Racing Log 5/20/10

Crew:

Me

Neal

Chris

Boat: Ruby

Results:

Race #1: 3rd

Race #2: 4th

Race #3: 3rd

Overall: 2nd

Race #1:

We had a pretty good start, but it was a bit sketchy. I tried to come in on the pin end of the line, but almost didn't make it. I had to pinch pretty hard to avoid hitting the pin. Nothing interesting on the upwind leg and we reached the mark in the middle. Crazy shift on the downwind leg put us on a close reach with the chute still up. Everyone else was prudent and took their chute down at this point. We left it up and gained at least 3 places. The only problem was: how do you douse a chute from that position? It turns out that I have to hand the tiller to someone else while I go all the way back to the stern to grabe the spinnaker sheet. This was very dicey and we were lucky that we were not near other boats or the mark. The gamble got us in to 3rd place though!

Place: 3rd

Race #2:

Bad start. I tried to come in to the middle of the line. I was heading towards the boat end on port tack and got forced away from the line by the fleet on starboard. I couldn't tack around to set up for the start when I wanted to. Neal kept telling my to gybe. I should have listened to him. We quickly tacked and ducked everybody to get clear air. We reached the upwind mark in the middle of the pack. On the downwind leg we stayed clear of bad air and other boats. We made up ground on a ton of boats. Beating back up to the line I was sure we were headed for another 3rd when out of nowhere a boat I hadn't seen at all crosses the line. Damn.

Place: 4th

Race #3:

This start wasn't as bad as #2, but I'm not too proud of it. We were on the line on time, but everybody else was in our wind. The wind was dying, so we were hardly moving. We tacked immediately even though it meant ducking many boats. This put us in clear air and also put us further right one the course which was a mixed bag: It was closer to land, so the wind was a bit shadowed, but it was out of the deepest part of the channel so the current probably wasn't as strong. We took a bunch of places on the upwind leg and reached the upwind mark in 6th. On the rounding we had a great spinnaker set (I think we all cheered when that thing popped open right away). We sailed a good downwind leg, but the boats in front of us got close to each other and started racing each other instead of use. We squeaked past 3 boats at the line for our most exciting finish.

Place: 3rd

Lessons from the night:

Start better

Get into clear air fast when you don't start better

Head off for speed when a boat to windward is going to take your air

When you are going to have a dicey spinnaker takedown, make a plan with the crew before you start

When posible make one of your crew a college sailor who is heading to nationals next week. Those guys know a lot about sailing.