Aren’t you sailing around the world? Cruising boats can’t race, right? Well, sort of. As sailors that enjoy high-performance sailboats and are used to racing with the bare minimum, surrounded by carbon fiber and Dyneema, it is hard to envision racing a full-fledged cruising sailboat. Cruising is very fulfilling and challenging, but sometimes we miss the adrenaline and spike of mental energy in the rush of close-quarters sailing.

Enter our new Brazilian friends Wellington and Paola aboard the Samoa 30 TXAI (the name of the boat means “brother” in an indigenous language). We ran into them while anchored off of Sao Sebastiao and as we sipped Cuba Libres and practiced our Spanish and Portuguese they let us know that one of Brazil’s most important race series was now offering doublehanded and cruising boat classes this season.
Of course, this piqued our interest as racing sailors and we promptly clicked the link to the notice of race Wellington WhatsApped to us the next day. We were in! Just a few short minutes later we had filled out the entry form and our entry was accepted pending payment of the entry fees. This had to be done in person as we do not have a Brazilian bank account to do transfers within the country.

We headed over to Yacht Club Ilhabela to meet Ann, the regatta organizer. Luckily our Portuguese is getting much better, especially Kate’s, and Ann spoke very good English. She has been involved in some worldwide racing programs so she was helpful and easy to communicate with. She knew what it was like to race in a foreign country not knowing the details of the language. Let us tell you, Google Translate does not know sailing terms. For example, sail or vela in Portuguese translates to candle in English.

The yacht club and the race sponsor, Mitsubishi, put on a great pre-race party. An authentic Brazilian fishing canoe was filled with ice and beer for the sailors to enjoy. Champagne was served with the trophies on display at the bar under an awning of palm leaves next to the ocean while sailors told racing stories in excitement for the week’s coming events.

Yacht Racing in Brazil

Now, we didn’t know much about racing in Brazil. We have only met other South American racers once before at the 2016 Melges 24 World Championships in Miami. Let us tell you this, they take racing very seriously down here. There is a ton of skill and boats are very well prepared. As hardcore racers back home we have lots of respect for “pro” level racing, and this certainly fits the bill. What is better than learning from the best? After meeting a few of the sailors, including Mr. Eduardo de Souza Ramos (a past Olympic sailor and TP52 MedCup competitor), and seeing the boats (Botin 44 Phoenix, C30 Caballo Loco, Soto 40s, HPE 25s, and others) we were thoroughly impressed and excited to see some awesome racing.

Our doublehanded (Duplos) class was only scheduled to race on one day of the event, which was perfect as it gave us time to go out in the boat and watch the high-end racing as well as fly the drone to get some awesome aerial shots of the boats in action. We sucked through 5 drone batteries and GB of video on day one as we chased boats upwind and downwind. Needless to say, there will be some very cool footage of all of this racing, including shots from our 3 onboard cameras in the upcoming YouTube video covering this part of our time in Brazil. https://www.youtube.com/c/sailingsweetruca

Let’s Go Racing

On Saturday morning it was our turn to hit the racecourse, and we were amped for our first racing experience since the Bayview Mackinac race aboard Chico 2 last July. It was time to get out the Go-Pros to document this all for YouTube. Before we could get started we had to shift the boat from cruising mode to racing mode. This meant ditching some extra canvass, securing items inside, ditching the dinghy at the dock, and most importantly getting the spinnakers out!

We wanted to ditch more weight, including our oversized 73 lb Rocna anchor on the bow and its associated 218 feet of 10mm chain as well as our extra 100 gallons of diesel fuel (40 in jerry cans), 30 days of food & water, storm sails, canvas covers and lazy jacks, and scuba tanks. YCI was accommodating to allow us to do this, but we just ran out of time. We were going to race in full-on offshore cruising dress!

Our biggest decision was whether to leave our #3 dacron jib on the roller furler or make the switch to our Expedition Membrane Carbon cruising genoa. We watched the forecast carefully. A front was moving in and the wind started to build the morning of the race. This made the normally light 5-15 knot breeze we were expecting change to 15-25 knots with gusts to 30. Our fantasies of pointing extra high with the new carbon sail on the bow were fading fast.

Sailing double-handed upwind in a shipping channel and pre-race starts would put a lot of wear on headsails. It is very hard to sheet in an overlapping sail quickly with only two people. We really need to keep our best sail for our intended purpose, sailing around the world, rather than drag it back and forth across the spreaders and flog it to death racing. So, the old #3 was the last-minute decision.

The Start

Racing in an unknown area always has challenges. Apart from the standard wind shift and current issues we also had a huge language barrier to overcome. The racecourse was to be announced over the VHF radio, a problem to hear sometimes in the best conditions in our native language, let alone in Portuguese. Luckily the race committee agreed to send the course information to all competitors via WhatsApp as well, a welcome reprieve.

Our race was to start promptly at 1230 hrs local time. We jockeyed for position a bit, but after watching the previous classes start, we realized a start on port tack at the pin would be heavily favored in the strong current of the 100ft deep Sao Sebastiao channel. We pinged the line in our H5000 and set our clocks. Kate watched the clock closely as I burned some time. 23 seconds, she said, let’s GO!

We turned the wheel down and sheeted in. We glided over the starting line at our full 7-knot upwind speed, turning the winches and sheeting in hard as we brought the boat to its max angles. Did we just nail an on-the-line port tack pin start dead on time double-handed in a 46-foot cruising sailboat? Yup! We were pretty surprised ourselves and checked the committee boat for the OCS flag and listened to the radio just in case. We were good to go! Looking back, because of the current we were crossing everyone. Holy smokes, a perfect start in our first race in over 6 months!

Upwind Leg

Because we launched so hard we only had one other true contender in our start to deal with. Technically they were not in our class, as they were a fully crewed cruising class boat, not doublehanded, but they were a formidable and well-sailed opponent. The Grand Large 500 Nautilus was hot on our heels. We had a wonderful duel, tacking up the channel, both choosing different sides to seek current relief and checking in with each other in the middle. The Nautilus, skippered by Aziz Constantino, is a 50-foot performance cruiser and had good speed. They pushed us, and we had to work very hard to stay ahead. Short tacking a 46’ cruiser was hard work!

As we approached the windward mark, while avoiding max current, we strayed into some shallow water and tacked away just in time. Thank goodness for the J/46 shoal draft keel at that moment. We gave the red buoy just a little extra room as we rounded it to port, making sure we wouldn’t drift into it in the strong current.

Downwind Leg

Time for the spinnaker! As the wind was puffing to the 30s at times and was sustained around 20 this was going to be a challenge double-handed on a windward-leeward course filled with high-performance fully crewed race boats. We decided to use the G3 cruising kite in the sock, rather than the R2 race runner out of the hatch. We were in full race mode but had to check ourselves, we were racing our house and could not afford to break things.

We gybe set at the mark as we rode a lift into it. This set us on a great layline for the finish. With any luck, we wouldn’t have to gybe again, which is a tough task for a 1700+ square foot asym without a bowsprit. We were hitting speeds in the high 9’s downwind in the flat water. Awesome sailing.

The Finish

The finish was tricky. We were coming into the line just as the ORC 1 fleet was starting. This put a stunning wall of carbon boats with black sails in front of us. Our Rocna anchor looked pretty intimidating to those on the rail of the upwind boats. We decided to start stuffing away our kite early as we had enough lead to be safe and not push things. I ran to the bow while Kate took the helm.

We had a little twist start to happen as we steered quickly between the upwind boats to avoid them. BIG PROBLEM! In this breeze, if we wrap the kite on the forestay we are pretty screwed. Quickly I spiked the tack line and started unwrapping from the bottom up, flagged it, and jumped onto the sock while Kate played chicken with crossing boats. She stuffed it up to be safe just as I was able to get the sock to the deck. Phew!!!

We crossed the finish line under mainsail only, but safely. Line honors for our start, first in our class, and first for cruising boats overall. Nautilus followed closely behind, catching us a bit under the spinnaker, handling it beautifully with their full family crew but the course was not long enough for them. Whoa, what fun!

The Party

Time to clean up the boat and head to the most important part of the race, the Apos Regatta Party! There we would get to see our friends Wellington and Paula again, and grab some much-needed ice-cold beers from the wooden canoe. An excellent band played, awards were given, smiles, hugs, and handshakes were shared.

We can’t thank Mitsubishi enough for sponsoring this regatta, and we are hugely impressed with not only the pro sailing here but the way that racers and yacht clubs are building the grassroots. There is an amazing atmosphere here that is hard to compare, but we found it is similar to the wonderful experiences we have had racing in the Melges 24 one-design class. Passionate sailors that want to build the sport and pass on knowledge, racing hard, while having a wonderful time with friends. We also have to extend a huge thank you to Armando, who has become a wonderful friend and has been instrumental in helping us navigate Brazil. Last but not least we want to give a shout-out to all of our new friends from YCI in Brazil, if you are ever in the USA and feel the need for some racing, look us up at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, we have a feeling you would enjoy the famous freshwater races to Mackinac Island (the Ilhabela of the Great Lakes)!

Official Race Write Up, Photos, and Results: https://circuitoilhabela.com.br/termina-de-forma-antecipada-a-primeira-etapa-do-circuito-ilhabela-2022/

Some photos By: Aline Bassi/Balaio: https://balaiodeideias.com.br/ and Wellington & Paola (Velerio/Yacht TXAI)

WTH, We Thought You Would Be in Patagonia?

There is enough here to fill a complete blog post about this. We are still headed there, but plans have been thrown completely out the window due to Coronavirus border closures and a mechanical failure and associated repairs. Sometimes we think though, someone is secretly looking out for us, as we wouldn’t have and be able to share these amazing experiences and have met all of our new wonderful friends. We are going with the flow and don’t even know what will happen next ourselves as the weather and countries policies are continually changing.

The post Lets Go Racing! What??? The 2022 Copa Mitsubishi 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.

Our first hiccup, we forgot we had a fishing line out, and as we set our anchor we ran over it, fouling it in the propeller. Kate had to dive on it to untangle it. Luckily the water was warm and calm. Roxy the sailing dog supervised the work

It is still Christmas time in the Caribbean, so we head out and explore the town near Hatchet Bay, a well known hurricane hole. You could surely weather a storm in that harbor. We found a local bar and after a few beers made some new friends. They took us on a tour of the town for a Boxing Day celebration.

While we were here we did a much needed oil changes to our Yanmar 4JH3-TE 75hp Turbocharged Diesel Engine. 

Next we were off to meet up with out friends aboard SV Sargo for a floating dock party, snorkeling, and sundowners. 

Lastly we were off to Rock Sound. It was a beautiful day for sailing. We tried to get a nice photo shoot in. Sargo found an uncharted blue hole on the way, which we stopped and dove with them. Inside we found sharks! Our first time in the water and swimming with sharks. 

After cooling off we finished the trip by sailing around Rock Sound. We noticed less power and some extra smoke from our Yanmar engine though. It was time to investigate. Finally, after exhausting all the options, we found the issue was a small engine mounted fuel filter. What could have been a 5 minute fix cost us days of downtime.

The downtime was OK though. This gave us a chance to reprovision, relax, and make a YouTube sailing vlog video.

Next we get ready to sail nonstop from the Bahamas to the USVI and BVI. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe, share, and hit the like button

The post [Ep. 18] Blue Holes & ENGINE WOES appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

The post [Ep. 16] Can We Outrun a Storm? appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

This video shows only limited clips of our first days in the water. There is so much more to show but only so long of a video to keep you engaged! When we first went in the water, we did not have our mainsail cars so we could not hoist our mainsail! The first day in was a bit foggy anyway (as tends to happen in the northeast) and we decided to just motor around Narragansett Bay, RI and get a feel for her. We are used to open-cockpit boats with tillers so a large wheel took a little getting used to.

Once we got the correct main cars we set sail up the bay towards East Greenwich, a beautiful little state park with weeknight dinghy races. We had fun practicing with the anchor since, as racers, we rarely used the hunk of metal that usually sits on the bottom of a boat. It took us a while to get used to leaving the boat at anchor without us on it, so we would get to shore and keep an eye on her as our first baby steps. Eventually, we practiced with different anchor alarm apps and would extend our time away little by little.

We were thirsty for more, especially Curtis, and decided to head to Third Beach, just outside of the bay facing the Atlantic Ocean. We got a little taste of ocean swell and solid breeze for the very first time. The boat was so smooth and enjoyable to sail. For me, it was difficult to get used to large boat maneuvers, but this first sail was a good test. After a night in Third Beach, we decide to head north to Maine.

For our Patrons on patreon.com, we plan to post extra footage of our time in Narragansett Bay, exclusively.

Our next public video should be the start of our experience in Maine, passing through the Cape Cod Canal- a very cool experience.

Please enjoy our “second leg” below!

Until next time!

The post Sailing Sweet Ruca Vlog – Leg 2 – First Sail | Narragansett Bay to the Atlantic Ocean off the Coast of Newport RI appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.

Here are some specs on the boat for those that want more tech details:

Length: 46′

Beam: 14′

Draft: 6’3″

Displacement: 24,000 lbs (~32,000 fully loaded and provisioned)

Mast Height: 65′

Sail Area: 1020 square feet

The post Sailing Sweet Ruca Boat Tour – Our J Boats J/46 Sailboat SV Sweet Ruca appeared first on Sailing Sweet Ruca.