End of a great season

Very proud to say that Shields 88 won it's first season championship! The last 3 races were sailed on Saturday, and we came out on top with 26 points, with Yankee Girl having 32 and Insidious with 39.

All we had to do was finish 3rd or better in one race to win, but I was still pretty nervous going in, worrying about any number of ridiculous things that could screw it up. The day was really light air, and it was in doubt whether we'd actually sail, but the wind fillled in to about 8kts and we had a really pleasant sail. We got a somewhat disappointing 4-2-2, but it was enough to win the season, and today was one of the better days we've all sailed together. Boathandling was perfect, starts were good and if it wasn't for our upwind speed problem we'd have done much better.

That doesn't affect that this has been a great season for me, and getting the boat together has been incredibly satisfying. From the frantic launch and first races, to all the fun we've had on the course to the last fine day of sailing its been great. I've learned a lot about boats and racing, gotten to sail with great crew, taken friends and family out for cruising, and really watched Niki turn into a good bowman. One of my favorite moments of the season came in the last race Saturday. We were in 2nd heading to the downwind finish, with 196 about 3 lengths behind. They brought some new breeze in and were catching up quickly as we were closing on the finish. Out of nowhere Niki called a gybe and we went, only in the middle of the manouver did I realize that shes never, ever made a tactical call before! As we came out of the gybe, we settled into better pressure and gently pulled away to cross ahead of 196. She was the inspiration behind buying the boat in the first place, and I couldn't be happier with how we've done as a team with it.

So what next? We're going to keep the boat in the water for a little while to eke out the last bits of sailing fun for 08. It's going to be on the dock for our wedding next week, and then it gets loaned out (eek) to help a match racing team practice, and we're also going to try and do some practice ourselves. This winter I've got some plans for the boat, which I feel is operating at about 80% of its potential right now. Some future boatwork plans:

-new mast and boom. The mast was damaged back in July, and should probably be replaced. Since the new mast won't fit the old gooseneck I'm getting a new boom as well, and will use this opportunity to make "superboom" which will be lighter than the old one and have a couple trick features on it, like a mainsheet finetune and possibly a spin pole sleeve.
-bottom. The bottom was a rush job to make it into the water in time, and it shows! The keel repair held up great, but the lead/keel attachment is blistered and cracked, and the rudder is covered in blisters as well. Also we hit something (!) and theres a scrape along the leading edge of the boat from the waterline to the tip of the keel. No idea when that happened, but it's kind of messed up looking.
-going to rebed all the hardware and dry the deck out, possibly recoring a soft spot on the stbd side.
-who knows what else we'll come up with, but my goal is to get the boat perfected for next years nationals.

pictures (non shields)

Shields racing 9/6/08

Kind of a tough day for Shields racing, but overall fun.

With all the heavy air we've had this year, Niki and Jocelyn have been hoping for a light day, and man did we get it this time! Super freaky conditions, with wind from 0-10kts, shifting back and forth all day. Made for tough racing, as being on the correct side of the shifts was key, but (to me at least) impossible to call.

We had a great crew out: Niki up front, Jocelyn in the pit, Brian Sa. in the middle, and Shawn O took a vacation from big boat racing to do main and spin. I was really excited about having this crew together, and was hoping for better racing conditions, but we still had fun and figured out a couple things about the boat.

The first race started in a huge right shift/lull, and the start was about 50 degrees boat favored. We won the boat with clear air, and had ok speed off the line. The wind did a little back and forth for the first third of the beat, and it was a bit of a nail-biter to stay on stbd heading right, as the shifts would sometimes put the right side (us) in front, and sometimes the left (everyone else.) it ended up that 150 and 88 were the front runners, and we swapped leads until the weather mark, with 150 in front. The downwind leg was pretty fun, as we got some light air downwind practice, and Niki really got the hang of reaching gybes. I felt we played the bottom part of the leg really well, taking 150's lead from about 8 to 1 boatlength, and rounding close behind. We decided to go left on the upwind, and 150 went right.

Tacking put us both on port (favored board) and we watched the wind shift back and forth, sometimes putting us in front, sometimes 150. Lots of wind shifts, but tough to play. Even though the breeze would make big (like 60 degree) shifts, playing them was kind of a dice roll, and this is where we lost out. We were tacking on most of them, and thats where we lost out. Very frustrating to get a 30 degree header, tack on it, and then get knocked 50 back on the other board! 150 won here, by just sticking it out and aiming at the mark. Additionally, 39 went all the way right, and picked up 4 boats (including us) and rounded the windward mark in 2nd behind 150, and ahead of us.

The last downwind had us mixed up with Etchells, which is good and bad. Good because it gives us more practice sailing next to lots of boats (like we'll be doing at Nationals) and bad because in this case we spent half the leg next to a boat that had us pinned! Again, it was good practice because we kept clear of them (leeard E22) and actually had pace on them (Shields must have a small advantage in 2-6kts for some reason) but bad because they ended up having us sail just a little higher than we should have been. Ended up getting ahead, gybing out but ultimately lost to 29 and 150.

The next race was called off, I believe due to the super light breeze. I would have preferred to get another race in, but can understand the call. The tricky part is that we now have 4 races left to sail, but only 1 series race day left. The SI's allow for makeup races to be sailed in the same series, but only 3 per day. That leaves one unaccounted for with no SI-legal way to make it up, so I'm not sure what the fleets going to do about that.

Really tricky day to sail, but ultimately good time. Happy to see our friend Kevin win one, and now he's tied with 196 for the season, at 34 points to our 22. Learned a couple hard lessons along the way, mostly about what to do in goofy light air (aim at the mark, be patient.) The crew mix was great, and I've been looking forward to it for a while.

Having Shawn on the boat helped us figure out a problem with our new main thats been dogging us for a while. We've had the new main up 3 times now including today, and every time we've felt a bit slow compared to usual. This was the first really light day, and it took Shawn about 5 seconds to figure out why our sail looked so funky up top (huge flat spot, with a big pinch at the front of the batten pocker) Our sail's cut for a tapered, or at least thinner top batten, and we've got all thick straight battens, which are probably fine for the other spots, but not the top batten. Got to track down a proper batten if we want to use the sail for the last race of the season.

One series race day left, with 3 races. I'm really feeling the end of summer now, wish we could frostbite the Shields!

Racing 8-23/best 4th place ever

Finally had more Shields series racing this last weekend. I say finally since it seems like our season has been chopped up with all the other events we've had going on, cancelled races etc. Our fleet has still had pretty good participation all year, but I think if we had a more cohesive schedule we could gain full numbers. Shouldn't say too much about that, as thats the kind of thing that gets you volunteered for fleet captain.

Favorite thing about racing this weekend was the short 1mile courses. This was to allow for a 3rd race (making up B1) and it was loads more fun! I would be all about doing 1 mile races as regular racing, and would actually be for 3 race days but I imagine I'm the only one.

Last weekend of racing had, guess what, good breeze out of the south-west! Never thought I'd see that more than once or twice a summer, but it's been our standard condition this year. Onboard it was Niki-bow, Jocelyn-pit/compass/jib grinder, Jacob-jib, Josh-main/spin and I drove as usual.
Races 1 and 2 were good; decent starts, sound tactics, 2 firsts. Had new sails aboard but upwind boatspeed still seemed a bit off. I think this was a headstay lenght issue. I tightened it up to ~47.5", and generally felt stuck all day, despite backing it off to 48". I think in future I'm going to err on too loose until I get decent repeatable numbers for this boat.
Race 3 started the same way, but then we F'd up! We were on port, looked to be crossing 63, who had 196 just to weather of them. As we crossed 196 they hailed protest, which is where things got interesting. I thought we were clean, Josh was 100% sure of it, but we did our circles anyway which dropped us back to 6th. I later heard from the boat to leeward that they thought 196 had ducked, and 150 said they definitely saw a duck, so I'm glad we circled despite thinking we were clear. Reasons being:
a)other boats saw a duck
b)even if they didn't duck/didn't have to duck, it's still a trip to the protest room, and one we'd likely lose
c)at the end of the day I feel like we retained the mutual respect that is so important in this fleet.

"C" is the important one to me (although losing bar/food time in the room sucks) as it seems like our fleet is the last place I sail that still has super friendly competition, where people err on the side of caution when it comes to these situation. My feeling is that it would take only a couple incidents (protests, disagreements over rules) to push our fleet into the "offensive rules" mindset, like so many other fleets. I definitely don't want to be the guy that starts that slide, and if it means eating circles, thats a small price to pay.

We ended up clawing our way back up, and being behind gave us some opportunity to compare boatspeed with the other fast boats. Having been there, I think our advantage is in upwind boathandling, and compass course. This would explain the feeling of being fast when we're not near other boats, and feeling same-speed/slow when we're next to someone on the same board. The upwind finish was truly excellent, as we (88, 196, 63, 150) all seemed to have the lead in the last 3rd of the race, and it was full of crossings, leebows and slam tacks. It would have been nice to get another bullet, but 4th in that tight pack was satisfying for its own reasons.

To get back to this blogs techinical bent there are 2 small rigging changes I'll discuss in the next time around. New jib halyard, more or less identical to the last one but made with white cover instead of black. This is all so that we can have a preset mark for hoisting the jib, which is often a problem. Helping to standardize our jib halyard settings is a new tack strop I've come up with. Hard to explain without a photo (forthcoming) but it's one piece of line, with which you can hold the jib tight to the forestay and also down to the tack shackle, without any kind of knots. It's all in the goal of getting repeatable settings.

Verve Cup Inshore

Superb race weekend. This weekend was Chicago Yacht Clubs Verve Cup, for one designs (now called the CYC Verve Cup Inshore Regatta), and for the Shields, it's historically been the most prized win, second to the season championship. For us, it marked our first big win, as we won not only the Shields class, but the overall Verve Cup Inshore!

Really exciting racing, and it's great to win stuff, but the crew made this one especially cool for me. Bam M came out from the east coast to sail with us, which meant we finally met in person! I spend like an hour a day on the phone with him, buying stuff and talking shop, but we've never met in person. Excellent sailor and it was just as pleasant to hang around in person as online and on the phone. Got John S out to sail with us, finally, which meant a lot to me, since he's one that got me started racing! Have learned a lot from him, and am hoping to continue to do so when he comes sailing with us again (nudge nudge). Brian Shaw was out again, which is fun for me since I'm getting to pass on stuff I've learned to the new(er) guy. Niki was going to sail 1 day with us, but it didn't quite work out. She still managed to win the regatta backpack prize somehow.

Racing: Tough!

Saturday was breezy from the west, and got in 3 looong races. Lots of attrition in our fleet brought the numbers down to 3 at the end of the day. Very rough to see Shields going in with broken booms, and in one case a shredded spinnaker hanging off the masthead. My starts continue to be a problem with this boat, but we were able to get speed and tactics on our side to win all 3, with 150 taking 2nds. We had a spectacular dial up in the 3rd race, where 150 took us head to (and beyond) the wind, and I consider us both shockingly lucky there was no contact. All still friends and the end of the day, but I think we both need some start line work this fall in dinghies!

Sunday was high teens from the northeast and some really big waves! I think there were a few 6' waves out there, and it was a challenge to keep the boat dry. We had a lousy start, and were 2nd to 63 for much of the beat. We engaged them in a tacking duel, and were able to grind away a a lot of their lead. Our boathandling all weekend was perfect, and it showed up mostly in our sets, but it was nice to see the crew work so elegantly highlighted. We called a better layline, and went on to lead the rest of the race. Downwind surfs were very exciting, and we had some nice sustained waves where I swear it was 15 seconds. The boat didn't break, and I was happy when the race committee called it a day after the first race.

Sailing was so great this weekend, as we had chemistry, attitude and skill on our side. I won't get gushy, but everyone sailed perfect on our boat. It was really cool to get the overall regatta prize, which I think we got since we had the lowest overall score, 4 points. The regatta itself was really well done. Very easy to enjoy the sailing with good RC and nice shoreside management.

This regatta marks our first overall win, and I'm really happy to be looking at a cool trophy, reflecting on a great weekend. Buying this boat was a great idea Niki!

Racing 7 26

More like it!

We finally had a light air day for Shields racing, and it was lots of fun. Every other race day has been big breeze, so I had no chance to see how the boat does in the light stuff. As it turns out, it does ok!

We had: me, Brian Shaw (main/spin), Brian Sabina (jib/tactics), Craig Capilla (jib/wind), and Eric Stuck (bow/bow) aboard today.

Boat was set up for base settings : 800 uppers, 300 lowers. On the way out we dropped a half turn off each lower, which would probably make it like 250ish(?)

Breeze was about 5-10 all day, mostly north, with only a couple shifts coming through. We got out early enough to get wind readings and do a practice leg (upwind, tacks, spin set, gybes, douse) We came up with a loose plan to play the middle left side of the course.

First start we got going a bit early and ended up 2/3 away from the favored boat end, but managed to get left early, catch good shifts and get out in front. Stuck to the plan all race and finished in 1. Had solid conservative tactics, and boatspeed that seemed just a bit faster than those around us. I love sailing with dinghy sailors!

Second race we got the (now favored) 1/3 pin start, but more importantly, came out rocket fast and were able to punch out early. I think this was mostly due to coming in on a fast reach, and having perfect trim: I didn't touch the tiller at all, and the slow easy trim on the sails brought us up to course. We were able to roll the boat to leeward, and also have enough speed to close off the windward boat. I changed our headstay setting to about 49", and we seemed to be a bit better paced upwind. This was the kind of race thats great to be in, but boring to describe: win start, extend, cover, extend, win by many minutes.

Had an excellent crew today, that made the racing easy and fun. All were college sailors, and perfect for their jobs on the boat. The one thing that I was shocked by after racing is that I don't think we made any mistakes besides the first start. It was super clean, and we didn't take any big risks. I tried to focus heavily on driving, as my guys kept a constant stream of tactical info coming, so I didn't look around much. Upwind it seemed like the best speed and height was maintatined with the jib leech about 5" in from the spreader, and the main set with boom on center, and the top telltale stalling most of the time. Doesnt sound right, but it was fast. Downwind we had awesome gains, as the front crew kept an eye on pressure/boats and me and Shaw worked on boatspeed ("getting light, come up" etc) It worked very very well, especially the second race.

Thoughts:

I think theres a bit more speed to be had upwind in light air with this boat. I'm going to try chocking the mast a bit more forward.

College sailors rock

Need more beer on a race day. Had 9 beers and 2 ciders (?) and we ran out on the way in. I think a 12 pack plus rum would be more appropriate.

On light days, it would be wise to make the 6:1 traveler purchase into 3:1 for speed.

Had a really great day, and we have extended our lead in the series standings. So far we've done 10 of 16 races, and with drops we have a 10 point lead. Standings order for the top 4 ( I think) is

88 with 13
196 with 23
150 with 26
63 with 37

While we are obviously focused on the series, the next race we're doing is the Verve Cup, and we have a couple veteran Shields sailors aboard, which should be interesting!

Recap of last couple weeks

Mac rush is over, so I can think about my own boat again!

For the independence cup, Niki and I decided very late to sail, and thus had no crew besides ourselves. It was still pretty fun, and Niki got some good light air chute practice. I think we actually could have done well (being light) in the 3-5kts of breeze, but got a not-so-great start which was followed up by getting tacked on by anyone and everyone. We finished 6th and went in, but had a good time. Sailing doublehanded is great fun (at least in the light air.) Surprisingly, I found it harder to go upwing (working mainsheet, trav and backstay) than going downwing (gybing main and spinnaker)

The following wednesday we had Niki's parents out for a beercan, which we started 7 minutes or so late (due to wrangling with dinghies etc). It was a good test of light air speed again, and we ended up beating the 1 other boat out there.

Last Saturday was a series race (b1 b2) and we went out again in big breeze (AGAIN). Averaging high teens, gusting mid 20s. We seemed to lack our usual speed, and definitely didn't have the boathandling down. Additionally, I missed the first start by quite a while due to being way off the course while messing around with sails and compass headings. A painful 6 and 3. A couple lessons learned:

-dont leave the start area, and definitely not by 1/4 mi!
-need to practice gybing, sets, and upwind speed before the actual race
-wrapping kite is bad, very bad (I've only wrapped 1 Shields kite before, ever, and this weekend we had it 3 times)

The problems we had on gybes:
-boom out too far to make crossing boom easy: solution: shorten mainsheet with stopper knot
-spinnaker getting wrapped on headstay: trim old guy all the way back to shrouds before gybe
-overdriving during gybe: get everything gybed before following with helm

Got a chance to get our chops back this coming weekend, the 26th.

Thats all I can recall for now. Mostly happy the Mac racers are gone, so I can sleep again.