Interclub Race #1

Results:  6th in Fleet.  42nd overall.

Long, hot course with light and fluky winds and residual chop.

I’ll do an overall recap when we get back.

Brier Patch #2 Make-up Race

Results:  9th

Sorry — no time for long recap (getting ready for Interclub).   Short version:  A triangle course in light and dying air.  We did OK on the first legs and then were on the wrong side of the course on the final leg and gave a lot away.  Still — it was beautiful night for sailing.

Crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy, Ken and Steve.

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Urbaniak #1 Race Results and Recap

Results:  4th Place

Recap:  It was beautiful day for a Father’s Day race.  Blue skies, winds WNW at 10 knots and steady.   7 boats came out in our fleet.  The course was W-R14 two times around.

The line was reasonably perpendicular.  I think the boat end may have been slightly favored, but we started nearer the pin end.  I thought there was going to be some clear air, but by the time we got there we were in a little bit of troubled air.  So, we could have had a better start.  Most tacked to port soon after crossing the line.  We traveled longer on starboard as the air was clear.  After Venture tacked away, Steve glanced at the GPS and discovered that we were on port layline!  It’s a good thing he saw that, otherwise we would have WAY overstood.  We tacked right away and headed for the mark.  Sure enough, we were close to the mark when we arrived.  That meant that we didn’t have much time on starboard to setup for the spinnaker set.

After rounding we took a little time to get the chute up (Kim was new to the foredeck) and under control, even though the air was relatively light.   The downwind leg went OK.  The gybes were a little sloppy but we did OK.  Of course, News and Outlaw were way ahead of us, and Venture was a couple minutes ahead.  We came together at the leeward mark with Loggerhead and Lady Jane.  We were on starboard, so we were positioned well.  After rounding we did a windward takedown and sailed away.  We were pointing a little higher than the other two, so they had so sail our bad air for a while.

We had a good upwind leg.  We were sailing faster and higher than Lady Jane and Silver Wheel, and we were staying fairly even with Loggerhead (not bad, since they’re a J-boat).  This time, of course, we didn’t go all the way out to the port layline, so we had a little more time to setup for the spinnaker set.

After rounding we had a small glitch in some tangled lines, but the chute went up reasonably well.  Once again we tacked downwind.   Unfortunately the winds started going light on the downwind leg, so News, Outlaw and Venture increased their leads.   We held our lead, and maybe even increased a little, on Lady Jane and Silver Wheel.  Loggerhead didn’t fly their chute on the second time around, so they fell behind.  One of the gybes (right by the committee boat, of course) didn’t go well — chute wrapped on the forestay — but it didn’t hurt us too badly.

We rounded R-14 alone and in clear air and sailed for the line.  We finished ahead of Loggerhead, Lady Jane and Silver Wheel.  All-in-all a very nice sail.

Thanks to our light air crew:  Steve, Andy, Kim

See you Wednesday.

Hilbrich 2 & 3

Well, we were planning on racing these two races, however, I was unexpectedly called off on a secret mission, and we couldn’t sail.  The day was a beautiful day, however, and many boats sailed in light air.

I’ll be in Boston on Wednesday, so we won’t be sailing again until next Sunday.  See you then.

Hilbrich Electric Race 1 Results and Recap

Results:  11th

Recap: Ask me how much I like long windward-leeward JAM races in light to dying air.  The wind at the start was E @ 9kts, predicted to die by 8PM.  The course was R-14 and back to M for the finish (3.86 nm).   11 boats in our fleet on the line.  We had a bad start in bad air near the back of the fleet.  The only good thing about that is that you get to tack away to port and clear your air right away, so we did.  We sailed that tack in toward shore and then tacked over in clear air for the long starboard tack.  That actually helped — we were lifted on that tack.  When we rejoined the fleet we had moved into 4th place or so.  We always gauge by where we end up in relation to Serendipity.  When we crossed tacks with Serendipity about 2/3 of the way up the course we felt pretty good about the time we had made up.

Then things went wrong.   The wind dropped precipitously and our boat speed went from 3’s and 4’s to 1’s and 2’s.   A couple crew members think we picked up some seaweed (there were some patches of seaweed left from the afternoon, and our manual speedo stopped reading numbers and went to — while the GPS showed 1.8 knots over ground).  Still we seemed much slower than others, and the others caught up and passed us.  To be honest, I don’t know if it was seaweed, or just that their 155’s were a bigger help in 2-3 knots of air.  We tacked over to port with about a tenth of a mile to go to the mark, and the wind came back up (to 5’s and 6’s) and backed a little which actually lifted us to the port layline sailing back in the 3’s and 4’s.  By then were back to the bottom third in rank.  We came together at the mark on port with Rakish and Serendipity on starboard.  Rakish was ahead and we were able to tack onto starboard about a boat-length and a half in front of Serendipity.  They probably weren’t happy about that, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t foul them (even under the new rule 18.3 “Tacking When Approaching A Mark”).

After rounding the wind went light again.   All the other boats went wing-n-wing and sailed away from us.  We did what we could, sailing the angles in 2-3 knots of wind.  We struggled for about 20 minutes and then the breeze started freshening.   We started sailing faster on port gybe away from the mark.   A minute or so after we gybed to starboard we found ourselves on a beam reach with the wind from the north.  The boats ahead of also dropped their wing-n-wing and were reaching.  The wind built back to about 8, but by then it was too late for us.  Even boats that we normally beat easily like Endurance were ahead of us reaching well.  We finished last in the fleet.  DFL.

On the way back to the marina the air was very chilly, but the sunset was beautiful.

Thanks to our crew:  Judy, Andy, Steve and Ken.

We’ll be short-handed on Sunday for two JAM races.  See you then.

Cruising With The Family

I finally remembered that sailing isnt all racing.   Rita has been here all week with Wyatt and Owen, then Paul came this weekend, and we all went cruising on a beautiful Saturday in the bay!

That’s Rita with Owen, Sue with Wyatt, Paul driving.

Owen stopped eating long enough to notice he was on a boat and we were sailing!

Woo Hoo! Wyatt’s driving us upwind.

Spring Series #3 Results and Recap

Results:  3rd place in race, 3rd place for series.

Recap: It was a very light air night — 4-6 knots, but steady.  We got out to the course early so we took the opportunity to compare jib lead and main traveler settings.  By the time the race started we were pretty happy with the jib settings — leads forward to put some depth in the jib.  Six B Fleet boats showed up.   We had a good start at the line in clear air about a third of the way from the pin end.  We sailed the upwind leg well, and we were close enough to Outlaw and News to be in contention.

We rounded the weather mark in third place, ahead of Venture, Loggerhead and Blue Moon (now that’s something you don’t see every day).   We were ready for the rounding, but the spinnaker went up with a twist in it, and in such light air it took some time for the twist to work its way out.  During that time News and Outlaw stretched out, and Venture gained on us.  But then we got it under control, gybed to the middle of the course and played the puffs as we went.  We gybed near the port layline, and when we got back to the rhumb line we were still ahead of Venture.

We gybed at the mark, did a windward takedown and sailed for the finish.  The breeze had started to freshen near the end of the downwind leg, so the beat upwind was reasonably fast for the conditions.  We finished third over the line and had the very satisfying experience of watching Dave finish behind us in Venture (we don’t usually get a view of his bow at the finish).  We finished two minutes behind News and two minutes ahead of Venture (corrected) for third place in the race.  That, and our two fourth place finishes on Sunday, gave us third and a yellow flag for the series.  Very nice!

Light Air Crew: Judy, Andy, Steve, Kim

Update: The official results for the Brier Patch spinnaker series are out, and we took third in the series.  We like that because there’s usually hardware for the Brier Patch series.

No Race on Sunday.  I’ll see what I can about cleaning the deck over the weekend.  See you next Wednesday!