, Garmin, Raymarine, B&G, and DIY (do it yourself via RPi, etc.). We tried a hybrid B&G H2000 and NAC-3 system, but we couldn’t get the wind data to jive reliably. An update to the firmware helped, but I am convinced it has to do with the way B&Gs NAC-3 is coded to receive wind-related PGNs, as it did not like N2K data through the ActiSense NGT-1.

Pros and Cons

We finally settled on the B&G H5000 Hercules system. Here is why:

• Pitch and Roll Corrected TWA
• Works with our existing H2000 wind and speed sensors (no mast wiring and no haulout for a new thru-hull)
• Gust response
• Configurable performance levels
• Race-proven reliability
• Experience and familiarity with H5 from racing OPBs

The big con was we could not use our existing B&G H2 Hydra processor and displays with the H5 pilot. This meant going to an H5 CPU, which, because there is no way to back convert to Fastnet, also meant we had to upgrade all of our displays to NMEA 2000.

This is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. In my opinion, B&G should make a backward compatible converter to Fastnet. It would sell fewer displays initially, but it would surely help ease many into the upgrade vs a possible total switch to a competitor.

What we needed to buy

Once we decided the project was a go, we had to go all in. We spent quite a bit of time shopping and pieced the system together from multiple vendors. Here is what we removed, and replaced it with:

Removed

• B&G H2000 Hydra CPU
• 2 Fastnet 20/20 Displays
• 1 Analog Apparent Wind Display
• 2 Hydra Fastnet/NMEA 0183 Race Displays
• ActiSense NGW-1 (0183 to N2k)
• Robertson AP22 Autopilot & Compass
• B&G Halcyon Compass
• AirMar 800 Depth Sensor

Installed

• B&G H5000 Hercules CPU
• B&G H5000 Pilot
• 2 Garmin GNX 120 7” Displays
• B&G Triton Display
• B&G H5000 Display
• B&G ZG100 GPS
• AirMar 810 Speed/Depth Sensor
• B&G N2k Rudder Position Sensor

We retained our existing Zues3 MFD, 4g Radar, autopilot ram, Precision 9 compass, Bluetooth AP remote control, AirMar speed paddle wheel, and MHU wind sensor. We also kept the NAC-3, a second P9 compass, and hydraulic ram offline as redundant spares.

Installing the New Instruments

This would be a fairly big install. Although the displays are similar in size to the old ones, they were not exact and would require some cutting and minor fiberglass work. The existing rats nest behind the navigation station would be cleaned up in the process, but most of the old wires are all run through headliners and hard to get at. This required some minor disassembly.

The good news is, you can use B&Gs Fastnet wires and put N2k ends on them. This is a huge time and effort saver. Our friends at Twig Marine have the connectors on hand for special orders. Keep in mind that standard N2k wires may not fit through the old Fastnet conduits due to the size of the N2k end connectors.

Dealing with the J Boats Hood

The instruments in the standard J Boats style companionway hood were the only tricky part to deal with because of NMEA 2000s backbone and drop standards. Yes, one can pigtail a few instruments off of one drop cable even though it doesn’t meet the official standard. We could have just used a drop into the hood, but these are our primary visual steering aids, and our GPS would be there as well.

We couldn’t afford any electrical hiccups here, so we decided to change the backbone to end in the hood, rather than in the nav station. This gives the benefit of a more centrally located power source but makes the backbone longer and more risk of voltage drop. Fortunately, our total backbone length is well within the standards.

We mounted our GPS in the hood for two reasons. First, we just didn’t like any of the locations available at the back of the boat for hole drilling. Second, and most importantly, the view of the sky is sometimes obscured on the transom by solar panels, dinghy, liferaft, etc. Lastly, we felt the closer the ZG100 was to the boat’s center of axis, the better.

We placed the Triton display where the old analog apparent wind gauge was, right in the center. We liked the apparent wind in this position and wanted to replicate it with the Sailsteer feature.

Garmin and B&G Together?

One may have already noticed that we chose to use two Garmin displays in this system in the place of B&G 20/20s. There are several reasons. First, they are cheaper, saving us about 400 dollars over the 20s. Second, they are very readable, have big digits, and can display two lines of data each, doubling the possible readouts in this location. Third, unlike the B&Gs, which only read their own PGNs in the N2k network, the Garmins will read anything.

We can fire our Expedition Navigation Software PGNs from our computer, through the ActiSense NGT-1 to the GNX 120s to view any other data we want. We use our polars and Expedition software religiously for weather routing, so this is important to us.

Once we had the hood back together, we decided to retain the location of our existing Hydra race display near the main sheet winch. This is in a prime racing location for the driver, main trimmer, and tactician. It also gives a great view of lots of data from them helm.

We would have likely forgone this location for cruising, but filling this hole was easier, cheaper, and better looking than re-glassing and re-painting or putting a blank in.

Installing the CPU and Autopilot

Now that we had all of the new displays in place, it was time to untangle the macrame that was the Nav station wiring. This is pretty standard on an old boat that has received numerous upgrades and changes over time. It has been on our to-do list for a while.

We ripped everything out all of the old stuff and got to work making sense of the old wiring. We mounted the H5000 CPU and Raymarine AIS unit to the wall, along with securely mounting all N2k connectors. Now, it is far from the perfect glamorous wiring job, but we can quickly diagnose and fix any potential problems.

The H5 Pilot Computer was an easy plugin replacement in place of the NAC-3, which now resides next door in case of emergency. Installing the new RPS (rudder position sensor) was a breeze as it is the same size as the old analog version. We kept the analog version as it still works with the NAC-3 as another layer of redundancy.

Installing the Speed/Depth Sensor

The last thing we needed was to install our NMEA 2000 compatible depth sensor. H5 can’t use the old style, but fortunately, AirMar likes to make customers’ lives easy and the new 810 unit fits easily in place of the old depth sensor. They even give you the needed o-rings to fit the older thru-hulls. As a bonus, the new sensor has Bluetooth configuration and outputs additional data such as a redundant source for heel and pitch.

Once everything was connected and in place, we fired the system up for its final checks. Everything seemed to be working pretty well and initial calibrations were close (close enough for fair weather recreational cruising).

Calibrating the H5000 System

We did our dock calibrations but waited a few days to go sailing. Our next sail would be to an island about 50 miles south, but the weather window required us to leave the harbor in the dark. We did the at sea autopilot initializations and speedo calibrations under the moonlight, but we had smooth water, light winds, and little current, making calibration easier.

Sailing with the B&G, Expedition and Garmin Hybrid

We still have some advanced calibration and fine-tuning to do. We can report though, with just basic efforts that the system performed without a glitch, and Jeeves (our name for the autopilot) drove with a steady hand and laser focus!

We were sailing in 4-7 knots of breeze in a decent-sized leftover but well-spaced swell. We were using a #3 cruising headsail and cruising Dacron main, easily maintaining speeds in the 90% polar range. The H5 can certainly drive better than the other autos we have tried and will likely save us its cost in fuel over the long run.

We still have some more detailed tuning to do and heavy air testing, but we are pretty happy with the outcome so far. We are also looking at integrating a few more on-boat systems into the NMEA 2000 network in the future such as our engine and fuel data, fridge and freezer temps, and tankage levels.

We hope to revisit this and give more feedback as we put more miles on with this configuration.

The post Installing a B&G H5000 System in our J Boats J/46 appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Sitting in the cockpit of Chico 2 downbound to Port Huron on the delivery from Mackinac Island, it is time to put some thoughts on paper. Things are starting to finally settle into my head that I can finally explain what just happened!

I have been racing with Team Chico 2 for the past few years. This year I switched from helmsman to navigator/tactician as, quite happily, my fiancé Kate is a better light air driver. (Yes, we won the Chicago Mac with a woman driving and a woman on the bow!)

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

Keys to Winning

It is only fitting that a quote by one of Chicago’s greatest athletes sums up my thoughts about being the winning navigator in this year’s 111th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. Some say we took a flyer; some say we got lucky. Those that say as much are just psychologically insulating themselves from the truth. The fact is both luck and skill are both involved. The key is preparation and time spent before the race understanding the data available to you and ensuring what you are using to make your decisions is as accurate as possible.

Another key to winning is being blessed with the opportunity to sail with one of the best boat owners on the Great Lakes. Jim Weyand, Owner/Helmsman of the 1D35 Turbo Chico 2, has worked very hard to put together a great boat and an amazing team, led by boat captain David Bennett. Both Jim and David have worked very hard on sail selection, boat preparation, and crew development. They both do a fantastic job in identifying each crew member’s strengths and letting the crew operate to their full potential. Everyone on the boat has fun working hard and sailing fast.

There was a specific point in the race where I had to make a key decision. This was the point of no return, a decision which would separate us from our competitors and put us in a “go big or go home” scenario, focused only on the overall win. Upon relaying the odds and my thoughts to Jim, he simply said: “We didn’t come here for second place.” This confidence and trust by the skipper are hugely valuable as a navigator, and, at least in my opinion, this management style is winner, on and off the racecourse.

Many find the responses above and similar to “we had a great team” as boilerplate responses, however, the reason why you hear this response from champions in almost every sport is because it is spot-on. Chico 2 couldn’t have done it without the support of family members, hard work of our shore support and transport drivers, everyone that sails on weeknights testing sails, the workers at the yacht club, and those that have worked on and sailed on the boat in the past building up to this point. The list goes on and on. Every detail and input is essential.

What everyone wants to know are the details behind the team and the inputs which lead directly to the decision to choose the path in which the boat should follow on the race. I have been using Expedition racing software for years, I can’t remember the first time, but I think it was about ten years ago. I immediately recognized its value on the racecourse, long before many. I have sailed on several boats with others who refuse to trust a computer when making navigational or tactical decisions. This lack of trust in technology, in my opinion, is consistent with the back of the pack. Relying on ego, rather than data and logic, will quickly ruin a race.

Preparation for a race starts long before a navigator steps on the boat. Accurate polars and sail charts (spreadsheets documenting a boat’s speed at giving wind speeds and angles) are keys to big-picture navigation and strategic decisions. Perhaps more important than choosing the right weather model. US Sailings ORR polars are a great starting point, but if possible one should go further, logging data and manipulating their polar file and sail charts to further accurize them when possible.

The Plan & Weather Routing

A winning navigational plan means putting the boat in the best place for optimal speed throughout the racecourse. One mistake I see far too many make is “living in the now, rather than in the future.” Many sailing courses teach sailing the maximum VMC (or VMG depending on your electronics setup) is the key to winning distance races. While this is somewhat true, it is overly simplified. If you sail the best VMC right into a huge hole and then sit at 0% VMC for hours, you have lost the race. This is precisely the trap many fell into this year’s Chicago – Mackinac race. It was easy early on in the race to be lured up the rhumb line and into a possible high-pressure area, predicted by some, but not all of the models. My thoughts on VMC are we always want to be sailing our max VMC to our route, not to the course itself. Maybe we should call it VMoR (Velocity Made Good to Optimal Route).

This long term vision places the boat in the position it needs to be in the future to catch the next shift or take advantage of the better breeze, current, wave-state, or a combination of all three. This outlook does not work though if a navigator does not have a good handle on the actual conditions and how the forecast weather models are interacting. There are times when no weather models are accurate and you have to throw them all out, relying on your instruments and visual observations along with a general knowledge of the prevailing weather pattern. There are also times when a weather model is lining up in timing, direction, and speed almost exactly with the conditions you are experiencing. It is the latter when you know there high accuracy and limited risk in following Expeditions optimal course.

2019’s Chicago – Mackinac race for Chico 2 was one of these limited risk scenarios. Our polars, honed over several years of data acquisition, and the actual conditions experienced were lining up very closely with the NAM Conus weather models. I had also been watching the overall weather patterns closely for the past week or so. Giving me a good idea of what scenarios were most likely to develop in the macro and what large scale influences may or may not have an effect and when. All of this information gave me confidence in the choice of the model and routing, even though there were highly different routes using the HRRR, GFS, and GLERL models.

I knew the overall strategy before leaving the hotel on Saturday morning. Before letting Jim, David, and the rest of the crew know the plan, I wanted to confirm my thoughts with another model download before the start; combining it with on course instrument data, visual observations, and shoreside buoy data around the lake. There is a lot of pressure on a navigator to divulge information before the race starts. Everyone wants to tell a family member their projected finish time, they want to know what gear to wear, or if the competition is going to be pleasant or rough on them. It is hard, but I always withhold this information until I am confident in its accuracy. About 15 minutes before the start, I passed up a piece of tape to place on the bulkhead with our target GPS coordinates, course, and sail selection.

The plan was to be the leftmost boat, head to a northern waypoint about 50 miles up the lake, and sail fast with the Code 0. It doesn’t take a tactical genius to think of this, but it gets harder and harder to implement as the crew watches our competitors gain places on Yellowbrick as we drift away from the rhumbline. The team performed wonderfully, following the plan, making our way up the lake to our next decision point where a few modeled routes converged, about halfway between Milwaukee and West Bend. Here we would re-evaluate, gather more data, and run more models, which affirmed our decision to continue.

As we proceeded north through the night and into the morning, we woke up to being surrounded by a bunch of cruising boats. On a racing yacht, separated from the fleet, and only cruisers in-sight can be an ominous feeling. The boats around us were not participating in the Mac, but in the Hook Race, which runs concurrently up the coast of Wisconsin and into Green Bay. We continued onward, as roughly Green Bay was where we would make the turn out into the lake, setting a roundabout course, allowing a shift to bend us around the top of the Manitou islands. This, as a navigator, is the most stressful part of the race. Picking an angle based on projected wind shifts to thread the needle between a few islands 80 miles away can be a bit tricky, and there is that feeling of rolling the dice which sets in. You can do this though because you have already built the confidence in your own decision through your previous work.

The Toys

Fortunately, Jim has equipped Chico 2 with all the toys the big boats have. The boat is equipped with a B&G H5000 instrument package, a FleetOne broadband system, Expedition racing software, a wireless network with iPads running remote desktop as well as Navionics, and of course our new Quantum Cableless Code 0. The satellite internet dome was key in tracking other boats movements through the Yellowbrick Expedition feature on the inside of us as we crossed the lake. We were able to feel out where the pressure was inconsistent and drive around the soft spots. Leading us to the next big navigational question of the race, and one which anyone who has sailed the Chicago – Mackinac has inevitably asked their navigator at least once. Will we be going inside our outside the Manitous this year?

From weeks out, the possibility of an “outside” or “over the top” race was developing. We also saw that the high pressure was still on the Michigan shore. There was not a chance we were going through the Manitous, but there were also no routes that showed us taking a route to go over, rather than through, Grays reef. We had good pressure, affirmed by tracking the TP52’s through this area. We also knew that a small squall would approach from the west as we approached the reef, which we were hoping to take advantage of to beat a few of the GL70’s across the line.

The Finish

Unfortunately, the breeze dropped off just as we were about to pass Grays reef light, and the 70 footers Arctos and Equation were able to catch and pass us finally. As the squall finally caught up to us as we exited the channel and made the turn for the bridge, we saw the wind build and David made the smart call to change early from the R2 to the FR0. We were able to wick up some 15kt planing runs directly at the bridge as several boats wiped out behind us. From here, it is a straight shot; my job as a navigator completed. I let the crew know where we were in the fleet, just a few miles away from winning the Mackinac Cup! Hike hard and don’t hit the bridge or the reef! You could feel the butterflies, I concealed my tears of joy behind my sunglasses.

As we passed under the Mackinac Bridge, the GL70 Stripes (who went on to win the BYC Mac race the next week overall and who’s navigator is the father of Chico 2’s bow-woman) passed us by as the wind shifted forward and we changed to the light air jib. Yes, by the way, you read that right, bow woman. We actually had two wonderful young women, Kate on helm and Dominque at the pointy end who between the two only had one Chi-Mac race but they performed flawlessly like veterans. In fact, the whole crew, lest not forget David (pit), Michael (headsail trimmer), Matt (bowman), performed flawlessly through the race. It takes a tough cookie to sail on Chico 2; this is no glamour show. It is hardcore sailors taking it to the edge, having fun, laughing and smiling through the whole race as friends.

The bottom line is, as a navigator, you can point the boat in the right direction, but it is the team that takes credit for the win. Jim Weyand’s Chico 2 is truly a team, and for at least one week in July of 2019, the best sailing team on the Great Lakes.

About the Author: Curtis Jazwiecki was the Navigator/Tactician aboard Chico 2 for this year’s race. He honed his skills racing with the best in several one design classes including Etchells, J/111, and Melges 24’s. He is one of the few that has sailed and raced the M24 offshore. As navigator, he won the presigious Chi-Mac Race overall, took 1st on a Hobie 33 in the inaugural Miami-Cuba race, he won his section in the Chicago Mac in 2017, and has placed on the podium 7 of his 15 times on both sides Mackinac racing. He is a member of the Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit and is currently based in Newport, RI, prepping his J/46 Sweet Ruca to cruise around the world with his fiance Kate and dog Roxy. Off the water, Curtis works as an Entreprenuer and FinTech consultant, where he uses the same approach to sailing in business.

Follow the journey on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/sailingsweetruca

The post Routing for the Overall Win – 2019 Chicago – Mackinac Race #CYCRTM appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.