Friday, July 14

Friday was a great night for sailing. The wind was solid enough to have the crews trapping all night long but not so much that you could not enjoy a beer on the downwind leg. The Ida Lewis committee set us off on four short races. It was a pretty athletic night for the most part.

Josh and I decided pretty early on that the right was the way to go. Current was not much of an issue and there seemed to be more pressure out there. We set up above the boat layline for the start to find Will Wells, steering for Ross, lined up to leeward of us with not much of an escape for us. We luffed our sails, waited for the gun to go off and started behind them with a very quick tack to clear our air and get to the right. After a bit of separation we tacked back and found ourselves ahead of the fleet to round the windward mark first with Will and Ross in second. This is how the race ended with Jeff Adam in third and the Joneses in fourth. This would be the first race Oakley's boat has completed since he bought it. It is nice to have him out.

The second race looked to start just like the first, with Will and Ross to leeward and us above the boat layline. Jeff came in on port, though, and planted a tack right below the boys which slowed them, allowed us to roll them to windward and create a lane below the committee. Thanks Jeff. With such short courses, this is how the race finished up; us, Jeff, Will and Ross and the Joneses.

The third race was a bit tighter. We decided to try something other than barging and started somewhere around the middle of the line. It did not look like anyone was near the line at the gun when we looked back and saw Anna and Oakley hit the start on time, with speed and charging upwind. Not bad for the first night in the boat. The fleet was definitely getting closer together and it shook out to finish us, will and Ross, Anna and Oakley with Jeff in fourth.

We were over early in the fourth start. I think we need to bring the committee more beers. This race was a bit longer, windward, leeward, windward and a dog-leg to Ida Lewis. We spent the first two legs watching the other three racing closely. Things got closer at the leeward mark where people started to slow down playing with each other. We almost had room to get inside Jeff at the mark but decided to play it safe and go around. Everyone went right, for the most part and we went left to try and stay out of the beginning of an incoming tide and for more wind, which paid off. We rounded the windward mark in second, behind Will and Ross with Jeff behind us and the Joneses in fourth. The leg to the club is a reach so this is how we stayed.

This was one of the more competitive nights of sailing we have had this summer. It was good to see Will Wells, our local Quantum Sails rep, taking an interest and sailing with the fleet. It was very nice to have Josh back who had obviously come to sail as his tacks were fantastic and the general crew-work felt great. The best part of the night was sailing upwind, watching Anna and Oakley on starboard with Anna yelling "We're in first!" Hopefully we have more nights like this.

Here's another try at posting results. We are working on posting them on the Ida site with a link every week.

Mark Van Note
#631 - US Blues


#631 - Josh Hill: 1, 1, 1, 2 = 5pts
#608 - Ross Weene: 2, 3, 2, 1 = 8pts
#687 - Jeff Adam: 3, 2, 4, 3 = 12 pts
#511 - Anna & Oakley Jones: 4, 4, 3, 4 = 15pts

Last Friday

Here is a write-up from last week's winner. I do not have results yet. The Atlantics took the steam out of posting the weeknight results.



July 7 Friday night proved a beautiful night of racing, with four boats out racing four races in 10-14 knots and sunny skies. Oakley and Anna Jones christened and launched #511, a sight we've been waiting four years to see, and there's even pictures to prove it! They sailed until their rudder head slipped on the rudder shaft, good thing the rudder stayed in as they've been known to drop out and go to the bottom. Greg and Rick Maurice came down from Maine to join us and stayed for the Atlantics.

My crew Ryan Cahill is new to the 110, so our first goals were to smooth out the boathandling, our previous week saw lots of tanglings. We were a bit late for the first start but hung in there behind Mark Van Note & Ryan Scott and Jeff & Joanne Adam, got comfortable in the boat, and saw that in clear air we had good speed and point. In Race 2 we looked to get off the line clean, then get right as it looked like there was more pressure there as well as predicted persistent right shift and the tide turning to go out. The plan seemed to work but Mark and Ryan obviously were thinking the same and rounded the windward mark in first. I remember Jeff digging in too far left in the first beat and it didnt work out. At the leeward mark we came in hot with speed and were able to secure inside overlap on Mark, but I looked up from dousing chute and we totally missed it - so we gybed and tacked and re rounded, behind Jeff, now in first as Mark and Ryan had problems getting their chute in the boat for a while so were slow getting around the mark.

By Race 3 we felt solid in the boat, and felt the new Quantum sails were working well. What a bonus to have a nice groove to sail in upwind! Been a while since I've had that. So the goal was to get off the line with speed and get right again, which worked - we got bow out at the start and kept her smooth and flat and soon were able to tack above the fleet and get to the right. We dug into pressure there, tacked back, and rounded in first followed by Mark. We both gybe set to get back out into pressure, and they were on our heels the whole run. We managed to stay ahead, rounded the leeward mark on the first attempt this time, continued on starboard out to the layline then tacked to finish close to the pin.

In Race 4 we used the same strategy and it worked out; sail smooth and fast off the start, get right, gybe set on the run, and favor the right side up the long beat to R2. We may have been able to carry chute on the final reach to Ida Lewis, but opted to play conservative. Overall it was an excellent night of racing with all four boats mixing it up around the course. Looking forward to this Friday!

Ross Weene

2006 Atlantic Coast Championships

The 110 class held its Atlantic Coast Championships during the Newport Regatta, held by Sail Newport. It was a successful regatta for Sail Newport with 254 boats in 18 classes. Boats headed out to circles all over the bay and offshore. The 110’s shared a circle with the beach-cats, 210’s and J-22’s. Everyone played nicely together for the most part although there is always bound to be confusion when you are sailing a keelboat and catamarans are zipping around in the teens, sailing the same angles upwind and downwind.

Day one started with a light, light northerly. Josh Hill, owner of US Blues, was attending a wedding over the weekend and was generous enough to let me race his boat. My crew, Ryan Scott, and I left the dock early in the hopes of getting to the start in time and to continue familiarizing Ryan, a newcomer to the class, with the boat and its quirks. We arrived against an outgoing tide just before the wind shut down completely, threw out the anchor and waited. The committee tried to get a couple of classes off, which did not work. Eventually the southerly arrived and we were able to start racing.

Once racing began, the committee did what they could in the space provided along with wind versus an impressively strong tide. The combination resulted in the inability for anyone to cross the start line on starboard all day. The impressive part was that, except for one race, everyone started remarkably clean. I think it is because everyone had to start on port. Beyond trying to be first off the line the play for the entire day was to go right, nail the layline, if you could with the tide, and go off on starboard gybe down the run as every time you gybed onto port you were headed twenty degrees higher than you thought you would and the boat felt horrible. Once in a while someone would take an early dive to the left on the beat and look like rock stars for a bit while you tried to fight the temptation to go and cover in case it would pan out. Strength in your convictions was the big battle of the day.

Ryan and I started the day off pretty well winning the first race and a second in the second. Jeff Adam, sailing with his wife Joanne, is proving to have this pesky downwind speed edge and he took the second race off us. The third race was, well, annoying. We decided to start being conservative which does not work when you have to have the best of a port tack start, apparently. We found ourselves second row, having to tack at the worst times and far enough behind that we started to get mixed up with J-22’s and the like for the rest of the race. After battling back to third in the second beat we made some bad decisions, had to duck a catamaran and who knows what else and gave back two boats to finish fifth. The last two races provided us with another second and another first. At the end of day one we were tied with Jeff and Joanne with us winning on the second tie-breaker and Stewart Craig with dad Tom crewing three points behind on Pow Wow.

Day two started off much better wind-wise. The southerly was in and forecasted to stay in with pressure. Ryan and I left the dock early again. In fact, a little too early as we spent a lot of time trying to scrub speed towards the race committee so we would not have to reach around for an hour. We went over to see the Lasers milling around, beat up to the windward mark and got back in good time for the first race. Every race was proving to be a tight one. Ross Weene seemed to like the heavier air and got second between us and Jeff in the first race of the day. The second race was a great battle between us and Jeff with the lead changing a couple of times before we (okay, I) called a bad layline to the finish and Jeff surfed by below us while we sailed VMG to the line.

The third race was looking to be a great one with Ross, Jeff, Stewart and ourselves battling hard. Somewhere in the mix, though, we lost track off Jeff and Joanne who had mysteriously left the race and were on their way in. Most of us found out when we got back in that day that they had wrapped some lines around the forestay from a recreational fishing boat on the coarse and after evading one Joanne caught the second right in the hand. She was quickly transferred to a committee boat and brought in to the paramedics while Jeff sailed the boat in. By the time we caught up with Jeff at the regatta tent Joanne was back at home after a trip to the hospital. I have caught a fishing line around the headstay once but never saw the hook at the end. I don’t think I am going to ask for the details. The biggest disappointment was that the regatta was shaping up to be a great battle between the two boats. I would have much rather raced against them until the end.

The fourth and fifth races were tight with Stewart and Ross. The breeze was getting good by then and… did I mention that Ryan weighs over 200 lbs? If it were a lighter day we would have had some issues but with that kind of crew on the trapeze you can traveler up, sheet harder and go faster. The gains we had upwind were enough to fight them off downwind and we were able to win the last two races taking the regatta with Ross getting two seconds and Stewart with two thirds. With Jeff and Joanne missing the last three races, this put Stewart and Tom in second overall and Ross in third.

There were definitely some other points of interest through the weekend. On day one, Tom Rizzo and crew showed some flashes of great speed and point, showing potential to be a force come Nationals. Day two had a great start with us, Jeff and Stewart headed to the Navy base exclusion zone with Stewart holding the cards and us to leeward. We took a crack at tacking ahead of the other two and had to slam one back to avoid Jeff. So, three boats, an exclusion zone, add an exclusion zone buoy somewhere in the middle and next thing you know we are all on port tack with Jeff passing Stewart to windward, us passing them to leeward with a bow out on Jeff and no one really knowing how we all ended up there. No flags were thrown though I think we could have been in a room for a week figuring the whole thing out. We will have to revisit that one over a beer at the Hull Yacht Club because I honestly don’t know how it worked out so well for us. Ross showed some speed through the weekend, coming off a Friday night win with his new sails. Lastly is the grin I get on my face every time I hear Herb Dreher yelling starboard at someone over my shoulder because everyone knows Herb never messes around when it comes to having rights.

In the end, I think everyone would call the weekend a good one and one not too miss next year. We had eight boats in all but would really like to see over ten or fifteen. The Newport Regatta might be a bit more expensive than most 110 fare but it is not everyday you can race a good fleet of 110’s in Narragansett Bay for two days. Thanks to Sail Newport and the volunteers, thanks to the out of town boats who made the trip to our neck of the woods, and thanks to Josh for the boat and Ryan for the hard work.

Every time I try to post results on this page I fail so you can find them on the Sail Newport site here.

Mark Van Note
#631 – US Blues

Friday Night Results

That was a good night of sailing. I am sure Josh's legs are sore, though, as there was a lot of in and out on the trap all night.

I am still working on a good way to format the results here but I do this in what little spare time I have so it is what it is. Also, the Words of Wisdom from Jeff Adam who won the night on the second tie-break can be found below. They were long enough to get their own post.

Another Friday night and the Sail Newport Regatta coming up next weekend. Hopefully the out of towners coming for the regatta will join us on Friday night.

Boat - Skipper - Race 1 - Race 2 - Race 3 - Race 4 - Total - Series

687 - Jeff Adam - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 6 - 10
631 - Josh Hill - 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 6 - 22
608 - Ross Weene - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 12 - 21
566 - Rick Maurice - 5 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 17 - 28
11 - Marty Brown - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 20 - 36
741 - Tom Rizzo - 5 - 6 - 6 - 5 - 22 - 38
511 - Oakley Jones - 5 - 6 - 6 - 5 - 22 - 38
10 - Will Donaldson - 5 - 6 - 6 - 5 - 22 - 38

Boats starting - 4 - 5 - 5 - 4
DNS - 5 - 6 - 6 - 5

Friday Night Words of Wisdom

Week 5 on the schedule – second night of actual racing. After bad weather canceled three nights of sailing week 5 finally produced a beautiful evening with 4 nice races in trapeze conditions.

I was playing in a charity golf tournament and was late arriving at Sail Newport. Luckily, we have some great guys in our fleet that uncovered my boat and had it right at the hoist. Thanks Josh and Oakley!

I don’t think I have ever seen a night/day of racing with so many lead changes in each race. It was an extremely competitive night of sailing. Ross had his new Quantum sails up. Main needs work, jib looked good. Marty and Rick joined us from Maine. Oakley raced around the parking lot…

Race One: We started at the heavily favored pin end with the fleet fighting for position at the boat. We made a huge mistake near the windward mark as we were in a crossing position with Mark and Josh. We were on port and didn’t think they were on layline so we elected to duck them and tack. Unfortunately they pinched up and made the mark and we followed them for the balance of the race.

Race Two: This race we started again at the pin, but the leg was too short to leg out under Mark or Ross. We tacked right on the layline and took both of their sterns. Both Mark and Ross went too far to the left and allowed us to round the windward mark with a comfortable lead. Our downwind speed was excellent, but our tacking was sloppy. We barely managed to successfully cover upwind to hold off a surging Mark and Josh and win by a slim 5 second margin.

Race Three: “Mast abeam!” – haven’t heard that one in a while… This was a hotly contested race that saw tempers flying. Mark and Josh rounded the weather mark first about a boat length ahead, but we quickly got even with them and slowly slipped ahead. However we jibed too soon, combined with excellent team work by Mark and Josh and they now began to overtake us. This is when it got hot. They were calling for proper coarse even though they overlapped from astern and I had full luffing rights. Then in the confusion as I start to head them up, Mark gets the tiller caught in his shorts and cannot maneuver quick enough. I didn’t press them hard enough and while this is going on we both end up with horrible mark roundings with me trailing Mark and Josh. Ross managed to sneak in right behind me and inside me. Unfortunately I’m now sucking bad air and cannot tack. Apparently Ross had a mess on this boat and wasn’t paying attention. The left had been paying all night and I was desperate to tack. Finally I bore off and tacked to the left off Ross’s stern. While I wasn’t able to catch the leaders I did manage to get Ross back. Yes the left paid again.

Race Four: This turned out to be the longest and closest race of the night with all boats finishing within a minute although we had a pretty good lead over the rest of the fleet by the finish. Current played a big factor in this race and being able to lead out of current was huge.

After racing the fleet enjoyed pizza and beer back at my house. Overall a really fun night.

Next Friday is the night before the Newport Regatta so we expect a nice fleet. If you plan to join us racing starts at 6:00.

Jeff