Weds Night Series 2 Race 1

Craig set your clock ahead.

We waited at the dock for Craig until 5:50, it seemed like forever. Lucky for us the RC was late setting-up and postponed for 10 minutes. No harm done.

Another crocked race course. The wind was blowing from the SW at 10kts; tide running out hard. You had to be at the weather end. We tried a Mark May start (late and at the boat.) It might have worked, but we were fouled by Slice, lost the jib sheet with less than a minute go. I lost focus, and things went down hill from there. We started about 20 seconds late.

Tack to port as soon as possible. Tack back into a clear lane and ride some nice starboard tack lifts almost to the port layline. We round in 5th behind the Cow. Somehow their set is worse than ours, hard to believe since we didn't have the spin halyard attached, we almost roll them.

We had a decent run. Round behind but inside of Cow. We hold for a little while and then tack to the left. I don't remember much of this leg. It was puffy and squirrelly, so i just focused on boatspeed. Bob had us tack on three or four shifts. When I did manage to look around we were moving forward. We gained on the leaders for the rest of the race, but ran out of course. We finished 4th. It felt worse than that.

Crew

Jack B
Ben B (Ted went with Wolf who only had three.)
Chris
Laura
Bob
Craig
Eric
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 5

No Race.

Thunderstorms blew in from the SW at around 6:30. Winds 40-50 in gusts lots of rain. RC abandoned after 10 mins.

Do damage. We needed this race to break the tie. End the series in 5th. Bummer.

crew

ted
Jack B
chris
ben b
craig
bob
eric
charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 4

Wind was West Northwest at 12kts the current was once again going with the breeze making easy to be late for the line. We had a good start at the weather end. The breeze was in a right phase but current relief was off to the left. We rolled Stryker and Poppy. They tacked out to the right and died. The J/30 (Meanie) was fast to leeward and Jim was working up under our bow. We held starboard as long as we could, eventually Jim pinched us off.

We rounded the weather mark second, the Cow and Kung Fuie close behind. We had a little trouble getting sails up and down tonight, but that was more of a distraction than anything else. By the Second upwind leg it was a two boat race, us and Jim, or so I thought. Leg 4 the wind went light. The mastheads are coming. Mad Cow passes us on the run and pulls away. We have a good mark rounding, but linger too far on the right side of the course. That and I can't seem to find the boat speed. I think we were over trimmed and stalled.

Almost to the finish, we can see Meanie and the Santana charging from the left corner. We try to head that way but have to tack for the barge. In hindsight, we should have ducked it. This is where we fold like a cheap suit. Stuck on the outside of a lift in bad current. Mayhem and Meanie pass us on the left.

We end the night in 5th. That hurts. The good news is we're only 2 points out of first in the series. The final race is this Weds. Two boat ahead of us are out. We have a real chance next week.

Crew:

Jack Buzzi
Chris
Neil
Laura
Jon Eberly (from SF)
Eric O
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 3

We started the night with a delay. There wasn't any wind and the RC was concerned about thunderstorms. Finally a 5kt SE breeze filled. The course was from the lighthouse to T and back. The tide was rushing in.

Our pre-race plan was to start at the weather end and protect the right, tack away into shallow water and current relief. We lingered up current in a barging position assuming the fleet would be late and we could slip in, ala Mark May. At the last minute Bob suggested a dip start just to leeward of the committee boat. It was a great call. There was more wind at the pin with a left shift.

For Sail was the first boat to tack, we were second. We were higher and faster. I don't know why, but I'll take it. When we got to the Starboard layline we decided to go past Slice, a mistake, we were all over stood. This let Cow back into the race. After the rounding we gybed our way down the right side of the course. The wind was a little lighter but we were in favorable current.

Cow gybe out early, made some gains and crossed us just before the finish. We kept our time and ended up third.

Rig tension: I added 2.5 turns to the head-stay. I still haven't measured it. Otherwise the rig is still at base 36/33.

Crew

Jack Buzzi
Chris
Neil
Laura
Bob
Eric O
Craig
Charlotte
me

Weds Night Series 1 Race 2

What an odd night. When I arrived at the boat there was a light sea breeze, 5kts from the East. While Bengt and I were reeving the new mainsheet tackle a 12kt Westerly blew in.

The course was as crooked as I've seen in a long while. You could lay the pin at the boat. Plus the boat was physically closer to the mark. Needless to say there was a pile up. I did not have enough patients and ended up in the middle of the fray. We were OCS, I think, it's hard to say since the committee didn't call anyone back. After re-starting we one tacked to the lighthouse, jibe-set and marched on downwind. There were a few boat behind us but not many.

The second time up, Bob made a call to tack as soon as we rounded the leeward mark. It was a good call. We managed to get out of the current and stay in steady breeze. We gave a little back once we hit the port tack layline. A big righty came in and scooted the fleet by.

We finished 8th or 9th. There's always next week.

Crew:

Jack
Ben B
Laura
Bob
Craig
Charlotte
me

Rig same as last week.

Weds Night Series 1 Race 1

Finally time to race. It's been a long winter of sanding an body putty. I'll explain the off season exploits in another post.


We were slightly better prepared than we were for the first race last year. There was a nice Westerly (15kts) at 5pm. Thunderstorms lurked about, skirting the race course as they traveled to the North. By the start of the race, the breeze freshened to 18-20 kts. We planned to sail with the 150% the boat felt pretty good once I put on enough backstay. I have to remember to tighten the forestay. It seems too loose.

The wind shifted 60 degrees right during the A1 sequence; RC postponed. We took this opportunity to switch to the 100%. One problem, it wasn't on the boat. Ends up I left it in my garage. Oh, well, back to the 150% the sail is pretty flat. We'll twist it off and suffer through the first leg.

At the start it was clear the 150% was the right sail. We were the weather most boat, rolled Meanie and Stryker. We followed a header to the left while most of the fleet tacked right. We tacked on top of Slice as they peeled off. We were in pretty good shape when we got to the top mark. It looked like we'd lay it and be first around. The breeze lighten and went left. so much for laying the mark. Kelly and his new mainsail rounded just ahead of us.

We followed Kelly downwind; had to clear our air after the leeward mark. Kelly made the finish without tacking. He beat us over the line by 5-6 seconds. We managed to old off the boats behind us for 2nd place. Not bad for the first night.

Crew:

Teddy
Jack Buzzi
Neil
Bob
Eric
Craig
Charlotte
me

rig:

36-33

Fall Series