While some people were battling hurricanes, we had a regatta and
sailed in our first real race in the Santana 23. The crew was
relatively inexperienced, the winds varied from light to not-so-light
(about 2~3 knots up to 12 knots & back), the regatta was Fairfield
Harbour Yacht Club's 25th annual Oar Race.

The story of the Oar Race is interesting, there was a founding member
(John Walsh) of the FHYC who had sailed for years with an English
friend on his yacht, the CLARA. The CLARA was not only a classic, but
had been one of the "little ships" of the Dunkirk evacuation at the
beginning of WW2. When the English friend passed away and CLARA was
sold, the FHYC member was given one of her oars as a commemorative.
Years went by and then john Walsh passed away himself. The CLARA's oar
was made into a memorial trophy which hangs in the community center
with a brass plaque explaining the history, and a series of small
plaques with the names & boats of the winners over the years.

No, we didn't win it. But I hope to one day.

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

wrote in message
...
While some people were battling hurricanes, we had a regatta and
sailed in our first real race in the Santana 23. The crew was
relatively inexperienced, the winds varied from light to not-so-light
(about 2~3 knots up to 12 knots & back), the regatta was Fairfield
Harbour Yacht Club's 25th annual Oar Race.

The story of the Oar Race is interesting, there was a founding member
(John Walsh) of the FHYC who had sailed for years with an English
friend on his yacht, the CLARA. The CLARA was not only a classic, but
had been one of the "little ships" of the Dunkirk evacuation at the
beginning of WW2. When the English friend passed away and CLARA was
sold, the FHYC member was given one of her oars as a commemorative.
Years went by and then john Walsh passed away himself. The CLARA's oar
was made into a memorial trophy which hangs in the community center
with a brass plaque explaining the history, and a series of small
plaques with the names & boats of the winners over the years.

No, we didn't win it. But I hope to one day.

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King


Sounds like fun! I was teaching today on the lake. The winds were light,
never over 5kts. It was the third of a four-day class (3 hours per) on two
Holder 20s, which are in ok shape but with totally blown out, ancient sails.
Works for newbie students I suppose. There were three couples, so I split it
men vs. women. The only two with any sailing experience were two of the men.
This was the class' second day on the water.

The course was beam reach, port tack to the first mark, then tack to close
hauled to the second, then down to the third, a jibe, then home. The guys
got smoked for all their experience. They just couldn't work together very
well, and ended up hitting the first mark, so I made them go around it
again. The women had trouble getting into irons at one point, and they lost
the lead briefly. The gained it back on the run, trimming properly, and the
jibe, taking time with the latter and getting it right. The guys did a poor
jibe and rounded up badly (there was a strongish gust) when they forgot to
ease the main. They never got their lead back and lost by five boat lengths.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote:
Sounds like fun! I was teaching today on the lake. The winds were light,
never over 5kts.

The Holder 20s should move well in that, even with blown-out sails.
The thing about light-air sailing is that it takes patience & finesse,
it really isn't like "normal" sailing IMHO. But it's good practice
since we can't always have *real* wind.... well, you can in some
place

Works for newbie students I suppose. There were three couples, so I split it
men vs. women. The only two with any sailing experience were two of the men.
This was the class' second day on the water.

The course was beam reach, port tack to the first mark, then tack to close
hauled to the second, then down to the third, a jibe, then home. The guys
got smoked for all their experience. They just couldn't work together very
well, and ended up hitting the first mark, so I made them go around it
again. The women had trouble getting into irons at one point, and they lost
the lead briefly. The gained it back on the run, trimming properly, and the
jibe, taking time with the latter and getting it right. The guys did a poor
jibe and rounded up badly (there was a strongish gust) when they forgot to
ease the main. They never got their lead back and lost by five boat lengths.


It's definitely a team sport, working together is more important than
brilliance. And hitting the brakes with bad maneuvers.... either
because of skippers un-smarts, or because of crew clumsiness... takes
a long time to get back up to speed. In a PHRF race you simply can't
ever gain back lost time.

It sounds like a good teaching exercise... would the school ever
invest in new sails, or maybe get some 2nd hand but better sails from
Holder 20 owners that have upgraded recently? There is a class
organization, that might help.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote:
Sounds like fun! I was teaching today on the lake. The winds were light,
never over 5kts.

The Holder 20s should move well in that, even with blown-out sails.
The thing about light-air sailing is that it takes patience & finesse,
it really isn't like "normal" sailing IMHO. But it's good practice
since we can't always have *real* wind.... well, you can in some
place

Yeah, some of the patience involves sitting on the boat about 40 feet from
the dock, waiting for the "real" wind. LOL

Works for newbie students I suppose. There were three couples, so I split
it
men vs. women. The only two with any sailing experience were two of the
men.
This was the class' second day on the water.

The course was beam reach, port tack to the first mark, then tack to
close
hauled to the second, then down to the third, a jibe, then home. The guys
got smoked for all their experience. They just couldn't work together
very
well, and ended up hitting the first mark, so I made them go around it
again. The women had trouble getting into irons at one point, and they
lost
the lead briefly. The gained it back on the run, trimming properly, and
the
jibe, taking time with the latter and getting it right. The guys did a
poor
jibe and rounded up badly (there was a strongish gust) when they forgot
to
ease the main. They never got their lead back and lost by five boat
lengths.


It's definitely a team sport, working together is more important than
brilliance. And hitting the brakes with bad maneuvers.... either
because of skippers un-smarts, or because of crew clumsiness... takes
a long time to get back up to speed. In a PHRF race you simply can't
ever gain back lost time.

It sounds like a good teaching exercise... would the school ever
invest in new sails, or maybe get some 2nd hand but better sails from
Holder 20 owners that have upgraded recently? There is a class
organization, that might help.

Not in my lifetime. Some beacon of brilliance used electrical tape on the
docklines to keep them from fraying. Do you have any idea what happens to
electrical tape after sitting in 100 degree for a week?




--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:59:20 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

While some people were battling hurricanes, we had a regatta and
sailed in our first real race in the Santana 23. The crew was
relatively inexperienced, the winds varied from light to not-so-light
(about 2~3 knots up to 12 knots & back), the regatta was Fairfield
Harbour Yacht Club's 25th annual Oar Race.

The story of the Oar Race is interesting, there was a founding member
(John Walsh) of the FHYC who had sailed for years with an English
friend on his yacht, the CLARA. The CLARA was not only a classic, but
had been one of the "little ships" of the Dunkirk evacuation at the
beginning of WW2. When the English friend passed away and CLARA was
sold, the FHYC member was given one of her oars as a commemorative.
Years went by and then john Walsh passed away himself. The CLARA's oar
was made into a memorial trophy which hangs in the community center
with a brass plaque explaining the history, and a series of small
plaques with the names & boats of the winners over the years.

No, we didn't win it. But I hope to one day.

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

How dare you post something on topic in this group!

Sounds like fun Doug

Frank

On 11 Sep, 02:59, wrote:
snip

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

Not a bad result. It reminds me of of a race that I was in a few
years
ago. We had a disastrous first leg in the "Round the Island" race.
By
the start of the second leg, we were at least 2, maybe 3 hours behind
the leaders. Instead of tacking along the SW coast of the Island in
a
SE wind, we went 7-8 miles offshore to do the leg in a single tack.
Our
gamble paid off big time, and we gained about two hours.

I can remember feeling almost lonely at times. We were in a race
with
about 2000 boats, and we couldn't see another boat! It felt really
weird.
Fortunately, it paid off. It could have easily gone the other way,
but as
we were already near the back of the fleet, it didn't matter.


The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

I replaced my genoa this year.... and I learned a big lesson.
I would never, ever, take the manufacturers standard sail kit
again.

You may remember that I posted a question about my "flapping
leech" 9 years ago. Well, as soon as I hoisted the new genoa
I realised that my previous sail had been a complete POS from day one.
The new sail just sets into a correct shape, even if there is no
wind.
I can point 5-10 degrees higher, AND the boat powers better.

My new jenny is made by Hood. I am not recommending
them in particular, but I am extremely happy with its
performance.



Regards


Donal
--

wrote in message
...
On 11 Sep, 02:59, wrote:
snip

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

Not a bad result. It reminds me of of a race that I was in a few
years
ago. We had a disastrous first leg in the "Round the Island" race.
By
the start of the second leg, we were at least 2, maybe 3 hours behind
the leaders. Instead of tacking along the SW coast of the Island in
a
SE wind, we went 7-8 miles offshore to do the leg in a single tack.
Our
gamble paid off big time, and we gained about two hours.

I can remember feeling almost lonely at times. We were in a race
with
about 2000 boats, and we couldn't see another boat! It felt really
weird.
Fortunately, it paid off. It could have easily gone the other way,
but as
we were already near the back of the fleet, it didn't matter.


The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

I replaced my genoa this year.... and I learned a big lesson.
I would never, ever, take the manufacturers standard sail kit
again.

You may remember that I posted a question about my "flapping
leech" 9 years ago. Well, as soon as I hoisted the new genoa
I realised that my previous sail had been a complete POS from day one.
The new sail just sets into a correct shape, even if there is no
wind.
I can point 5-10 degrees higher, AND the boat powers better.

My new jenny is made by Hood. I am not recommending
them in particular, but I am extremely happy with its
performance.



Regards


Donal
--


Damn... I wish we would have had an opportunity to get out on your boat last
we were there... maybe next time.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On 12 Sep, 03:23, "Capt. JG" wrote:
wrote in message

...



On 11 Sep, 02:59, wrote:
snip

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

Not a bad result. It reminds me of of a race that I was in a few
years
ago. We had a disastrous first leg in the "Round the Island" race.
By
the start of the second leg, we were at least 2, maybe 3 hours behind
the leaders. Instead of tacking along the SW coast of the Island in
a
SE wind, we went 7-8 miles offshore to do the leg in a single tack.
Our
gamble paid off big time, and we gained about two hours.

I can remember feeling almost lonely at times. We were in a race
with
about 2000 boats, and we couldn't see another boat! It felt really
weird.
Fortunately, it paid off. It could have easily gone the other way,
but as
we were already near the back of the fleet, it didn't matter.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

I replaced my genoa this year.... and I learned a big lesson.
I would never, ever, take the manufacturers standard sail kit
again.

You may remember that I posted a question about my "flapping
leech" 9 years ago. Well, as soon as I hoisted the new genoa
I realised that my previous sail had been a complete POS from day one.
The new sail just sets into a correct shape, even if there is no
wind.
I can point 5-10 degrees higher, AND the boat powers better.

My new jenny is made by Hood. I am not recommending
them in particular, but I am extremely happy with its
performance.

Regards

Donal
--

Damn... I wish we would have had an opportunity to get out on your boat last
we were there... maybe next time.


As you know, I would have enjoyed it too.

The amazing thing is that I am likely to take another asa
member out on Setanta this weekend.

This newsgroup actually does bring people together. I
may not have ever met Doug, or Haggie, but if I meet
someone who has met them, then I will feel a
kinnship with people who are very far away.



Donal
--

wrote in message
...
On 12 Sep, 03:23, "Capt. JG" wrote:
wrote in message

...



On 11 Sep, 02:59, wrote:
snip

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

Not a bad result. It reminds me of of a race that I was in a few
years
ago. We had a disastrous first leg in the "Round the Island" race.
By
the start of the second leg, we were at least 2, maybe 3 hours behind
the leaders. Instead of tacking along the SW coast of the Island in
a
SE wind, we went 7-8 miles offshore to do the leg in a single tack.
Our
gamble paid off big time, and we gained about two hours.

I can remember feeling almost lonely at times. We were in a race
with
about 2000 boats, and we couldn't see another boat! It felt really
weird.
Fortunately, it paid off. It could have easily gone the other way,
but as
we were already near the back of the fleet, it didn't matter.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

I replaced my genoa this year.... and I learned a big lesson.
I would never, ever, take the manufacturers standard sail kit
again.

You may remember that I posted a question about my "flapping
leech" 9 years ago. Well, as soon as I hoisted the new genoa
I realised that my previous sail had been a complete POS from day one.
The new sail just sets into a correct shape, even if there is no
wind.
I can point 5-10 degrees higher, AND the boat powers better.

My new jenny is made by Hood. I am not recommending
them in particular, but I am extremely happy with its
performance.

Regards

Donal
--

Damn... I wish we would have had an opportunity to get out on your boat
last
we were there... maybe next time.


As you know, I would have enjoyed it too.

The amazing thing is that I am likely to take another asa
member out on Setanta this weekend.

This newsgroup actually does bring people together. I
may not have ever met Doug, or Haggie, but if I meet
someone who has met them, then I will feel a
kinnship with people who are very far away.



I agree... never met Haggie, but I can vouch for Doug. I hope it's not
Bubbles! That would disturb me.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On 13 Sep, 02:41, "Capt. JG" wrote:
wrote in message

...



On 12 Sep, 03:23, "Capt. JG" wrote:
wrote in message

...

On 11 Sep, 02:59, wrote:
snip

First of all, I made several mistakes which cost us time. The start
sequences was not clear and I misjudged both the time & distance it
would take to circle. That cost us a bit less than a minute. The wind
was light and we got the boat accelerated & up to a close-hauled
course, on a long port tack. This was the favored side and the wind
gave us some luck, before long we had a pretty clear lead but I could
see patches of no wind, ahead & to leeward. It looked to me like we
were sailing out of our wind streak. So, even though it meant pointing
the boat about 90 degrees away from the mark, I tacked the boat and we
went about 4 or 5 minutes on starboard, out to the middle of the
river. Yes the wind was a bit stronger, but in a less favorable
direction... and the lulls I saw did not affect the other boats that
stayed on the same tack very much. The result was that we lost a place
and could not gain it back on the spinnaker run, we ended up in 2nd
place by about a minute corrected time. The winner was a San Juan 30
which was very well sailed.

Not a bad result. It reminds me of of a race that I was in a few
years
ago. We had a disastrous first leg in the "Round the Island" race.
By
the start of the second leg, we were at least 2, maybe 3 hours behind
the leaders. Instead of tacking along the SW coast of the Island in
a
SE wind, we went 7-8 miles offshore to do the leg in a single tack.
Our
gamble paid off big time, and we gained about two hours.

I can remember feeling almost lonely at times. We were in a race
with
about 2000 boats, and we couldn't see another boat! It felt really
weird.
Fortunately, it paid off. It could have easily gone the other way,
but as
we were already near the back of the fleet, it didn't matter.

The next day, we had some short round-the-bouys races and again I did
not get us very good starts. Still, we got up into the pack and the
rookie crew learned everything pretty cleanly. We did not do anything
fancy, no tacking duels, we didn't even pull the daggerboard up on the
short spinnaker runs. We ended up with a couple of close seconds and
one first. We were definitely first in our class for much of the first
two races, since we were ahead of all 4 boats that owed us time and
the one we owed time to was quite far back.

We need to work on some basic maneuvers, our tacks were not very good
and I always called the spinnaker douse early so as to get it down
clean before getting around the mark. At one point, the genoa wincher/
trimmer kept getting the sheet clinched (over-ride) on the winch and
they were ignoring my advice about how to avoid this problem... a
trial of patience for all concerned. At the end of the day, everybody
was talking about how much fun it was, so it couldn't have been too
bad.

The boat needs work too. I have a very fancy carbon/mylar 155% genoa
which I actually don't think is such a great sail, an equally fancy
kevlar scrim blade (about 110%) which does seem like a great sail, a
plain-jane dacron main (probably about 15 years old but has great
shape), and a blown-out red spinnaker. At some point we will spend
some money on new sails but in all honesty, I have other priorities
like rebedding all the deck hardware and building a new fore hatch
right now.

I replaced my genoa this year.... and I learned a big lesson.
I would never, ever, take the manufacturers standard sail kit
again.

You may remember that I posted a question about my "flapping
leech" 9 years ago. Well, as soon as I hoisted the new genoa
I realised that my previous sail had been a complete POS from day one.
The new sail just sets into a correct shape, even if there is no
wind.
I can point 5-10 degrees higher, AND the boat powers better.

My new jenny is made by Hood. I am not recommending
them in particular, but I am extremely happy with its
performance.

Regards

Donal
--

Damn... I wish we would have had an opportunity to get out on your boat
last
we were there... maybe next time.

As you know, I would have enjoyed it too.

The amazing thing is that I am likely to take another asa
member out on Setanta this weekend.

This newsgroup actually does bring people together. I
may not have ever met Doug, or Haggie, but if I meet
someone who has met them, then I will feel a
kinnship with people who are very far away.

I agree... never met Haggie, but I can vouch for Doug. I hope it's not
Bubbles! That would disturb me.

It isn't Bob. Although, I would be happy to meet Bob. I'm
very thick skinned, and I respect the contributions of all
the regular asa posters. This isn't meant to sound
pompous, but this is a rather freindly group of people
who share an interest in sailing. I feel honoured to be
accepted by such a diverse group.

Anyway, that is enough of the sentimental twaddle.

Tomorrow I shall go sailing with an old(asa) hand, and I
think that this shows that this group does have real
value.


Regards


Donal
--