As we heard last night, “Squirrels take good care of their nuts.” And that just about summarizes the tone of our Calvin roast last night, helping him leave the dock for a new kind of voyage. We had Dutch jokes, some advice about the need for tact before raising the pole (nudge, nudge), some playful ribbing about Calvin’s quirks and antics, accusations of forgery, plus heartfelt admiration of our young foredeck captain. But the capstone was a fantastic original poem composed and recited by our own Gadget, that summed up what is in all our hearts as we watch Calvin take this great step forward in his journey. I hope to post it soon.
And I think we really shocked him with the gift from the PERSPECTIVE crew. Thanks to all your generosity, we were able to set Calvin and Renee up with a new Broil King BBQ, cover and utensils. I can taste the burgers already!
Special thanks to Lazy Sheet for organizing the festivities. Here we are: evidence that we all own a jacket, and that not all our shirts are PERSPECTIVE blue!
Last night, all the flags for the interclub racing summer and fall series were awarded . Here’s snap of the Green Fleet flag winners, from left to right: Perspective, Top Gun, Sabotage & Sandpiper. That’s some great company to keep!
Our flags were for Summer overall (third place), Fall Tuesday (second place), and Fall Thursday (third place). [Only the summer series has an overall flag]
With light wind, and a short course, the decisions made before the start made all the difference. While most of us were enjoying the dance of elephants among 40 sailboats on the last racing night of the year, Gil was laser focused on the fate of one shark who had started at the pin end, and nearly fetched the windward mark. Sure enough, they were well ahead, and so our start strategy was forged. Roll the tape forward and all the boats that started at the pin end on port finished well ahead of the rest. Bravo, Gadget!
But then it boiled down to execution, and the entire crew put in a flawless performance to keep the boat moving fast, even overtaking Remarkable three times (and yes, they overtook us three times), to finish just 8 seconds behind them. Top Gun was not much further ahead. (Sabotage was probably already docking).
The first interesting puzzle came at the start. We wanted to start at the pin end, but we could see a cloud of sharks bearing down on that precise pin at exactly the moment we would be starting. I could overhear Sabotage discussing the same issue in the pre-start, so we did the sensible thing and aimed for a spot on the line about 30 meters away from the pin. We timed it well, right astern of Top Gun. Battlewagon and Sandpiper chose the other end of the line, and they paid dearly for it when they had to sail a long extra approach along the layline.
For the first half of the upwind leg, we were struggling to point, until I remembered to firm up the backstay, and the lads firmed up the outhaul. The combination gave us more than 5 degrees of pointing!
Approaching the layline we were on port, and crossed just ahead of Remarkable (wow!), once we tacked onto the layline, they were ahead of us (the first exchange of position).
As we hoisted, WellWet got between us and Remarkable, so we chose to sail above them on a hotter angle to avoid their wind shadow. Eventually, we reeled in Remarkable again, gobbling up their air as we approached from the windward side. We push clear ahead, and claimed the inside lane, but they climbed to windward of us and overtook us again to claim the inside lane clear ahead (harrumph, the second exchange of position).
We rounded right on their stern, and I was trying to sweep inside to windward of them as we turned, but we were just too close, so I had to go to their leeward side. Normally that is a trap we cannot escape, but Remarkable had a fouled jib sheet and slowed enough that we were able to get clear ahead, climb to windward and spray them with bad air. We were almost on a fetch to the finish and we remembered the outhaul and backstay. In fact, on this last beat, we out-pointed both Top Gun and Remarkable. Amazing!!
Still, sailing slightly lower and slightly faster, Remarkable was able to push ahead and to leeward as we approached the committee boat. We kept getting lifted, but it was not enough. Once Remarkable tacked onto Starboard they were clear ahead by a slim margin (the third exchange of position).
The last lift was not quite enough to help us make the line, so we sailed for speed, aiming right at the committee boat, turning within meters to shoot the line just eight seconds behind Remarkable. It was a great duel with an impressive rival, and a great cap to an awesome season on the bay.
Even sweeter: with Legacy away tonight, the result was enough to earn a third place finish for the Fall Thursday series. That’s two flags claimed in this week’s races…fantastic!
And I think mother nature must have been rooting for us, because she was positively glowing as we headed back to the marina
It was a nice breezy night for the conclusion of the Tuesday night races of 2018. Even though I was trying to master the art of vang sheeting, Kiwi can attest to the fact that I had some learning to do!
I’ve never seen anyone on the boat be actually under water before! Here it is in super-slo-mo:
In the pre-start, we were watching the wind before picking out headsail. It started to lie down a bit and rotate south, so we began to prepare the #1, figuring the race might become a drag race of reaching. But then the force came back and the wind stayed in the SSW, so we switched gears and opted for the #2. Cars a bit forward, shrouds hard and backstay near max. It was a good combo.
We still had eyes on the wind direction, and worked out that port tack pin end was the way to start. Top Gun had the same idea and both of us got away ahead of the rest of the fleet, who began on starboard. Remarkable was near the boat and and tacked quickly, tracking our course but further in toward the Burlington shore.
At first, it appeared that Battlewagon and Sandpiper had fallen way back, but once they tacked we noticed they were coming on strong in a slot of better air. Top Gun tacked over toward it. We held our course. Meanwhile Remarkable ground to a halt. Literally. They were about 100 meters closer to shore than we were, and a bit ahead when they ran aground. It took them quite a while, but they were eventually able to work themselves free. Fortunately the bottom is silty in that area (Skootch and I have been on that same bank once ourselves). By the time they were free, we had all rounded and made it halfway to the leeward mark, so Remarkable retired from the race. Tough strokes.
Our first attempt at the layline to the windward mark was too early, so we had to put in two more tacks, while Sandpiper and Battlewagon slipped by in front of us. Time for some spinnaker magic!
We hoisted and began to close down on Sandpiper, dead ahead of us, with Battlewagon to our right. There was big wind and we got some good warning about gusts as boat after boat ahead began to broach: Coyote & Pandora showed us exactly where the gusts were, so we readied for them, and drove through them without any troubles…each time making ground on our competitors ahead. Christephanie opted to douse early to avoid the worst of the gusts, and so did Battlewagon — both boats finishing the downwind under genoa alone. Sandpiper gave themselves a healthy margin for error by dousing a bit early, but we held on to the last moment. That made all the difference! By the time we brought down the kite, the lads on the foredeck could have hopped from our bow to Sandpiper’s stern.
Then Four Hands and Afterguy pulled off the fastest douse ever and we jibed around the mark right on Sandpiper’s tail.
It wasn’t a fetch to the finish, so we tacked away for better air, with one eye on Sandpiper and the other on Battlewagon. And of course, they both chose different routes: Battlewagon stayed inshore whereas Sandpiper tacked across our bow hunting for that bigger air out toward Hamilton.
But this time the middle paid. We got a few lifts and were on course to the boat end of the line, when we had to dip Pandora II. We shaved it tight, but it still cost us the layline. Sandpiper was charging up the middle from a position to windward and behind. Battlewagon was just off our starboard bow. We were tensed and ready to tack when they moved: as soon as they tacked, they would have right of way, and we didn’t want to dip them or give them control. But at the same time, they can’t tack onto our path, either. It was a really cool situation. The way it played out, we kept them pinned to leeward all the way to the committee boat, though both of us were missing the line. Finally, they tacked, but they had to duck under us, we tacked to cover, passed the boat and shot the line.
All through this, we were checking over our shoulder to see how Sandpiper was making out. We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that they were still a bit behind, but they crossed ahead of Battlewagon, all three boats finishing in close succession.
What a great finale to a fun season of dueling among the three boats. And of course, it was great to come out on top for the last Tuesday race. A second place finish! And that secured second place for the Fall Tuesday series!
Those of you who have worked the mainsail upwind on a windy, gusty night know that it can be very physical job. On these nights, the traveler alone is not enough to manage the gusts, and the tweaker isn’t much help. You gotta go for the big mainsheet, but there is so much tension on it that it’s really hard to pop it out of the cleat. Last Thursday, Lifeline nearly did a couple of face plants trying to wrestle it out of those jaws.
So last night I tried something new. I’ve read about vang sheeting. I’ve tried to talk Gil into doing it, but I’ve never really experienced it myself before. Kind of hard to coach someone else without trying it first.
After my first taste, I’m a convert!
With the boom vang on snug upwind, there are several big advantages:
Much less force needed:
The vang takes most of the tension, making the mainsheet MUCH easier to pop out of the jaws.
It’s also much easier to sheet back in after the gust subsides
Maintain mainsail shape during and after the gust:
When easing the main, the vang keeps the leech shape on the mainsail, by keeping the boom from rising. So, rather than twisting off the mainsail when you ease the sheet, it swings like a barn door.
This is most beneficial when recovering from the gust — no need to double-check the twist, it’ll be right where you’ve set it.
And that is the trick: set the boom vang to maintain the desired leech twist (top batten parallel to boom, or a tiny bit twisted off). Last night I did this by setting the desired twist before the race using traveler and mainsheet, then I asked the guys to remove all the slack in the boom vang. Presto! We made some minor adjustments upwind, and had to repeat this process after the douse, but it was pretty simple.
Managing gusts was now pretty straightforward. Traveler was still my first control, but in the big gusts, when it wasn’t enough, I eased the sheet. And through all this, the back edge of the mainsail kept drawing powerfully, keeping the boat pointing high.
(and of course, I got Kiwi nice and wet — serves him right for steering from the low side on a windy night :-))
I heard some murmurs from the foredeck that the guy sometimes get jammed in the spinnaker pole, causing some consternation when dousing from a hot angle. Perhaps these will help?
(and hopefully StarPort got the red on port and the green on starboard!)
Thanks for the suggestion, Ken, and for relaying the message Alvin.
Plenty of wind tonight! And unlike Tuesday, mother nature reminded us that Autumn is just two days away. Long pants and sweaters worn by all except the most hardy (Bert and me :-)), We had the #2 up with a full mainsail, and it took both David and Skootch to manage the gusts. Up on the foredeck some strange tall dutch guy showed up. He seemed to know what he was doing, so we left him up there (and David went forward to pitch in for the big maneuvers).
The net result was a very physical and very satisfying night on the water with some very memorable moments:
Perfectly timed start in clear air at the middle of the line
Holding our lane on Battlewagon for a long drag race. Eventually they nosed ahead and we tacked away
Crash tack to avoid Legacy. Too bad I didn’t spot them earlier or we could have dipped them neatly. This cost us some precious boat lengths, but we recovered quickly. The crew was awesome responding quickly to a tack with absolutely no warning — I just had to turn the boat to avoid T-boning Legacy.
Finding a big Tartan in irons at the windward mark. Good thing we got a nice lift and could steer around them!
A fantastic, long and fast Spinnaker run with top speed of 8.6 knots. We quickly overtook Battlewagon and then Sandpiper who both left their kites in their bags. We made up ground on Legacy, but they were still well ahead
Smooth jibe with sheets and guys
A hasty, but flawless douse that gave us a nice lane leaving the leeward mark. Legacy was ahead but to leeward…for a while, I believed we had a shot at them, but they out-pointed us to finish ahead.
Claiming a very satisfying third place finish.
We were all happy and excited, and feeling great. Nearly everyone had gone for a spill on the wet and slopey deck, and we needed three attempts to dock properly in the strong easterly breeze, but no harm came from any of that, and we chatted long after dark, savouring the inner glow.
The summer that never wants to end threw us another beautiful show last night with warm temperatures, clear skies, and the feeling that we still had months to go before frost. The only clue that autumn will begin in a few days was the early sunset. And that meant an early curfew for the race.
With light wind, and a relatively long course, I started to wonder if we would make it on time! Just a couple of years ago, on nights like this we missed curfew a few times. But not tonight! We made it across the line with a good five minute buffer. Of the 35 boats on the water, 12 were not so fortunate.
Here’s a play by play of our race with some artful snaps from Four Hands, who captured the beauty of the low sun on a gorgeous evening.
We almost had a perfect start. We were approaching the line to windward of the fleet, and nicely ahead. But a bit too early. Rather than getting caught in a trap at the committee boat, Kiwi made a bold maneuver across the bow of Battlewagon to tuck in just behind Remarkable. Battlewagon rolled over us, but we were able to catch Sandpiper in our trap. They had to do a 360 to avoid the committee boat! Situated behind the big J35s, we tacked away to the Burlington shore to sail in clean air. Meanwhile Sandpiper recovered well, and sailed to the Hamilton shore. At the windward mark, there was very little air, and they were able to slip in front of us for the rounding.
Spinnaker up, and off to the better wind near the Hamilton shore. By choosing hotter angles and staying away from traffic we were able to make up ground. On the approach to the leeward mark, we crossed just astern of Battlewagon, gained an overlap just in time and secured the inside lane for the douse. That was a moment of beauty! Down came the kite, and we managed to squeeze a couple of smaller boats between us and Battlewagon. What a great gain!
They tacked, we tacked to cover. Nice! But there was traffic ahead for us. A string of smaller boats that would spray us with bad air if we held our course. So rather than match-racing Battlewagon to the finish, we tacked away to find a slot of clean air
.
At the approach to the finish line, we had a shot, we kept getting lifted, whereas Battlewagon was a bit ahead on the other tack, getting knocked. However, it was not meant to be. In the light air, they got us. But we made curfew!
