260621 PEYC Mowat

Creation: 260621 0606 Last Modified: 260621 0606

Crew

Position	Person
Helm	Lynn Ellwood
Main
Middle 1	Steve Ellwood
Middle 2	Andrew Morgan
Mast
Bow	Daina Morgan

Course

About 14nm

• Start
• #1 PEYC to Stbd
• QP6 to Port
• #4 PEYC to Stbd
• QP8 Sherman Point to Port
• MoA to Stbd
• Finish (Start Line)

Weather

Beautiful. The wind moved from about 270 degrees at the start down to 290 +/- to 340 +/- - yup it was shifty. And we had 9-10 knots of pressure at the start, spots of 13-15 in gusts and 4-6 in lulls. Bright blue sky, warm-ish.

Race Result

We won.

Yup, 7:06 of corrected time between us and Lickety. Well done team!

Race Review

Lynn was driving and I was on the bow. Daina mast and Andrew - poor Andrew - was sail trim, breakers, sub-in main trimmer, spinnaker sheet and guy trimmer. I’ll be he sleeps soundly tonight. Our start plan was simple with only 4 boats. The pin was favoured before the start and we laid our plans to start at the boat. We succeeded but we were a little early. We ran down the line for 2-4 seconds then turned up. Lickety was on our transom and in our disturbed air. They were higher and slower than we were as they fought to clear our bad air.
I wanted to be faster so that we could cross when we wanted to. So we needed to be far enough ahead to make the turn. Out of nowhere the Ranger 22, that started on port - CROSSED US. We never even saw them coming! They crossed us by … a few feet. Did we alter course? Yes Lynn did but on reflection not because she absolutely had to but because she was startled. No foul, well played Paul and Martin. So we were wrong about the favoured end when the gun went bang… Meanwhile, we had enough as we neared the layline to tack and cross Lickety. We went for it but we BLEW the tack. The lazy sheet got stuck again in the cheek block. Sigh.
Nonetheless we got it sorted out in time to cross Lickety. Lickety tacked shortly after we did. We met the Ranger 22 again, they were coming back on stbd this time. We crossed them by 10 feet perhaps. We were not laying then laying the mark - welcome to Picton Bay. The Ranger 22 next encountered Lickety. Lickety ducked them and the Ranger 22 tacked on them - slam. But the C&C 35 Lickety had a much taller mast and it was rolling - so they took the Ranger 22 - shouts of the ‘up up up, come on up’ filled the air. Nonetheless it slowed Lickety down and made it hard for them to get to the mark. We had rigged for a stbd hoist - because clever Andrew point out that it was the right thing to do as we were rigging on the dock - clever boots. Pole up, chute’s tack (guy side) was cheated out in front of the forestay. Hoist! I grabbed the chute and helped it under the gennie.
But the halyard went to the first spreader and stayed there - stuck. Stuck. I came to the mast and pulled - nothing. Looking up I see there is a white tape securing the halyard to the shroud. The chute is now in the water. There was nothing for us to do but lower the chute and get the tape off. Meanwhile, Lickety was around the mark and above our course. By lowering the chute halyard, more of the chute entered the water.
The tape broke and freed the halyard.

Tape Sidebar

So I was the one that taped the halyard to the shroud. I stupidly put two wraps of tape around the halyard and shroud. TWO. So the two layers made it strong enough that it wouldn’t break when hoisted - lesson painfully learned.

The spinnaker is now under the boat on the windward side of the bow, and the leeward side of the bow and a large portion of it was visible trailing behind the boat - disaster. I waved goodbye to Lickety and told them we’d see them tomorrow… Then we went to work. The spinnaker had to be released on two of the three corners to clear the pressure. We untied the guy and halyard. Then we dragged the spinnaker into the cockpit. We carried the soaked spin forward. And it was a NEW spinnaker set up. I ran the tapes with Daina’s help. We attached the guy, sheet and halyard - after checking they were running correctly - only had to redo two of the three lines… During this time, nations rose and fell, mountain ranges came into existence and continents drifted farther apart - it felt like a long time.. Lynn was steering to annoy the now infinitely faster Lickety by positioning us in their air. Well done Lynn Daina and I shoved the head under the gennie, pulled the tack of the chute under the gennie and attached the guy to the pole. We cheated the sheet out and hoisted again. It went up cleanly. A christmas miracle. Lickety was gone, and the Ranger and Lorieli were nipping at our heels by this time. Gennie down - yes I dumped it too fast and so it got quite wet. But off we went. We were by this time close reaching with the chute low of the rhumbline to QP6 by 10-20 degrees but we were moving. Up ahead Lickety sailed into a hole. We stayed high to avoid it and the Picton Bay gods smiled randomly upon us and the breeze filled in from the south, bringing us up to and past Lickety within 1.5 nm of the #1 PEYC mark where we had our disaster. We were now ahead again. Cruel sailing gods. Constant trimming of the chute and the main. Constant adjustments of the cunningham, outhaul, backstay, traveller, mainsheet, spin pole, jib halyard tension, main halyard tension - “everything all the time” as Don Henley would say. Lickety eventually got breeze and were about three boat lengths to leeward and clear behind. We approached QP6. The reach was tight, the pole was on the forestay. The gennie went up but we let is rag so that the chute wasn’t choked. We were moving well. Strangely, Lickety dropped its chute well before the mark and with only the gennie, they slowed down significantly. Seeing that we decided to hold until the last second. I held the guy and Daina removed the pole. The chute was still drawing and we were still fast. The pole - note we didn’t care if it was attached to the boom it was free swinging. Daina below the halyard and I dragged the chut forward around the forestay and into the open hatch. It was a mess, but it didn’t matter - it was down 3 boat lengths from the mark. Daina and I started setting the upwind sail controls. Andrew and Lynn trimmed in the sails and made the rounding. I returned to the cockpit while Daina sorted out the spaghetti on the foredeck. We slide into our constant trim routine. Andrew on the jib and I on the main. Where was the mark, where was #4 PEYC? The Orca display said it was below us but we couldn’t see it at all. Do we stay high or head to it? Uncertainty. We stayed a little high then tacked away trusting the instruments. Lickety got around the mark and headed high pointing at MoA. The wind for them was better than ours until is wasn’t. We were headed hard so we tacked, and again and tacked and again and tacked…Lickety did sort of the same thing but they were falling behind. We kept doing it and eventually we saw the #4 Mark - it was in a hole. The path to that wind hole was a land mine field of wind. It seemed the wind from about 260, was coming over the coast line and dropping down on the water. Image if wind was a stream of water from a garden hose - when it hits it splashed out in every direction. So we have these bursts of puff as the wind hit the water - great, accept they were splashing out - if the blast dropped behind us we got a lift, if in front a header.
We hopped from land mine to land mine slowly every so slowly getting closer to the damned #4 mark. Lickety had the same problems, everyone did.
We go there and popped the chute up windward hoist this time. We had problems getting the pole on after the hoist because, of course, we were clse reaching again. Eventually we managed it - Daina is small but mighty. Jib down and we were off - within 2 boat lengths of the mark. Strangley Lickety didn’t set for a long time after rounding. We gained and gained. Trimming our asses off. Every control under constant re-evaluation. Our lead continued to build. We could not find the QP8 mark. For a long time we thought a fishing boat was in front of the mark - turns out they were simply wearing an orange rain jacket. We found it - again thank you Orca. We were low of the mark close reaching and could not fetch the mark. So we took the speed and when it was resonable we got the chute down to windward again and set for a close reach with the gennie to the mark. Around and the rest is history. We think Lickety was about 6-7 minutes behind us at QP8. Around MoA and to the finish line with a few tacks. Whew.

Learning

Know Thy Course I took the GPS coordinated Martin Lentsch, our fleet captain, provided, and the Course details and mapped them on to an Orca route. Having this clearly visible and in mind helped a lot. We had confidence when we couldn’t see the marks from a distance.

One wrap of tape holds the halyard on the shroud - ONE. Better yet Howard’s Velcro strap (I’ll get a box full of them Tuesday at Marine Outfitters). And break the tape or open the velcro before the hoist.

Constant trimming - again - enough said.

Comms were critical and constant - constant. Daina was the wind goddess and she kept up the info on what was coming and how it might effect us.

The Picton Bay Strategy continues to be the winning move. Get close to the mark before getting on the layline because a shift or 4 can change everything.

Crew Movement is critical. Downwind we worked hard to keep the boat flat. We were almost always moving in or out. And fore and aft to keep the stern just out the of the water. It was FAST. Upwind was the same game of course - using the traveller to minimize weather helm and keep the boat on a steady angle of heel.

I’d Rather Be Lucky than Smart - Look up Valdi - a great Canadian singer song writer not the famous Classical music guy. He was thinking of affairs of the heart - but for me, for us, lucky was (1) The Ranger slowing Lickety down, (2) not ripping the spinnaker, (3) Lickety sailing into a hole and (4) Lickety getting their chute down too early and then not getting it back up fast enough.

So we did well this weekend. 2/2/1 Of course Lickety did better 1/1/2. But we are learning - and it was a pleasure. Thank you crew.

• Steve