Missed Days, Challenging sailing, gear breakage

Shields 88 hit the course after 4 missed races today.  It was a very challenging day, but we felt better at the end of it and have improved as a team.

The conditions were tricky, as it was anywhere from 12-25kts of breeze out of an usual direction at WNW.   We were tuned to our tight setting at "1" which translates to 48.25" on the North tuning guide swing forestay lenght. The first race was in 12-18kts, the second and third had fairly wild puffs with shifts up into the 20's.

The second race was... interesting.  We led the first leg after a bad start, had a bad douse on the downwind and then elected not to go chute up on the second downwind as we had about 10 boat lengths of lead. This was due to not getting chute down cleanly after the first run, and having lost a spin sheet under the boat.  We had hoped to hold off Shields 63 who was in second, but they went chute up (only boat, good for them) and managed to claw away at our lead, passing us in the last third of the run. We considered luffing them out to clear our air but didn't, which was a mistake.  We regrouped for race 3, ran a new spin sheet and won with a nice margin.

The second race was a lesson in compounding errors. A bad douse led to not having a chute, which led to a bad run, which led to a loss. Additionally, sailing without a chute caused some significant gear breakage which has been unusual for us. Sailing dead downwind with a jib is slower than with a chute, so the loads are higher. Additionally, we sailed fairly sloppy and forgot to the basics that come with a downwind leg ( ease upwind controls). If we had eased the jib halyard, backstay, cunningham, outhaul for the run,we  probably would have won as we only lost by about 2 lengths, but we also would have prevented some breakage that made us sail more conservatively and could have been worse.  We sailed the run with the cunningham still on, which took all the load off the booms tack pin. That let the boom rotate on the run, which twisted apart the gooseneck's stainless strap fitting.
As you can see, the toggle has twisted apart and begun to crack. This was pretty spooky to find right before the 3rd race, but seemed OK to sail on so long as we kept the torque off the toggle. We resolved to use no cunningham, limit manouvers and put up the chute on the run.  This saved the part until we could get back to the mooring. Every time we go jib only on the run I always regret it, and this time it cost us in metal! We will fix this break up, perhaps with  a solid piece or better yet will just sail clean and take care of the boat.

We tried 2:1 on the gross tune mainsheet, and believe we have found the upper limit. We were actually able to trim it in, but the problem was in easing as the load was quite high, so it took lots of effort to release the cleat. I had trouble with this at the top mark roundings.  I think for 15kts and over we'll go back to 4:1.

We got a 1, 2, 1 for the day, which has us in second place.  Full team next weekend so hoping for big air again to stretch the boat's legs a bit.

Zen thought from today; we believe we had the oldest sail invenory on the course, with our newest sail being our 2012 main, and our oldest being the 2008 chute.  If you're going to beat up your gear, at least it should be old gear!

First race of 2017

The 2017 season seemed to come as a surprise to us, as the boat wasn't in the water in time for the first race. Fortuitously, the legendary Peanut luck held and racing was blown out that day. We used the new tow vehicle to bring the boat to the harbor last week, and stepped the rig in time for todays racing.

It was a pretty sunny day, if a little bit cold and light.  We saw between 3-9kts or so all day from the NE, which made for great warmup conditions.  There were only 3 boats out, us 67 and 45, but the speeds were close all day.

First race we won the boat with everyone mixed in together, and got lucky on a few shifts to finish well ahead. Second race the wind had dropped so we were actually late to the start by a few seconds, but less-late than the rest. 3rd race we thought we had 67 dead to rights and OCS'd, but let them get away at the last second to start on top of us, with 45 on our WW hip.  We tacked and ducked 45, trying to get into phase but succeeded only in being as out of phase as was possible.  We picked up a lucky puff near the top of the course, and snuck into second. After the rounding, 67 was ahead by about 4 boatlengths, so we played patient and tried to affect their air while waiting for the right time to gybe. We'd worked it out that we wanted to gybe first, so as soon as their bowman stood up,  we were mid turn.  We planted on them, and rolled with some extra pressure, extending for the lead.

We tried some new tuning and setup tricks today!

We went with a very long forestay. Our "3" setting on our marked turnbuckle is somewhere in the 50" range. Additionally, we tried a single 1/4" shim behind the mast to affect forestay sag and mast bend. We had tried this in the past with no noticable result, but it felt fast today. 

The most exciting change was going from 4:1 to 2:1 on the mainsheet. We were unsure of this change when we made it, as the Shields has a very large boom and main, and 2:1 is Laser mainsheet purchase, but it worked out well. The benefits were the speed at which we  could trim, and the lessened drag on the sheet. With only 3 on the boat today I was doing my own main at the leeward mark, and trimming half as much sheet made the turn really fast! Also, doing the main downwind was very easy as the drag as so low you could ease the sheet and actually have the boom go out. Jacob liked the feel upwind as well, so we will do this again on light air days.  The downside of course is that if the breeze comes up the main trimmer is going to have a serious workout on their hands (ha) but we're going to try this again until we find the point where 2:1 is not enough.  Plus we have the internal fine tune to take some load off if needed. I really think 3:1/6:1 would be ideal, but class rules say the mainsheet(s) have to be on the boom, which eliminates the cool deck level fine tune I would like.



A great day on the water and it was fun to be back. We've got some 1d racing coming up, plus some beercan handicap and cruising to do, so will update soon. We're going to have a furling assym on board for the beercans, which will certainly be weird.

Quick notes on light air trim and forestay sag

After last weeks light air racing we got a lot of bar chatter about headstay sag and main shape in light air,  a few notes below.

Headstay sag is determined mostly by your headstay length, but is also affected by backstay and mainsheet tension. Headstay sag is nice for 2 reasons in light air:

-Additional power is generated because the extra sag makes the jib deeper, more depth means more differential between high pressure (windward side of jib) and low pressure (leeward side of jib) and more differential means more pull!

-Better pointing can be achieved by having the luff of the jib set off to leeward, which means that the angle of attack (the angle of the jib to the wind) is wider, which lets you sail higher.

How much sag is right?  The Shields is damn slow in light air, so anything to make power and helm is good, but how do you know how much is right?

-By the numbers, I think about 12" of sag in the light and flat stuff seems right

-By the feel of the boat, the sag should be enough that the jib looks round up front, but not enough so that the rig shakes around in waves (or worse, the rig shakes when not in waves!)  If you rig is bouncing around a lot,  you may be overdoing it.

-By jib trim, if you sag too much, you may find that the jib leech telltales will stall unless you're sheeted way out. The jib leech telltale is a critical thing to watch here, and if you have to ease that sail out beyond the spreader tip to get the telltale flying,  it means that the jib luff has sagged so far to leeward that bringing the sheet in closes the leech off well before you're trimmed properly. This is bad. 

On our boat,  in the super light air, we were sheeting the jib so that the leech of the jib was between the spreader tip and about 4" in.  It's important to ease out when coming out of tacks, or when hitting chop, or pretty much anytime the boat felt slow.  In race 2 we were locked up with 67 pretty much the whole race. We didn't feel straight line fast, but we were consistently ableto make gains because we were constantly changing sheet trims when conditions would change.  It helps to have a spare body looking ahead, and if they see a puff, or waves, or a light spot to call out "ease sheets, in 3, 2, 1, ease" and the commensurately calling for the sheets to be trimmed back to normal mode once the boat is back up to full speed.  

Headstay sag is great for the jib but it also affects the main.  The first few years we had the boat we struggled in light air, and it took a long time to find out why.  We had a good jib shape, but always tended to keep the backstay totally slack, after all, you don't need backstay in light air right?  It took quite a lot of experimentation before we realized you need to make the main shape right, and in light air the mainsheet alone won't do it.  

The light air main shape is wrong when you have appropriate sag in the jib, but the mainsail top leech telltales just won't fly.  The solution to this appears to be ease the sheet until the top telltale is streaming about half the time.  Of course, when you do this the top of the main opens way up, and  you lose quite a lot of power and pointing ability.  Additionally, easing the mainsheet can make the headstay sag too much.  

The solution is more backstay, which sounds wrong for light air, but is the only way to get the main right sometimes.  Add a little backstay, until you can get the main top telltale flying, with the boom within a few inches of centerline, and the top batten angle not too open.  Once the main looks good, double check headstay sag.  If the sag is too little, you have have to loosen your headstay a bit, but often times the crazy sag we sail with can handle a little backstay tension without making the jib luff too straight. The shape of the main will change as the mast bends, generally making it flatter. We all know we want flat main for big breeze, but a flat main for very light air can be fast as well, as it's a low drag shape that will get you your best upwind speed. 

The above is good for straightline speed, but what about tacks?  When we tack the boat in light air, we do a few things to help get it up to speed fast.

-We coordinate our weight so that when starting the tack, we're all in the middle, and when coming out of a tack everyone is to leeward, sometimes hiking hard, to help the boat heel to leeward and get airflow back over the sails.

-We have both jib sheet and mainsheet eased after the tack starts, so that when we come out on the other board, both sails are eased out to help build speed. After 10-20 seconds we'll trim slowly back in to a true upwind course. This is usually about 2" eased on the jib, and about 4" eased on the main. 

-We ease the backstay as well, to make the main deeper, which helps build power faster.   Once we're up to speed and starting to trim the sheets back in, we'll trim the backstay as well to make the main flatter and help the top telltale fly. 

-The helm comes out of tacks a few degrees low of course,  to build speed faster

When chatting after racing last week, both 196 and 130 were interested in better main shape to match a saggy jib.  The thing to try out next light air weekend is adding a little backstay to the main to get the shape flatter and make it easier to trim. Bonus points for matching that to the headstay sag!  Additionally in light air being vigilant with trim is even more important, and every time the wind lulls or puffs, or the boat is about to hit waves, trim should be adjsuted.  

End B Series, field trips

The 88 blog has been neglected as of late, but I have gotten the chance to do lots of fun sailing including a few field trips on other boats.

2 weeks ago I got to helm a T10, Mutiny, for the beercan in about 15-20kts NE with big waves.  It was successful as we consumed far more beer than any other TTen, won the race, and even had a quick COB recovery with 20 seconds to go in the prestart. I always like getting to drive other boats, so thanks John!

Last wednesday we continued our PHRF shenanigans when we put a T10 chute on 88.  It worked out great!  It's about 7' taller than the Shields chute, so the foot gets a bit wet if there are waves over several inches, but it was quite quick and we ended up doing 7kts in about 9kts of breeze, mostly DDW.  Highly recommended, although you should have a contingency plan in case you run over the foot; ours was yelling, until it flew again.  Generally successful, although they didn't score us since we're not sure what our rating would be.  I'd really like to try sheeting a 25-30' boats genoa, and maybe a fathead main.

On Friday I tried the "other" cat themed boat in Belmont harbor, the VO70 Il Mostro. They're good customers of mine, and I've been itching to get out sailing on it all year, but the few times they've gone out to knock around I've been busy at work.  The boat is just magnificent, and really fun to sail. Docking in and out is a little hairy, and the fact that it takes 6 grinders 10 minutes to get the main up might deter beercans, but it has definitely become my second favorite boat.  Here are a few pics. 

 The bow could host a medium sized gathering quite comfortably! Love the 3d leads, so simple, but so powerful!

Some CYR work on the backstays.  There are lots of back and checkstays.

Ha! How many kids get to drive a VO70?

Thats a lot of main.  The highlight was driving of course, and feeling the effect of the keel.  With about half of full cant the boat was doing 9kts on a close reach in 6kts of breeze.  Once we dialed it back to around 12deg keel, it felt like a normal boat; lots of heel and great feel upwind.  With the keel canted to 40, the feel went dead and the boat felt fast but without feel. It took a while to realisze what the sensation was, and I finally realized it was more like driving a big powerboat!

Here are some pics from Saturday.  While it was just another series race, it was probably one of the best days I've had on the water.  We won both races, but the tricky conditions meant that we had lots of work to do.  Quite happy with my starts in both races, as we won the boat the first race, then the pin the other (while getting 196 and 130 ocs, yikes) but due to some pretty big shifts and holes didn't lead the first race until the last leg.  One of the best things we worked on was our wave spotting and trimming.  One crew would do nothing but watch waves upwind, and communicate the timing to the trimmers, who would ease jib sheet about .75" and mainsheet about 2", so we could twist the sails and power through.  It was devestatingly effective; at one point we were behind and to leeward of 63 coming in on port tack layline. Once we found flat spots we could pinch them off, then used the wave trimming to extend ahead and give them bad air.  This gained us at least 15 lengths in 5 minutes, and sealed the race in our favor.  Headstay was at 49.75. 

The good ship cat-shape, Joc, Katie, Niki, Andy

How we spent much of the race!  Here Andy trims main and spots waves and the rest trim jib and watch compass.

Our new main, easily the best one we've ever had.  Even  says USA for some reason!

Our 09 jib is still looking pretty sharp.

Our jib tack detail.  The "down" strop is a soft shackle with 3 balls, although we mostly use the middle one, the tightest setting is cool for beercans where we don't want to hike. The small "forward" shackle holds the jib tack forward, in line with the luff, and also locks the turnbuckle.  Our experimental Hayn calibrated turnbuckle has laser etched numbers. 

 If you absolutely must have overkill, I recommend a covered dyneema carbon dogbone for your Shields vang.

Valiant bowman. Probably calling breeze and air show info.

 Andy really got good fast at spin trim this year, we were blazing all day.

Katie doing Katie things on the way in. 

And oh HELL YEAH we found a frisbee. 

Here are a few videos of racing from last Saturday.  We went 1-2 and the weekend was part of our Andrew Kerr clinic.  Have so many ntoes and videos, but no time to put them all up yet.  Top video is a douse with free fly, followed by our attempt at a VMG (vs wide-tight) rounding.  Below is a set.

Lump update 7-7-12

Been a bit (lot) crazy at work the last couple weeks, so have really had zero time to sail, much less write about it!

On 6-2 we had a new first for 88 (and not the good kind) as I was too sick to sail.  Really bummed about it, but we missed 3 windy races and I stayed in bed and had hallucinations. Yuck.

6-16 was a bit better, as we actually got the boat out sailing.  Lots of new crew with me, Andy on main, Phil B on jib,  Matt S on pit and good 'ol boy John K on the bow.  Day started lightish, and good crew work plus some wind insight from Phil put us in first (barely)  Second race the wind piped up and we had some rock and or roll on the downwinds,  leading us to eventually go jib and main for the win.

Next week we missed _another_ day of racing (luckily they only got 1 off in ligth and fluky conditions) but it was worth it as Niki and I headed out to Shields LIS districts in CT.  Crappy start to teh weekend with a cancelled flight, followed by 2 hrs waiting on standby, followed by getting to the airport at 4am to wait for 2 more standby flights, but we eventually made it to NY, ran to the car, ran to the power boat, towed Bam's Shields across the sound at dangerous speed, and found we'd missed 3 races already!  We got the boat put together (mostly during the start sequence for R4!) and won the pin, went flying out to the left, and then crossed the fleet looking like big damn heroes.  Naturally, we got a giant windshift and got swept back to last, then crawled to 4th.  Next race was better, and we got a 2nd before heading back to Seawanhaka YC (aka the nicest YC on earth) for some severe overindulgence in food (thanks NYYC shellfish bar!) and drink (Do not give Kristian rum and beer and vodka and wine, really. Don't)

Next day started pretty crappy when we barged and got luffed into the committee boat. ouch!  We got 4 more races in, which was quite fun and although we placed 5th for the event each race was quite close and challenging.  Had a great time in NY, thanks Bam and Karen!

Back in Chicago we sailed the Kennedy Cup, fleet 3's crew regatta. I was overjoyed when Andy drove the first race from prestart to finish, and we really got a lot better in our new roles. Especially enjoyed the final downwind.  I was trimming and we both got good at communicating pressure and angle, and closed up nearly 1/4 mile to the leaders.  Got a 4th, but it was great to give someone else a chance to drive!  Next start Jacob drove and got a stellar start at the pin, which we held for quite a while until the idiot bow (me) had a slow drop and 45 snuck ahead for the win.

Series racing continued today, and we had some more revolving door crew, with me, Jocelyn P back from retirement,  Matt S on jib and pit, and Niki up front.  Was a bit nervous going into the day, as we'd not all sailed together and the forecast was for big NE breeze and waves with potential storms.  The crew really came together effectively, and we had a great time winning all 3 races.  Highlights were the incredible surfing on the runs.  We got the boat sorted enough that we'd cleat everything, and Niki would call waves at which point I'd pump the guy and we got quite effective at it,  as it was worth about 1/2 length every big wave.  Upwind was brutal, and we had lots of falls and near misses as the crew got battered in the chop.  Everyone has some serious bruising!

We're stitting in third for the season, which I find uncomfortable, but when we've actually made it out I feel we've sailed well in varied conditions with lots of different crew combinations.  Quite pleased to find we have lots of depth and can switch up positions and still be effective.

The Peanut goes to the races

Wow,  definitely the busiest spring I've ever had, but we still made it out for the first day of RYF/1D/Wee Boat racing at CYC.  Great time had by most.

First, we did do a few repair/upgrades to 88 this winter.  First (and coolest) we finally have the name on the back, so no more tickets from Westrec (for that anyway).  Also, I really like the way it looks, and it was made by my cousin Paul so it's more work in the family to make it special.  For a while we just had the shape on the transom while setting up the letters, and Andy started calling us the "good ship Catshape" Which would be a fine stupid name for a boat someday.  Also added a couple small tricks, like a piece of Soft Deck material up on the bow for where the pole attacks the deck.  It came as part of a sample from our friends at SD Boatworks out west, it's neat stuff, look it up!   We also added some small stifeners under the deck, as ol' 88 has some flex in the side decks. They were a big bang for the buck upgrade, as the decks feel a lot better when hiking.  A few other things will be highlighted with photos as soon as I have some free time.

First race of the year was great, winds about 8-14kts.  We had Andy on the main,  Craig C on the jib/pit and Niki up front.  Very much chamber of commerce conditions, and it was super satisfying to be out on the water again as this spring has been all-work-all-the-time.

First start was dramatically pooched by me, but we got onto port right away and hit the first shift and crossed everyone, held on for the win.  We had great speed all day with an 08 jib, 09 spin and our brand new main!  I am very much in love with the shape of the main; don't think a sail has ever flown so well out of the box.  Curiously, it has a country code on it, which I think I must have input when we ordered, so we've been rolling around as "USA 88", presumably for the NATO conference in Chicago last weekend.  It's starting to grow on me, so I think we'll keep it!

Second start we nailed the pin extra fast, crossed everyone, finished strong.

Third start was just us and 196, so we played around with some match racing moves in the prestart.  If it's ever the 2 of us again, we should probably discuss how to handle pens, as we had them lined up a few times and didn't really feel like pulling the trigger.  I think maybe little "shields-only" flags or something, which then get settled at the bar after?  Anyway, they led off the start, and we were doing ok living on their hip until I got "experimental" which quickly saw us spat out the back. They led to the ww mark, and we  finally got on their air towards the end of the run, and I was feeling pretty good about getting around them as we split gate marks, but then.... 

Guess we've been pretty lucky to never drop the kite in the water in 4 years, but I think we made up for it Saturday!  Took a few minutes to clean up, and by then it was follow the leader around the course.  They nailed a really nice win with minutes to spare, so go 196!

Great day out there,  can't wait to do it again.

Wed night was nice, as we went out for some practice, getting people used to their new roles on the boat. Andy and I got in a good rhythm downwind on gybes and transitions for the spin, and we did some boathandling practice and I think our light air tacks are as good as they've ever been. 

The best part for me was at the end we had Jacob run some timing drills for me.  He'd announce 2 minutes, and the goal was to upwind on starboard next to the pin. First time was ok, and I was .5 lengths to leeward and about 4 seconds late.  Second time really identified one of my issues at starting, as we were both late and slow. Jacob gave me some good notes on it, and then the next one was full upwind speed+a ltitle extra from the reach in, on time, and close enough for Niki to almost slap the red buoy.  Great drill, and really productive hour on the water!  After that it was back to work!  Really looking forward to Mac week...

The Wee' Shields

Well this is neat!  Friend of the class Tod Johnstone has created a sailing RC model Shields.  We stayed with Tod in 2010 for Nationals in Mystic, and really enjoyed it.  He's a modelmaker-among other things-with a shed full of great ship models and other neat toys.

The new Shields model should be available next summer, and he's created a sign up page for it: http://www.mysticmodelyachts.com/Shields_One_Design.php

So cool!

End of 2011 racing season

Racing's over for the year, but what a great way to go out.  We had 3 races Saturday, and it was the best day of the whole year.  About 75 degrees on the water, generally on the light side, but sunny and flat and comfortable.

We really wanted to come out strong after the previous race day, and did a lot to prepare.  Last week we did quite a few things wrong, and a big one was how our jib was setting up.  Since we started sailing with more rake this year it's been great for speed and heigh in light air, but we've been running out of jib sheet when fully trimmed.  Lots of east coast boats have had their clews raised to compensate for this, so I tried it as well.  Turns out I marked the new location totally wrong, so all last week our recut jib couldn't get enough leech tension no matter what we did. Instead of cutting it again I decided to play with tack height instead.  So Niki and I went out thursday for a sail check, mostly to look at the new Quantum jib just to see it, and to figure out what tack heights work for what rake with the North jib.  We did a couple hours of pleasure sailing/sail tested and came up with 3 tack shackle loops for different rakes.  The tack loops are soft shackles that go from a small d shackle on the deck up to the sail, so our actually tack height is plus 1"

Rake    Tack Loop

48"       5"

49.25"  7"

50.5"     8"

Below is the Q jib  (3 races) and the North Jib @3 years.  I like both sails.  The N jib is obviously a bit blown out, but I think even new it's a bit fuller than the q.  The q can be sheeted harder, looks a lot flatter and is lighter weight than the North.  Our sail test day let us go into race day with the old North jib still feeling fast. 

  

For Saturday we had Andy H stepping into the main/spin position,  Doug B joining us for the first time on jib, and the return of hangover Jocelyn to pit/compass, and Niki up front.  Everyone did awesome considering that it's been years since we've had Jocelyn out and it was Andy's second time in the #2 spot. 

We did a bit of an experiment with rake, and sailed at 50.5" the whole day.  It worked really well, and even in the big puffs (which were big) the boat was still able to depower.  I think I'm going to try more rake in breeze next year to see how it goes.  So long as it's not choppy I think you can get away with it.

Race 1 we led all the way around the track until... the incident.   We were holding a 10-15 length lead, and seemed pretty untouchable since both 150 and 196 were dead asten, and we were practically fetiching the mark on the 2nd upwind.  Then this amazing shift and new breeze came through, and all of a suddent we were pointing 20deg high of the mark, and sailing in about 18kts.  We were just blasting along, extending on the other guys, and watching them luff each other behind us.  Then I said words I promise never to say again "This is definitlely going to hold, forget about covering and putting some in the bank, lets just blast at the mark"  We did just that, and were full hiked just flying along, when all of a sudden things got ugly.  First the breeze dropped, and we all flopped to the low side.  Then the breeze went left 90 degrees relative to the other guys, who all of a sudden looked pretty good.  We did about 4 tacks in a light and shifting breeze, struggling to make the mark while the 2nd and 3rd place boats just flew along.  We all reached the mark at about the same time, and I called for a gybe set (mistake 2).  We had a horrible set, which is not surprising considering that even Niki and I have done exactly one gybe set this year, and no one else had done one on the boat, ever.  We botched is, and were third around the mark.  We were able to pass 150 who set up too low to carry the chute, but watch 196 sail high right into new pressure under jib alone, while we eventually had to drop the chute and play catch up.  They made a great call going jib only, and we finished 2nd.  It was a well sailed race, but I really learned a lot about decision making:  no matter what stay focused on covering, and go blast reaching on your own time!

Race 2 I honestly can't remember much of, but we won.

Race 3 was a tough one, and we started weakly, and the top 3 boats stayed really close.  With trying to beat 196 to take the C series, and having 150 out, it was incredible racing, and we really had lots of tough calls and close crosses.  One of my favorite moments was rounding the last weather mark, of the last race, of the last day.  We had 150 just ahead, and 196 just behind.  We set a little bit lower than Kevin, and were able  to slide down inside. Meanwhile 196 is going low and trying to do the same thing to us.  Andy did a stellar job keepign the boat moving, and Doug was spot on keeping the main alive.  Niki was finding tiny, and I mean like 10' wide, puffs for us to sail to, and Jocelyn was keeping our air clear and making sure we stayed close to both boats.  I don't think I've ever moved the tiller less on a run, and we worked weight hard.  Any of the 3 boats could have won that race, and it was a crazy nailbiter all the way until the the final gybe, where we slid through Garys bad air into a great left shift with a puff and extended for that oh-so-sweet final gun.  I was really proud of my team that day, and we had a great last day out. 

Final beercan 2011

The crew of 88 got together for one last go round, and it was a really nice night to bundle up and sail with friends.  We didn't do
any match racing, or beat up on the phrf boats, but did do 2 laps pretty much in the dark.


Because I'm me,  we rigged up an 6:1 adjustable jib tack to play with the cut clew jib.  Turns out not all is lost, we just have to run the tack pretty high when we're running lots of rake.  I think the magic number is going to be around 7.5", which seems crazy but the jib actually sets up ok. Compared to the first tryout the sail looks a lot better, before the tighest we could get the leech was about 15deg open!

Andy, Katie and Jacob.

We have one more race on october 8th (!) which is the final day of RYF racing.  Hoping to get another shot at racing with the recut jib and we'll see how it flies.

C series day 2 (can't win em all)

C Series 3 and 4 this weekend, under strange and occasionally terrifying conditions.  The good news is we clinched the season (up until the end of the first race there was the unlikely chance that CYC would get 3 races per day for the rest of the year, and if we DNF'd all we could lose first) The bad news is I almost had a perfect season driving, and we got two 2nd places to a very well sailed 196.

The weather was pretty sketchy, not in terms of wind but due to storms.  On the way out to the course we saw lightning to the west, north and south, as well as multiple waterspouts (!) several miles away.  Wind was around 5kts, but with considerable chop.

Day got off to a bad start waiting around for the storms to stay or go, and it made things a bit tense on the boat.  We had some trouble getting tuned up, as we made the call to not change from our beercan main before sailing, as well as having had the clew of the jib recut (heard e coast boats do this to get keep the 2:1 from 2 blocking)  Never did get the main feeling right, and I think we messed up the jib by making the change. Oops.

First start was almost great, as we'd won the pin on port tack, and looked good until I asked to make sure we were crossing and heard "yes" "no" and "yes..no!" all at the same time so crash tacked only to realize we tacked directly in front of the boat we were concerned about.  One thing I need to get better at is coming back from tough spots, and even though we were leading the race at this point I have to say I was pretty rattled and had visions of fiberglass repair in my head from that point on.  We regained the lead briefly, but lost it again to 196 who sailed incredibly fast and didn't do anything dumb.

Second race we started poorly, and pretty much followed 196 around to watch them win by a very comfy margin.  They did great, and really moved up and downwind.

Learned a couple things.  Most relate to preparation/planning and attitude.  We have the most fun when we push ourselves the hardest.  Doing things like slacking on the bottom (hasn't been cleaned since July) and racing with the wrong main and an untested recut are out of character for us, and it made the day kind of frustrating.  Some people seem to do best when they stop caring and race "for fun", ie not to win, but I don't think that works for our group.  Lesson learned there!  One more race day and one more beercan, so can go out again to close off the season properly.

Peanut goes PHRF

While we were planning another match racing beercan,  the wind (it was 15-20) the start (another downwind) and the crew (we had 5, and despite best attempts cannot divide by Andy) combined to make it seem fun to go play PHRF and start with the big boats in Spin 1.

A nice bearaway start saw us mixed in with Eagle and Norboy, who quickly left us behind.  We had GPS running, and (in knots, har har) it turns out we go 5-7kts downwind in this, and around 5.5kts upwind.  We did 2 laps, and it was a gorgeous night;  clear sky, not too cold, all the planes in the sky lining up overhead.  Really pleasant sailing, and it turns out our PHRF rating IS as ridiculous as we thought as we beat the next boat by 4min corrected (and a few big boats over the line as well)

Above is a Dave Sincox shot of the lonely little Shields out for one of the last races of 2011

Sheldon Clark Win

Today we sailed 3 races with 3 wins to take the Sheldon Clark regatta, as well as the Nutting Cup (hee hee) which is a combined score from the Memorial Day (1) regatta and todays SC.

It was originally another ho-hum forecast, but last night and today it got bumped to 15-20kt with 2-4 chop.  I was both excited and nervous about this.  We've always been fast with more breeze, and big breeze is fun, but we hadn't have much practice at all in it, so would be going in a little rusty compared to the other teams who had big air for the Verve Cup last month.

Lots of good racing today, with us, 45, 196 and 150 out.  Although it was only 4 boats, they were the top 3 boats from the season, and Kevin, who's always fast.  We did well at starts and had decent speed, but we all were a little clumsy at boathandling, especially downwind.

Tuning was 48" on the headstay, 800 uppers, around 250 lowers.  We felt fast in the first race (~18kts with monster waves) but felt a bit sluggish once the breeze dropped to below 15 I found the boat hard to drive, wanting power.  I think I should have gone to 48.5 on the headstay, even with the chop, as the main was plenty deep at 48", and I could have used more helm/rake.  It was me, Jacob, Katie and Niki at ~600lbs total.

Jacob had the GoPro camera out, so I'm really hoping to have some cool video from today.  Some of the waves were real monsters!

Battle of the ratchet blocks update

After a summer of sailing with 1 Harken Ratchamatic and 1 Ronstan Orbit ratchet, we've got lots of feedback on both designs.

It's been a really light summer for racing, so both blocks didn't really see much in the way of wear, but they both look about the same as when installed.  This includes Ronstans dyneema link soft attachment.

Holding power: the Ronstan is defintiely grippier on our 8mm New England Flightline spin sheets, in fact it's a little bit too grippy in really light air, which is our principle problem with it.  The Ronstan is switchable, so in theory we could turn off the rathet, but in practice we did that once, although it disengaged my accident at least one time.  The rest of time, the ratchet engages with too little load, and holds on too tight. This was moderately annoying in light air gybes, but caused a few very slow takedowns when the rathet would grip the sheet while we were trying for a port douse.

The Harken's auto engagement is adjsutable, but we left it in whatever the stock setting is and had no issues with the holding power.

If we were in a heavy air venue, maybe it would be different, but for now I think the Harken is the better choice for spinnaker sheets on the boat.

We're going to swap the Ronstan ratchet into our 2:1 jib sheet system for another comparison.  I think it may fare better there, as it does have more "grip" and the extra snagginess will be less of an issue on the jib since its both higher load and less travel.

Beercanning

Another really fun night of competition and practice between 88's crew.

We borrowed 63 a little tentatively tonight, as the forecast was for 15-30kts out of the NE complete with small craft advisory.  When we got rigged and sailing it was actually a wonderful night, around 8-12 but with some odd angle large swell.

A downwind start had me completely lost as to the right call, but Jacob had no problems.  We were caught out above the line, and Jacob sailed from course side @ 1:30 or so, luffed us up and had his pick of timing as to when to start.  In talking with him after it's clear what to do now: Jacobs plan was to sit on starboard, below and outside the pin layline, then sail up and enter clean.  After he saw us high of the line though, it was an easy call to sail up and sit below us.  Quite a learning move for me, and Jacob executing perfectly.

Downwind I was looking forward to practicing the wingonwing sailing, and I felt we were a touch faster downwind doing it, but not by enough to pass on the .6mi downwind leg which was mostly stbd.  Seeing this, we gybed and went to a 2 sail reach, and then gybed back about 10 lengths separated as Jacob matched our gybe but not our angle.  I was hoping that coming back with waves (due to the odd angle) would be faster. It worked (barely) as we came back with a piece of 63 who was still on port and low, and were able to force them to gybe into a nice fat overlap.  We held them to port layline, and the second that Jacob went up for separation we gybed and led in easily.

After the bottom mark we tacked to match Jacob, and couldn't quite hold on to our good position and had to tack away, but it was into much better pressure and angle and we had a huge lead by the top mark.

We switched drivers and put Katie on helm, and had a nice downwind run included a circle to clsoe things up.

On the upwind we gave it away a bit with too many tacks, and ultimately leebowed 63 badly, and they were able to sail us past the finigh so that we had to go gybing.  It was textbook good sailing by 63 once the boats were close.

I really got a lot of of this night, picking up good starting and boat on boat tactics. I feel that the boats are relatively even in heavy air, even though we have 88 better tuned for the light (according to a month agos) racing.  I might have the edge driving and trimming up, and Jacob is better on tactics, starting and position.  Good recipe for improvement, as I think we're both learning and getting better, as we race hard on beercans but still want to keep things close so we get lots of action.

C Series 1 and 2

It had been quite a while since we'd taken Peanut out, so much so that when we got out to the boat we found it was struggling to do its submarine impression: the waterline was completely submerged and the floorboards were floating!  A long slow bail out, and then a long slow trip out to the race course.  There was bout 4kts out of the SE, but for some reason we were racing 5 mi off shore, so starts didn't hapeen until 1130ish.

We had 4 boats to race against with 130, 196 and 67, so they combined us with the luders.  We wanted to get right asap, so we were going to start at the hopefully less crowded boat and tack, but then had 67 below and a luders parked right in front of us, ack!  We got free, go to the right but ended up following 130 around, who really stuck it to us for the first 2 legs. Heading into the leeward mark, we saw them sticking it super low downwind, with a very difficult turn ahead of them, so took the chute down early and set up outside, only to shoot between them and the mark as they couldn't quite pull off "wide the tight"

Next race I wanted to try a port tack start, but 130 was right at the pin, so we had to duck, then leebowed (Jacob thinks rather closely) another Luders!  It was  a bizarre race, as for the longest time it was us, then the red luders, then the shields fleet, then more luders.  Guess they're  quick in light air?  Halfway through the race the boats other owner Niki wanted to drive so we switched and I went on the bow.  It's really nice up there, and I spaced out a bit staring at the sky, while Niki learned about sheet pressure with Jacob.

We now have 12 points,  with second place @ 36.

Hoping to have some cool multimedia from Jacob, as we're trying a GoPro camera with a GPS overlay from Jacobs crappy phone.

In the meantime, heres the happy crew of 88, at least half of which is a tad hungover. Video below,  I wish you could hear commentary on the "holy cow we have to leebow a luders?"

Field Trip pt 2

Had more breeze for Sunday, with a different crew. Aaron drove, I did middle and we had Doug B up front. It was 15-20 NE, with nice big waves. Results were better, and nothing broke.

First race we got a pretty decent start, got out towards the front of the pack and then picked off the 2 boats nearby, then covered to hang on to the win. Best part of the day was surfing downwind, as huge pumps on the spin sheet was getting us on waves for 5-10 seconds at a time. Lot of work but lots of fun! Got to watch Aaron drive the boat and picked up a better feel for the ETchells in air upwind.

Second race we started ok, but the wind was down a bit, which meant we were on the wrong jib upwind, and couldn't surf as well downwind, especially the 2nd run. I picked the wrong side on the 2nd beat, which cost us 2 boats, and since the surfing was less effective we only got 1 back downwind for a 5th.

Lots of lessons learned from the weekend, and I had a really good time.

1) Not that this was news, but make sure the boats ready to go when the breeze comes up! This includes preventative maintenance (6yr old outhaul with short ugly splices) and setup (tape all shackles when i ndoubt!)

2) Sail selection is key on this boat. I thought Aaron was crazy when he made us turnaround and head back in to the harbor with 20 mins before the first start to change jibs, but we had great speed in race 4 with the heavy. In the other 2 races (1 and 5) we had the heavy up when the breeze was in the mid/low teens and were slower. Part of that was my new-driverishness in race 1, but Aaron was slower in r5 too.

3) Upwind the Etchells feels very similar to our boat when setup. Downwind is a different beast. In big breeze/waves on the Shields, the key is trim and drive the boat to keep it DDW and not rocking/broaching. The Etchells really wants to be sailed up and down waves in order to go fast. It was completely possible to go from a length behind to a length ahead in 3 waves if handled properly. I would need to go practice this driving, but really got into it crewing and had a blast pulling the boat over waves.

I really had a blast, and looking back picked up a lot of good info about the boat. If I could do it again, we would have gone practicing friday night with Aaron as opposed to dogsitting the insomniac dog from hell. I also would have preffered to switch my day of helming for Sunday, as crewing on the boat gave lots of insight into helming the boat. Although we really missed having the Shields out in the nice conditions, I had a really good time and look forward to trying again someday.

Field Trip! Verve Cup Inshore on an Etchells

88s regular crew was unavailable for the Verve, so initially I wasn't going to sail, but then our friend Aaron was completely short crew for his Etchells, so he went with him.

He'd said I could drive, which was exciting, as we had a good time last time we sailed his boat in 09. Somehow we convinced Niki to take some time off from work to sail sat, and sunday Aarons partner Dan was going to come out.

Saturday was a unique experience, with a number of firsts. Not first places, just firsts.

First, I got as close to a big collision as I've ever been. In a borrowed boat. In the first prestart.... There was a j24 sailing through the start, and we luffed over him to avoid, and then found ourselves aimed square at Russ's Etchells. The boat didn't turn up as fast as I thought it would, so I did kind of a crash bearaway, and we came about 4" from Russ' backstay. Glad Aaron was there!

We got a pretty late start after that, but legged out right, and looked ok for a while. Apparently we had the wrong jib up, with our heavy jib up instead of the medium which would have been appropriate, but the boat was actually ok to drive. We rounded around 5th, but then slid a bit downwind. The Etchells is a LOT more sensitive to angle downwind i nwaves, as a tiny bit of steering means surfing a wave or falling through it. The Shields is more about keeping the rig over the boat than hunting waves, so it was a useful experience. Aaron said the jib makes a big difference here, but I'd say not being used to the boat was bigger. It took me until the second beat to figure out how to cross the boat properly! The interesting thing is it needs a LOT more helm to turn than our boat (remember the prestart?) so you actually step in front of the tiller, as theres lots of room when it's hard over. We finished 7th or 8th in that race, and switched jibs for the next race.

Another lousy start on my part, then about 4 minutes after the start we heard a loud bang, and our outhaul broke. We continued to sail the upwind, and despite having no outhaul, plus Aaron on the stern trying to rig something, we rounded midpack. The next upwind wasn't as good, and realizing we were last, we retired from the race to fix the outhaul.

Aarons approach was pretty bold for this, but it did work. We dropped all sails, removed the main from the boom, opened up the boom, upended it and shook like crazy, in order to get the internal outhaul pennant towards the end of the boom. Once we could see it I used a batten and leatherman to snag the bit of outhaul remaining, which we were able to thread through the sheave and get working. At this point we'd drifted about a mile, but luckily were right on top of the RC, and felt like nauseous heroes for getting it fixed. We were into the prestart, so went for our jib, only to hear another, softer pop as the jib halyard shackle let go with the jib halfway up. Niki think the flogging while drifting, as well as the halyard wrapping around the headstay, must have caused it to pop free. On our boat we're used to spool shackles, but I think on boats with the RWO/Racelite/whatevers you need to be religious about taping everything.

THinking the halyard hadn't completely skyed, I made it up to the spreader before getting yelled at to come down. We thought about rigging a little safety line with the spin halyard to make it up, but at 2:55 in the prestart this seemed unlikely to get us racing in time. We sailed in, fixed the boat, and had a bunch of free drinks. Have to say the Verve Inshore people did a great job with the regatta to date, and I've never seen so many racers around after sailing.

Today I'm doing bow, having made a bit of a disgrace as a helm. Still had a good time, and looking forward to Team Fireplace doing better today with Aaron, Dan S and myself.

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!

End B Series

We finished the B series with another win today, had a great time doing it.

Started ~8kts, racing was between 4 and 12 I'd say. We had the 08 main and the 09 jib and spin. Tuned to almost slack on lowers, and 50" headstay, just to see if it would work. It did and we felt quite fast. The headstay length is a bit of an experiment, and it wasn't slow, not sure if it's any faster than a shorter length though. Keep in mind that number works for us only because we're max step fwd and max partner aft. The other experiment was in me trimming traveler upwind on the last leg. I was doing it mostly to have something to hold on to while hiking, but in trimming and easing it I found it actually was ok to balance the helm with. May try that again sometime, although probably not without some breathing space in case I stuff it up!

We wanted to be 1/3rd off the boat, and got that start. I feel a lot more confident living in tough spots @ starts this year, and today was good practice. 196 started right below us and a touch advanced, but we had better speed, and in fact pressed with traveler down to roll over and pop out ahead.

First beat was huge shifts, and we did a mostly good job staying on top of it. Rounded first in good breeze, only to watch the boats behind (130, 196) fall into a huge hole at the mark. Neat!

Extended to finish ahead by a nice big margin.

We now have 10 pts to 2nd's 34, with only the c series to go.