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.
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.
posted by Oakley at 9:14 PM
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