Couple days of really difficult weather in Chicago. Glad the racing has been worth it, as it's been brutal to be outside with the high temps and humidity.
Wednesday was a rough day at work with the heat, and I was really looking forward to sailing. It seemed like the elusive Shields 150 was going to make an appearance, as they were at the dock cleaning and rigging. It's been a while since they've been out and the fleet is better off with them.
150 with the family big-boat in the background
On 88 we had me, Niki, Jacob, Katie, Mick (remember Mick? He helped 88 launch oh so many years ago) and Micks son Patrick. It was about 4-7kts out of the NNW.
Weierd downwind start saw us on starboard with a chute, behind 150 with no chute. We worked on them a bit downwind and rounded barely ahead, and exteneded on the next upwind. Apparently I was unpopular as a driver, as Patrick (age 13) relieved me at the helm, and continued to extend by quite a bit for a win. We had dinner plans so had to take off.
Today was 88's final series race of 2010 (sad!) but we did well.
First race was probably the most painful race ever, as it was sailed in around 3kts with air show traffic chop. I started badly, at the boat but about 15 seconds late. We got right of people, and looked to be ok until all of a sudden we caught up to the etchells fleet, who made life rather difficult, as we had to duck 3 etchells in a row, and went from looking good to being quite deep. It was an interesting downwind, where patience and control paid dividends. We caught up to the leaders, and rounded 150, 249, 130, 88, 39. Tried our best on the upwind, and were in 3rd. On the downwind we gybed early to attack 150, planted a couple on them and looked to be passing before splitting. They went left, we went right, which was pretty dead on the mark, feeling like it was going to pay with 150, but that we probably lost the right side boat, 249. We sailing into a surprise lane of pressure, while they got caught out in the light stuff left. We rode the pressue, trying to stay ahead of them, and distantly hoping to catch 249 who'd gone all the way right but seemed to have the same breeze as us. We gybed on their layline, a couple lengths ahead for the win. I can't recall a more intense (or slow) race in all our years of Peanuting. Probably the high point was the finish which was lots of hard work and some good luck. The low point was definitely sailing with the Etchells, as we got slam dunked hard by one for no reason, and while sailing upwind we had to go head to wind to avoid a couple of windward boats. Ouch guys! The Etchells fleet is notoriously rules/incident driving, but are apparently blind to colored boats... In all fairness the two KC boats we had to avoid were quite kind and embarrassed afterwards, but that could have turned out badly!
Second race we had Jacob drive, and it was mostly a match race with 130 from the start. They were just to windward of us from the beginning, and it was a battle with a couple lead changes. We thought we had them after they leebowed us with not quite enough lead, but the patience of the father-son team ground us out and we followed until the very end of the last leg. We were outside on starboard, they were inside; even with about 5 lengths of lateral seperation. We were working hard on keeping speed on, but eventually had to gybe for the finish, and had a loose plan to duck them and try and roll. Instead the gybed with us, and we were able to shoot ahead for the win. Again we had problems with a non-shields, in this case it was a TTen who sailed over and sat on us. Argh.
One of the many many boats not racing us that nevertheless liked being as close to us as possible.
Boat setup was in our light air range. The forecast for more breeze, and we originally had 5 ppl scheduled, so I'd set the boat up for lots of power. This worked ok, as we had less breeze, but only 4 crew, totalling around 610. We started with lowers around 200, but for the second race eased to slack. Headstay started around 49, but eased further again. The first race felt good, we were reasonably quick but tended towards a low and fast mode. Second race I didn't drive, but since the breeze came up to around 10, I felt like we were stuck in a high mode and couldn't accelerate quite as well. When I'd try and straighten the headstay with backstay, it would over flatten the main a bit.
We've got a lock on the season, which is good since we can't sail the last 2 series races due to Nationals. We currently have 12pts, where second (tie with 249 and 196) have 30. Really getting excited for Nationals, as we feel like we've got a new light air set of gears which was lacking last year. Wish we had more racing in Chicago, as this years felt abbreviated from weather. We had a nice little dinner at CYC after racing to close it all out. Already looking forward to 2011!
