Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Scorpion Bowl

Long time since an update. Things have been going on but not much in the way of 110's. Here is a report from Ross Weene from the Scorpion Bowl, kind of a warm up for the Districts in Hull. The Districts are in a week or so. Hopefully have some good info from that. And, yes, Ross is playing with an asymmetric kite. I have thought about it in the past. I don't think anyone should get scared but it might be a nice move in the class.

Just back from the Boston Bay Challenge Cup in Hull, an interesting weekend all around! For most folks Saturday was the first day of the season getting back into a 110, and it was a day of trial by fire - 15 building to 20 with gusts to 25, steep chop and endless motorboat wake. I had just spent some long evenings getting the boat back together, new floorboards in, and set up for the new asymmetric chute. Six boats made it out, Ryan Caywood sailed with me in 608. The first race was a mess for almost everyone - the windward mark, which was a government mark, had lost its distinctive red / green colors over the winter and we, and even the local Craig / Clancy boats sailed right by it. The leeward mark was supposed to be a government mark but instead a yellow barrel close to the water, which no one could find - so chaos at that end. In the second race the breeze picked up, and we started getting some big 20-25 blasts on the downwind leg. We were full plane, I was sitting on the aft deck next to the tiller with Ryan almost in my lap to keep the bow up, and we thought we were done for once as we plunged through a wake from a 50 footer crossing the course. Made it through that, but then we had to gybe. Everyone was having trouble with it, wiping out, so I'm not sure why we thought we'd be any different - but tried it and wiped out hard, main in the water. I stood on the keel and reached for the spin halyard, got the boat up and chute in, and started bailing / reaching around with a cockpit at least half full. Thank you bulkheads, we survived this one, got the boat in, pumped out, and started into the beer. Saturday night we somehow got a free room at the Nantasket Beach Inn, funny story, Sunday started out cloudy and cooler, but got sunnier and the breeze died. We saw 3-8 during the day, and was perfect to try out the new asymmetric. Unfortunately we were having too much fun before the start, and when the AP came down we were a bit too far away - so late for the first start. We should have just launched the A-sail downwind to stay in touch, but opted for class-legal. In the second race we picked our way up to the top to final battle downwind with Will Laidlaw and Ben, passed them and finished first. In the third race course was adjusted and we saw half the fleet splitting gybes, down at the leeward mark we rounded 2nd right behind Ann Craig; at the finish we swear we crossed first but think there may have been some local favoritism. On the way in we launched the A-sail again, it works great. Much more power, this is going to be fun - hopefully an evolution of the class. In the end, the RC threw out Day 1 which was fine with us! We ended up 2nd, one point behind Ann Craig and Dave McGrath in 1st. Maggie and Tom Craig finished 3rd, the Clancy Clan in 4th, Will Laidlaw and Ben in 5th, and D Bell / Scott Beeker in 6th. Looking forward to Hull again in a couple weeks!

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