Category: Race Reports

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!

Can’t wait until next year!

 

 

 

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

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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!

 

Against a field of tough competitors with wide PHRF splits, apparently getting the gun by 13 minutes, is still not enough!

Yes indeed, Gil and I took on 10 others with a massive range of handicaps, and did ourselves proud on a day with steady moderate wind.  The forecast called for a veer of 20-30 degrees, so we had a big choice to make:  take the route near shore and enjoy an early lift with better breeze, OR, head out into the lake, take the header early and tack onto a lift to the layline.  We opted for the latter, a strategic choice that was the road less travelled.  We started on Port, dipping a few boats to start a wee bit late right at the pin end of the line, crossing just inches beneath Christephanie’s stern.  In clear air, we moved well, and then chose carefully the right moment to tack.  Battlewagon came across to meet us, a bit ahead, but we each tacked — them toward shore, and us away from shore.  After another tack, we needed 12 degrees of lift to hit the windward mark.  Sure enough, we got ten degrees, and cut off a nice corner.  Battlewagon rounded ahead of us by about ten boat lengths (after 90 minutes of upwind sailing), and we were well ahead of Coyote (a personal victory).

Hoisting double-handed is a choreography of the absurd, but we managed quite well. We rounded at Shell Pier just behind Battlewagon, and overtook them shortly after hoisting (that’s when they snapped this great picture of us), and then blasted away toward the CCIW spider, extending our lead continuously.

We were carrying the spinnaker on a pretty hot angle and debated with one another whether to jibe at the spider or douse and finish under genoa.  We opted to douse, and it was the correct decision for us, but the wind kept veering, and boats who came after us were able to carry their kite on the last leg, and eat into our lead with precious minutes.

Pandora II got top honours, with Coyote just behind them.  I’m content to mix it up with those sailors, anyday, and especially today!

Fanstastic sailing with Gadget, and a great get together on the BBQ dock afterwards.  We commemorated Fred Gillbank with rum and coke and enjoyed burgers and salad and typical after-race banter on a perfect summer day with a fresh easterly breeze.  Is it really mid September?

 

Continuing in the fine tradition of recruiting former competitors to join PERSPECTIVE and take a turn on the helm, here is Ken Denholm from Eclipse showing that he still knows how to use a tiller.

I was  just about to touch down after a long trip to Europe while this race was happening, so here’s a quick summary from Gadget:

Great sailing on a nice steady breeze.  Flew the #1.  Had a decent start on the starboard tack.  Had Top Gun and Battlewagon slightly ahead of us, and so it remained for the entire race.  We picked the laylines, made clean tacks, jibes, roundings, hoists and dowses.  Avoided traffic.  Just couldn’t catch them.  Failed to prep the main prior to the final upwind, so that’s something to work on.  Apart from that, sailed a good clean race.

And thanks to the lads taking PERSPECTIVE around the course for a few weeks without me, we are in good standing with two weeks to go in the Fall Series.

In positive psychology, flow,  is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

Tonight, all five of us were in a state of flow.  David, Mark, Bert, Skootch and I put on a clinic of tactics, strategy, sail trim, and maneuvers with 100% concentration, crystal clear communication and seamless teamwork.  It was pure joy.  And it paid!

Our objective was to finish ahead of Battlewagon and Sandpiper to secure (I believe) third place overall for the summer series.  Sandpiper was away, so we focused on a match race with Battlewagon.  Strategically, that meant we ignored the rest of the fleet, and didn’t give a fig about putting in a good start, so long as we were ahead of our rival.  That’s exactly what we did, ensuring that we were well in front of Battlewagon as we headed to the line.  We were about 20 seconds late, and they were 15 seconds behind us.  When they tacked, we tacked to cover.

With this approach we were able to stay ahead of them to the windward mark.  They had neither gained, nor lost ground on the first beat.  Our hoist was like honey on toast, and we gained precious boat-lengths.  By this time, Top Gun and Remarkable were quite far ahead, Sabotage was in Dundas, and Legacy was doing great.  With one eye on Battlewagon astern, and another eye on the iPad, we trimmed and trimmed and trimmed and rode each oscillation in the wind to maximize speed and VMG to the leeward mark.  Check out the video to see Lazy Sheet the Jedi master of spinnaker trim.  When Battlewagon jibed, we jibed to cover, and we gained with each maneuver. Again, they jibed and we covered.  But the third time, we chose not to cover.  By now we were abreast Remarkable with the inside lane, and the wind had shifted so that we could soak down to the leeward mark — a little slow, perhaps, but a great tactical position vis-a-vis Remarkable.  With the downwind gains we had made, we were starting to set our eyes on an even bigger prize!

Sure enough, Battlewagon jibed back onto our line, dead astern and well back. And we were inside Remarkable, soaking deeply toward the douse.  David dropped the pole, Bert and I flew the spinnaker sans pole, Skootch went into the hole and down came the kite.  We hardened up quickly, and kept an eye on Remarkable astern.  When they tacked, we tacked to cover.  Then the wind shifted 20 degrees, giving us a big knock.  We tacked immediately, converting the knock into a lift that put us on track for the finish.  Just before the line, we had to duck Pandora, but there was room to do that and finish ahead of Remarkable.  Top Gun was in our sites, but we didn’t quite get them.

What a rush!  Mission accomplished, and some 🙂

Yet another balmy summer evening on the water.  What a great season we’ve had!

Before the start, the gusts were tempting us to choose the #2, but it eased a bit before the start and the forecasts called for progressively lighter wind as the sun got lower in the sky.  We opted for the #1 and got it right.  It was the first chance to see how the big foresail would perform with the tighter rig tension dialed in on the weekend.  Answer: peachy!

Tonight was a night when we enjoyed the sweet sensation of getting the details right.  A great start, timed perfectly in clean air to windward of the fleet.  Pristine tacks, confident sail trim, and hard hiking had us right in the pack at the windward mark.  And then, as it often does on PERSPECTIVE, the magic happened.

Our hoist was smooth and we quickly overtook Sandpiper.  Kiwi sailed deep in the ample breeze and we got the boat moving well with the pole high up.  Our jibes were fantastic, especially the third one, which was like a clinic, and we continued to gain ground.  The highlight of the race came when we, Sandpiper and Battlewagon were converging on the downwind.  We and Sandpiper were on Starboard, Battlewagon on Port.  We were the leeward boat.  We began to push Sandpiper up, who then had to hail Battlewagon, calling them to keep clear.  To do that, Battlewagon had to jibe when they didn’t expect to.  As a result of that tangle we gained ground on our two rivals, and were able to keep that all the way to the finish.

At the leeward mark, our douse was quick as a bunny, but we got caught in some traffic as a smaller boat had the inside lane on us.  Try as we might, we couldn’t get inside them, and it cost us precious boat-lengths.

No worries, a few amazingly crisp tacks to cover Battlewagon — a few boat-lengths behind — and we were able to stay ahead of both our rivals.

Encore! Encore!