And for those that didn't get to experience it live, and even for those that did, here's the video recap of some memorable moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-qt8syyuQ&feature=youtu.be
Enjoy!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
SYC Smith Island
Back to racing! MB was signed up for the SYC Smith Is Short Course, a 35 mile run up to Whidbey Island and back. The forecast was for 10 kts and building to 20 kts in the afternoon from the S / SW. Six of us arrived early at MB to ferry her over to Shilshoal for the start. In addition to Shawn, Jason, Jeff and Pete we were joined by Mike and Mark. We had a downwind start under mostly clear skies and the fleet set off rather briskly as the wind quickly built to 15 kts and then 20 kts. We jibed among the other boats in our fleet, first hugging the western shore and then angling out into the middle of the channel where the opposing current was stronger, but so was the following wind. MB was holding her own but a quarter to half mile back from the lead boats in our group, which included Corvo and Different Drummer. To make up time we set the number three jib inside our spinnaker and flew for a time with two head sails. We believe this gave us a half kt of additional speed, and briefly saw 10 kts. But more importantly, it looked good...
As everyone approached the mark off of Double Bluff, a weird thing happened: the wind shut off. For whatever reason, possibly due to the Puget Sound convergence zone, a northerly was coming down along the channel and the lead boats suddenly found themselves dousing their spinnakers, setting their jibs, and drifting in a few knots of gyrating wind. At this point, because we were behind these boats and still in a solid 15-20 kts of wind from the south, we jibed to run parallel to the wind wall and up into Useless Bay, getting as close to the mark as possible before dealing with the mayhem. It was a very strange situation where we were running at 9 kts of boat speed and very full sails a mere 100 to 200 yards from boats with jibs (no spinnakers) drifting aimlessly in the current. We tucked up as close to Double Bluff as possible with the foredeck full of sails: the doused #3, a #1 ready for light air, and the spinnaker. Eventually we doused the chute and raised the #1. We were able to sneak through several boats as the wind alternated from 10 kts from the S/SE and 3 kts from the N/NW. As it turned out, we were leading the fleet followed by a group of a dozen boats which were all converging on the rounding mark in light / variable air. To make things more interesting, there was a strong current line sweeping out of Mutiny Bay; which meant that everyone had to transition from the back eddy, which we were all in, and cross 30 yards of 3-4 kt current sweeping past the buoy in a very negative fashion. We were two boat lengths from the buoy and still in the lead when Shawn made the right decision to bail out of the train wreck of boats that was coming. Within a few seconds six boats were banging into each other and hanging inches from a giant green USCG channel marker with no where to go and lots of current doing bad things. The wind filled at the perfect time and we were able to swing around the mark / mayhem and charge back south towards the finish off Shilshoal.
No sooner had we tacked than we were back in the teeth of the 15-20 kts of wind we rode north. Further, the now in-rushing tide was at full flood against this wind causing the waves to pile into short and steep white-capped rollers. With our #1 up we were way overpowered and the boat was hard to handle. As things settled we found ourselves in second place right behind Different Drummer, but the fleet was compressed and now it was a long tacking duel to decide the winner. We made our way across to Point No Point and tacked over so that we could get the #3 up and then peel the #1. It's never fun or easy to accomplish this on a wet canted bow with 18 kts of wind while plowing into three to four foot seas. Once we had the #3 up the boat performed much better and we alternated between losing and gaining ground on the lead boats: Different Drummer, Corvo and Life is Good. About half way back to Seattle the wind started to dissipate, reaching as low at 8 kts. We did another headsail change, putting the #1 back up. Due to fatigue, not enough weight on the rail, and lack of overall experience (we don't get out as much as the rest of the fleet), we slowly gave up time and let several other boats gain time on us. In the end we crossed the line fifth overall immediately behind Delirium (J/105) and in front of Bergen Viking (J/35). Based on corrected time we finished sixth out of nine boats in our class. It was a beautiful day and excellent sailing conditions. We did much better than the previous year and are making progress with tactics, trim and crew. For this trip we had the GoPro mounted and will add some interesting videos in the near future.
As everyone approached the mark off of Double Bluff, a weird thing happened: the wind shut off. For whatever reason, possibly due to the Puget Sound convergence zone, a northerly was coming down along the channel and the lead boats suddenly found themselves dousing their spinnakers, setting their jibs, and drifting in a few knots of gyrating wind. At this point, because we were behind these boats and still in a solid 15-20 kts of wind from the south, we jibed to run parallel to the wind wall and up into Useless Bay, getting as close to the mark as possible before dealing with the mayhem. It was a very strange situation where we were running at 9 kts of boat speed and very full sails a mere 100 to 200 yards from boats with jibs (no spinnakers) drifting aimlessly in the current. We tucked up as close to Double Bluff as possible with the foredeck full of sails: the doused #3, a #1 ready for light air, and the spinnaker. Eventually we doused the chute and raised the #1. We were able to sneak through several boats as the wind alternated from 10 kts from the S/SE and 3 kts from the N/NW. As it turned out, we were leading the fleet followed by a group of a dozen boats which were all converging on the rounding mark in light / variable air. To make things more interesting, there was a strong current line sweeping out of Mutiny Bay; which meant that everyone had to transition from the back eddy, which we were all in, and cross 30 yards of 3-4 kt current sweeping past the buoy in a very negative fashion. We were two boat lengths from the buoy and still in the lead when Shawn made the right decision to bail out of the train wreck of boats that was coming. Within a few seconds six boats were banging into each other and hanging inches from a giant green USCG channel marker with no where to go and lots of current doing bad things. The wind filled at the perfect time and we were able to swing around the mark / mayhem and charge back south towards the finish off Shilshoal.
No sooner had we tacked than we were back in the teeth of the 15-20 kts of wind we rode north. Further, the now in-rushing tide was at full flood against this wind causing the waves to pile into short and steep white-capped rollers. With our #1 up we were way overpowered and the boat was hard to handle. As things settled we found ourselves in second place right behind Different Drummer, but the fleet was compressed and now it was a long tacking duel to decide the winner. We made our way across to Point No Point and tacked over so that we could get the #3 up and then peel the #1. It's never fun or easy to accomplish this on a wet canted bow with 18 kts of wind while plowing into three to four foot seas. Once we had the #3 up the boat performed much better and we alternated between losing and gaining ground on the lead boats: Different Drummer, Corvo and Life is Good. About half way back to Seattle the wind started to dissipate, reaching as low at 8 kts. We did another headsail change, putting the #1 back up. Due to fatigue, not enough weight on the rail, and lack of overall experience (we don't get out as much as the rest of the fleet), we slowly gave up time and let several other boats gain time on us. In the end we crossed the line fifth overall immediately behind Delirium (J/105) and in front of Bergen Viking (J/35). Based on corrected time we finished sixth out of nine boats in our class. It was a beautiful day and excellent sailing conditions. We did much better than the previous year and are making progress with tactics, trim and crew. For this trip we had the GoPro mounted and will add some interesting videos in the near future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)