Beercanning with Shields Fleet 88

Beercans this year have mostly been a solo cruise around the course for us, as our fleet has been really disappointing in terms of getting out to sail and practice. Not saying it hasn't been fun, but it's a bit rough to see all the other boats out and not one other Shields. We've worked on tuning, and boathandling, and goofing around, and even considered starting with the PHRF boats (it would our Shields, rating 174,vs a farr 40 (-12) and a Sydney 38 (27)

The last 2 weeks have been great fun though, and thats because we've split our crew, and borrowed boats to do some Shields match racing. Mark loaned us 63, and last week Jacob and Andy took it out to race against Niki and I. A downwind start made for and interesting luff by Jacob, that we got over just in time to lead around the course. The consensus is that 88 was much faster upwind, and 63 was a bit higher. This gives us some data to retune 63 next time it's light.

Last night we mixed it up with me, Niki and Brian on 63, and Jacob, Katie and Andy on 88. Quite windy, around 10 gusting to 20 something, so we did jib and main only. Another downwind start, which I felt we won by being at the dw end of the line, but Jacob on 88 showed much better downwind speed through being able to keep the jib winged out, a skill I don't quite have down yet. After 10 years of racing Shields, it's great to find new tricks to work on! They rounded ahead by about 4 lengths, but split tacks with us, and we were able to get clear air and be inside on a shift. 63 seemed faster upwind in this condition, and we got a nice little lead, only to have to duck a t10 right into the opposite shift, in which they crossed us and layed the mark. They held on to win the race by a bunch. It was really good racing, and very good practice as we picked up a couple bits of info.

-as tuned, 63 is slower upwind in the light, and faster and considerably higher in the heavy. We're going to change tune and switch up drivers and see if we can't get both boats going faster next time.

-talking to Jacob the trick to winging is to push higher until the jib backs, whereas I naturally go lower to fill being used to the chute. Kind of a "duh" moment after we talked about it, but in both races so far I've driven a lot worse downwind than J. I really want to try this some more, as you never know what can happen so that you'll have to sail kiteless.

-One difference everyone has commented on is the jib sheets. 88 has 2:1 sheeting, cleated on the console. 63 has the traditional winches on the side deck. We all agree that we're used to 2:1, and prefer it, but my thinking is that (assuming enough time with both) the winch setup is faster to tack in heavy, and probably advantaged in over 15kts, and the 2:1 is better in the ligheter pressure, as you can can ease and trim the sheet due to the purchase and position. I definitely have no plans to swtich back to winches.

Next week I think I'm sailing in a neat interfleet event in Chicago Yacht Clubs Sonars, but after that I'm really looking forward to more of the "inhouse" racing for 88. We now have 3 potential drivers with Brian around, and 4 loaner boats, so this could get to be pretty good racing!