Capt Wolf

Sangiovese wins race #1 of the PA Cup!

Class 3, Race 1 of 5 After PA Cup officials have had their lunch break, we are ready for the first of five match races between the two class 3 contestants: the Aqua Fina, a ship we are assured is NOT associated with the pirate Bluebeard in any way despite its numerous skull-and-sword images and blue-and-black color scheme; and the Golden Rat, a Sea Rat entry proudly flying the black from the stern. At the start, Aqua Fina gained a slight advantage as they started the initial windward leg. Aqua Fina immediately displayed excellent maneuverability, out-tacking Golden Rat several times to take a strong lead at the windward mark. Sailing a reach to the jibe mark, Aqua Fina’s sails filled to full capacity, while the battle-worn jib sail of Golden Rat repeatedly lost its wind. Onlookers watching from Alexport’s shore muttered disappointingly about a runaway contest. But as the ships turned to run with the wind, the crew of the Golden Rat ran up a new jib sail and she took off. Meanwhile, the age of Aqua Fina’s mainsail was looking suspect, failing to hold its wind as Golden Rat closed to within shouting distance (or was it shooting distance?!) at the leeward mark. Beating to windward again, the maneuverability of the Aqua Fina again proved superior, and Golden Rat struggled to keep pace in the tacking battle. However, after the turn to run with the wind a second time, Golden Rat again proved the faster boat in a straight line. Aqua Fina rounded the final mark in the lead, but Golden Rat was closing fast. Turning to the finish, neither ship was particularly fast, but Aqua Fina maintained its lead to cross the finish line first. Both crews commented about needing to repair their sails, and some bystanders reported hearing comments about loading ammunition for the next race, but we cannot substantiate that rumor. After one race in the best-of-five series, Aqua Fina leads Golden Rat 1-0.

The races have begun...

Class 1, Race 1 of 3 Welcome to the first race of the PA Cup! Our first event is the first of three races for class 1 vessels. Entrants include De Neushoorn, an Eslandian ship under the command of Jacobus Vandermeulen; A’chua’s Catamaran, piloted by A’chua, a native of the New Haven Seas; Sangiovese, a Sea Rat vessel bankrolled by Oilskin Johnny; Exocet, a Sea Rat catamaran piloted by the clumsy Callaghan; Marlin, a catamaran crewed by Captain Itzcali and two of his fellow native pearl fishermen; and Oleon’s Orion, a small, two-masted pilot boat. The native pearl fishermen in their catamaran Marlin expertly anticipated the starting gun and out-maneuvered the other native catamaran and the Sea Rats’ Sangiovese to be first across the starting line. Working the first leg of the course against the wind, the Sangiovese proved fastest, nimbly tacking to out-pace the field and round the windward mark with an early lead. The next leg of the course took the contestants on a right angle to the wind, and Sangiovese again proved fastest in the group, although De Neushoorn nearly matched the leader’s pace to the jibe mark. Meanwhile, Callaghan fell overboard from the Exocet and fouled the Marlin. Running downwind, Sangiovese continued to set a fast pace and led at the leeward mark, but Marlin recovered from the interference from Exocet and made up ground. Orion also caught a good breeze, and rounded the leeward mark in second place, just ahead of Marlin. Meanwhile, problems with De Neushoorn’s jib saw it drop back to fourth. The Exocet finally looked at its best sailing with the wind and caught up to A’chua’s Catamaran, as the native from the New Haven Sea has so far looked out-matched. Another beat to windward saw all the vessels struggle to find good winds, and the field spread out searching for a magic zephyr. Sangiovese increased its lead slightly, while Callaghan struggled to stay out of the water and caused Exocet to fall to the back of the field. Orion, Marlin, De Neushoorn, and A’chua’s Catamaran sailed in a tight group but avoided fouling each other. One more run downwind to the leeward mark before the finish saw Sangiovese continue its strong performance, keeping the rest of the field far behind. A’chua finally looked like a contender, gliding his catamaran atop the waves at breathtaking speed, and the New Haven native rounded the final mark just ahead of De Neushoorn. Orion had trouble with an uncooperative leeboard rounding the mark and fell back to fourth. Further back, Callaghan again fell overboard from the Exocet, practically slowing his boat to a standstill on the critical final leg with the wind. Turning to the finish line, Sangiovese crossed as the winner before all but A’chua’s Catamaran had rounded the previous mark. The New Haven native, having found his form, finished at a blistering pace for second. Orion passed De Neushoorn for third place as the Eslandian vessel lost its jib, which also allowed Marlin to sail past before the finish. Callaghan and the Exocet eventually brought up the rear of the field, with a time nearly twice that of Sangiovese! Points in class 1 after race 1: Sangiovese 6 A’chua’s catamaran 5 Orion 4 Marlin 3 De Neushoorn 2 Exocet 1

The race schedule for the PA Cup has been posted:

The Pilot’s Association, in conjunction with Duke Alexander Prio, would like to thank all the entrants for the inaugural P.A. Racing Cup. Races will begin Monday, with the first group race in Class 1 and the first race in Class 3. The next day will see the first group race in Class 2 and the second race in Class 3. This schedule will be repeated for two more days, as weather allows. One more day of activity will see the final race in all three classes. This will produce a total three races in classes 1 and 2, and five races in class 3. Points will be awarded 6-5-4-3-2-1 in order of finish of each race. Cumulative score in all races will determine class winners. In the event of a tie in points, a one-race tiebreaker will be sailed between the tied entrants. Additionally, a final race among the three class winners will be held to determine an overall sailing champion.

Good build! I like the color scheme on it, and I like that it is set at an angle on the base. And it's a good attempt with the sloped wall technique. It doesn't match the corners perfectly, but the effect works. I've used the same technique, and it's easier to get the angles to match if you have taller walls.

The horror! The little stream running though the scene is a nice touch. And of course a great job building the bananamen! I'm just surprised the can run without slipping.

Good little catamaran! Glad all the peoples of the Brick Seas are getting involved. And very appropriate stats.

Great story. I love the photography on the pic when he's flying through the air -- in fact, good use of controlled focal depth in many of the shots! And the bald hairpiece in the second shot after he loses his hat made me laugh! My thought exactly!

I really like this ship. Good lines, good color scheme. Can we get a good profile view, and maybe a view from above, when you update pics?

Thanks. I've wanted to use those sails for a long time. And it is a very playable ship, but to make it even more so, I should've made the quarterdeck removable. As it is now, a minifig can get a bit stuck in the aft storage!

My Cat B:

The types of ships racing in the waters off of Alexport in the first PA Cup sported designs that were fast and maneuverable, and well suited for coastal waters. In essence, it was the finest collection of small pirate craft assembled in one place in the Brick Seas for some time. And surely some of the pirates of the Brick Seas would make their way to survey the designs, and perhaps even to compete. The latest entry has many people speculating that the pirate Bluebeard has taken an interest in the PA Cup... ... but the captain of the Aqua Fina claims otherwise. We report here the comments of the captain: "I don't understand why people seem to think this ship has any connection to Bluebeard. ("Get that flag stowed away!") This is simply a ship of Oleon origins, nothing more. Bluebeard is not the owner, sponsor, backer, or has any financial interest in this ship. And everyone knows that his ships always have the color 'blue' in the name, which the Aqua Fina clearly does not. "Furthermore, this ship is totally unsuited to piracy. Sure, the square-rigged mainmast gives it good range, with a rating of 3, and the fore-and-aft rigged staysail at the bow and the lateen sail on the mizzenmast make it very nimble, with a maneuver rating of 5, but that performance simply allows it to outrun pirates. Its firepower is practically non-existent with a rating of 0, and the muskets on the fo'c'sle rail could never be upgraded to swivel guns, and it would be foolhardy to bring any cannon aboard to raise that rating to, say, 2. The crew rating of this vessel is just 1, as packing more crew in and raising that rating to 2, for boarding actions for example, would just take away from the cargo space of this fine coastal raider, er, I mean trader. Cargo space would be rated at a 5, which would be dropped to something like a 2 if you crammed crew and guns onto this ship -- totally unacceptable! And finally, the hull is rated at only a 1, as it would need additional internal bracing for added strength, which would take away from the cargo space. "Oh, and my eye patch? That's not the result of any violence at sea. I lost me eye in a freak tiddlywinks accident." Thanks for clearing that up, captain. --- To sum up: -As a coastal trader: R3 M5 F0 C1 $5 H1 -As a pirate vessel: R3 M5 F2 C2 $1 H2 -Tiddlywinks is a dangerous game. --- Additional views: .

Not yet! We still have today to get our entries in.

So much to like here! Great build, fun story! My favorite parts are the giant telescope and the sagging windsock. Also, great job with the walls at a 45-degree angle. Excellent job all around!

Thanks. I was unfamiliar with the history of such a design until I did a little research. And it seemed to fit our work on Salida Este. Thank you! Thanks. The "jacket" was one of the most interesting parts of the design for me. And windmills remain one of the best period-appropriate factories to build in BoBS. Thanks! The color choices were dictated partially by the design. I couldn't do the curves of the left-side "jacket" wall in yellow, so I needed an excuse to use something else, thus tan (and the tan masonry bricks) as worn sections of wall. And I spent a fair amount of time on the irregular base, so I'm glad it's getting noticed.

Thanks. And it's regular yellow; it got washed out a bit when I lightened the images, especially the second one, to show the detail up top. Yep, I went old school!

A native windmill ...

There's a native windmill on Ferro Azure near Salida Este.

Vertical Windmill | Capt Wolf | Eslandola

The people of northern Halos are accustomed to seeing windmills of various types across the continent and in their island colonies. But many have not seen the type built by the natives of Ferro Azure. Instead of the familiar blades spinning on a horizontal axis, which use gears to transfer the rotational power to a vertical shaft, the windmills built by these island people use paddles to catch the wind attached directly to the vertical shaft. Walls around the paddles help channel the wind so that it only hits on one side of the axis. Otherwise, they would work against themselves and would not spin. The mill seen here, near Eslandola's colonial settlement of Salida Este, shows wear from years of use. The bright yellow paint is worn away in places, and some of the indigo plants that grow naturally on the island can be seen around the paths. Here the miller's wife greets one of her friends, whose son carries a basket of grain on his head. The miller will grind flour for many families, and store the final product in barrels and sacks under the steps on the side of the mill. Here one his helpers is storing a new barrel. A customer has come to pick up his sack of flour. He looks upset, but it is only because his son did not come to help him retrieve it. Some more pics of the build: To be licensed as a medium factory. --- I had been looking for a different kind of windmill to build and discovered this design. My build would have been better if the paddles were more delicate, made of reeds or such instead of planks, but I'm still happy with how it came out. All C&C welcome.

Loving the return of the Captain and his stories! THIS is the build I want to see!

Very cool! FWIW, I use a model train display case to show off my minifigs, but this shows off the individual figs better.

Good topic for an army build. I like the horse posing, and the use of the pumpkin heads is perfect!