[Public-List] NOOD regatta so far

[J Bergquist]

Folks,

Towney asked yesterday if I could do a daily e-mail about the NOOD regatta.
I have been so busy that I just haven't been able to get in front of a
computer until now but I'll give you a summary of what I can.

Friday we had a lot of trouble on my boat getting our new jib sheeting
properly. It was our first day using the sail and we weren't quite aware of
all the adjustments that we would need to make. The conditions were quite
light and we had a terrible time getting the boat to point properly. We
retired during race 2 because we were having such a terrible time going up
wind and we decided that our time would be better spent by heading back to
the dock, getting the old jib and bringing it out for some testing,
measurement, and picture taking side by side with the new jib. As for the
racing, Tim won the day with 1,2,1 and TC was right behind. Jonathan Adams
did quite well, showing off his superstar crew (Larry Morris). The
conditions were light (s4-7 kts) and there was a strong northerly current
which made laylines difficult to gage. The right strategy appeared to be
head left to get in the current lee of hackett's point and that was the best
way to get upwind. However, since I didn't complete race 2 or race 3 I am
not in a position to say for sure.

Saturday we were finally able to start getting some tacking angles that at
least passed the giggle test with the rest of the fleet. This was good news
as it meant that we could at least start considering thinking about
something other than whether or not we were able to hang with other boats.
We were surprised to find a freshening 7-10 kts of breeze out on the course
despite the forecast of 0 to nothing. Again it was a northerly breeze and we
expected that when the current shifted there would be a strong push to work
it left. However, before the current shift, we were expecting the breeze to
go right and so we thought that working the right could also pay some
dividends. In fact we did this during Race 5 because we had a Rule 10
incident at the starting line with Jonathan and Larry (no contact
fortunately) and therefore wound up getting pushed onto port and heading
right after the start. This turned out to be fortuitous as we did get a big
right shift and managed to round the top mark in 3rd position which we held
onto for our best finish of the regatta.

That's pretty much the high points from my perspective so I'll stop there.
Tim and TC are both showing the rest of us how it's done, so if you want
more in-depth analysis of what happened you'd need to ask them.

Overall it's been a good event with reasonable breeze and (at least on my
boat) everybody is having a really good time. Mike Meinhold does bow for me
and we had Max and Rachel on board yesterday which was a gas. They were both
enthusiastic participants in our efforts and Rachel does a great job at pit!


See y'all later,

J