B Series 1 2 3

Good day racing yesterday, nice variety of conditions, good competition and had a good time.

Me, Katie on main spin, Andy on jib/pit, Niki on bow.

Morning started kinda irritating with a slow start out of the harbor, and a tow that had tacking angles, but we finally got out into some sailable breeze, about 4kts @100deg.

We were tuned similar to the last race, with a headstay at 49.5, lowers slack, uppers 800 and a 1/2" shim aft.

Got the most perfect start ever... almost. We were going super fast right at the pin end, but were OCS as our time didn't match the RC; first we were late, then we were early. Big bearaway and gybe to port and we were off. Caught a nice righty about 5 minutes in and were back to 3rd, behind 196 and 150. Lost a little ground working out speed, but then saw both lead boats continue right past our (short) mark! We rounded the proper mark with 45 just behind, and led the rest of the race as the breeze built up to around 5kts. This weekend saw the return of 150, and looking back we saw them go way out of their way to round the short mark correctly, even though 196 kept sailing without rounding anything. Both boats ended up doign the right thing, as 150 rounded and 196 RAF'd when both me and Sam from 45 talked to them about it. Have to say hats off to my crew, as when we saw the lead boats go for the long mark I was really second guessing the "S" we saw on the course board, but they stood their ground against a nervous skipper and it saved the day for us.

There were a few key shifts this day, and we kept missing them at the start, as we got a nice boat end start, only to realize that in the 5 minutes since the warning it had gone left some, and we were crossed by 150 who started port. We rounded right behind them and did an aggressive bearawy to set up just behind, but much lower than they were. We were really even on speed, but set up inside so that we could gybe on them, roll and round inside and ahead. We legged out a bit on the upwind and then held on to win the race. It's been good to have Kevin back racing, as even with some dog sails he's going REALLY quick, and it's made for good tuning and racing.

Missed another key shift at the start of the 3rd race, which started in around 8kts, but was able to pull out a bit and barely cross Kevin. We extended upwind and down, and won the race, finishing in a huge (for 2011) 14kts or so. We'd changed tune a bit for race 3, having shortended headstay to 49" and added 1/2 turn to the lowers, and gone to a 1/4" shim behind the mast.

Good day for our scoreline looks good at 8pts to 196 in second with 27 (counting the RAF) but more importantly a perfect day of weather, with lots of good competition. Need more days like today!

Small breeze big fun a series 3 and 4

Today was a lousy weather day: no breeze in AM, peaked at like 8kts, but still a great day for sailing. We won both races, and more importantly had a hoot and learned a lot as a team.

Had me driving, niki at bow, kate on main/spin and andy on jib.

First race we got a good start, but didn;t quite have upwind speed down, and rounded 4th. Took advantage of a giant righty and gybed after rounding, passing 3 boats nearly instantly. Ended up rounding 1st at bottom, and held on to lead.

Tune wise we felt fast: had new Quantum jib up, which is super flat and awesome in light/flat conditions. Couldn't really get main working though, and it was tough to fly top telltale without easing main too far or pulling on too much backstay, so after first race I added a whole toggle (2") to headstay, and then shortened it just a bit (for a total length of 50.25.

Started next race at what was the favored boat end, only to see a huge left drop in and make us last. We tacked out, and realized an incredible speed and height advantage. The extra rake meant the mast had more bend to it, and the main finally (after years and a recut) looked good. We extended and extended and finished with the crew mixup that had me on bow, Katie driving, Niki trimming and Andy on tactics.

Learned a lot today;

Cleaned the bottom, and even though it's only june we had serious agriculture going on down there. I hadn't cleaned it all year, and I think it made a big diff.

our max legal partners and step really need more headstay than I thought. We were inches longer than usual and it was insanely fast upwind. Had 50.25 on headstay, and a 1/4" shim behind mast and could do no wrong.

With people in new positions we worked on trim a lot, and found some fast settings, especially for tacking. Andy was easing the jib after tacks well outside the spreader, and then doing very slow (depending on breeze) trims as speed built. Same thing on main, as Katie realyl got the hang of tackign the boat.

Downwind I really like the "top/middle/bottom" type of communication, and we felt quite fast doing it.

We now have 5 points, and are in first, with second having 11.

A series 2

Bizarre, strange, weird day of racing! Super light and shifty, and I think we only led the race for a combined 400', but at least they were the right 400' and we won the days only race.

We started one race, which turned into a reach to the mark and was thankfully abandoned. The second start was squared up a bit, and we got a good position but slow start, and had to bail out to the right. At this point it was the "windiest" at around 6kts, and we felt good out right until one of the days many shifts came through, and put us behind 196 and 45 at the top mark, with 63 just behind. We gybed out from 63 and happened in some lucky patches of puff and angle and passed 45, and in doing a few more gybes over the top of 196, I think we actually passed them for a bit, but then overdid it and overstood stbd layline a bit, and rounded behind 196, and ahead of 45 (who gave us room although they didn't have to) Then things got weirder, as despite rounding 4 lengths behind (but with a tighter rounding) we got wound up hard inside 196, and actually went from straight astern to 2 lengths ahead. 130, who came from nowhere to get inside of us after the rounding, then charge on by on the inside, while 196 had lots of pace outside, and then we were in third. (!??) 196 tacked and crossed us to go inside, while we continued out right with 130. This proved good, as when we tacked back we crossed both 196 and 249, who had apparently come from way deep to be close to the leaders. Once we approached stbd layline we tacked, and got tacked on by 130. Then things got weirder, as the breeze dropped to nil on the water, with a tiny bit up top. In essentially zero kts, we were all stacked up on the stbd layline (130, 88, 196,149) to what was now a shortened windward finish. We made fwd progress of about 4'/min for a while, until there was a tiny bit of breeze to work with. We ended up passing 130 incredible slowly, and ghosted over the finish line within about 30 seconds of what we figured the time limit to be. Quite intense racing, despite the snails pace, especially watching the RC boat guys watch the line, while one of them frantically looked at the GPS for timing. Today gave me a huge headache, but points is points! The finish order was us, 196, 130, 45, 249, 67, 63

We had me, Niki, Shawn O and Andy H on board today, which worked pretty well. I wish we'd had more time to practice in the AM as we had Andy in a new spot today, and Shawn usually sails big boats. Every one did great though, and I picked up some important skills for the super light air.

Tune: we were underpowered all day, which was no surprise, but I'm wishing I'd tuned for a flatter main, either with shims or headstay, as we had lots of trouble getting the main to look decent and fly the tells.

Trick of the day: when we were drifting at the finish, we were able to pass and extend by doing the following:

being really patient with everything! it's a frustrating stupid condition, but you have to stay cool

not steering! we figured out how aggressive the trimmers had to be, and how minimal I had to be. We were trying to beat/reach in 0.01 kts, with lots of chop, so the boat wants to turn in the wrong direction most of the time. The solution is to keep the tiller more or less centered, and do huge eases/trims on both sails to change heading. We passed 130, probably, going twice as fast (still slow) by doing this, and didn't get hurt the way some boats did (there were boats doing 360's, and tacking, all while ttrying to go straight)

downwind: we experimented a lot with how hot of an angle to exit gybes on, and really found a sweet spot. Shawn's also really good at communication in terms of sheet load/angle so we were able to keep the boat going faster and lower than everyone else. I think I've settled on how I like to get feedback from the spin trimmer: using top/middle/bottom to express where the boats heading relative to the sheet load works well for me.

weight low: in every way. We had Niki underdeck and forward (under the spin for fly relief) and everyone else was in full hike... to leeward.

The racing wasn't by any means great, but it was still a really intense day on the water, and fun. I think 5 different boats led the race about 8 or 9 times!

This week we're hoping to finally beercan, and are setting up some competition in an Etchells skipper who's borrowing a shields to take friends out with. neat!

A series 1

Jacob and Kate took the boat out this weekend, as Niki and I were out of town. Below is Jacobs report:

---

A crew of three took Peanut for a ride in the first A race of the series. After a few last minute cancellations, Katie, Ian, and I worked out the crew work so that Katie trimmed main upwind and ran the bow downwind, Ian trimmed jib and spin, and I held onto the tiller and trimmed main around the corners. This setup worked pretty well and everyone had something to do throughout the race.

We sailed out in a solid westerly at around 10 knots, but when we reached the course, the breeze was already dwindling. The Race Committee tried to start a race in marginal conditions, but changed their mind after a few minutes into the sequence. I took a half turn off the lowers and two turns off the headstay when it looked like we were going to sail in the super light conditions. We waited under AP until a northerly filled in. I changed the rig back to base settings after it filled in.

The new breeze initially filled at around 10 knots, but got lighter as our start approached. The boat end was favored and that's where I wanted to start, but I was focusing on keeping boat speed up in the pre-start for the light air and Mike pushed me down the line a bit. We had a good start about a quarter of the way down from the boat, but Sam had a good start at the boat. Lu had a down-speed start and split off the the right side after the start. The rest of the fleet continued to the left. We had a boat speed problem on the first beat in the light air. I noticed a lot of weather helm, especially for the little breeze we had. We could have trimmed the jib harder to correct this, which we did on the second beat. I think that sailing the boat flatter would have been interesting to try. Sam was able to roll over the top of us to a significant lead. The breeze clocked right slightly, so Lu rounded between Sam and us. Lu pulled away from us slightly on the downwind and the breeze started to build back up to around 10 knots. On the second beat, we trimmed our jib harder and set out for the right side of the course. We didn't seem to have a boat speed disadvantage this time, which was probably a combination of jib trim and increased wind speed. Sam played the right side and Lu went left initially. In our first cross with Lu, we might have gained slightly, but he continued out right, past the layline and we were able to tack slightly in front of him as we reached the starboard layline. He trailed us closely on the the downwind and some interesting traffic with an approaching T10 made for a close finish, but we were able to finish second. Sam won the race with a comfortable lead.

With an imminent thunderstorm, the Race Committee decided to send the Shields fleet back to the harbor after the first race.

I think that our weaknesses were a less than ideal tuning setup for 3-7 knots and the battery on the compass was dead, so the shifts were tricky to pick up. I thought that our strengths were in the second half of the race. We were more competitive in terms of boat speed and capitalized on a tactical opportunity to pass a boat. All in all, we had a pretty fun day of racing.

Memorial Day Race

It's been a slow spring on Shields 88; even though she's been in the water since April our total sailing days have hovered right around the zero (0) mark until this weekend. We finally made it out for our first sail, which was the Memorial Day Regatta.

It was a pretty gray day, temps in the low 60's and aforecast that called for anything from 0-18kts out of... somewhere. For crew it was Niki, me, Katie, Craig C and Dave A.

On the way out we sailed past CMRC's first regatta, in which Jacob was winning me a bet by placing in the top half in their first regatta. A friend in the Etchells fleet owes me some candy, thanks J! We set a kite, which quickly drained of the several gallons of water it'd accumulated in the spring storms (it's good to sit in the back)

First race it was blowing around 12kts out of the S, and the RC adjusted the line with a bit of a postponement for the J111's. Thats right J111's! We now have what is truly a huge spread of speeds on our 1d circle, with J111's, 105's B367's, T10's as well as the usual one designs. It's a bit of an experiment, and I have to say the first experience wasn't as bad as it could be. We'll see how it goes as the season moves on.

For our start we wanted the boat, and for some reason I thought Lu Han driving 196 was going to engage us a bit, so we were pretty aggressive opening a hole between 63 and 45. The white boat ended up at the pin and we won the boat pretty handily, with 45 tucked in right behind. Our speed was _really_ good in the light stuff we usually struggle in, and I'm hoping that the latest fix to our problem child 08 main is doing the trick. As we approached the top mark the wind dropped to around 5kts, and we noticed the RC boat spinning around the offset mark. As we rounded and set it seemed like they had a mark missing flag, which we debated for a couple minutes until we noticed every other boat behind us going around the RC boat as if they were a mark. D'oh! We dropped kite and sailed back to round the RC, seeing our big lead turn into 4th place as the wind dropped out.

Our plan was to pick off Lu in 3rd, and then work on the other 2 boats. We heated up for some speed, and when they matched our angle gybed over the top of them and pulled away with their air. 63 was next, but while they matched our angle and speed I think they had eyes on us and not on the GIANT J111 kite that ended up stealing all their air. With only 45 left we played the up/down game with them, staying hot when they were low, then soaking down to them when they went up. We got over them just as another J111 took their air. It was instant death to have a j111 over you, so doing whatever it took to get away from them was the name of the game. We were pretty pleased to have recovered from such a giant mistake and clawed back into 1st for the bullet.

Next race was called off at the top mark. While its never fun to abandon a race you're winning the RC made the absolute right call as the rain came in about 2 minutes later with some giant shifts, fog and a weird inversion layer which had us smelling diesel despite not having any motor boats within a mile! Weird day weather wise.

Really pleased to be sailing again, as we've been super busy with house stuff, plus my spring rush at work.

A couple notes on tune:

new headstay this year which should allow for easier calibration. We started at ~49", then lengthened to 49.5. Both were fast. Uppers were 800 lowers 300. Main recut flies the top tell a lot easier, which pays in light air, have to see if we're too open in chop and breeze.

Played with weight a bit more in the light and choppy. Really like having leeward heel downwind in the super light and choppy, but the second theres enough breeze to sail flat I found it fast to have everyone low, amidships but spread out side to side.

Interesting note was watching 45, who managed to sail an entire beat in our bad air, but did so loosing only about 5 lengths from the start. No idea what the heck happened there but good on them for pulling it off! It was perhaps not the best tactics to do exactly what we did 10 seconds later every time, but there bad air ability is impressvie.

Hoping to sail wednesday, and get some baots out for tuning.

Boatyard Bash

The Shields fleet 3 boatyard bash is a yearly event that-in theory-has all the crews of the different boats coming together to work on the boats and share tools and knowloedge. In reality a few boats show up, get about 20 minutes of work done, all the while eating grilled foods and doing some day-drinking.

2011 was no exception, and 88's team embodied the spirit of the event: we did a little work, grabbed some Churros, and mostly stood around drinking and watching the river. Photos are below, but we did tackle some actual projects:

-Team Twing (Niki and Rick) fixed the port twing bracket (note drink holders in use)

-Team Halyard (Katie and Jacob) replaced our new spin halyard with our old one

-Team Underdeck Storage Soluations (Katie, appearing like a raccoon caught in camera flash)

-Blue Team (Doug) did something involving padeyes

-Team Breakfast (Andy) stood around and ate sausage and was mocked for this

Here are some other photos

Team Team misunderstanding the "asses on the rail" part of boating

Hey look another boat!

Happy National Peanut Month!