Nice Night For A Yacht
Friday night was a great night of racing. We had plenty of wind and all the boats from the parking lot. That's only six boats but it sounds better when I say the lot was empty. It was blowing around 15 knots at the start and the committee setup pretty far down towards the bridge, setting up a nice sausage between a couple of government marks with them in the middle.
It became obvious quickly that the windward mark was RIGHT THERE and you had to come off the line clean and make your move early or you would be facing transoms at the windward mark. The current was coming in but the beat was so short there was really no advantage on either side. Clean air, go fast, get there first. This is pretty much what we did on the first race which was a twice around. Starting near the boat we found speed early and got to the mark in front of Jeff and Jon. There was barely enough time to think about the other boats as the current was ripping and the wind was up so we rounded, set the boat up for downwind in time to gibe and then start setting the boat up for upwind. There was just enough time to catch a couple of waves. Jeff gave us a scare going to the left out of the leeward mark, the leg being long enough for him to get some current relief but we managed to hold him off until the finish.
The second start was a disaster! We were lined up on starboard and the whole fleet continued onto port, outside the boat layline. I got greedy with main only and tacked back to try and close things up with the fleet who would be coming in from the right. That's when we went completely into irons and stopped. Then we went backwards. Then we stopped. Then we went forwards, a little. Finally we got going enough to start the race while getting heckled by the race committee. (yes, heckled) Josh and I stowed our pride and got to work, rounding the windward mark in fourth. The next windward mark was a lot closer. At the top of the leg we ducked Ross who let us have the right side of the course for some reason. We tacked onto layline to find Kevin Farrar, sailing the Jones's #511, had tacked onto port to get to layline and had botched the tack. The only move was to duck, which we did but I pulled the trigger to head up a little early, and we bumped. This and the current had Josh pushing the boat around the nice green government mark so while Kevin spun 511 around we also did a circle. After all this we were still in touch with Ross who was having spinnaker issues and managed to pass him on the run. Jeff had a run away victory but we managed a second.
The third race was much less hectic so we will go onto the fourth. The last race was windward, leeward, windward to the hoist. This was a tight battle between us and Jeff. The end result being we tacked to cover Jeff, right in front of Jeff, debatable if we tacked too close. He cried protest and we all carried on. Josh and I discussed the whole thing for the remainder of the race and thought the prudent move was to do a circle and accept a second if Jeff passed us in the process. We were about twenty minutes late in doing our circle so we made it a SLOW one. In the end we did beat Jeff to the hoist and won the race. We all chuckled about the incident and decided that, if taken to the room, each side would have a 50/50 chance.
This was a fun and funny night of racing. Josh had one of those crew nights which may have defeated a mortal man. Two tacks that I know of he slipped mid-tack and managed to pull the sheet in while on his butt or back and get out on the wire. Another he remained hooked on the new leeward side and managed to fight his way out before it got too ugly. I cannot remember the others but it was a short course night with plenty to do regardless of stuff like that. Somehow he made it look graceful despite how hard I was laughing at him.
I do not have full results as I post this. I know that Jeff and Jon were in second with a 2,1,2,2 but I lose track from there. Also, Amory Ross was out for the first race, at least. taking photos. I have gotten in touch to see if there are any good shots. Gotta love Newport. Not many 110 fleets have a professional marine photog snapping shots.
Mark
It became obvious quickly that the windward mark was RIGHT THERE and you had to come off the line clean and make your move early or you would be facing transoms at the windward mark. The current was coming in but the beat was so short there was really no advantage on either side. Clean air, go fast, get there first. This is pretty much what we did on the first race which was a twice around. Starting near the boat we found speed early and got to the mark in front of Jeff and Jon. There was barely enough time to think about the other boats as the current was ripping and the wind was up so we rounded, set the boat up for downwind in time to gibe and then start setting the boat up for upwind. There was just enough time to catch a couple of waves. Jeff gave us a scare going to the left out of the leeward mark, the leg being long enough for him to get some current relief but we managed to hold him off until the finish.
The second start was a disaster! We were lined up on starboard and the whole fleet continued onto port, outside the boat layline. I got greedy with main only and tacked back to try and close things up with the fleet who would be coming in from the right. That's when we went completely into irons and stopped. Then we went backwards. Then we stopped. Then we went forwards, a little. Finally we got going enough to start the race while getting heckled by the race committee. (yes, heckled) Josh and I stowed our pride and got to work, rounding the windward mark in fourth. The next windward mark was a lot closer. At the top of the leg we ducked Ross who let us have the right side of the course for some reason. We tacked onto layline to find Kevin Farrar, sailing the Jones's #511, had tacked onto port to get to layline and had botched the tack. The only move was to duck, which we did but I pulled the trigger to head up a little early, and we bumped. This and the current had Josh pushing the boat around the nice green government mark so while Kevin spun 511 around we also did a circle. After all this we were still in touch with Ross who was having spinnaker issues and managed to pass him on the run. Jeff had a run away victory but we managed a second.
The third race was much less hectic so we will go onto the fourth. The last race was windward, leeward, windward to the hoist. This was a tight battle between us and Jeff. The end result being we tacked to cover Jeff, right in front of Jeff, debatable if we tacked too close. He cried protest and we all carried on. Josh and I discussed the whole thing for the remainder of the race and thought the prudent move was to do a circle and accept a second if Jeff passed us in the process. We were about twenty minutes late in doing our circle so we made it a SLOW one. In the end we did beat Jeff to the hoist and won the race. We all chuckled about the incident and decided that, if taken to the room, each side would have a 50/50 chance.
This was a fun and funny night of racing. Josh had one of those crew nights which may have defeated a mortal man. Two tacks that I know of he slipped mid-tack and managed to pull the sheet in while on his butt or back and get out on the wire. Another he remained hooked on the new leeward side and managed to fight his way out before it got too ugly. I cannot remember the others but it was a short course night with plenty to do regardless of stuff like that. Somehow he made it look graceful despite how hard I was laughing at him.
I do not have full results as I post this. I know that Jeff and Jon were in second with a 2,1,2,2 but I lose track from there. Also, Amory Ross was out for the first race, at least. taking photos. I have gotten in touch to see if there are any good shots. Gotta love Newport. Not many 110 fleets have a professional marine photog snapping shots.
Mark
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