[Public-List] FW: Raced last night...

Ron Walker via Public-List public-list at lists.alberg30.org
Sun Jun 14 15:13:36 PDT 2015


 Oh man I would love to sit with you just once.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 14, 2015, at 5:51 PM, Gordon Laco via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> And last Wednesday¹s heavy air race, as reported last Thursday....
> 
> 
> 
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net>
> Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2015 11:40:36 -0400
> To: Public-List <public-list-bounces at lists.alberg30.org>
> Conversation: Raced last night...
> Subject: Raced last night...
> 
> Hello there - 
> 
> We raced SURPRISE last night... A series of terrific thunderstorms with
> their squalls swept through here in the afternoon, but the weather radar
> showed no more coming so out we went.
> 
> The wind was solid 25knts gusting higher as we motored out.  I turned
> SURPRISE head to wind in the lee of some trees and we snapped in a reef in
> the main.  Before we left the jetty we changed headsails from our genoa to
> our jib (which we¹d never used).
> 
> Once the main was up with it¹s reefs in, a process which took only seconds,
> we switched off the engine and broad reached away to the east where the
> start of the race was to form up.  Once we unfurled the tall narrow jib, our
> boat speed shot up to 8 knots and I could tell that the single reef in the
> main wasn¹t going to be enough when we tried sailing upwind.  Halfway out to
> the start we rounded up and hove to, stopping the boat while we pulled down
> the second reef.  Because two reefs leaves a lot of loose sail under the
> boom (this is called the Œbunt¹ of the sail) we very loosely tied in two
> reef points in the middle fo the bunt to hold it up close to the boom.  We
> made certain that neither point was tied so tightly that it pulled at all on
> the working part of the sail.  This is important so as to prevent damage...
> Points are not made to take any load...they¹re just for tidying up.
> 
> We were only stopped for few minutes, once the guys were back in the cockpit
> we tacked the jib, got some headway on, then tacked the boat and started
> galloping toward the start again... Even with only handkerchief of main
> showing, we still plowed along at maximum speed.  SURPRISE was tucked down
> deep between her bow and stern waves charging along.  She had breaking
> quarter waves on either side of the stern ­ the sound and look of them were
> dramatic.   The steering was stiff from the power of the water sliding past
> but our directional stability was very good.  We were well balanced under
> the jib and double reefed main, although our sheeting on the jib was not
> good, the most forward end our rail track being too far aft for the sail.
> The inside tracks would have been better, but I¹d taken those sheet cars off
> and remounted them on the rail tracks where they normally do duty barber
> hauling the genoa sheet when reaching in light air.... Oh well.
> 
> One of the Sharks in the fleet broke its rudder and had to retire... Our
> arch rival SUNDANCER came to their rescue to tow them in and that eliminated
> them from the coming battle...rats.  Coping with the high speed traffic
> around the committee boat required a lot of attention, particularly as one A
> Fleet boat, the C&C 36 THE PERK (which because of the nature of the graphics
> by which her name is applied is called by all ŒThe Pork¹) was barely under
> control.      They¹d tied a very loose reef in their main resulting in a
> baggy sail, and had rolled up half of their genny also resulting in a baggy
> sail ­ the two together making her wilder to manage than if they hadn¹t
> reefed at all.  We laughed that once the start came that would be a relief
> because the traffic would be all going the same direction.
> 
> In due course A fleet started... Then we in B.   On the first beat to
> windward our diminished fleet strung out in the first minutes into an order
> that didn¹t change over the whole race.  SURPRISE finished second to a CS27
> she¹s an annoying and perplexing boat in that she¹s either first or last but
> never anything in between.  We haven¹t seen a pattern yet...
> 
> We found that while double reefed in the very heavy air,  playing the
> mainsheet to keep SURPRISE on her feet in gusts had a very detrimental
> effect on speed and pointing.  We found that easing the main caused her head
> to fall off (the wind was over 35 in the puffs) and I was fighting to keep
> her at her work.  We found it was better to feather up in the puffs thereby
> maintaining sail balance without loads of helm up or down... And we actually
> stole a few meters upwind every time we got clobbered.    The double reefed
> main was so flat that it coped with feathering up without complaint.
> Interesting, that.  As things turned out, I¹ve never seen SURPRISE maintain
> such high sustained speeds to windward as she did last night.
> 
> By the end of the race we¹d shaken out both reefs and stampeded over the
> finish in normal heavy air.  Nothing broke, nobody got hurt, and we had no
> close calls with a MOB (man overboard) until one of my guys nearly went over
> backwards while putting the cover on the mainsail about 200 meters from the
> entrance to the club.
> 
> What a night.
> 
> Gord #426 Surprise
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
> 
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
> 
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