SJE/LKE/JV/JN
SJE driving
JV in middle - Pit/Trim/Break
JN mast
LKE Bow
Wind was 8-12 knots true, from the south.
Course was 2-4, twice around
The start line was heavily pin favoured.
We had a good night. Champagne sailing conditions.
Without Derek (get well soon), I drove so Lynn could work the bow with Julia.
On the way out we ran through the process of rounding and hoisting, and dropping and rounding. We went through several gybes.
All this went smoothly.
1 minute before the start we turned before Rebel and the GC - making them having to push up toward the mark if they could. They couldn’t.
We ran down the line - the wind shifted, backed - to allow us to cross on stbd (barely) and at the gun we headed up at speed.
We were planning to flip to port right after the start but the pressure looked better on the left and their was a lift - the wind oscillated back to the right - so we hung on.
Rebel and the GC flipped to port after a second row start and took off to the right.
When we crossed it was clear they both made a big mistake with that. We were well ahead.
We had a problem getting enough jib halyard tension. Tightening the halyard moves the draft of the sail forward and flattens the sail. Even when John had the deck flexing under pressure of his winching, we still had a very soft luff of the jib with the max depth well back.
We tried several times but nothing worked.
It turned out when I set the jib halyard on the sail at the dock I did not clear the halyard and it was wrapped once around the forestay. So getting it tighter was impossible. Duh.
We could have fixed it when the jib was dropped under the spinnaker as we headed downwind but I just wasn’t thinking.
By the first windward mark we had caught half the white sail fleet - they had a 5 minute head start. The leg was maybe 8 minutes long for us.
We prepared the pole ready to hoist on stbd - although a port hoist would have been better, our team is solid with a stbd hoist for now. Good hoist, maybe 1.5-2 boat lengths from the rounding mark. Jib down and off we went.
We went into a gybe and headed up for speed. Although I think I was not bold enough and I should have been sailing higher than I was given the conditions. But Rebel had rounds, gybed immediately before the hoisted. It took them forever - maybe 10 boat lengths - before they had their spinnaker drawing. I didn’t want to get to close to them.
We passed the rest of the white sail fleet on the downhill run, except Bear and Lickety.
The GC got buried. We didn’t see them again during that downwind.
Rounding when well, sail controls were prepared before hand. We moved the gennie over from the port side to the stbd side and set the jammer to allow for tension on the sheet when it was hoisted.
We did a Kiwi drop. Square down wind on stbd, stow the pole. John continued to fly the chute without a pole. We gybed the main and now on port we continued to the mark.
I decided to be conservative and we pulled the spin down to windward about 3-4 boats from the mark. We could have taken it to .5 boats lengths from the mark.
Smooth rounding and upwind again. I have John tighten the main Cunningham. One of the cascade blocks was upside down or sideways - the block, under load, blew up. No more main Cunningham. We used the main halyard to replace the Cunningham but it wasn’t the best.
So a big bellied jib and a main with the draft well aft - we couldn’t point nearly as well as we should.
Rebel made gains on us on the long leg from 4 to 2. They were sailing faster but a little lower. We, with four crew were hiking hard to keep the boat down, but we couldn’t fully power up.
Rebel sailed under us well to leeward. When we both tacked, we blew our tack and we failed to gas Rebel, they sailed through us into clear air. They still were lower but faster.
We ducked them at the next cross they headed left we stay right.
The left hurt them. We stood on to the layline, they ended up doing two more tacks. We were will ahead at the windward mark.
Another good hoist but we had a twist in the sail. The jib came down and it blew out.
Rebel had a hoisting disaster after another gybe then hoist attempt.
When sorted we both took off to the right side of the course (looking upwind). We were simply faster, boat for boat.
Near the shipping dock Rebel was much closer to it that we were. Their spinnaker fell apart and got wrapped around the forestay.
We gybed and took off again.
At the leeward mark we were inside Bear and Lickety - they had to give us room at the mark.
We dropped the pole and stowed it on the stbd gybe. John sailed the chute into the mark, we dropped perhaps 2 boat lengths from the mark.
Bear got around before us but Lickety had to give us room.
We rounded and sailed over Lickety. They tacked off.
We held for pressure.
At the cross with Lickety we were well ahead of them.
At the finish Bear got across the line before us by 40 seconds.
We were (are) all tired, sore. But the sailing was fantastic.
I loved being on the helm. I felt I could coach better from there. I don’t know why. I handled the mast sheet, backstay, traveller and from time to time adjusted cabin top sail controls.
I think as we were doing maneuvers I was able to time the boat movements to the crew’s readiness and execution. I can see they aren’t ready so we wait a bit, or the jib didn’t come in fast enough so I stayed high to give the time. Something like that I think.
Anyway, a great night and a 1st to boot.
Thank you all.
S