Monday, June 29, 2009

Racing 6 26

Upside: Really pretty day for sailing
Downside: We no sail so good 4-4

Had the first really great weather for Shields racing last Saturday, SE breeze at around 10kts, sunny and pleasant. We had me, Brian Shaw, John Ponsetto and Niki.

Turned out to be an off day for everyone, mostly me! Couldn't get a good feel for the boat all day, didn't start races well and made some bad calls on which way to go. Our roundings, usually excellent, were pretty fugly. Good day for the fleet though, as lots of other boats had days at the top, and everyone was pretty close in speed. I don't really want to relive the whole day, but the lessons learned are:

tack less
be more flexible when conditions don't match the expected
blocking behind the mast is really bad in chop, really really bad!
repack rudder, as the feels a bit dead right now

We did lousy, but the next day had the best distance race of all time, when we sailed with Challenge (Kevin from 150's dads boat) from Waukegan to Chicago. Solid 25+out of the the WNW, the boat was solid as a rock, and we saw tons of carnage with other boats (much of which I am fixing today!) Also, Chicago Yacht Rigging rigged boats took wins in 5 sections, and were in the top 3 in all but one!

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