Venture Fasteners Spring Spinnaker Series #1

Results:  5th Place

Crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy, Mark, Rosemary

It was a beautiful night for sailing.  Winds WSW 12-14 kts and diminishing somewhat by the end.  Course:  1.5nm W/L 2x around.  For those of you who follow Red Herring, our placing doesn’t always indicate how well we sailed.  There are only two spinnaker classes in our fleet.  Most of the boats we sail against have PHRF ratings in the 110’s and 120’s — our rating is 180.  So when those boats are racing, it’s very difficult for us to place above 4th or 5th.

In this race we were about 10 seconds late for the start, but we had two very competitive upwind legs.  On the first downwind leg we flew the fractional chute because the winds were still a little puffy.  On the second downwind leg the winds were diminishing so we flew the tall chute.  Both sets were a little slow, but not terrible (we’re still a little rusty) and we did a windward takedown on one of the legs just for practice.

All-in-all, we sailed very well, and we beat Nyanza (a Hinckley 42 — rating 114), Lady Jane and Tigress (J-70 — rating 111).  Hardware Chimp beat us by about a minute.  If we had been a little smoother on the spinnaker sets we could have taken them.

Still — a nice night and a beautiful sunset on the way back to the slip.

Brier Patch JAM #3 and Day Lighthouse Race

Brier Patch JAM #3 (was actually the 2nd JAM race because the first week was postponed). 6th Place.
Crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy, Rosemary, Mark

It blew 20-25 all day, but by race time it was down 6 kts and dying.  C & D Fleets did a shorter triangle than the long W/L race the A & B did.  We sailed as well as we could, but the dying air hurt us.  We were only about 30 seconds behind 4th and 5th place and were pointing better with about 10 minutes to go, but in dying air “the poor get poorer,” so we ended up finishing two minutes out of 5th place, and 5th was two minutes behind 4th, just in last few minutes of the race.

 

Day Lighthouse Race (Also Brier Patch Spinnaker Series #3) 6th Place.

Crew:  Mark, Andy, Kim

 

The forecasts promised 8-15 from the North, but it turned out to be 4-6 from the NE then back to W.  So, we ended up with an upwind–upwind–upwind–downwind– upwind–downwind race.  All those upwinds on the lake that was still somewhat lumpy from the 20 kts from the day before made the upwind legs tough.  We finished the 14.4 nm in 4 hours and 45 minutes, so we averaged about 3kts.  The good news is that we did NOT run aground at Gull Point (as we did last year).  And, did I mention that it was cold:  38 degrees at the start, and only 45-50 degrees by the end.  But it was sunny.

We ended the series 6th out of 9, so it wasn’t a terrible run.

Brier Patch Spin Series 1 & 2 Results

A good day of racing.  Light, and sometimes frustrating air, but we sailed well.  4th place in race 1 – but we beat four boats, including the J-70!  Very nice.

5th in Race 2.  Weird reach-reach-reach-reach race on a course full of holes and shifts.  We were very close to all the fast boats on corrected time..

Two 8th places in the overall.

Thanks for a nice day!  Crew:  Andy, Rosemary, Mark, Kim.

2013 Racing Schedule Posted

It has taken me a while longer this year, but I’m catching up with the Schedule and Results page. Look along the top and you’ll see the 2013 Schedule and Results tab. I’ve only put a few of the races in so far — it’s a very manual process. So, I’ll get more races in later.

First Race of 2013

 

 

A beautiful night.  It blew 25-30 al day, but at race time we had warm temps and a nice 12 knots of breeze.  We sailed well, and took 3rd place.

A good way to start the season!  Crew:  Kim, Judy, Andy, Mark. 

 

It helps if…

… you have a mast and a boom and some halyards…

Splash!

Red Herring splashed on Thursday in her new slip at the Erie Yacht Club.  We plan to step the mast on Sunday.  You can see the boat smiling!