Thanks for asking, Mike. The wind was really tricky and we did ok in it but not good enough to do well in the race. The other J80 was much faster than us. They had one less person on board and a lighter motor which was stored down below so they had that weight advantage over us. The upwind leg they were going much faster. We caught up with them by the first mark and had passed them by a lot only because we found more wind which we did pretty smartly I think. This was the thing that separated the boats more than anything I’m sure. The wind came down in really strange pockets and it either helped you out a lot if you found it or left you wanting another beer if you missed it. But overall there were lessons that were learned:
– This was a distance race that needed better navigation to really hit the laylines and have the right sails up. We suffered for this I’m afraid. My little nav program on my phone is not properly calibrated with the instruments on the boat and so we were headed using a “magnetic” bearing on the mast while the phone was giving us a “true” bearing to the waypoint. This was a crucial error as we searched out the first mark (which we overstood by a bit) and even more harmful when heading across the sound to Scotch Caps, as we thought we couldn’t carry the spinnaker for I thought our heading was much higher and closer to the wind as the true bearing on my phone was asking us to go 15 degrees higher than necessary. We could have corrected for this much earlier and at least covered one of the boats we wanted to beat – the other J80. When we beat them to the first mark, we should have stayed in between them and the finish. And once they started scooting away with their spinnaker up, we should have confirmed our course by getting our heads out of the boat and then done our best to cover them. The thought though was that they were heading way too low to make the mark at Scotch Caps and I was very wrong about that. Both because the current was sweeping us all towards Boston allowing us to have sailed lower with more sail up and still make the mark and because the mark we were heading to was much lower than we had thought. So, some time calibrating our instruments are in order.
– We also have got to get weight off the boat. Now that all are more comfortable with maneuvering under sail, we should get rid of the heavy propane thing. I’ll stop by Mike’s on Friday to collect the Johnson 2 stroke and bring it in to get it fixed at John’s Marina. Once it is fixed, we’ll set it up to store down below once we are out to the race course. A bit of a pain in the ass and I’m not at all looking forward to the smell of gasoline below so any other suggestions will be well met. My feeling is the Lehr is too heavy and the connections too finicky to try to lift off and bring below and back up again every time we go out. The j80 class has a motor size and weight minimum which we don’t really have to worry about so maybe an electric thing can work, I don’t know.
Thanks again for all who came out (Mike though you were missed).
Let me know about Saturday as soon as you all can and thanks for reading my little report here.
– Great to get to the boat early though we spend a bit too much time getting ready to go once there. Suit up and roll! Five minutes parking lot max.
– Re gear: This is really a hard one to get used to as a day perfectly fine may turn ugly in a second and sailing wet and cold is no fun. This and trying to cut down on the weight of unused gear is the balance that must be struck. Leave the keys and wallets behind in favor of some protective gear. I usually pack a layer, something light that will keep me warm and something I can throw on to keep me dry. Remember, when the wind picks up, there is more water on the rail and more butts on the rail. A simple pair of foul weather pants are kind of key. If it’s cooking hot, who cares, get wet and it’s kind of a relief but those are the things to think about. Loose the weight, pay attention to the forecast, and keep your body happy.
– Starts: This is related to gear. Everyone needs to know the time. Get a cheap watch or someone figure out how to set it on the tack tick. I need to know the time and it helps if I can focus on driving rather than my watch. 5 minutes, 4, 3, then every 30 until 1 minute, then every 15 seconds until, 10,9,8…Go!
– Starts part two: Good looking out for traffic. The info coming from you all is great. Whether on Port or Starboard, we need to know who’s coming at us. Look for movement of crew members on other boats – even if they are on our board, sometimes the crew broadcasts the movement of a boat before the boat moves and there are lots of quick moves during the start.
– Starts part three: Try to figure out who is and who is not in our class by checking the scratch sheet, boat name, or flag flying. If we are in sequence and another class boat is in our way, tell them to get gone cause we’re starting. If they are in our class, try to name them by name, by boat type, or color. “‘J105’ / ‘Sunnyside Up’ / ‘big blue boat’ tacking onto starboard three boat lengths in front of us.” Stuff like that. As to position and rules at the start, feel free to learn them! But for now, I really just need to know what another boat is doing and the time and for you to trim and slow the boat when I say.
– On that note: Slow us down, means ease the jib and the main. Stop us, means backwind the main by pushing the boom out by standing up and pushing it away from the boat.
photo-2
photo-3
photo-4
photo-5
photo-4a
photo-4b
– Boat handling as I mentioned is improving. There is some confusion about what happens when, and really there are a few moving parts to this thing and the names get a bit confusing, so don’t worry if it seems complicated at times, especially when things need to happen quickly. Slow down, picture it in your head, talk it out, and then when it comes time to execute, we should be fine. As long as we talk through the moves and all try to know our individual roles in addition to the bigger picture the move is trying to achieve, the better we’ll sail. And keep watching this video till you see it in your dreams:
– There is some talk of how we are doing in the races and though I think it is important, it’s not really the point. For the first few years on Iris’ boat, I had no idea where we placed on the Thursday night races. The only thing we tried to do was sail the boat as fast and as well as we could and reflect after the races on how to improve on it. I’m not saying we’re not racing against other boats because no shit that’s what we are doing and if we don’t keep that in mind, then who gives a damn how we improve – but ‘getting around the course’ and ‘sailing our own race’ and ‘having good boat handling skills’ are the major concerns, and our place in the race should not be a distraction. Indeed, there were races on Deviation when I thought any position we had to win was lost; but we just focused on our race, dialed it in, and at the end of it were glad for our skillful recovery (which often times also meant a better place on the podium.)
– Things to do: – fix the stern light, fix the tack tick, organize tools, lighten up the boat, trimmers read up on sail trim, which control does what.
– Totally liked the focus last night though. Everyone was ‘racing’ and I thought it was great. You were focusing on trim – tricky in those light conditions – feeding me back information and to each other about the position of other boats, talking through the maneuvers before they happened, and recovering quick from gear failures be they motor mount or spinnaker shackles. You all just seemed into it and I am grateful as hell for that.
