Spinnaker Race Finish (Pic)

Here’s a nice picture of the finish of the Spring Series I race (5/23/2010).  The crew is engaged, the sails are trimmed (all the tell-tales on the main are flying) and we’re finishing well (Lady Jane — next to us — owes us time).

Crew:  Judy and Andy on the foredeck, Kim trimming the chute, Shawn “being the preventer,” Steve keeping the tell-tales flying on the main.  Click on the picture for a better view.

And a BIG thanks to John Orlando for the very nice shot!

2 More Light Air Races

Results:  4th and 4th

Crew:  Judy, Steve, Andy, Kim, Shawn

Yesterday we sailed the Spring 1 and 2 series spinnaker races in the bay.  For us it was just another set of light air windward/leeward races.  Both were 2x around!  I’ll do a couple brief recaps, but mainly the story of the day was that somehow we all forgot how to sail in light air!  Basically, we sailed from hole to hole again, but we had trouble getting the boat going most of the time, and had trouble keeping the boat going — and don’t even think about sailing fast…

Race 1:  We didn’t have a great start, and everyone stretched out on us on the first leg.  I think we were last around the weather mark.  We popped the chute and sailed a broad reach to the leeward mark.  In the meantime, the wind shifted and we sailed a long tack upwind with just a couple short tacks to round.  The final leg was basically a beam reach with the chute (at least we can sail that) but we just never made up the distance that we gave away on the two upwind legs.  Came in 4th, just 8 seconds (corrected) behind Silver Wheel.   We did make up some time on Lady Jane while we were reaching.  It was a nice finish with Lady Jane nosing us out at the line by one second (but they owed us time, so at least we were ahead of them).

Race 2:  The course rotated by 90 degrees for the second race (curses, no long reach).  I thought we had a pretty good start, but once again everyone stretched out on us on the first leg and we rounded the first weather mark last again!  We tried adjusting everything (one control at a time) on the upwind leg, but nothing helped.  Andy commented that it seemed like we were dragging seaweed on the keel all day.   It’s true, the boat was sluggish and didn’t point well all day — not normal — plus everyone else seemed to be in a wind lane when we weren’t.  We rounded, popped the chute and tacked downwind, had a sloppy drop at the leeward mark (our timing was off again) then played catchup again on the upwind leg.  The chute deployed well at the second weather mark and we finally found a patch of wind that we were able to stay in for a while.  Meanwhile, all the boats ahead of us hit a huge hole and stopped dead, spinnakers limp, just before the finish.  In the meantime, the wind was filling in from the back and we were sailing fast and straight for the finish close to a beam reach again.  We made up a ton of time on the leaders, so the final times don’t really show how frustrating the first 3 legs of the race were for us.  If the leaders’ hole had lasted another 30 seconds we would have corrected into 3rd place.   At least they got a little taste of our medicine.  In any case, we finished in wind.

Here’s one thing that came out of this:  we WILL back down before every light air race for the rest of season to clear any seaweed on the keel.  If nothing else, we keep relearning the basics.

Brier Patch 2 Recap (JAM)

It was another light air night, but the winds were fairly consistent SW 5-8 kts.  The course was a short W/L race from EYC to the new Mark B (one of the water intake buoys).  The A and B Fleets sailed a longer course to Mark N.  The race committee deserves credit for getting the night right.  The A and C Fleets finished together, as did the B and D Fleets.  That makes for a nice JAM night.

In any case, it was a downwind start.  Most of us came up to the pin end on starboard then flipped to port to cross.  There was a little shouting at the start but most boats were clear (I think it was Lady Jane and Dawn Treader that tussled a little).  We had a decent start and a mainly clear wind lane.

Once we got settled in we went wing-n-wing, deploying the brand spankin’ new whisker pole.  This, of course, is bothersome because Red Herring is really not designed to go dead down, but it’s really the only way that we can stay even marginally competitive.  In any case, the pole did its job.  We added about 0.2 kts to our downwind speed and we sailed fairly straight to the mark.  We were 2nd or 3rd around the leeward mark.

On the windward leg we traded tacks with Vamanos and Keya.  The three of us, plus Serendipity, took the shore route.  I still think that the most wind was in the middle of the course, but we did get lifted on the starboard tack when we came closest to the shore.  Dawn Treader stretched out on the fleet.  Serendipity came next.  Vamanos and Keya squeeked out ahead of us by a few seconds, and we held off Entson by a boat length.  So we finished fifth over the line and sixth on time.

It was a beautiful night for sailing.  The pole performed well.  We sailed well.  There was a typical beautiful Erie sunset and (heart-healthy) red wine and cheese at the dock.

Thanks to our fine light-air crew:  Judy (Queen of the Pole), Kim and Andy.

Two 3rds in Brier Patch 1 & 2

Two spinnaker races (with a bowsprit — see earlier post).  Typical Sunday morning light air Windward/Leeward races.

Race 1 was supposed to be two times around.  We started in 3-5 knot winds.  We didn’t have a terrible start, but Outlaw and News had better starts.  We sailed OK on the first upwind leg, but the wind died when we were about 5 boat lengths from the mark.  We struggled to round, then popped the chute and sailed from hole to hole to the leeward mark.  Then we rounded and sailed from hole to hole again.  The race committee shortened the race at the windward mark.  Everyone else (except Silver Wheel) finished while there was still a little air.  Finally, about halfway up the second windward leg, the thermal wind started to fill in and we were finally sailing by the time we finished.  Then the RC called the race and assigned Silver Wheel a time.

For the second race, there were fewer holes, and the wind speed was fairly steady at 6 kts, but the direction was pretty shifty.  We thought we had a pretty good start, but once again got caught behind News and to leeward of Outlaw.  On the upwind leg everyone tacked more than usual for big boats, just to follow the shifts.  The winds were, of course, fluky at the windward mark.  We had to pinch a little to get around because of a header at the mark.  We got the chute up and sailed into a couple fluky holes (everyone did too) before we could get away from the shore effect.  Then the rest of the leg was basically a reach as the wind shifted to an onshore.  If the race were a little longer we could have made up some time on Outlaw.  In any case, we beat Silver Wheel by a lot and corrected over Coltrek in the A Fleet.

All-in-all, not a bad day of sailing.  And it was nice to sail with a sprit again.

Thanks to Judy, Kim, Steve, Andy and Shawn.

New Sprit Installed (Finally)

It was shortly after midnight on last August 22 that we lost our sprit about 8 hours into the Trans-Erie race.  Well, it’s been a while, but we finally have a new sprit, and it’s finally installed.  Thanks to Tracy Busczak from RCR for helping us get the new sprit.  And very much thanks to Andy for helping with the final installation.  There are still a couple issues, but it’s in and working (we used it for two spinnaker races today).

Brier Patch 1 — First JAM Race Of 2010

W/L in 10kts of wind. 6th place. Crew: Judy, Steve, Kim, Shawn. Full recap later.

First Sail Of The Season

Well, we went out for a shakedown cruise on Monday evening.  The winds were light — 6 knots and less.   Our top speed was 4.2 knots briefly, but mainly we kept moving.  Thanks to Steve, Andy, Shawn and Dave for coming along.  Among other things, we bent on the main, tested a whisker pole (thanks to Ken for the loan of a pole), and marked the new location of Mark “S” in the GPS.

We had a nice sail and stayed out til about 8:30.  The last half hour was pretty chilly, even by our standards — but, hey, we were sailing!

See you Wednesday for the first race.

Pre-Racing Update

We’ll be sailing VERY soon now.  Thanks to Kim and the crew of the Lady Jane we got the wind instruments mounted (and working) last evening.

Here are my plans for the next few days:

• Saturday will be an All-Gannon day (no boat stuff).
• Sunday is Mother’s Day, but I expect to get some boat work in later in the day.  I should be able to get the head fixed.
• Monday Evening:  I’d like to go out on a little shakedown cruise (and, of course, get the mainsail on).  Anyone wanna come?
• Wednesday Evening:  First JAM race of the season!
• Thursday-Friday:  Install new bowsprit — We can talk about this after the race.
• Sunday:  Two Spinnaker Races!

And, somewhere in here there will be T-Shirt distribution 🙂

Splash! A new sailing season begins.

Red Herring splashed right on schedule this morning.   As you see from the picture, the boat is tippy again, and that’s a good thing.  Only a few problems:  found some diesel fuel in the bilge (I think I traced it back to an injector — I hope tightening it will do the trick), the head pump was cracked from the winter (ordered a repair kit from Defender), and I have to replace the bowsprit before the first spinnaker race.  And thanks to Andy for helping out this morning.

BTW — that’s my new red foul weather gear.  Snazzy, huh?

First race Wednesday May 12.  Gentlemen, hoist your sails!