Artheon.NET

The Past Commodore, exercise officio, was kind enough to send me picture of the June 11, 2012 storm that I endured with my brother-in-law Jay and his daughter. I wasn't aware these images existed until recently. And although they don't show me on the water, they do show the lake conditions at the point that I was on the boat.

And finally, here is some video up-to 30 seconds before the full force of the storm hit:

Last weekend was anther couple days of heavy air on Lake Maumelle.

2012/03/03

2012/03/04

These records come from KLIT (Little Rock International Airport) so they are always lower than the winds on the lake. I'd heard reports of up to 39 mph, but everyone knows how much sailors like to exxagerate their stories. Comparing the above graph from last weekend to the wind graph of The Day of The Storm it looks like the gusts were ALMOST as high, although for me the storm my brother-in-law and I were caught in was a lot worse than the winds last weekend.

2011/06/11 (aka The Day of The Storm)

The reason why I believe the June 11th storm was worse is based on the fact that the wind was blowing water off the tops of the waves. At one point after we doused the sails I looked behind us to see what was coming (wind was from the north and we were heading south) and across the entire lake water was blowing off the waves and through the air... and it wasn't the rain that was blowing. Someone from the club has a picture of the water that day, if I'm able to get a copy of it I'll post it (with her permission of course.) I did not see the tops of the waves blowing off during the races, and as bowman it was my job to look for puffs and call them out to the skipper.

As always, I have a short video clip from the races. In this video you can see spray being blown when our bow smashes into the waves. However, that is different than the wind taking the water off the tops of the waves.

On Sept 3rd and 4th the Grande Maumelle Sailing Club hosted their yearly Labor Day Regatta. That day started off as any other race day in my short and lackluster racing career, except for the 28 knt winds (in regular english that is 32 mph).

That might not sound too bad, however, 32 mph winds fall under Force 7 on a Beufort Scale, which isn't that far from hurricane strength.

Those two days of racing were some of the craziest I've experienced (aside from The Storm my brother-in-law, his daughter, and I were caught in) sailing. Luckily I had just purchased a GoPro (again with my brother-in-law) and was wearing it that day. Unfortunately, watching video of sailing is WAY. More. BORING than actually participating, so I put together a couple videos with some dramatic music (stolen from the trailer for the movie Sunshine.)

Plans are being finalized and the paperwork is signed, sealed, and ready to be delivered for the family sailing trip to the Bahamas. Our trip will last a total of 10 days, with seven of those days being on the water. We will be arriving in Ft Lauderdale on a Thursday, working on taking the 101, 103, and 105 tests before we every leave for the Bahamas. During the crossing and while in The Bahamas we will be learning the information needed to pass ASA 104 and ASA 106 (below is a list of each certification.)

We will be (hopefully) sailing on a DuFour 52 (below), which I'm super excited about considering the largest boat I've sailed on previous to this is my brother-in-laws Irwin Citation 30.

Here are the American Sailing Association certifications we will be working towards.

Basic Keelboat (ASA 101)
Prerequisites: None
General Description: Able to sail a boat of about 20 feet in length in light to moderate winds and sea conditions in familiar waters without supervision. A preparatory Standard with no auxiliary power or navigation skills required.

Basic Coastal Cruising (ASA 103)
Prerequisites: Basic Keelboat Sailing Certificate
General Description: Able to cruise safely in local and regional waters as both skipper and crew on an auxiliary powered sailboat of about 20 to 30 feet in length, in moderate winds and sea conditions.

Bareboat Chartering (ASA 104)
(Intermediate Coastal Cruising)
Prerequisites: Basic Keelboat Sailing and Basic Coastal Cruising Certification
General Description: An advanced cruising Standard for individuals with cruising experience. The individual can act as skipper or crew of a 30 - 50 foot boat sailing by day in coastal waters. The Standard includes knowledge of boat systems and maintenance procedures.

Coastal Navigation (ASA 105)
Prerequisites: None
General Description: Able to demonstrate the navigational theory required to safely navigate a sailing vessel in coastal or inland waters. There is no Sailing Skills part to this Standard and practical application of this sailing knowledge is found in the Advanced Coastal Cruising Standard.

Advanced Coastal Cruising (ASA 106)
Prerequisites: Basic Keelboat Sailing, Basic Coastal Cruising, Bareboat Chartering and Coastal Navigation Certification
General Description: Able to safely act as skipper and crew of a sailing vessel about 30 to 50 feet in length. This is a day and nighttime Standard in coastal and inland water, in any weather.

We're challanging the 101, 103, and 105 certifications as be believe we have enough knowledge to handle those tests without receiving instructor training. The 105 class is a self-study class that is basically the same as the navigation rating for the coast goard.

Welcome to the new Artheon.net website. This new website will be dedicated to sailing, some photography (haven't done that in a while but plan on getting into it again), and other stuff I'm interested in. Please bear with me while I go through the process of building this new website into something with a bit more content than my previous site.

If you're interested in my old site you can still access it here.