Monday, August 17, 2009

What happened to the last month?

88 at the Verve, thanks Richard Winters!


We have in fact been racing and sailing for the last month, it's just been pretty hectic with work/travel/actual sailing to spent much time writing about sailing! Here's a run down of the last couple Shields 88 events:

July 29th Beercan: This was a good one as it was only Niki myself and Brian. Shields were originally sailed with 3, and I feel it's more fun for everyone as all the crew roles are busier. We had about 8kts out of the SE, and 90 and 150 to sail against. We had a good start at the boat, with 150 a couple lengths down and 90 left of them. We covered 150 going right, and stacked up under the stbd layline, with them to windward and behind and 90 sneaking inside. 90 had only 2 sailors and 1 guest, so they had even more to do, but they did it will, at least until the leeward mark when we were able to pass them in the douse. We held on for the win, but could have been thrown out on a violation of beer rules (you must drink 1 per leg on beercans) but thankfully the organizing commitees and judges (all Todd H) shot that down pretty quick.

Niki and I went to Michigan for the Harbor Springs UGotta Regatta (I think thats the name, it's not quite clear) and had an absolute blast! We were sailing on Inferno, a local Farr 40. It is both cool, and a little worriseome, when a big boat asks me to be tactician. Cool, as it's definitely my favorite spot on the boat, worriesome because that means theres no one better! The long and short is we had fun, but our patchwork crew did not exactly rock the big breeze we had for 2 days. The first day was nice, as it was around 10kts, and we were always close, and were sailing about the same level as Heartbreaker, which is a pretty good local 40. Also... interesting... was Niki finally got to see some sailing manouvers that until now had been mostly theory for her, such as broaches (one for about 3 minutes) and shrimping (my first as well) LTYC is a great club, and I can't wait to get back up there as the regatta, the sailing and the people are all excellent. And I made the local paper!
Beercan August 5th

My dad got me started on sailing a looong time ago, and was excited when I got active in racing about 10 years back. Nevertheless, no matter how hard I tried I could never get him interested in racing until we got our own boat, when he came out, drove an entire beercan and had a ton of fun. Nevermind that we were the only Shields sailing, he won a race and was happy, at least until he found out he left before he could collect his prize (rum). So it is only natural that we do it again, this time with other boats.

My dad and his friend Marco (who used to sail together in the 70's and 80's, and also who both worked on the woodwork on 88) came out prepared with beers and enough snacks to feed us for a Mac race. I drove the start, Marco drove upwind, and my dad drove down. We had some close racing with 130 and 67, but ended up getting across the line first. Go old guys!

After that we treated them to CYC's excellent beercan dinner, a couple beers, and yes my dad got to take home the rum. Nights like that really make boat ownership worthwhile.

Verve Aug 8 and 9th: We had quite the mixed up crew for the Verve, on day 1 it was me, Niki, Brian Shaw, Bob Willis (Jacobs friend and 3rd at Olympic windsurf trials!) and John Schwartz (our friend from 130) Day one we sailed pretty well, but let 130 get ahead on the last run so we finished 2, 1. Day 2 was match race between us and 63, who did well enough to snatch the lead from us on the first run while we put holes in our chute, but we took it right back at the round to finish that days only race in 1st, for the Shields class win. It was pretty windy, but it was a good chance to get more comfortable in breeze. Unfortunately a lot of our fleet couldn't be there or broke stuff so turnout was low. Still fun times.

Aug 12 beercan: It was me, Brian Shaw and Mike, and my friend Jon who just got back from Afghanistan. Pretty good time for having no other boats out, although we ran out of beer, but we made it back in before a mutiny (not the T10) could occur. I think Jon would have protected me though, as he doesnt drink and would probably enjoy showing off his army talents.

Practice August 17th; Awesome! It was us and 130 doing upwind speed tuning, with Bill Hardesty of Chicago Match Race Center taking photos and coaching from a chase boat. The weather was fluky, light and rainy, but we still got a lot out of this session. Most notably:

1) our sails were generall setting up fuller than 130, which gave us an edge powering up out of tacks, and in waves, but 130 was faster once at speed.
-this looks to be mostly due to backstay tension, and prebend. 88 is at the extreme end of the Shields mast step rule, meaning we're at max rake/minimum prebend. The rake is fast in heavy air, and the lack of prebend is good in chop, and once its windy enough so the boat is powered we've got enough backstay on to open up the leech of the main.
-The solution for us is something we tried a while back, but didn't like in chop, and that is to add prebend via chocks behind the mast. I feel like I have a good idea how this will work out for us, and look forward to a flat, light day to try it
2) at the tuning guide numbers, our mast sets up funny. In light air I'm usually 2 turns off of the tuning guide tension on lowers, which is so slack as to not register on the tuning guide. I've gone as much as 500 lbs (plus 1 turn off base) in heavy air. I make these calls based on how the mast sights when going upwind, and I think it works well. At the tuning guide setting for lowers, 300, we have a bow to windward between panels 1 and 2, which aint good. Seeing photos (and getting someone like Bill to consider it) confirms that we're on the right track with our mast tuning.
3) active bodies in tacks and gybes are really helpful. on 88 we use our weight to initiate and power through tacks and gybes, and when Bill had us do a 360 and a couple tacks you could really see the difference. Our fuller sails helped, but I think this was the biggest difference between us and them.
4)He who keeps the boat moving in light air wins! We should all know this one by now, but I always find a reminder helpful.

I think we all learned a lot from our first multiboat practice session, and look forward to next week when we'll be doing tacking and gybing drills, and some _very_ short course racing. It was really nice of Bill to come out and share his skills. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow for match racing practice at CMRC. It's free right now, and if you're racing in Chicago you really need to try it. The eye-opening I got the first time I did it got me thinking that this is going to be my own next big kick as a sailor, as it's a lot different than fleet racing. Anything less than perfection in boathandling will cost you, and you experience more boat vs boat action in one practice race than you might in a whole season! I'll try and get some photos and good notes for the blog tomorrow.

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