Last night was our first race of the summer series, and we started off with new headsails. Here’s a short video of them. The new #2 is black and sinister, while the new #1 looks deceivingly innocent!
Fit seems to be pretty good for both sails. They’ll need some time to lose their creases from storage, but a couple of stiff breezes will take care of that.
The new #1 has a couple of flaws though: some holes in the fabric — you can see us spotting them at the tail end of the video, and here’s some photos. I’m sure North Sails will sort this out.
Last week the spring series finished up. And even though we weren’t there to compete, results for the series look promising for PERSPECTIVE. We’ll know for sure on Thursday evening, but I think it looks like this:
Tuesday nights:
4th place, behind Top Gun, Sandpiper and Eclipse, just squeaking ahead of Battlewagon. Too bad the May 30th race was abandoned, since we were on track for a 2nd that night for sure.
Thursday nights:
2nd place, behind Top Gun, ahead of Eclipse and Battlewagon, who tied for third — and I think Eclipse will win the tie-break, if I understand how this goes.
Overall:
If I have tallied it correctly, it looks like 3rd place overall, behind Top Gun and Eclipse. The margin between us and Eclipse is very thin so far this year. Let’s go get em.
BSBC only:
We finished ahead of Battlewagon every time we were both out there, which was enough to make up for missing one more race than them. So that should be a first-place flag for Spring overall!
I think the Thursday crew is blessed with fine weather in 2017, whereas the Tuesday lads…not so much!
A lovely 20C, sunny with a mild 8 knots of wind off the North East corner of the bay, and we were in long sleeves and short pants. What a welcome change from the drenching fog and blustery wind two nights earlier. And we were all keen for a sail. Everyone was there early, Skootch and Lazy Sheet had the covers off and bags installed before I even arrived. Squirrel brought doughnuts to celebrate a great customer audit at work, and we were away with fenders off by 5:47pm, after changing the headsail at the dock.
That gave us plenty of time to set our halyards and genoa cars to where we wanted them, and then settle in to enjoy the pre-start. No surprise, just about everyone came out tonight, making a splendid show in the evening sunshine.
Our start was well timed, crossing at the gun near the middle of the line, ahead and to leeward of our fleet. After a short stretch, we tacked onto port so as to stay on the Hamilton side of the bay, where we knew there was more wind. Our fleet tacked too. And just before we would have crossed below Top Gun, they tacked and sailed down to smother us in their lee bow. Nasty — by the time we recovered boat speed, we were ten boat lengths behind them. Harrumph!
But pay no mind, we were pointing higher than Sandpiper who was ahead and to leeward, and by the time we crossed them after a few more tacks, we had to dip them — shaving them by a hair and maintaining great boat speed while they struggled on the opposite tack.
One advantage of starting last and following the other fleets to the windward mark is the chance to judge the lay line. Tonight we got it right. We avoided painting the corners, noticed many boats struggling, tacking or pinching, so we chose a higher line to approach the mark. Perfect!
Battlewagon, Christephanie, Rehab and we all converged at the windward mark. I thought Battlewagon (approaching on port) would have to dip all of us, but they tacked early and pinched up to the mark, just squeaking through. Al four of us rounded in one concentric wheel. Battlewagon inside, then Christephanie, then us with Rehab on the outside. Fun!
Our plan was to jibe at the mark, and then set the spinnaker, since we wanted to get away from the Hamilton shore as soon as possible, back to where the air was moving better. but with Christephanie in our path, we couldn’t put in the jibe right away. Eventually, their spinnaker filled and we could swing around, jibing and then heading up to get to windward of them.
A smooth hoist and we kept a hot angle, focusing on boat speed to get over to the better air. Sure enough, we eventually found the good stuff, jibed sweetly and enjoyed a nice hot run to the leeward mark with the wind building as we went. Great to get real boat speed again and to hear the gurgle of the water on the hull.
By this time Top Gun was ahead — they had the same game plan as we did — Eclipse was sailing a low and slow course directly to the mark, way over toward the Burlington shore, Battlewagon was following them and Sandpiper fell behind — they didn’t hoist, and I get the impression they had some sort of trouble with their sails.
We tweaked and tweaked and built more and more speed, but Eclipse filled nicely and managed to get to the leeward mark ahead of us. So we doused early with no pressure. Still, something got tangled up front, so our jibe at the leeward mark was a bit a bit untidy. That was quickly resolved and we enjoyed a nice calm fetch to the finish line.
Just lovely!
Apres sail, we chatted long, enjoying the warm evening, the long light and a full moon rising. Idyllic!
I’m still glowing from how high we pointed last night. Three reasons for that:
Shorter forestay with much less forestay sag
Re-cut #3 with much less depth
Driving with more power from the main (after of the center of rotation) — an advantage of using a smaller headsail.
For point numbers one and two, check out the before and after shots of the headsail.
Here’s 2016 (after the first re-cut):
And here’s last night (shorter forestay and second re-cut of the sail):
Notice how much less the forestay sags, and how the entry angle of the sail is much finer. And, it holds its shape all the way to the top of the forestay.
We almost had the perfect start. We even had a chance to push Top Gun over the line. If only we had!
We caught up to Sandpiper on the downwind and got an overlap before the leeward mark. If only we hadn’t hit the mark with our mainsheet while rounding. If only!
But those two moments were the only regrets in a fantastic sail tonight. Were we wet? were we cold? Of course we were, it was a Tuesday night on 2017! But were we grinning from ear to ear while we lounged in in the five star hospitality aboard Heer’s Summer? Who wouldn’t!
One more comment before the play by play — with 12+ knots of wind tonight (mostly steady) we flew the newly recut #3. That was completely awesome. We pointed so high relative to our fleet that we sawed corners off the course and sailed way less distance than our competitors. Tacking angles were unbelievably tight. And all this with good balance, the mainsail mostly full, no backstay pressure, and boatspeed in and around 6 knots (sometimes more, sometimes less). Tacks were crisp and fast with the little jib, and it was a joy to be so nimble out there. So, all the adjustments have really paid off — the combination of the shorter forestay and the flatter jib came together beautifully tonight.
But the real magic was downwind. Here’s how it went.
Timing on the start was fantastic. We were able to set up in a position we wanted, timing our approach to the line well, accelerating to the boat end without concern of anyone pushing us up. Top Gun got across our bow and we could have pushed them up and over, but we were a few seconds early ourselves, and I chose to bear off a bit. As a result, Top Gun had a perfect start and we were to leeward in their shadow when the gun went off. As soon as we had clear air and room to tack, we popped onto port toward the Hamilton side where we expected better wind. A beautiful dip on Eclipse (and again the next time)
Remembering not to paint the corners, we put in a couple of quick tacks, pointing so high we got well ahead of Battlewagon, and not far behind the others.
Our hoist at the windward mark was a thing of beauty, and we quickly overtook Eclipse and began to gain on Sandpiper. We tweaked our trim, getting more speed with each adjustment, but the magic gear was the boom vang, which gave us half a knot. Sandpiper could begin to feel us closing the gap, and they didn’t want to sit in our wind shadow, so they sailed a hotter course. We were on line for the leeward mark, so we held our course and over time we worked our way forward gaining a meter or two each minute. Afterguy was supreme on the spinnaker sheet, total focus, constantly tweaking the trim — even innovating a pretty comfy position, lying down with his head on the coaming to rest his weary neck!
As we approached the leeward mark, Sandpiper began their dowse before we did and that enabled us to get an overlap on them and claim mark room. Down with the pole, dowse the spinnaker — something’s not working right…we forgot to blow the guy. Bert was busy sorting that out, I was busy steering in the gap between the mark and Sandpiper when it happened. Nonsuch saw it first and hollered to bring in the mainsheet, but we couldn’t react fast enough and the lines touched the bucket. FOUL — time for a 360.
And that didn’t go so well. Up front, the lines began to play cat’s cradle, including Calvin’s leg, and in the back we powered up the main rather than the jib so we couldn’t jibe. By the time we did our penalty turn, Sandpiper was well away, and Eclipse had overtaken us. But our friends on Battlewagon were still astern and we pointed so high I thought we might make the boat end of the finish line in one fetch. Not quite, we needed another tack at the end, playing chicken with Don’t Panic.
If only, if only — we had a shot at a second place, but gave it up for a fourth. Lessons learned — can’t wait to try it again!
But what a blast sailing with bigger wind — the first race in a stiffer breeze. We all immensely enjoyed almost 8 knots of boat speed sailing deep with the spinnaker — we could feel the boat respond with each puff of extra breeze. Encore! Encore!
A little break in the rain gave me just the window I needed to finish the reinstallation of the halyard brake, now sporting a new 6-10mm cam for the main halyard. A little silicone oozing out of the base is a good sign of a reliable seal on the deck…something to trim on Tuesday before routing the new halyard.
On Thursday night, we broke a sheave on the spinlock deck organizer
On Friday morning, I noticed the halyard slightly frayed.
By the end of my solo sail on Friday the halyard casing had completely parted and separated from the core. (ask my how I got the mainsail down!)
The remedy is well underway, but we need take a few steps to maintain the halyard better. First the remedy
A new halyard will be ready for Tuesday evening
Bert and I replaced the spinlock deck organizer with a new one — a tricky job that required us to remove the headliner.
A new cam has been installed into the spinlock halyard brake. This one won’t slip, so we won’t have that press down to get a grip on the halyard. Thanks to Bert for help removing the old one, and to Gadget for the disassembly/reassembly. Just need to install it and replace the headliner.
So what do we have to do differently:
Don’t press down on the brake when locking the main halyard — let the brake do the job. The new cam is rated for 6-10mm line, and we are using 10mm line. Perfect fit. Last one was worn, and rated for 8-14mm line
EVERY TIME we release the brake on the main halyard (any break, in fact), use the winch to tension the line before opening the brake. This will save wear on the line and on the cam.
STOP using the halyard to hold up the end of the boom. This puts strain on it unnecessarily, and might have been the root cause.
Thanks for your help keeping PERSPECTIVE in racing trim.
Glorious! Just what we were looking for: a beautiful night, comfortable temperature and a modest breeze that kept us moving. As the sun grew low, it back lit myriad spinnakers glowing on the water, and because we had two laps of a relatively short course, we were always among other boats.
How did we do? A solid second behind Top Gun and well ahead of Battlewagon. A fantastic result, and we overtook many boats from the fleets ahead of us, even finishing before several sharks!
And the combination of the nice weather, the good performance, and the camaraderie on board made for a relaxed crew at the dock, lingering long in the failing light to toast an evening that just reminded us all why we love this so much.
Here’s how it happened:
The triangle course had two upwind legs that were neither straight upwind nor a fetch (something you can sail in one tack from end to end), so there was definitely a favoured tack, but plenty of options for strategy and tactics. The pin end of the start line was strongly favoured.
So I intended to start on starboard at the pin end, sail down to the expected stronger wind at the Hamilton shore and tack from there. But we were about 20 seconds early for the pin end of the line — oops — so we tacked onto port and put in a decent start.
As a result we headed toward the lighter air on the Burlington side of the bay for a while before tacking away. Watching the other boats approach mark #5 (nearly the Burlington shore) helped us avoid going too early, and that saved us precious time since the air up there was shifty and light. As a result we rounded ahead of Battlewagon.
On the next leg, they made up some ground on us, but we were just enough ahead when we met, that we got across their bow even though we were on port!
Our first hoist was a bit slow and messy. I was expecting that we’d be favoured if we had the pole on port, so we planned a Jibe set, but once we got around the mark and hoisted, it was clear this was the wrong move — it sent us back toward the light air at Burlington shore, rather than to the better air in the other direction. No problem, a quick jibe got us on track.
Battelwagon and Top Gun had gone further to the Hamilton shore, sailing hotter angles and chasing better wind, but it didn’t pay for them. We made up ground on Top Gun and kept Battlewagon well astern.
Back up to #5 we were wiser this time and kept to the better air toward the south, and on the approach to #1 several boats from earlier fleets had to dip us, and we slipped through several spinnakers on our way to the mark, rounding with a nice lead on Battlewagon.
This time we were ready with the right setup for the hoist, and gobbled up a few more boats including our friends on Pandora II, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to Top gun.
Just a quick leg from 14 to 15 for the finish — a great result on a stellar night!
I’m sitting here with a cup of tea for a reason. And slowly I am thawing out. It’s not that it was freezing cold out there. It’s that we got completely soaked and then the temperature dropped. After putting the boat away in a downpour, we sat under the tin roof of the BBQ dock pretending our cold beer was a hot toddy. What a night of change.
In the afternoon, the wind was howling from the southwest and I had images of new speed records. At the dock at 5:30pm, it was quite a different story. Storm clouds moved in, and slurped up the wind. All along the north shore, there was thunder with lightening in the distance. We waited at the dock until it appeared that the storm was moving off toward Toronto. All this time, Hamilton was sunny, so we headed out to the start line.
The wind dropped steadily, so that by the time we started, there was barely a whisper and we struggled to get the boat moving. Slowly we tacked onto port and filled the sails, coaxing 0.6 knots of boat speed. Top Gun pulled well ahead, and Battlewagon stayed on port tack to the Hamilton shore. Eventually we built to almost three knots of speed on a good course to the windward mark. By now, Battlewagon appeared to have overtaken us, but they were far to leeward at the Hamilton shore. When they tacked to the layline, they got a knock, we picked up a lift and it became clear that we were ahead of them.
But it also became clear that the wind was dying completely. Time to cue the video — a gorgeous western sky with smoothly undulating water reflecting nature’s best.
Slowly, we bobbed toward the mark, and feared that the current would sweep us into the mark, necessitating a 360 degree penalty turn. Just at that time, the whisper of a wind shifted direction 180 degrees and we were able to react quickly, get a bit of momentum and jibe around the windward mark. That was strange!
Top Gun had rounded earlier, and were completely becalmed with their spinnaker up when the wind shifted around. By the time they doused and gathered momentum, we had closed the gap on them significantly. Gradually we found a bit more wind until we got a comfortable 3 knots of boat speed. But ahead we could see that the storm was on its way back. A straight line on the water showed bigger wind coming our way, and buckets of rain and thunder behind it. The heavens opened up just as the committee boat announced the race was abandoned.
We gave Top Gun a farewell buzz before heading across to LaSalle, shivering as we stowed the sopping gear. I think I’ll have another cup of tea.
