SJE/JV/DV/JN/MW/DW
SJE driving
DV/JN bow
JV/DW Trim and Pit
MW Pit
SJE cleaned the hull before the race using the new hull cleaning brush.
The expectation was for a zero wind day. At 5pm there wasn’t enough wind to push us to the start line.
The wind did increase to 4-6 knots. It jumped around from about 245 to 200. The line was pin favoured for the white sail and boat favoured for us when the starts happened.
We headed to the left where we saw pressure, heading all the time as we approached land. We tacked as the wind eased, in another header and took it across the bay in another band of wind.
The GC21 that started beside us was well behind when we crossed her.
Rebel was sailing higher on this tack - they went left too - and they got to the windward mark before us. They gybed immediately at the mark then they started to put up their chute. It took them forever.
We did our normal rounding and hoisted on stbd. The chute was up within 2 boat lengths of the mark. That was fantastic.
Still with wind hovering around 8-10 knots we headed out. We gybed and took the stern of Martin’s G37, sailing hotter angles.
I believe we were winning the race at this time.
I was sailing at between 138 and 145 degrees apparent. It seemed fast, and we were making for the mark. VMG about 5 knots. BUT looking this morning at the Polars I realized we should have been MUCH HOTTER
Using the idea that the Spinnaker Pole is to be perpendicular to the direction of the apparent wind, (visual reference for us)
I see that in 12 knots of breeze 145 apparent wind is fine, but less than that at 10 knots, I should have been at 114 AWA.
And in 8 knots - 96 AWA!!
So by failing to sail hot enough I made the boat slower than it needed to be so sail to its rating.
We found that when we converged with the white sail fleet we were barely ahead of Martin’s G37 when we crossed them.
So hard lesson learned - again. Review the polars. I will have these charts printed and laminated for our reference.
We got over to the left side of the course (looking up wind) having crossed through the parade of white sails. The breeze started to pickup.
We picked our angle to gybe. By the time we did the gybe we are maybe 15 both lengths from the mark. I called for the pole to be stowed rather than set on the new gybe. Dave acted as the pole and kept the spinnaker flying.
Jib up, wind up - we say 17 knots of wind as we approached the mark.
We passed all the white sails except Lickety and Bear.
Looking back I should have had all the sail controls tightened up before the last gybe. Backstay,. Main outhaul, main cunningham, etc. But the wind spiked as we were gybing. So maybe I can be forgiven? Nope - this before the last gybe routine needs to be implements every time regardless of conditions.
Windward spinnaker drop went smoothly but the jib halyard was only hand tight.
We rounded and hit 20-22 knots with out sail trim ready for 8 knots. Happily everyone else had the same problem.
At that point I think the GC21 was close to use when corrected for the rating. They were still well behind of course when the big wind hit. They would have been up on a plane for part of the down wind run. That helps!
Rebel couldn’t round at all they headed for Hay Bay and didn’t get pointed up wind until there were 10-12 boat lengths past the mark, and the fleet was gone by then.
We struggled to get the sail controls set while under load.
The #1 was the wrong sail obviously. Its top end being 12 knots. But we only had #4 to the finish line to go. About a mile.
We struggled.
The GC only has a Main and small Jib, so when they rounded they hunkered down and sailed well.
When Fox tacked and I thought we couldn’t cross him, I called a fast tack and I slipped and lost the tiller. The boat came thru way too fast and breaking the sail didn’t happen. 50 degree heel, wet water on almost everyone. Mellisa stayed on the boat - just.
When we got rolling again, we continued to struggle. Wishing for a #3 and an reefed main. Who knew?
The GC crossed the line in the same second we did, so we lost this race to them.
We lost to everyone it seems. The big wind hitting the folks behind us in the downwind leg compressed the fleet - we did almost all the run in 8-10, but half the spinnaker fleet did it in 17-20 knots - especially the Tanzer 22 which got the most benefit of the strong tail wind.
So we lost time due to me not sailing hot enough, due to the compression of the fleet and we lost time because our sail plan was wrong for the final upwind conditions.
That’s the way it goes.
We finished 2nd overall for the series - our 5th place didn’t hurt us once the GC21 won that race.
The Tanzer is objecting to the method used for breaking series ties. Chris’ suggestion would see them move from 3rd to 2nd and put us in 3rd. Whatever.
It was a good series and I was glad be raced the races we did. The boat continues to improve in crew work and systems.
Thank you everyone for contributing to the effort. What a blast!
No racing next week, but the summer series starts the week after - see you then!