Creation: 260820 0608 Last Modified: 260820 0608
Crew
| Position | Person |
|---|---|
| Helm | Lynn Ellwood |
| Main | Sue Fraser |
| Middle 1 | Steve Ellwood |
| Middle 2 | Anik Karimjee |
| Mast | Joel Massicotte |
| Bow | Howard Whittaker |
The core team!
Course
J2 About 1 nm between Windward/Leeward, Orange inflatable marks, start/finish in middle of the line. Windward mark at the entrance to Picton Bay, and leeward mark in the big bay. No mandatory crawl the shore requirement that using our firxed marks required. Hurray!
Weather
Turns out if you switch off the batteries - which cuts off the charger from the actual batteries - the charger doesnât charge the batteries. Oops.
So Ÿ of the way to the race course our electric motor died and with it our wind speed and direction and boat speed instruments.
We werenât âblindâ, we have eyes. But we didnât have the luxury of knowing the real numbers.
See saw minor isolating shifts of perhaps 10 degrees with breeze between 8-15 knots, the gusts were between 12-15 and they came and went.
Direction about 200 or so.
Flat water, of course.
Race Result
Race Review
We decided on the no.2 gennie rather than the 1. We had the 1 ready for deployment on the run if need be.
Using the 2 turned out to be the right decision for almost all of the course. We were heeled and the main was working up and down to maintain a balanced rudder, but it was hardly ever ragging like a flag.
And hey, we won line honours in our fleet, so uh, I guess it worked just fine.
The start line was square to the wind but the course was biased to the left. So we wanted and got (well done Sue and Lynn) the boat end with speed.
We were able to run down a line for a few seconds before the gun then wind up. Happily no one was below us.
In the Non-flying sails Lickety looked over but apparently not, and so they took off to the MacFarlane dock - right up close before they tacked and did a one tack to the windward mark.
We saw them extending on the white sail fleet with pressure, so we figuredâŠwhy re-invent the wheel?
Good start from the boat heading to the beach on the east side as Lickety did. Rebel was below us tracking with us and Bear was below them. We are all same same.
We were free to tack. When we tacked we we wanted to lead Rebel and Bear into the mark - and may disturb their air a little. So we let them tack first and we tacked on top of them.
Bear stayed clear but Rebel got our disturbed air all the way to the windward mark - and they didnât catch us. Neither did Bear.
We rounded the mark and had a problem with the spinnaker halyard. Howard and Joel fixed it. Of course they did. And the chute was flying.
But the delay put us on the outside of Rebel and Bear who were neck and neck.
We heated up for speed.
We gybed as Bear and Rebel did.
At the leeward mark were were squeezing Bear over into Rebel. Rick Amour on Rebel was loosing his mind demanding room at the buoy, 7-10 boat lengths away. We kept squeezing, as was our right.
This move discombobulated (how long have I wanted to use that word!) both of the other crews. Good.
At the mark, each had the room they needed, not more.
Sue instructed Lynn to do a âwide and closeâ rounding. Meaning, ok you are on the outside of the pinwheel so turn as Rebel passes the mark and sweep your bow past their transom to be inside them when coming out of the mark rounding. She has, in the past executed, this move brilliantly.
The âwideâ part meant we didnât have to spin on a dime and suffer the slow down that the spin would bring.
Rebel tried to counter the move by heading up and luffing a little after they rounded. And Lynn didnât turn up aggressively enough and so we got stuck on Rebelâs stern.
Rebel fell off but we decided that it was better to switch than fight, so we tacked away to the east again while Bear and Rebel headed west.
You can watch other boats from a distance and observe if there are trees on the shore disappearing behind your competitor bow or if trees are popping up from behind their bow - when you are going faster than they are you will see more trees come from behind their sail on their bow - we call that âmaking treesâ.
I was watching both boat for trees, and the view was staying pretty much the same. No fewer , no more - so we were tracking with them - they were not gaining on us by having gone west on stbd.
We sailed our own course, fast.
When we met at the windward mark again we were slightly behind both as we were at the mark.
They rounded and we worked to stay on the inside of them - the west side.
We were dead down wind (DDW) as were they and we were staying right with them. But Bear could not get its chute up. Crew issues I am told, they have some novices aboard that were making some mistakes - it happens.
We squeezed up to Rebel, annoying their breeze a little then we gybed away, to further ensure we would be inside at the leeward mark.
Rebel soon after gybed and stayed with us. Bear was languishing spinnaker-less.
Rebel did manage to break the overlap so we rounded on their stern again - this time wide and close worked. But we peeled off anyway.
Rebel has a 77 PHRF and we have 108 - 31 seconds a mile sort of. It didnât matter if Rebel got in front of us on this half leg up to the finish - PHRF would pay the bills for us.
And we did have to duck them when we crossed half way up the course. Didnât matter.
When we came back together again we were in front by a little and they blew their tack badly.
In the last few minutes they went from ahead of us by a little to finishing 10 seconds behind us (it felt like more).
So we had line honours for the race in our fleet.
And for ONCE we had a faster corrected time around the course than Lickety. 51 seconds is 51 seconds. So we corrected out to win across the fleets.
The racing boat for boat was awesome. Sure the boats have different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, but last night we were racing what felt like one design. Good times.
Valkaries towed us in from the QP5 mark, problem solved. Who needs a motor? Or instrumentsâŠ
Lessons Learned
The no.2 gennie was the learning for me.
Yes I donât love the leech or the foot, I donât love the many pin holes I see through the cloth at the needle work. I donât love the lack of forward track on Oh! which is needed to sail the sail with the fairleads in the right position.
But its hard to argue with success.
Sue was sailing the main with a more eased outhaul than would be my standard, but the sail looked really good - ok except for the stupid 2nd batten problem and the unpopping upper batten.
Belly was fast ;-). I should have always known that âŠ
It was one of those magical nights when the sailing and the crew work make you fall in love with our sport, all over again - que the Hallmark Music!
Comments
Name and email required; comments appear once Steve approves them.