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
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
posted by Anonymous at 9:25 AM
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