Wednesday saw good wind conditions. Peter was once again the PRO. He delayed the third start so that a course change could be made. The thrid start is composed of slower boats. Our fleet has to do two circuits while the other two fleets do three. Very good plan actually since it gets everyone back to the 'barn' at about the same time.
For some reason I was somewhat irritable. Hard to describe but I wasn't as focused as I should be. At any rate we missed the start and I had to do a 360 in order to avoid hitting the pin. This didn't help my disposition. The wind was east so I headed towards Centre Island. Polaris was to windward and prevented me from tacking. We went almost to the layline. Jack Rabbit seemed to be confused about the course and headed further east, perhaps to Gilbraltor. We had a good rounding of the windward. The spinnaker hoist went well. Jack Rabbit didn't hoist their chute until we had almost caught up to them. We had to do a gybe to get around the mark and this was badly screwed up. This didn't help my disposition. We were now well behind so the 'gifts' from JR, e g not flying a chute, weren't going to be enough .
We did practise on Sat. (?). Yes, it payed off. David did a good job with the spinnaker sheets and as a result we had a better spinnaker run than Jack Rabbit. Our windward hoist was good. We lost it at the start and the first gybe. Our tacks were poor and this may be because I was too fast on the helm. Obviously getting distracted and losing focus cost us; we knew what to do but didn't do it. Actually that is easy to fix. We got another second and that leaves Jack Rabbit 4 vs. us 3 in our match ups.
Friday, 27 July 2007
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
July 18, 2007: We had a good start. On the start line, the boat end was favoured but we started near the pin and in clear air. Jack Rabbit had a poor start behind lots of boats. The wind quickly died and we had to struggle to get around the windward mark. We were second boat; Polaris (not in our fleet was first). As we drifted, Dragonlady took up station near the windward mark. Shorten course? Finish? No. What a disappointment! We headed back looking for wind; but there was none. As lead boat I was reluctant to bail but by 21:30 and no wind we withdrew. No one in our start finished.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Mixed Signals
Wednesday July 11. Another blustery day. The wind was gusting 25 knots plus from the northwest. We changed sails on the dock (Jib - Genoa) and then again while waiting for the start (Genoa - Jib). Although we seemed to be "settled", we were not confident about the timing. Jack Rabbit started (but crossed noticeably later). The committee boat did not fly 'X Ray'. Actually there were no flags on the RC Boat, and that would be consistent with a proper third start. However something wasn't right. A lot of boats didn't start. How confusing! I decided to go around the pin and restart. The decision was based on our lack of confidence in the time; we crossed at 18:49 and the start would probably be at 18:50. There were a lot of other boats below the line. As we were rounding the pin, "three" , our five minute warning, was hoisted at the committee boat. Oh, so we are in sequence!
The committee did not hoist our 3 rd start warning at the 2nd start. We are so used to the normal sequence that we didn't bother to check the flags after the warning for the 1st start. It was fortunate that we were "early", since it convinced me that we had to go back.
Not that things were easy. The motor fell off due to the choppy conditions. Charles and I manhandled it back on board while David kept us from tacking. Not fast. We did fly the chute on the second downwind leg but it got fouled. Fortunately the fleet is mostly composed of fair weather sailors and didn't want to race in 30 knot gusts and Jack Rabbit didn't get the start figured out. I wouldn't describe it as an easy first, but a first is a first! We have tied Jack Rabbit 3 to 3 in our match ups. The motor started "normally" so seems to be OK. No damage and a First!
A good start to the summer series.
Friday, 6 July 2007
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