Seattle Progressive International Motorcycle Show

Saturday I went to the Progressive International Motorcycle show at the Qwest Field Event Center in Seattle. Since I am retired, I really wanted to go during the week, but the show only ran Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. My real reason for going was that I wanted to meet the Progressive Insurance spokesperson, "Flo". Unfortunately, she was not there. So instead I looked at motorcycles and "stuff".

I was a bit disappointed in the show. The layout was sloppy and only covered part of the main floor. Several large motorcycle companies were represented(Honda, HD, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Ducati, etc), but the motorcycles I really wanted to see where the BMW's. They were not there. I was surprised at the size of the Ducati display. They offer a big line of mainly sport bikes and they had them all there.

Of course there were lots of vendor booths selling clothes, services, accessories, etc. The most aggressive vendors wanted to clean my glasses!

Several museums brought their collections of old motorcycles. It was fun to see some of the motorcycles that we rode in the early 70's when I was just starting to ride. There were a few custom bikes competing in a build off contest.

There was some presentations put on mainly by insurance companies. One demo was done by a small lady in the Harley Davidson section. She demonstrated how to right a motorcycle that had fallen over. She was demonstrating her procedure on a Sportster. Of course she had one caveat: " if you fall over with a large bike like an Ultra Glide, you should probably call road side assistance to get it righted".

The show was spread out on a portion of the main floor.
I am not much of a Harley fan, but I thought this was a nice look with very little chrome. I think they could have powder coated the wheels and gotten rid of all the chrome.

In this picture, there is no chrome showing. Scott, this one is for you.

This was a very unusual custom motorcycle. I wonder how it corners?

I know this one doesn't corner very good! This drag bike has no padding in the saddle. But who cares when it is only ridden for a few seconds at a time.

The Great Bronco Engine Transplant-Work Stoppage

The work on the Bronco engine transplant has come to a halt. I have been waiting for a critical part. The date for shipping was suppose to be today, but when I checked the order status I found out that the shipping date has been moved to Feb, 2011!

I have virtually all but one of the parts I need for the Bronco engine transplant. The part I need is an adapter kit that modifies the Ford C4 transmission so that it will bolt up to the existing Bronco transfer case. A company named Advance Adapters makes the kit. I sent them an email a couple months ago and quizzed them about the availability of the kit. They never answered. So I found the Advance Adapters kit advertised at Summit Racing. And it was cheaper than the Advance Adapters factory price. I ordered in early Oct. First the shipping date was late October, then it was changed to today and now Feb, 15th.

I sent out more emails to other companies that sell the Advance Adapters kit to see if I could find one somewhere. Consensus is that the part has been back ordered for four months and delivery is still two months away. Advance Adapter did not answer my email.

So, I am in a work stoppage waiting for material. There is a small amount of engine work I can do on the V8 and if I get the larger differential soon I can start changing it out. But until I get the adapter, I cannot position the V8 in the Bronco. Until I position the engine, I cannot locate other equipment like the radiator, headers and oil filter. And until I get the adapter, I am not planning on taking the V6 engine out of the Bronco. After all, it is still a good daily driver.

If the kit from Advance Adapters is back ordered again, I have plan "B" to fall back on. The automatic version of the Bronco used a C5 transmission. It is the same as a C4 transmission except it has a lockup torque converter. If I can find a C5 transmission from a Bronco or Ranger, I can change the valve body and bell housing from the C4 and have a transmission that will fit the same as the C4 with adapter kit. I already have the C4 gasket kit and shift kit.

But for now, I think I will go clean up the garage and put away all the parts that I can't use right now. Like one friend said: "It is a marathon, not a sprint". But I was hoping to have the Bronco running by January.

The Advance Adapter kit. It contains a new output shaft and output housing.

Winter Vashon Island Race-South Sound Series #1

Saturday December 4th was the Winter Vashon Island Race. This is a race from Tacoma Yacht Club at Pt Defiance around Vashon Island. The total distance is 30.7 nautical miles. This race is the first race of the four race South Sound Series. This race could also be considered the beginning of the 2011 racing season even though it is in 2010. All of the 2010 race series are over and all the year end championships have been sailed.

I started this event by leaving Brownsville at 0700 on Friday morning. One good thing about being retired is that I can get underway early and get a prime spot at the reciprocal moorage at Tacoma Yacht Club. I arrived at about 1045 and spent the rest of the day socializing and mooring boats as all the later arriving boats showed up. Tacoma Yacht Club sponsored a great pasta dinner in the evening.

Saturday morning was cool. The neat thing was that we had wind! That doesn't always happen at this race. The crew arrived, we rigged the boat and got underway.

At the start, the wind was gusting to 20 knots out of the north, so we chose the #3 jib with a full main. I was overly conservative at the start and was late for the gun. I wasn't the only one late, many boats in my class were just ahead. We started the beat up Colvos Pass. The wind was gusty to as high as 24knots. The beat was straight forward, but a few shifts and following favorable current flows allowed us to pass a few of the boats in our class.

Near the north end of Vashon Island, the waves got large to around four feet and very steep. The boat pounded heavily and lots of water came aboard. After rounding the mark, we started the run down the east side of Vashon Island. The wind was forward, so most boats did not set spinnakers. We still saw speeds to 9.5 knots. I waited until the wind lightened some before setting the spinnaker. Two boats in my class set their spinnakers early and passed us.

Rounding Pt Robinson, the wind came ahead and a straight course to the finish was a beam reach. The wind was still blowing 20 knots and at one point we saw 10.3knots. Since it was gusty and boat control was getting difficult, we took the spinnaker down halfway to the finish. Defiantly faster to be under control. A lot of other boats also took down their spinnakers.

We finished at about 1404, a very early finish time for this race! Our placing was not that great, we placed 7th out of 11 entries. One boat lost their mast did not finish. The wind blew strong all day and the sun was out. A lot of the country does not sail during the winter, we are fortunate that we can!

After cleaning up the boat and folding sails, I motored home, arriving at my moorage at Brownsville at 1908.

Total distance covered for Friday and Saturday: 87.3 NM

Results and photos can be found at: http://www.ssseries.org/

Prime mooring spot at Tacoma Yacht Club.
Here we are at the start near the back of the class.

Tom driving during the downwind leg.

Running toward Pt Robinson with the spinnaker up.

Our course for the day.

November Food Drive

My church maintains a food bank all year, but a special food drive was held for November. It ended today so I drove 1014 pounds of food to the Bremerton Food Bank.

Jim and Dave after loading the truck.
The full load of food in the back of my truck.

First Snowstorm Of The Season

The snow is going away, the roads are clearing off, the winds have abated and the power is back on. I guess I have survived the first snow storm of the season.

A lot of people laugh at us pacific northwest residents. We usually don't have much snow and people from other parts of the country arrive here thinking that our weather is nothing compared to what they are used to.

This storm did not deposit much snow, but other factors made it difficult for some. It all started on Sunday afternoon with a light dusting. No big deal, the deck was just barely coated. By Monday morning, there was 1/2 to 1 inch of snow on the ground. I drove down to the boat and when I arrived home, I left the truck on top of the driveway. Later that day, the snow started again and the temperature started dropping. Also, the wind started blowing quite hard out of the north. The news report were coming in that people around Puget Sound that were trying to get home were stuck in traffic and spending many hours on their commute. At 1715, the power went out at my house accompanied by the sounds of transformers blowing. Ironically, the houses just to the west and south of me did not lose their power. The many houses to the east of me lost their power.

I started the gas fireplace and located battery powered lights and radio. I had just started cooking dinner and since I have natural gas for cooking, it was no big deal. Same with hot water. It was actually quite comfortable through the night. But, I missed my computer, TV, microwave and I could not break the habit of trying to turn on lights when I entered a room. My main worry was the food in the refrigerator. I started moving food into the garage where it was colder than the refrigerator anyway. In 1990 when we had a similar storm and I was out of power for several days, the kitchen got so cold that I opened the refrigerator door and everything stayed colder than with it closed. In fact everything froze in the kitchen. That house had a fireplace in the living room. I closed it off with blankets to the kitchen and hall and that was where I lived until the power came back on.

By Tuesday morning, the temperature was down to 18 degrees. The news was reporting as many as 60,000 homes out of power in Kitsap County. The wind was still blowing hard and most of the meager snowfall was blown elsewhere. I drove down to the boat. The roads were really slick. With the snow blown away, the surface was mostly bare ice. There was a tree over the road and I had to backtrack a few miles. I checked on the boat and doubled up the mooring lines(something I should have done the day before) and then drove to Costco. Waaga Way was a mess when the road started up hill toward Ridgetop. Abandoned cars, trucks and even a school bus blocked off the shoulder and one lane. I later heard that some of the vehicles were stranded on Tuesday morning. I completed my errand at Costco and then went to McDonald's to get some breakfast for my parents who were also without power. McD's was a zoo. A lot of people without power had the same idea that I did.

My parents are dependent on electricity, so they have a harder time than I do. There water source is also a well, so no power, no water. At least they installed a gas fireplace after a brutal winter a few years ago.

I went home and then for a walk through Illahee Park to the waterfront and back. Even though it was cold and windy, the sun was out and it was really quite pleasant. I noticed the power crews working on the downed cables.

My power came on almost exactly 24 hours after it went out. My parents finally got their power back mid-day Wednesday. Things are fast returning to normal for some of us. Wednesday evening, the report is that 13000 are still without power, but should be restored by midnight. A lot of people had damage from the trees that were blown down. One friend in my church lost his home from a tree fall. The weather for Thanksgiving Day is suppose to moderate with rain coming for the weekend.

So now we will move on from this event and be surprised when it happens all over again!

Where Were You........?

This time of the year the question comes up about where were you on Nov 22, 1963. That was the day that President John Kennedy was assasinated in Dallas, Texas.

I remember that day very well. I was at Chico Elementry school in 5 th grade. My teacher, Mr. Hopkins came into class and his words will always live with me. He said "I am going to tell you something and don't let anyone tell you differently, the President has been shot". Then later he came in and told us that the President was dead. The little boys joked about getting the shooter and a couple girls cried. We were allowed into the library where a TV was set up and news was being shown. I think we were sent home that afternoon..

The next several days our family was glued to the television during the subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald and then the funeral. I remember my dad telling my sister and I to pay attention because someday we may be asked about it.

So, where were you this day in 1963?

Fowl Weather Race-A Race For Turkeys

Saturday, I took the boat to Port Orchard for the annual Fowl Weather race. This is suppose to be a three race regatta and the prize is, well, a Turkey. I started this race for our club over 20 years ago. Around my family the joke is not to thaw out a turkey until we know the results of this race.

I was underway at 0730. The forecast was for 10-15 knots of wind from the north. It was also suppose to be cold and possibly some rain or SNOW!

I met the rest of the crew in Port Orchard. The first race was listed as the "F" course. This is about 5 Nm in length and goes around three permanent marks and one club buoy. I got a late start and trailed Dulcinea(J105) and Tantrum II(Schock 35). Things became strange when Tantrum II did not head for the first mark and sailed toward the second mark off Pt Herron. Then Dulcinea did not round the proper first mark(a radar target off Retsil) and rounded a different radar target a quarter of a mile north. We rounded the proper mark and caught Dulcinea and Tantrum II after rounding the mark off Pt Heron. We led the way to the finish. Since Dulcinea and Tantrum II did not complete the course, they were awarded DNF's (did not finish). Dulcinea does not sail in the Port Orchard area much, so was not sure which mark to use, even though the chart in the sailing instruction showed the proper one. Tantrum II was using last years sailing instruction. Should always check for the current sailing instruction!

The second race was a short beat followed by a long reach/run to the buoy near Gorst. The wind came up some and before the start, we changed to the Heavy No. 1 genoa. The race was a parade and we finished second behind Dulcinea.

For the third race, the committee became more aggressive with the course and set it as two laps of the "F" course. With a two hour time limit, we wondered if the smaller boats could finish in time. The winds were still in the 15 knot range, but puffy and shifty in direction. Near the Pt Heron mark, the wind got light and we got a good lead on the other boats, but after setting the spinnaker, we got caught in a dead area and Dulcinea sailed past us. On the last reach, the wind was off the beam and was gusting to 18 knots. We kept under control and hit a highest speed of 9.25 knots and maintained speeds greater than 8.5 knots for most of the run. Once again, Dulcinea finished first. Because of the scoring system used, Dulcinea was penalized heavily in the first race. We won overall by 2 points and took home the turkey.

It was a great day for racing. The sun was out all day and the wind was good, even though the direction and speed was variable. Thanks to the crew of Jim, Ron, Bionic Walter and Pete for the great crew work.

The trip home to Brownsville was epic. The wind built to 30 knots off Illahee and the waves were large. The boat pounded heavily and slowed way down. It was dark and started getting cold. I put on all my foul weather gear and even put on the goggles to keep the spray out of my eyes. I got to the marina at about 1700 and took two tries and some help from someone on the dock to get safely moored.