Race Results for Weds #1 – 5/29/19

Our first Wednesday Night race of the year was held on Wednesday, May 29th. Details are as follows:

Forecast
Conditions: Cloudy
Precip: 0% chance of precipitation in the afternoon,
Temp: Hi 59°F – Low 52°F
Winds: NE 5 – 10 knots
Tide: Low tide is at 2:18 PM, high tide is 8:36 PM
Current: Max flood was to 30° at 7:10 PM at .29 knots
Sunset: 8:14 PM

Actual Conditions
Conditions: Cloudy with sun breaking out at end of race
Precip: a few raindrops once back at the dock
Temp: Hi 55°F – Low 52°F
Winds: Light at 6-10 knots from the E-ESE, 90° to 110°.

Crew
Helm – Chris
Main Trim – Paige
Jib Trim – Tom
Pit – Sunny
Spin Trim – Steve
Mast– Skip
Midmast – Erin
Bow – Caleb

Settings
Main halyard – green
Main Traveler – down 9”
Jib halyard – green
Jib car – forward 12”
Backstay – just snug

Pre-race
We were off the dock at 5:30 for tune-up. Worked our way upwind to just off Legals in South Boston, set kite and had the port sheet fouled. Gybed right away and re-ran the sheet. practices a series of gybes DW, we were very slow and a bit over-trimmed coming out of the gybes. Did a nice Mexican takedown, the jib was a bit over-trimmed coming out of the douse. We then had 20 minutes to clean up the lines, talk about the race and more importantly run up and down the line. As we practiced the starting runs, we found that the wind went more and more to the left the further to the pin you went, with a close reach from the boat to the pin and a beam reach from the pin to the boat. 

Course
RC called Course 4, twice around. S-12-0-12-F, a total of 6.8 nm. Upwind angle is 130°, downwind is 310°. You cannot of course sail directly to the mark, as the East Boston pier just into the rhumb line. RC shortened the course during the downwind leg to just once around for 3.4 nm. 

Start
All 10 boats out were set up for one start. The current was pushing us slightly away from the line. We were in sequence right at the warning, running up and down the line, and our plan was to start at the middle of the line with good speed and clear air. At about 2:30 we were near the pin and gybed to head back towards the RC. We stayed 2 BLs below the line at the most, as it was tight to fetch the line on starboard. We saw all the other boats were pretty low on the line, so knew we would not get luffed up early. We tacked right in front of uproar and started building speed on starboard. Scherherazade came in and tacked above us, but they were a little late. We were a few seconds late to the line and not quite to closed hauled at the gun. We had enough speed and height to be the leebow boat on Scher, causing them to tack away. Rockit was below us, and we prepared for their call of “obstruction” from the East Boston Pier, planning to call “you tack” and tacking right on their lee bow, which we did.

Upwind Leg 1
We stayed to the left (East Boston) during much of the first leg. After Scher tacked away on to port they headed into less breeze and a header. We got as close to the East Boston pier as we could, as soon as Rockit hailed “obstruction” we replied “you tack” and were able to tack into a leebow position to effect their air. When Scher came back up on starboard we just crossed them, then found nice breeze to head back to the left. They crossed us on their starboard, then at the next crossing we were well ahead. We decided to wait until they reached our transom to tack – that was a mistake! We should have tacked on top of them, which would have either slowed them down with our bad air or caused them to tack over to the right, unfavored side. Instrad, we ended up on the unfavored side, they were able to get all the way to the airport beach, and at the next cross we were behind.

Rounding 1
We stayed as close to the airport on our approach as possible, and came in on the port layline. This called for a tack set, which we had not practice, so I tried to talk the crew through it. That led me to lose focus on driving, so we came into the mark very slow. We did tack within 2 BL of the mark, and quickly set the kite.

Downwind Leg 1
Once the spin was drawing, we saw Scher had gybed to head for the middle of the course, so we did as well. Scher had a spinnaker wrap, so had to partially drop to clear it, allowing us to catch up a bit. Rockit was then 3rd around the mark, at least a minute behind us. They DID NOT gybe right away, instead stayed very close tot eh airport and took advantage of some extra breeze and a header to run down the left side of the course and make up ground. We tried to stay in the pressure, but our second mistake was getting to far away from the favored left side of the course. Coming down to just SE of the aquarium we encountered two Boston Harbor Cruise boats motoring at about 4-5 knots. We gybed a little early to go high of them, then as we got to

Finish
Coming down to just SE of the aquarium we encountered two Boston Harbor Cruise boats motoring at about 4-5 knots. We gybed a little early to go high of them, then as we got towards the East Boston pier the wind diminished and went forward (as it always does) so we were able to come down a few degrees to make the finish line at the pin without a late gybe. Rockit had made up a lot of ground on us, so was only 30 seconds or so behind us at the finish. Scher had finished about 3 minutes ahead of us.

Results
The boats across the line were Scher, Dopo, Rockit then Agora. As it was a “light” “W/L” race, Scher owed us 28.8 seconds per 10 minutes of racing (SP10 as I call it) and Rockit owed us 6 SP10, while we owed Agora 16.2 SP10. Net result – a bullet for us!!

Things we learned/need to do next time

  1. Run the line early and often to get in a groove and develop a starting plan early.
  2. Be ready for the “obstruction” call, have a plan and execute.
  3. For breeze from the SE, the left side usually pays off, with more pressure and a wind shift close to shore. It offsets any advantage to current in the middle of the course.
  4. We need to practice the tack set so we can execute it faster.
  5. We should have delayed our gybe until we were at the beach of the airport.
  6. We should have done a better job staying in the pressure.
  7. Make sure the tack is all the way down when using the reacher, with barely a curl in the luff.
  8. Don’t forget to try to get time of our finish as well as the boats ahead and behind us.

Permanent link to this article: https://dopo.crew-mgr.com/race-results-for-weds-1-5-29-19/

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