Brier Patch Spinnaker Results and Recap

Results:  Race 1 = 5th, Race 2 = 3rd.

There was a big blue HIGH sitting right on top of us on the weather map, so the best we could hope for was an onshore.

The first race started a little after 10AM in the dying remnants of the offshore.  The results say that the wind speed was 4 knots.  I don’t know when that was!  Suffice it to say that it was true light air race during which everybody got their own race.  The distance was under two miles (the RC shortened the race to only one time around), and we finished with an elapsed time 1 hour and 41 minutes!  For most people it was a case of “Where were you when the wind died?”  The wind died for us as soon as we rounded the weather mark and got the chute up.  We literally sat there at the mark the for 10-15 minutes.  Then our private wind came up and we were instantly sailing at 4 knots on a close reach for about a 1/3 of a mile, and then the wind died just as quickly again.  We worked our way forward about at about a half-knot for a while until we sailed into the mother of all holes.  We sat in the hole for fully 15 minutes while we watched everyone sail away from us — they were slightly ahead of the hole when it appeared.  Finally, about 12:30PM the onshore kicked up (all 6 knots of it), and we sailed fast to the finish, but by then we were DFL.

The second race was a two-times-around race in about 6 knots of breeze.  We sailed well enough to beat a few boats.  We got a good start and did well on the upwind legs, and we got the chute up well enough and gybed it well enough on the downwind legs.  It was nice to beat the J-22 boat-to-boat.

Then we adjourned to the slip about 2PM for sandwiches on the boat.  Overall, however, it was a beautiful sunny day on the Bay.

Thanks to our long-suffering crew:  Judy, Kim, Mark, Andy.

(BTW — even though it was a beautiful day, the results don’t do justice to the real ugliness and frustration of light air racing in a boat that doesn’t go downwind really well.)

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.

First Sailboat Race of the Season

We’re still waiting to see the final results, but it sure looks like Red Herring is off to a good start of the 2009 season!  Last night was race 1 of the Brier Patch JAM series.  The weather was part of the story.  There were some storms threatening from the west and the winds in front of that system was really disturbed.   We put our foul weather gear on the before the race, but the rains didn’t come til after the race.   The wind was mainly from the south through the race, but it was shifty and we saw wide swings of  speed from 5 kts to 20 kts, usually within a minute or two of each other.

With the wind from the south, we had a reaching start.  We started in the front row upwind of  Keya and Dawn Treader, and Rakish was behind us.  The first leg was just a drag race to Mark N.  Everybody held their own.

We rounded behind Dawn Treader.  Dawn Treader went left and so did we.  Behind us, Keya rounded and flipped to the right for the beat upwind.  After a few boat lengths we thought we would have clearer air on the right, so we flipped.   Most of the others in our fleet continued left.  Keya found a lane, pointed higher and stretched out on us.  But about halfway to Mark S we were lifted and closed some of the distance with Keya.  When we looked left it was clear that Keya and us were on the proper side of the course.  The boats that went left fell pretty far behind.

We rounded S about a minute and a half behind Keya then we had a close reach to the finish — but even then the winds were shifty and puffy.  We sailed that leg well and closed a little of the distance to Keya.  Keya got line honors (and certainly a first place, since we owe them time).  We were second over the line, and the rest of the fleet was far enough behind that I’m pretty sure we saved our time on them and took a 2nd.  I’ll post the results when I get them in the mail.

Thanks to a very good crew for a lot of attentive and hard trimming:  Andy Maille (starboard Jib trimmer), Judy Tucci (recovering from foot surgery, but still in position in the bow!), Ben Shaevitz (port jib trimmer), and main trimmer Steve Yount (lot of trimming).

Before the race I tightened and tuned the rig, and I think that also helped, especially when the wind piped up.  Overall, we made a couple good decisions, didn’t make too many dumb decisions, and lucked out on the favored side of the upwind beat.

Some data:  Max speed 7.5 knots on a reach, Max wind 23.5 kts on our way BACK to the slip.

Thanks to all!  I’ll post the actual results when they arrive.

Next races:  Sunday — two spinnaker fleet races in the bay.  See you then.

Brig Niagara at EYC

This morning the Brig Niagara was tied up at the Yacht Club.  How cool is it to walk the dog and see a 19th century sailing vessel moored three doors down from your front door?  Life is good.

Splash — Let The Season Begin

We splashed Red Herring this morning at about 8AM.  She’s floating and tied up safely (I hope) in her slip at Bay Harbor East Basin.  More later.  But thanks to Judy Tucci, Andy Maille and Mark Kubeja for helping with the last leg of the journey.   The first race is a week from this Wednesday.  Hopefully, we’ll get a little time for a shakedown cruise and some tuning before that.

Trim Pix

Here’s a link to several pictures of Red Herring under sail during a few different races:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajmiceli

Let’s take a look at these and critique our sail trim.  If you have a Yahoo! or a Flickr account you can comment on the pix at Flickr.  We need to squeeze another tenth of a knot or two out of our performance.   And, by the way, thanks to Dave Fresch for many of these pix.

7 Days to Splash

Red Herring is almost ready to go back in the water.  Thanks to Steve Yount for helping with the sanding and taping on Saturday.  Then thanks to Judy Tucci for the painting on Sunday.   Red Herring’s bottom has a nice shiny coat of red VC 17m.  Just a few more things to do before splash.

I have an appointment at the marina to a 8AM lift-in on Monday May 4.  We’ll be sailing again soon.

BTW — Steve Stayed in Erie overnight and slept on the boat.  Shhh — don’t tell him it wasn’t in the water.  🙂

Washed and Waxed For The Season

It was a sunny day in Erie and the temperature finally broke 60 degrees, so it was a good day to wash and wax the Red Herring.   The work went pretty easily and reasonably fast with a lot of help from Andy Maille.  Here’s a picture of Andy making the boat much shinier!

In case you’re wondering:  16 days til Splash — and it looks like we’ll make it.  If it rains tomorrow I can still do some interior work and install the batteries.

Erie Yacht Club Racing Fleet 2009 Schedule Posted

I’ve posted the 2009 Racing Schedule.  You can look for it one of the “page” tabs along the top of the blog.  I’ll keep it updated with results through the season.

Oh, and the cover is off the boat.  It was chilly, but there was little to no wind, so I called Judy and she was on her way to help take the cover off.  When I got there it was already off!  I guess the Custom Cover guys got there yesterday (or it was stolen :).  So, on to the To Do list.

2009 Racing Rules of Sailing

If you look over to the right you’ll see that I’ve added a new link to a blog about the changes to the Racing Rules of Sailing.  The blog appears to be very active so you might check it regularly.