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!