Saturday, August 28, 2010

Verve Day 1

Day 1 of the Verve Inshore was the rare and perfect combination of steady strong breeze and pleasant sailing. The 54 one designs out sailing today experienced 8-15kts of breeze out of the southwest, with just a small chop. It was sunny and bright all day.

The race committee announced the intention to start 4 races, and they did a superb job of keeping the wait times low and the racing fast.

It was a boat speed day, as keeping speed up and powering through the short chop meant a win. Over the course of the day the breeze slowly turned left, which put a premium on being able to get to the favored left side.

The day ended with the fleet arriving en masse into Belmont harbor, and it was quite a sight as the local and visiting boats converged on the docks, as the race was on to make it to the party!

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On Shields 88 we pulled 3 bullets in a row, which was due mostly to excellent crew work and spending a lot of time on tune. Race 4 we were OCS, but managed to claw back to a 2nd. The first 2 races we were at 800/200 upper/lower tension, but we added a turn on the lowers for 3 and 4. Our headstay was at 49.5, which we gradually shortened to about 48.75 Speed and height were great. We have a large upwind speed advantage, and a small edge downwind. I felt like we got really good starts (except that one...) and it was great practice for Nationals, as we won the boat in 3/4 starts.

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