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2006 Sunset – Race #14 |
July 26th - Crew tonight was Dick, Art, Demitri, Frank, Jim and Reggie. Wind was as much as 8 kts when we left the dock but outside it was only 5-7 kts at most and died throughout the evening. There were no significant waves. The starting line was square to ~240°. Initially, before the start we got a wind direction of ~235°, meaning the left-hand end of the starting line was slightly upwind. Since the wind was light and seemed to be dying we thought protecting the left side of the course might be important. Just before our warning signal we checked the wind again and got 240-245°. As a result we decided to start up at the RC boat end (right-hand end).
With 30+ seconds before our start we were heading north on port tack. Most boats were closer to the pin end but Hitchhiker and the new Open 5.70 (Dryer) were up at our end. We tacked over to starboard with Hitchhiker below us but early to the line and with speed. Because of that she was headed farther down the line from the flag and wasn't an issue. Dryer was above us and since we wanted to be right at the flag at the start we headed up above close-hauled, eased the sails and slowed down. Dryer had to do the same. With 5-10 seconds to go we starting accelerating and were pretty much right at the flag at the start, though only at about 80% of speed. Dryer was somewhere behind us. We had a big space to leeward with the closest boat to leeward being Hitchhiker.
Our heading right after the start was ~205°, which was a lift. Since we expected a left shift we went south. Most of our fleet was to the south of us and went farther south as well. For much of this tack we seemed to have good speed and better pointing than the other boats (at least the ones closest to us - Hitchhiker and Teaser). The boat farthest to the left was a J/80 (it turned out to be Avet) and she seemed to have good speed and at least as good point. Looking upwind we could see that the class ahead of us seemed to have about the same wind, at least over on the south side (it was hard to tell but there might have been less wind to the north).
Avet tacked to port and it looked like she would pass a short distance behind us. Almost immediately after Avet tacked many of the boats around her started tacking as well. We were worried that if the wind went south we might be overstood so we tacked as well (on a slight header, which was probably why the other boats had tacked). We wound up with Avet (the first of the boats to the south) directly even with us about 3-5 boatlengths directly to our right. This wasn't good because although we were ahead of her she is much faster downwind and was clearly close enough to be able to pass us soon after rounding. At this point Avet seemed to be higher and at least as fast. We opened up the leach of the genoa by moving the lead up and this made a big help. Because it was so light we didn't want to risk tacking twice and so went slightly past the starboard-tack layline (until the mark was bearing 197-198°). Avet tacked just as we did so she may have wound up in our bad air. We think she tacked twice more and so was a ways behind us at S Mark.
We rounded S Mark and did a bearaway set. The wind had gotten lighter and we had to sail fairly high to get any boatspeed. After rounding, Avet sailed on our line, aiming to pass about a boatlength to leeward of us. She was significantly quicker and closing fast. Blue Jay (another J/80 formerly The Doc) was reaching up above us. As Avet got close to us she gybed north. Blue Jay did the same and passed close behind us. Most of our fleet were not real far behind us but other than the J/80s none seemed to be gaining. Athena was probably sailing faster but as she had gybed to the north immediately after roudning it was hard to judge. We continued on starboard another 1/3 mile until we got a slight lift (we think direction but it may have been velocity) and then gybed to port. Avet and Blue Jay were close together maybe 1/4 mile to our north. Athena and Teaser were over on the north side of the course.
It seemed as if the wind was equal across the course (south to north). However, as we got closer to the shore there was a definite band of lighter air (as if it wasn't light enough already!). Avet and Blue Jay gybed and tried to sail across in front of us to the south. Because Avet was slightly closer to the shore when she gybed she crossed well ahead of us. It looked to us like Blue Jay tried to gybe while still in the lighter air and as a result her spinnaker simply hung limp for quite a while. She finally got it filled and got the boat moving again but by then we were able to cross in front of her. Since it was so light we decided not to gybe twice (which we might have done if there were a bit more wind) and instead headed down for the detached breakwater. Avet was well ahead with no chance of our catching up. Blue Jay had gone south behind us but didn't seem to have speed (perhaps she sailed into another light spot). Athena and Teaser finally got through the lighter band far to the north and were heading south with good speed. Athena got pretty close by the time we rounded the detached breakwater but Teaser was stuck father back. As we got close to the detached breakwater we took our spinnaker down and had to go wing-and-wing with the jib for a short while before rounding. At the detached breakwater it was Avet first, followed by us, then Athena then Blue Jay. Teaser was probably next.
Once we got inside the harbor things were pretty straight-forward. Avet was well ahead and seemed to be pulling out (although she was so far ahead it didn't matter). Athena was only ten or so boatlengths back but she had gone all the way across to the NO SAIL buoys. We stayed pretty much in the center of the entrance channel going wing-and-wing, where there seemed to be slightly more wind than over by the northern edge. The wind was very light so for much of the time we were barely able to keep the jib full. In passing the apartment buildings Athena seemed to lose her wind, probably because she was so close to the shore at that point. We were able to pull out some there. We finished a shortened course at Burton Chase Park, just over 7 minutes behind Avet and about 3-1/2 minutes ahead of Athena.