It doesn’t pay to start early……

Mark, Josh and the Screaming Pelican were on the sidelines for this evening. We missed these guys as they are always fast and competitive. A light southerly kicked in just as we rigged our boats and we enjoyed four races with some occasional trapeze conditions. I did better than week two probably because I remembered to bring a full cooler of beer and Oakley was kind enough to supply the ice.

I find it highly unusual for boats to be over the line early in small fleets. Not so with this fleet. Week two saw boats over early and it happened again this week. With one point separating four boats on week two the competition is keen. The entire fleet is aggressively pushing for good position and speed on the line as starts are so critical in short course racing. Critical being the operative word here as in your condition when you start too early. It hurts! So far this season nobody has been able to recover from OCS and win.

In the start for race one I thought I had pushed Will Donaldson and Oakley Jones on the Wharf Rat over the line early, but they managed to dip back as Jon Gustafson and I sailing the Sugar Magnolia crossed the line too soon (it was close) and with lots of momentum. One second I thought I had won the start, and then seconds later I’m staring at sterns and fast ones at that. I still think that the Guinness that the race committee was enjoying had something to do with their vision…..

We were lucky enough to find some good shifts on the first beat to at least put the fleet in striking distance. We managed to salvage a third in the five boat fleet with Wharf Rat sailing on to victory with Ross Weene in second.

After the week two performance on Wharf Rat, then this victory they were looking like the boat to beat. With that in mind we decided to be near them again at the start for race two. After failing to push them over in the first race and getting caught in the act we decided to be aggressive, yet not press the line too hard. This time it worked as we crossed the line we heard the race committee yell out 511 over. Music to my ears. Unfortunately Ross hit the line with all kinds of speed and promptly rolled us. Again we played the shifts well, rounded the windward mark first and carried the lead the remainder of the race with Ross close behind on our tails finishing second yet again.

The start of race three saw more aggressive starting with 511 fouling us off the line. Will and Oakley did their one tack and one jibe and continued up the beat (after a little yelling…). This was a really close race with the entire fleet separated by only a couple of boat lengths. Will and Oakley led the fleet around the entire course, but we managed to catch them and beat them by around 6”. We engaged them in a tacking duel up the final beat and they had a bad tack with the jib sheet getting caught on something. (Most likely a stray empty) It was in this race that I think I psyched out Oakley by sitting to leeward with Jon extended on the wire – “Midwest style”! Oakley looked back laughed and started to yell about our poor form, but we were fast. If nothing else it broke his concentration for a brief moment.

The final race of the night saw Ross finally sailing away to victory. We finished the race off of Ida Lewis Yacht Club and luckily for Ross the water gets deep quickly as he could have reached out and touched the rocks at the club. Had he needed to tack we might have been able to get him on a crossing, but he had nerves of steel and extra bondo in his car so he went for it.

The final results for the evening were:
Sugar Magnolia 3-1-1-2=7
Oobleck 2-2-3-1=8
Wharf Rat 1-3-2-3=9
US Blues 4-5-5-4=18
741 5-4-4-5=18

Alex was driving the US Blues this week and it was nice to see Tom Welsh joining us in 741. Both are welcome additions to our fleet and have shown some great speed and should be winning their share of races this summer.

Pigs Fly and Blind Squirrels find nuts...Week 2 Results

So week 2 of 110ing out of the Fort was looking a little iffy to say the least. Fog and rain loomed over the bay and the breeze was threatening to shut off. Crews were bailing out for different reasons; mine was caught in a serious Rum Squall at the NYYC and another called in "sick". Four boats made it to the line that night and the players were:

1. Current National Champs Mark Van Note and Josh Hill on the Screaming Pelican (rumored to be named after a bizarre species of Boone Lake bird that makes a haunting squeal when mating)
2. Jeff Adam and MIT sailing coach Matty Cohen on Sugar Magnolia
3. Ross Weene and surprise crew Russell Coutts (Russell was getting bored watching the AC and decided to sail some real boats for a change)
4. Alexandra Laplant and Oakley Jones on the Wharf Rat

Now I can't remember all the details of racing but it was a fun night. If anyone who was out racing has comments please add them in. I do remember that the Pelican tried a port tack start in Race 1 and was shut out by Sugar Mags at the pin end. The lovely and charming Alexandra and I had some starting issues by not being able to get off the line that night but we made up for it by being very lucky and going the right way most of the time. In 2 of the 3 races we, Alex and I on the Wharf Rat, tacked to the Right as soon as possible and headed off in clear air. Josh and Mark showed the speed that won them a nationals and if it wasn't for the fluky breeze they would have walked away with the night...again. The one thing that I brought away from the racing was it's better to take the kite down 5 seconds too early than 5 seconds too late. Heros are for comic books...

Here are the scores for the night showing again why Fleet 54 is the strongest 110 fleet in the country:

1. Wharf Rat 4,1,2 = 7
2. Screaming Pelican 3,1,3 = 7
3. Sugar Magnolia 1,4,3 = 8
4. Oobleck 2,2,4 = 8

The night could have belonged to anyone and we had to go out to the 2nd tie-breaker to decide who the winner was. It says something about a fleet when 3 different boats win races. When Mark told Alex and I that we'd won the night I thought he was joking but after the Bud Lite induced fog lifted it started to sink in. This was the 1st time that Wharf Rat has won the night and hopefully not it's last. Alex and I would like to thank Jesus, Ray Hunt, the volunteer Race Committee from Ida Lewis YC, and all the other people that made Friday night happen.

We will see you all tomorrow night for Week 3 before the Newport sailors head to Block Island Race Week for mudslides at the Oar, Eastern European folk dancing at Yellow Kittens, blind driving escapades, and some big boat racing.