260730 PEYC Summer 4 of 5

Creation: 260731 0707 Last Modified: 260731 0707

Crew

Position	Person
Helm	Lynn Ellwood
Main	Sue Fraser
Middle 1	Steve Ellwood
Middle 2	Olivia Bolton
Mast	Joel Massicotte]
Bow	Howard Whittaker

Course

Startline between 4 and 2, windward #4 then #2, then back to #4. Course shorted on leg betwene #2 and #4. Finish line placed about 200 m short of #4.
It is a not-permitted by the rules course shortening but Martin Lentsch felt that because there was zero wind at #4 he was best to do the shortening. We noticed Lickety got a horn so it became clear to us before we overstood.

Weather

The forecast was to be 5 gusting to 15 from the north. But leaving the harbour we had 12 - 18 knots steady across the bay. The wind steadily diminished down to 3-4 knots by the end of the race - only to return to 6-8 as we sailed from the finish line to the harbour. It was warm, and no rain. A lovely evening to sail.

Race Result

We won and we are winning the series, barely.

When race 5 happens next week we will get to drop our 4th in race 1 and Bear will drop their 3rd - I expect. That will place us in good shape if we perform well. With the drops we will be tied with Bear but win the tie break SUBJECT to us being ahead of them - ie we are 1st they are 2nd, we are 3rd and they are 4th etc. More work to do.

And to Note Lickety’s times

Note that Lickety still corrected out faster than us with its 134 White Sail Rating. 1h 33m 19s for us and 1h 31m 23 s for Lickety. That said we got around the course faster, 1h 23m 54s verses Lickety 1.26.22 - so the question is how much faster would they be if they went spinnaker? Would we have beat them? Don’t know. It would be great to get Rebel, Bear, Lickety and Oh! racing in spinnaker class. I am amazed Lickety doesn’t get bored in white sail. To each their own.

Race Review

We had the #3 on in the early big breeze. 10 minutes before our start I called for a sail change to the #1 as the breeze settled down to 10-12 across the course. It was a marginal call and a flip of a coin would have seen us with the #3 up at the start.

That change was a lucky call since the wind continued to diminish all evening.

The NFS fleet started with all but Slakota on the RC side of the start line, ready to do their barging thing. But everyone except Lickety was painfully late. Lickety dropped below the RC and headed up the line with good speed and they were gone.

Slakota came in on port and strangley tacked right under Lickety - whose tall rig put them in a wind shadow. Slakota barely made the pin and they were slow.

Shannon Coull in True North came in next mid-line and had a lift. While Lickety and Slakota headed off to the west side of the bay looking for pressure.

When the rest of the fleet crossed they too headed west hard.

Seeing all this we still weren’t sure that the west side held the best pressure or direction.

Sue and Lynn ran the start. Sue put Lynn say 5 boat lengths back and one boat length above the RC and told Lynn this is where she wants her to be at 1 minute to the start. The classic ‘closing the door to bargers’ position that has worked so well in the past.

The wind gusted and we got to the line sooner than expected after the 1 minute placement. Rebel was way off the pace and not close so no issue.

Bear dropped below us and was also early - they ended up over running the line and circling back on port to cross the line behind us.

Rebel ran down and got below us as we slowed to compensate for being early.

At go they flopped their main to pinch high in an effort to burn us off. They did burn us off which was strange, but they were slow, slow to do it. A worthless vengeance move on Ted’s part who was driving.

We peeled off to port and found the Bear was going well and had made serious gains on us as they crossed on port tack behind us.

We were not sailing as high or as fast as we should have. I later figured out that we were not carrying the Olson loving huge main leech tension that we normally do. When that was adjusted our point and speed returned but it was a long while before I did that - duh.

We also found that it too awhile for Olivia and I to get in a tacking efficiently groove. Our tacks were sloppy and slow to grind in initially. But when we got in the rhythm the tacks were great.

Of course as te wind diminished its easier to handle the big #1 gennie, but I’ll take the win ;-)

It got to the point where I would haul in as much as I could then simply push my hand with the sheet in it to windward knowing Olivia would be right there to grab it - amazing.

Howard and Joel were also aiding the tacks by grabbing the clew and dragging it around and back - it made a huge difference. Melissa Ella Warren calls this the ‘superman move’ when Lynn introduced to to the Tuesday night team.

One of them, usually Howard, were on station to skirt when needed - and it was almost always needed.

We picked our way to weather looking for lines of pressure and sailing fast.

Everyone was fully engaged. All the time looking for wind, boat speed, trim, - the focus was a joy.

We did a rounding that the windward mark that was sloppy but in the lessor pressure we survived. Both Rebel and Bear were ahead of us. We sailed our VMG angles, which were significantly hotter than the course of Rebel or Bear.

We got another advantage in that there was more pressure (a little more) on the east side of the course.

Combining these advantages we caught Rebel after our gybe and forced them over on stbd - a change they botched.

We stayed with our boat target angles from the polars and we continued to make gains, we got every close to Bear as well, leaving Rebel in the dust.

On the final abbreviated windward leg we crossed immediately astern of Bear, having completed the catch up - boat speed makes a tactician look like a genius - well done team!

Seeing where Martin was on the RC down from the #4 mark, it was possible that he intended to shorten the course on this leg rather than having us round, so instead of trusting him to follow the RRS requirements, we tacked over just to ensure we were not sailing off the course. Everyone else did the same. Lickety got a finish gun so that was that.

We were recorded as being 7 seconds behind Bear at the finish but it was more like 3 seconds. When they headed up to cross the line they were directly and immediately in front of us, forcing us to shoot the line too. Doesn’t matter.

On the sail home we packed up the boat, stowed the sails, except for the spinnaker - which Olivia got a Sue lesson in. Olivia ran the spinnaker sheet all the way home right into the harbour - a wonderful final home leg.

Lessons Learned

Main Leech Tension

The Olson’s main, this North 3DL RAW anyway, is fast when its leech is tight as a drum almost all the time. The except is when the traveller is all the way down and the main sheet needs to be eased beyond the traveller to keep the boat on her feet.

Main Trim and Helm Interaction

Again the back and forth between main and helm is critical to speed and we had that nailed on Wednesday evening. As jib trimmer I also found that constant adjustment for every puff and luff was required for speed - maybe only an 1” of sheet change at a time but it made a significant difference.

Thank you everyone!