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Post by robertd on Mar 22, 2007 21:39:24 GMT -4
This boat sounds like a lot of fun and I'm starting to see why it's called a "Rocket". And like I said before "sign me up" and YES I'm definitely interested in Chester Race Week. Have you picked out a name yet? I suffered a mild injury to my right shoulder and the doctor has ordered me a week off from work so with any luck the weather may break and I'll get in a sail. As you can tell it's not hard to tell where my priorities are.
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Post by brianpickton on Mar 23, 2007 14:52:41 GMT -4
It looks like the boat is going to be a blast. 18.2 knots is apparatntly not the maximum top end for the boat. However since most races will be held in winds of 12 knots or less it shouldn't be too hairy too often. Have you been checking out the R-22 owners blog? With you, me, Barry and Alan that gives us our crew under PHRF (4 maximum) for Chester.
I've got a name in mind, but since all decisions are subject to change without notice, I am not going to let the cat out of the bag until I actually put it on the boat.
I 'm back among the ranks of the unemployed, so let me know when you want to head out for a sail.
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Post by brianpickton on Mar 30, 2007 7:42:23 GMT -4
Jim, the newest Rocket owner, just sent email to the owners about his new boat. He had owned it for 2 days, entered his first regatta with it and took first place with 2 bullets. Check it out on the Rocket owners blog: www.rocket22sailors.blogspot.com/For those who are interested, yesterday I found a review of the Rocket 22 in the April 2007 edition of Sail magazine at p. 96. Too bad they only had light air for the review, still they managed to get the boat up to a "freckle under 6 knots in 8 knots", not bad.
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Post by robertd on Mar 30, 2007 21:05:18 GMT -4
I will check out the article
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Post by brianpickton on Apr 18, 2007 12:14:40 GMT -4
Jim, the owner of Rocket # 10, just sent another email that has been posted to the Rocket Blog, but I thought I would share it with everyone here, since this seems to be the most read thread on the site. 548 readers means there is more than a passing in terest in OD in metro. After I read what Jim wrote I can tell you all that I am really looking forward to getting my Rocket. By the way, Jim's boat is rated at PHRF 108, which is about 124 ASPN.
Hi Anthony,
Here’s a story for you.
This past weekend our club, the Grapevine Sailing Club, held its annual Mayor’s Cup Regatta which typically brings boats from neighboring lakes to compete, so for our club it is a fairly big event. This year we had a number of sailors from the Fort Worth Boat Club and surrounding area join us for the event. We registered, and were put in Division 1 which would be the fastest handicapped boats (boats with ratings of 105 to 120).
As the weekend approached, I had two sets of crew bail on me for several reasons which left me in somewhat of a bind. As of last Friday, the boat crew remaining was me and one other person. With winds forecast for Saturday in the high 20s to low 30s and cold temperatures that wasn’t going to work. Having exhausted my search for crew, I decided not to race on Saturday so I could attend my kids’ volleyball and baseball games. I also decided that since the forecast for Sunday was for light winds and mild temperatures, we would just race that day with me, Allison, and our two kids, Amanda and Jonathan, on the boat. I figured it would just be for fun and that we would not be competitive against fully crewed boats, but Amanda really wanted to get into a race on the new Rocket.
We went to the lake later on Saturday afternoon to attend the dinner and Saturday night party to find out that all races scheduled for Saturday had been cancelled due to the high winds (mid 30s) and low temps (low 40s). All of a sudden we were in contention for first place!
Sunday morning rolls around, and we get on the water. The winds start out in the low to mid teens, and we sail upwind and down with the asymmetrical with no problems. By race time the wind has dropped down to just under 10. Our crew positions are Allison on jib and spin, Amanda (age 10) on foredeck, Jonathan (age 8) on the sprit and tack lines, and me on helm, main and spin halyard. The course was a three leg windward/leeward. We got upwind nicely, round the windward mark and hoist the asymmetrical. We had a fouled lazy sheet on the spinnaker so I handed the helm to Amanda while I cleared the foul, and she drove most of the downwind leg. At the upwind finish, we are in third place and watch the boat behind us fail to correct over us. We were all excited that we finished that well since it was our first race as a family, and being able to race together was one of the primary reasons for buying the Rocket.
The second race scheduled for Sunday was abandoned because the wind went to essentially zero at the weather mark, time had run out, and the wind shifted about 180 degrees when it filled back in. We were all stoked with our third place trophy, and the kids were on top of the world. We were beat by an Olson 30 and J80, and finished ahead of a Santana 30/30GP and Olson 30.
Now, this was not an important regatta in the sailing world, but it was important for us in that it proved that in light to moderate winds the four of us can take the boat out and race it easily and competitively in our club with the kids having an active role. We found that our primary purchase criteria for this boat had been met. The kids are not relegated to fetching drinks (we get our own now that they are at our feet!), but are actively involved in sailing the boat. We all love the speed, acceleration, responsiveness, and stability of the boat. Sure, we made mistakes Sunday, we were conservative on hoists and drops, and need more time on the boat to smooth things out (this was the first time just the four of us sailed the boat), but we had a blast.
I should be getting a picture of us receiving our pickle dish, and I’ll forward that to you when I get it.
Jim
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Post by leedb69 on Apr 25, 2007 9:50:12 GMT -4
Sounds like one awesome boat.
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Post by brianpickton on Apr 26, 2007 9:04:33 GMT -4
Hey Lee, Check out the Rocket 22 blog via: www.Rocketboats.com website. There is a terrific piece of video of the boat cruising toward the dock at 14.8 knots and then executing a perfect jibing away in like 6 seconds. This is from last weekend's Pacific Sail Expo show. There are also some new photos up on the blog as well. When the boat is here you will have to come out for a burst. Since I want to try to develop the boat as a one design fleet I plan to take anyone interested in it for a sail. My plan (or current fantasy) is to take a couple of weekends to arrange to take people out in the boat, probably in September. The end of August I am likely going tobe preoccupied with helping with the Mobility Cup for the last two weekends of the month. The latest little development is that the newest owner out of New Mexico has also decided to go with Doyle sails rather than Quantum or North. He will be working with the Doyle loft in San Fransisco, and our guys at Doyle here are going to be working closely with them in building the sails for my boat. Since mine will be delivered later than the sails in the states, any little tweaks that they discover need to be made will be passed on to the loft here. I am really looking forward to getting this boat.
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Post by robertd on Apr 26, 2007 9:20:27 GMT -4
And I'm looking forward to sailing on it too
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Post by brianpickton on Apr 27, 2007 9:00:34 GMT -4
Anthony just posted a bunch more pictures on the web site today of the boat sailing in Berkley Circle. If you get a chance check out the video on the site as well.
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Post by brianpickton on May 13, 2007 9:02:01 GMT -4
Well, two more interesting development for the Rocket have come up. The principle of the organization that makes the Rocket’s aluminium boom has retired and that section, the same used for the Martin 242 mast, will no longer be available. The result is that Rocket 22 will now be equipped with a carbon fibre boom made by Forte, the same company that makes the mast etc. giving it an all carbon fibre rig – mast, boom, spinnaker pole and sprit, and my boat is going to be the first to get the new equipment.
The second interesting development concerns offshore and long distance racing. As those of you who race in the Convoy Cup and the Silver Sail regatta will no doubt be aware, these longer events are restricted to boats 26 feet and over in length. Historically the principle reason for doing this had less to do with safety and more to do with not causing the race committee to have to hang around for days waiting for the slower boats to finish. The Rocket on the other hand, should rate about level with a J-29 mast head rig, which locally has a PHRF rating of 104 (125 ASPN) while being a bit slower than an Olson 30. (On the left coast the Rocket has rated from 102 to 105 PHRF) Those two boats are obviously fast boats intended for racing. When you start looking further afield into the cruiser class of boats the Rocket can stand up to wide range of other vessels in the 32 to 38 foot range in terms of RHRF rating. The advent of sport boats with their higher speeds and planning hull designs obviously does away with the waiting around for them to finish argument. Restrictions based solely on LOA just don’t make sense any more.
Which brings us to today. Chris Bowne, the future owner of the Rocket that will be appearing at the Annapolis boat show, Alan Barnes, a principle of Rocket Boats and I have been discussing the issue of getting the USIRC and Storm Trysail groups to allow smaller sports boats, particularly the Rocket 22, to participate in distance events such as the Annapolis to Newport race. Contact had been made by email with these two organizations without a response. We were in the preliminary stages of organizing a campaign to make our case (including racing the course as unofficial competitors in a couple of events if we met intransigence on the part of the organizing authorities) and Chris had been discussing the issue with Rich Du Moulin of the USIRC. The upshot of this discussion and Chris’ obvious passion on this topic has been that he has been invited to join a team that will draft the sport boat requirements for Offshore IRC.
The USIRD Owners Committee working with Mark Mills, IRC designer in Ireland in conjunction with several sports boat enthusiasts, and US Sailing to develop criteria to group sport boats in sport boat classes. At the moment they are considering dividing sport boats into real sport boats with big SA to displacement ratios and Quasi sport boats which are heavier, such as the J-80. To quote Rich Du Moulin, “ We have had discussions with the MiniTransats so size doesn’t scare us. But we are not fully convinced that most sport boats are built and designed for distance events” the first cut is the SA/Disp. Ratio mentioned above, and the second cut would be safety design and equipment. Chris Bowne has been asked to come up with draft ideas of which sport boats are designed for distance and which are not. He will be working closely with Alan Barnes to review scantlings for the Rocket as well as looking at other designs for offshore racing. I am going to be talking to Forte, the Rocket spar manufacture to look at the need modifications for running backstays and additional spare halyards. Section strength should not be an issue since in order to be awarded the contract from Rocket Forte had to design a “bomber” section that wasn’t going to come down through section failure.
All of these are very exciting developments for me. I would love to be able to race the Rocket in the Silver Sail, convoy cup, and St. Pierre-Miquelon, to say nothing of Marblehead and other events.
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Post by brianpickton on Jun 17, 2007 10:59:24 GMT -4
There are some new R-22 videos on You Tube. I especially like the one where they are reaching along at just overr 6 knots in 7-8 knots of breeze. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRdZQLTyiJo
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Post by brianpickton on Aug 5, 2007 7:42:10 GMT -4
On Tuesday I am heading to Kingston Ontario to pick up my new Rocket 22 and then we will be racing it at CORK in the PHRF Offshore class with Alan Barnes, his son and Cam Haley from DYC from Aug. 8th to 12th. RIght after that we take the boat to CHESTER RACE WEEK. The boat has been given a PHRF rating of 105 for the regatta. That would be a 125 ASPN rating. See you all at Chester.
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glenn
Rail Sitter
Posts: 91
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Post by glenn on Aug 18, 2007 18:05:13 GMT -4
See Pics on the wall... In the Clubhouse.
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Post by brianpickton on Aug 21, 2007 7:00:32 GMT -4
Vital Spark
I was surprised when in Kingston for the CORK Regatta to find that there were some people who did not know the meaning of the term “vital spark”, the name I have given my new boat. For those who are unfamiliar with the phrase, the “vital spark” is the energy that animates life right down at the cellular level. It can't be seen, but without we are dead. Small but mighty, I thought it was a good name for the Rocket.
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Post by brianpickton on Aug 21, 2007 7:02:35 GMT -4
CORK – Canadian Olympic Training Regatta Kingston
I saw the boat for the first time at Kingston Ontario, and was instantly delighted with her looks – subtle sheer, purposeful lines. The boat makes no attempt to apologize for being anything other than what it is, a small performance sail boat, or sports boat as they have come to be called. While in many respects it looks like a dinghy on steroids, and sails like one too, it still manages to have a big boat feel, thanks to the 9’6” beam and the 770 pounds of ballast hanging 6 feet below the surface.
The CORK regatta, famed for its hospitality is also famed for the regularity of the sea breeze that is supposed to kick in around noon each day, giving 12+ knot breezes like clock work. Well for this regatta the clock needed winding because for the first 3 days we were blessed with light air only, with 14 to 16 knots the last day. Our fleet was comprised of a Frers 33, a Capri 30, a J-80, a J-35 and a Kirby 30-36, and of course our Rocket 22. The handicap committee had only screwed us mildly, giving the boat a PHRF rating of 102 as opposed to the 105 that is becoming standard in the Pacific NW. We could live with it. For those not familiar with PHRF, that would equate to a 125 ASPN rating.
The first race was a distance affair, and the race was delayed due to lack of wind, but once the RC got a consistent 5 knots we were off. We started with a downwind start on the first 3 mile leg that then doglegged slightly to the south for another 5 miles downwind to the leeward mark. We then had a 6 mile beat to the mouth of the channel between Simcoe and Wolf Island. Up to the leeward mark we had been paced by the J-80, switching the lead between the boats. I thought we were moving along pretty well given the light air and inexperience of myself and Cam Haley on the boat, but Alan Barnes, our skipper for the regatta was not happy with the boats performance. As we approached the channel the wind went lighter still as the breeze coming around from opposite sides of the 2 islands cancelled each other out and our speed dropped below 2 knots. Alan convinced there were weeds on the keel, withhout ceremony stripped off his shirt ran to the bow and jumped off. The boat glided forward as we feathered it up into the wind with Cam and I looking around for the lost skipper. A moment or two later he popped up at the stern, grabbed the mainsheet track, tossed aside a large ball of weeds and climbed casually up over the transom. It was at this time we also noted that the motor had sagged down a little on its mount and was also dragging in the water. God knows how long we had been sailing with that handicap. We had parted tacks with the J-80 shortly after the leeward mark and they had found themselves on the unfavoured side of the course shortly thereafter and we had put some distance between us. Now as we wallowed in the light air they were bringing the breeze up with them closing the gap to little more than 100 yards when Alan took his swim. That would be as close as they got from that point forward in the race because with a clean bottom and no sea anchor we gained an appreciable amount of speed. The balance of the race took us on a beat through the channel and then on to a point to the east of downtown Kingston. We then completed another long downwind leg and finally another long beat back to the finish line.
We sailed a total of 41 miles to get to the finish line. The Frers 33 beat us to the line and we were ahead of the Capri by a couple of hundred yards at the finish, but they nipped us on handicap, giving us a third place. If we had had our rating of PRF 105 I don’t think that would have happened. Not bad for our first race on the new boat, but it needs to be said that this was not a hotly competitive fleet. There was a lot of overstanding of marks, slow tacks and spinnaker sets. The J-35 for example, sailed nowhere near her potential with a new owner and crew on board all of whom were still learning the ropes.
The next three days held 8 races with 1 throw out. They were 4 mile windward leeward short courses with 3 races on the first 2 days and the remaining 2 races on the last day. On the first day Alan had a brilliant start tot he first race hitting the line at the favoured pin end within 3 seconds of the gun and catching a shift at the same time. Shortly thereafter we port tacked the fleet and were well ahead – 250 yards- by the windward mark, and we held on for a first place. Effectively the same thing happened in the 2nd race of the day, another brilliant start and catching a shift to be well ahead at the windward mark and once again we were ahead at the line, although this time the margin had diminished.
By the start of the third race the fleet had figured out who the competition was. The RC had squared the line, there was no favoured end that we could detect and we started near the middle to keep our options open if we encountered another shift. We weren’t the only ones with this idea and by the time we had cleared away from the surrounding boats the Frers had built a commanding lead. We gamely chased them on the following legs but, they had a knot to a knot and a half on us going up wind so although we could hang with them going downwind they continued to climb away on the next beat and had a clean win at the line. The other thing that happened was that this time any body who could tack on our wind did, even a boat from another fleet! In most places I have raced there is a gentlemen’s agreement that you don’t tack on the opposition on the first beat. Not so at Kingston. Maybe the reason it didn’t happen in the first 2 races was that no one was in a position to do it to us in those races. So by the end of the day we had two first and a second. By the end of the second day we had two more seconds and a third. The Frers had seconds to out firsts and vice versa, but they had one bad race that left them in fifth in one race. Going into the last day we had 11 points to the Frers 12 and were leading our fleet. We won the first race of the last day with the Frers in second, so were in the lead going into the last race. The last race turned out to be our worst with –ahem- spinnaker issues and we finished second to the Frers. With their better throw out – a fifth place compared to our third place they had the regatta. They also had one more first place then we had, so no complaints about the result, but if we had saied to our 105 handicap the results would have been reversed. We had been within seconds of the Frers at two of the finishes and would have garnered 2 more first place finishes if we had had the handicap that we thought was correct. To be fair the handicap committee was quite blunt about it, I quote;” We have to protect the local fleet” that is as fair and unabashed a statement of results rigging as I have ever encountered. You have to respect that.
I have to add that the RC did a superb job of setting courses and running the races at CORK. It was as well run a regatta as I have ever attended, and the hospitality was delightful.
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