[Public-list] NOOD Race Day 2

[J Bergquist]

For those who are interested, the 2nd day of racing in the NOOD
regatta (should have been day 3, but there was no breeze Friday...)
finally delivered the excellent breeze-on conditions that had been
advertised. It was a solid 15-20 kts out of the north west with
relatively steady pressure. I personally would like to thank Bob Kirk
for the old jib he gave me which I re-cut and used for race 1 on
sunday. It worked great. Thanks, Bob! During the first downwind leg of
race 1, TC Williams and CB Currier showed the rest of us how its done
as I believe they were the only 2 boats able to carry their kites all
the way down. Because of a big right shift toward the end of the beat,
it was a one-gybe (port) reach to the leeward mark. Those who gybed
early were rewarded, and several boats broached in the puffy
conditions. We took the spinnaker down about halfway to the bottom and
jib-reached the rest of the way. A couple of people had spinnaker
problems at the leeward mark and one boat retired, unable to get the
kite down. The 2nd run was equally exciting, and as we came around the
mark behind Andante and Windswept who were both sailing wing on wing
with their jibs, we decided to go for it with the spinnaker and see if
we could catch them. I think our principal error was in gybing too
early this time (after having learned a lesson from the last downwind
leg), and we wound up having to sail a pretty low angle on port to be
able to lay the line. This wasn't as fast as it could have been and
though we did close the gap, we ran out of race track before we could
catch them. Kudos to TC and CB though on showing us all how to handle
the boat downwind in breeze. They and their crews clearly did a great
job.

In the pre-start for race 2 the breeze appeared to be consistent and
looked to be slightly moderating, but not much. However, once the race
began it was clear that there were some much more significant lulls.
We had not switched back to the #1 jib yet and paid the price. Despite
going to the correct side of the course and being in phase with the
shifts, we had no speed and went around the windward mark deep. We
proceeded to attempt a headsail change during the run and this was
pretty much a disaster as we had a lot of problems with that and wound
up DEEP in last place. We were able to battle back to 8th and nearly
gained 7th by going right and staying in phase, but alas it wasn't
quite enough. At any rate, I was not in a good position to really talk
about the 2nd race on Sunday so hopefully somebody who was closer to
the front can talk about that.

One side story from sunday was that we were narrowly missed by a
broaching Cal 25 (they were going downwind, us upwind...) That fleet
is a real liability...

Overall, this year's NOOD was an excellent regatta and a success for
our association, I think. We had 3 first time NOOD skippers (Adams,
Bergquist, Cole), a fleet of 9 boats racing, a range of conditions
from 0 kts to 20 kts of breeze, and a whole heck of a lot of fun!

We should all be congratulating TC, CB, and Towney for capturing 1st,
2nd, and 3rd places. TC definitely had unmatched boatspeed out there
and consistently made good decisions. I was impressed also with CB's
boat handling and the few times when I was actually in front of him or
Towney, I spent a good bit of time looking over my shoulder nervously
as I was eerily aware of them methodically grinding me down, waiting
for me to make a mistake. Good stuff. I'll get you guys one of these
days... ;-)

The Miles River race will be Memorial Day weekend. That should be
another really fun race, and there is a cruise as well, so you can
have it both ways! Mark your calendars!

If you are interested in getting into racing, there are plenty of
people who would be happy to help you. Just drop one of the racers an
e-mail. If you want to just ease into it, one way to do that which is
pretty low-key is to go out for wednesday night sailing as crew
sometime. I am always happy to take extra people, so feel free to
e-mail me or call if you're in Annapolis and want to race with me on
any given wednesday.

Later,

J Bergquist
Calliope #287