A wonderful day here in England today, started out with bright sunny skies, and I was told to enjoy while I could. Breezes at around 12-15, and a high in the low 70s. Went to the club in the morning, and had a bit of a practice sail after fixing my bailer. Beautiful out there, but the waves were still quite impressive. Sunday is race day at the Hayling Island Sailing Club so there were many dinghies and keel boats out racing, both adults and juniors. The juniors knew that the Masters are old guys, so when I walked by any of them, they all said "hullo sir".
Today I had planned to visit my former bowman and his wife in Oxford. He has just graduated with an MBA from the School of Business and was leaving tomorrow for a trip to Italy before returning to the US. Had a wonderful time walking around Oxford. Today was the one day a year they open all the halls, colleges and libraries to the public, so it was quite impressive to see everything. We also had a chance to visit Christ Church in Oxford and it was really impressive. The cathedral and the grounds are massive, with a cow pasture right in the middle of Oxford. Amazingly beautiful stained glass windows, and also incredible to see the tomb of John de Nower. This Knight who died in 1386 was 6'6" tall, incredibly huge for his time. He must have looked like Goliath on the battlefield to his enemies. The statue of him lying down on his tomb, in life size, is really impressive. With an average height of 5' back in the 14th century, people must have really thought this guy was a true giant. The drive to and from Oxford is not bad, only about an hour and a half, and it certainly was worth it.
Sam and Laura took me to the Trout Inn (of Inspector Morse fame). We had a wonderful dinner, and of course topped off with some English pudding. I watched a culinary tour of England on the television last night, and there are a few more English foods I have to have before I leave. Unfortunately so many of the "native" dishes are centered around the north of England, so I will have to do with the southern imitation. Of course I have to find a chip shop for fish and chips, perhaps something with forced rhubarb in it, and some Liverpool Scouse. I think I will be able to do without the tripe and blood pudding.
It is just after 10 p.m. now, and tomorrow is the first race day of the regatta. Our first start is at 1 p.m. tomorrow with two races scheduled. All remaining race days start at noon. The Masters Category will be split into two fleets because of the 100 or so entrants. I have drawn the red fleet for tomorrow. I got to check in with a few friends that I have not seen since last year, which is really nice. It is kind of funny with the Laser Masters Worlds, it does not really matter what part of the world you are in, once you get in the club, it all seems the same, same sailors, same process, etc.
The workers here at the hotel are extremely nice and helpful, by far the best customer service I have seen since being in England. Most of the people seem nice and polite, but not particularly interested in helping another person. This country is really in conflict about the metric system. All the road signs are in standard, miles and mph, but the directions and so forth are all in metric. The fuel consumption is miles per gallon, but the petrol (gasoline) is a little over a pound a liter. Very confusing, not sure if temperatures are in farenheit or celcius.
Yikes, laptop charger just burned out, so this might be it for the week for me. Will have to see what I can do.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Checked in and Measured
After my very long day yesterday (and the day before), I fell asleep at 6 p.m. and didn't wake until 8 a.m. Hopefully that got me over the jet lag quickly. I headed over the Hayling Island Sailing Club to get my assigned boat and check in. I got my boat assignment but none of the boats were in any sort of order, so I had to pull the back of the cover off every boat until I found mine, one of the last I looked at of course. I was shocked at the very poor condition of so many of these boats, they are all new and only used at the Standards Worlds last week. My boat had a large chip in the gel on the deck, and scratches all down the starboard side of the boat. It was also missing the bailer plug and the transom plug. Apparently I was lucky enough to get blades in fairly good shape, from what I understand, the blades have all been awful. The GRP foils here in Europe are very different to the North American and Australian GRP foils. The Euro ones are all two piece, and the seam is very poorly done, with a crack line all the way around the edge of both foils. I am not impressed at all with the Euro boats.
Rigged the boat, and noticed that the hiking straps are longer, I went through the measurement process and everything measured well, and again I should consider myself lucky because apparently there were a lot of battens that were too long. Checked in at the registration desk, got my SIs and wrist band, for the three social events associated with this regatta. They were custom printing the t-shirts, but I really didn't want to wait in the line, it was taking a very long time, and that was by far the longest line.
The tides here are massive, and I have been told that if you want to take a short practice sail and come back in, you have to go out and come back in on a slack tide, if you go out on an outgoing tide, you will not make it back to the club until the tide changes. It is quite amazing seeing the harbors here at low tide, it is really incredible how many millions of gallons of water flow in and out of the harbors twice a day. Most keel boats on moorings are high and dry at low tide, hence the huge number of boats with full keels or double keels so the boats do not fall over at low tide. I suppose low tide is a good time to clean the bottom. The current right in front of the club is massive, it is quite incredible seeing a keel boat doing 6 knots but clearly making 12 over the bottom.
For some reason many of the USA boats are all together on the boat park, so it was nice to see some of the US competitors that I see at the North American regattas. Nick Place from Corsica River is here and getting checked in, and he is parked right next to my boat.
Tomorrow is a practice day, and I need to decide if I should go up to Oxford to spend time with some friends. Today is a English Premiership football (soccer) match at the Portsmouth Football Club stadium between Portsmouth and Ipswitch. The stadium is right next to my hotel in Portsmouth, and it took me a very long time to get into town with all the traffic for the match, and the hotel is currently completly surrounded by soccer supporters from both Portsmouth and Ipswitch. The Kentucky Fried Chicken by the stadium was completely full, with a line that went out the door, all soccer fans.
The roads are all narrow here, very narrow with no shoulders. All the street vendors look very American with signs saying "Hamburgers and Hot Dogs", even if they sell fish and chips. The bread here is much better than back home, and the sandwiches are very tasty. Getting used to driving on the left is not too bad, but I still tend to go to the left side of the car to get in. I usually nonchalantly put something in the passenger seat and then walk to the other side like I meant to do it all the time. I have been unable to find a single caffeine free diet drink. No diet sprite, diet ginger ale, diet 7up, if on a diet, you have a choice between diet Coke or diet Pepsi. The Kentucky Fried Chicken only offer corn and fries as sides, no coleslaw, mashed potatoes, beans or anything else. No extra crispy, but the original recipe tastes the same. I find it funny they call it original recipe when there is no alternate recipe, like extra crispy in the US. They don't have popcorn shrimp, but they do have popcorn chicken. I think we call those nuggets in the US.
I have noticed that businesses focus very little on customer service here. The customer is always wrong, and workers have no problem just ignoring you and walking away if they do not like what you are asking for. Having worked the retail trade, I can assure you that many people in the US have been fired for treating people the way I have been treated by many retail workers here. I consider myself lucky that when I was stuck on the side of the road for 5 hours waiting for Hertz, the people I met were all extremely nice, and funnily many of them either had lived in the US or Canada or were actually now living in the US. A very nice police officer stopped by where I was, and made a telephone call to Hertz telling them to immediately get someone out there because the car was a hazard. One would think that would make them jump, but no, they still took another 4 hours to get there, and then had the gall to charge me 180 pounds, ($300) for the flat tire, I will be fighting that with Hertz since the spare was the wrong one for the car and I could not change the tire and drive on.
I will head back to the club this evening for the opening dinner and ceremony, first of the three social events. Thursday is a mid-week barbeque, and Sunday is the closing ceremony and awards.
Rigged the boat, and noticed that the hiking straps are longer, I went through the measurement process and everything measured well, and again I should consider myself lucky because apparently there were a lot of battens that were too long. Checked in at the registration desk, got my SIs and wrist band, for the three social events associated with this regatta. They were custom printing the t-shirts, but I really didn't want to wait in the line, it was taking a very long time, and that was by far the longest line.
The tides here are massive, and I have been told that if you want to take a short practice sail and come back in, you have to go out and come back in on a slack tide, if you go out on an outgoing tide, you will not make it back to the club until the tide changes. It is quite amazing seeing the harbors here at low tide, it is really incredible how many millions of gallons of water flow in and out of the harbors twice a day. Most keel boats on moorings are high and dry at low tide, hence the huge number of boats with full keels or double keels so the boats do not fall over at low tide. I suppose low tide is a good time to clean the bottom. The current right in front of the club is massive, it is quite incredible seeing a keel boat doing 6 knots but clearly making 12 over the bottom.
For some reason many of the USA boats are all together on the boat park, so it was nice to see some of the US competitors that I see at the North American regattas. Nick Place from Corsica River is here and getting checked in, and he is parked right next to my boat.
Tomorrow is a practice day, and I need to decide if I should go up to Oxford to spend time with some friends. Today is a English Premiership football (soccer) match at the Portsmouth Football Club stadium between Portsmouth and Ipswitch. The stadium is right next to my hotel in Portsmouth, and it took me a very long time to get into town with all the traffic for the match, and the hotel is currently completly surrounded by soccer supporters from both Portsmouth and Ipswitch. The Kentucky Fried Chicken by the stadium was completely full, with a line that went out the door, all soccer fans.
The roads are all narrow here, very narrow with no shoulders. All the street vendors look very American with signs saying "Hamburgers and Hot Dogs", even if they sell fish and chips. The bread here is much better than back home, and the sandwiches are very tasty. Getting used to driving on the left is not too bad, but I still tend to go to the left side of the car to get in. I usually nonchalantly put something in the passenger seat and then walk to the other side like I meant to do it all the time. I have been unable to find a single caffeine free diet drink. No diet sprite, diet ginger ale, diet 7up, if on a diet, you have a choice between diet Coke or diet Pepsi. The Kentucky Fried Chicken only offer corn and fries as sides, no coleslaw, mashed potatoes, beans or anything else. No extra crispy, but the original recipe tastes the same. I find it funny they call it original recipe when there is no alternate recipe, like extra crispy in the US. They don't have popcorn shrimp, but they do have popcorn chicken. I think we call those nuggets in the US.
I have noticed that businesses focus very little on customer service here. The customer is always wrong, and workers have no problem just ignoring you and walking away if they do not like what you are asking for. Having worked the retail trade, I can assure you that many people in the US have been fired for treating people the way I have been treated by many retail workers here. I consider myself lucky that when I was stuck on the side of the road for 5 hours waiting for Hertz, the people I met were all extremely nice, and funnily many of them either had lived in the US or Canada or were actually now living in the US. A very nice police officer stopped by where I was, and made a telephone call to Hertz telling them to immediately get someone out there because the car was a hazard. One would think that would make them jump, but no, they still took another 4 hours to get there, and then had the gall to charge me 180 pounds, ($300) for the flat tire, I will be fighting that with Hertz since the spare was the wrong one for the car and I could not change the tire and drive on.
I will head back to the club this evening for the opening dinner and ceremony, first of the three social events. Thursday is a mid-week barbeque, and Sunday is the closing ceremony and awards.
Friday, September 10, 2010
In Portsmouth......Finally
Checked in at the hotel in Portsmouth......finally. Lesson learned, never ever rent from Hertz again. Halfway to Portsmouth, flat tire, go to change it, and the spare does not fit the car, yep, Hertz gave me a spare tire that does not fit the car. I had to wait 5 1/2 hours on the side of the road waiting to be picked up and taken to Hertz in Southhampton, then when I get to the Hertz office, they charge my credit card 180 pounds sterling for the tire, unbelievable, especially since I had to wait over 5 hours because the spare was wrong. So I didn't get a chance to go to Hayling Island and get my assigned boat and measure in. I will head over there tomorrow to hopefully get all that done.
Why do all the cars here have such poor visibility from the inside? Small back windows, and really hard to see around the car. Not to mention getting used to driving on the left side of the road, and shifting a manual with my left hand. Lots of fun. Of course it is chilly and overcast here, which from what I understand is the case 97% of the time. Supposedly it got so cold in the south of England in August, they had to turn on their heat. Glad I brought warm gear.
Tomorrow I go to the yacht club, get my boat, get measured in and hopefully get to sail a little bit. Now off to an early bed to try to make up for some of this lost sleep. Talk with you soon.
Why do all the cars here have such poor visibility from the inside? Small back windows, and really hard to see around the car. Not to mention getting used to driving on the left side of the road, and shifting a manual with my left hand. Lots of fun. Of course it is chilly and overcast here, which from what I understand is the case 97% of the time. Supposedly it got so cold in the south of England in August, they had to turn on their heat. Glad I brought warm gear.
Tomorrow I go to the yacht club, get my boat, get measured in and hopefully get to sail a little bit. Now off to an early bed to try to make up for some of this lost sleep. Talk with you soon.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
2010 Laser District 11 Championships
Awesome turn out for the 2010 Laser District Championships at Corsica River with 60 Lasers in attendance. Unfortunately the wind gods did not understand the importance of this Championships and refused to provide much breeze for both days. Forecast for Saturday called for north easterly breezes peeking at about 7 knots at 9 a.m. and decreasing to nothing for most of the rest of the day, it did not look good for racing, especially with a significant current running out the river, in the south west direction, giving light winds with the current, really didn't look good for any races. After a short postponement on shore we sailed slowly out of the creek, aided by the current, we got to the race area with about 4 knots of breeze from the north easy with 20 degree oscillating shifts. Boat was favored in our sequence, and with the current pushing the fleet away from the line, I had no trouble getting a front row start 2nd from the boat, and with speed. Nice, step 1 done, now work to the right side and try to get some current relief, bur remember, don't approach on starboard layline because the current will prevent you from getting to the mark, no matter how much you seem to over stand. I tacked right immediately, good roll tack, speed to the right, first shift, and tack back, another roll tack done well. Great going well. Now work the shifts up the right side, and nail every roll tack, no gifts. The right side paid off big, and the few boats that hit the right corner did well, I rounded in top 20, good place to be, then start downwind with the current. Wind dropping, and I used two roll jibes to pass a boat, then hit the right gate, and start to go upwind. The Race Committee seeing the wind dropping, changed the next mark to a shorter distance upwind against the current, and shortened the course to that mark. Wind kept dropping, and the first few boats finished, I worked the right side again, passed several boats, and was able to get within about 2 boat lengths of the finish line when the wind died completely. Now up to the finish against the current with almost no wind, 8 roll tacks later, all done well, I was able to cross the line in 14th, passing Bob Tan in the last 2 lengths to the finish. Wow, not sure how legal that was, but the only way we could finish, only 4 more boats were able to finish within the time limit and the wind died to nothing and I tied up to a powerboat and enjoyed some great conversation and beers with the southern bay folks, hats out to the Swenson's super nice family and Kyle just getting better and better on the Laser, very hard to beat now. Tow back to the club for some more beer, and then I had to head home to take care of Samson. Would have been nice to camp there, it is a beautiful location, with very nice facilities, rustic, and awesome camping. There were 18 sailors from SSA, largest contingent, and we had our own "base camp" and "yacht" (thanks Leo Wilson). I heard the dinner was awesome, and the party on the "yacht" even better.
Sunday forecast looked very much like Saturday, except now from the southeast. Wind dropping all day. OK, now we have wind against current, and a nice boost upwind. Quinn Tobin went left for 3 minutes and I went right before the start, and I crossed about 10 lengths ahead, even though I was in a hole most of the time, OK, good current right side, start on the boat and kick out that way. Got a great start, but no, now that we have current pushing us over the line, general recall. One more general recall later, I had a poor start, first time of all the general recalls, and it is a clean start, figures. Well, get right when I can, but for the first third of the leg, I am pinged around just hunting for lanes. Still have to nail every roll tack. But wait, left side is paying off, huh??? Doesn't make sense, right side is the channel and faster running water theoretically. Well very deep when I get to the weather mark, back of the fleet, well long downwinds against the current to make this up. Excellent downwind speed and working left course side to the left gate, I passed several boats and rounded the gate cleanly and went out left this time, good idea, as I pick off several more boats, good, this is how it should work, keep nailing roll tacks, and shifts. Hit the next weather mark in about 30th place and worked to the left course side again, at the approach to the gate, I roll jibed to pass a boat to my left, went to a boat to my right on starboard, roll jibed back to starboard to pass him and set myself up inside a third boat that was ahead of me. Nice work, passing 3 boats on one mark rounding set up. Head back to the left side upwind and work the shifts, staying out of the holes and let the current carry me up to the finish to somehow work myself back to 16th. Wow, nice come back, but really got to keep myself from getting deep like that. OK, another race, not going to make the right side mistake again. Go for the pin and win the pin end at the start, only to be called back for another general recall. Ah well, back on the good starts. Next start, back to the pin end, and start cleanly on the right side with two boats to leeward, and a gap to windward where I was not pinned. Nice, work out left, a couple of small shifts, roll tacks nailed, great, then wind starts to shut off, and sure enough, it shuts off from the left, giving all those on the right a little breeze to help them to the mark. I rounded with only about 4 boats behind me, yikes, not good especially with no wind downwind against the current. Start working hard now, roll jibing to every zephyr, roll jibing to keep the boat moving, and somehow picking off boats, then just a hint of a breeze to get us into the shortened finish after two legs. Yikes, that sucked, but did some good things downwind to finish in 28th.
This left me at 14th for the regatta and third master behind Hiramitsu Yamamoto in 8th and Bob Tan in 13th. Very respectable considering the conditions and quite happy that I was able to climb out of some deep holes. That is so important to doing well at any regatta, sometimes things conspire to go wrong, but the best sailors somehow manage to fight their way back to respectable finishes nonetheless.
This is it before Laser Masters Worlds. TESOD on Tuesday looks like no wind again, and the Melges 24 class is not looking good for Annapolis Race Week, so I may get the Labor Day weekend to practice anyway. Then off to England September 9. Getting close now, and I feel my boat handling skills and kinetics are streets better this year than last. I guess those days on the beach laser doing 50 roll tacks and 50 roll jibes really helped. Fitness level was good too, and I was happy to do 8 roll tacks right at the finish of the first race, when others were reluctant to do so.
Sunday forecast looked very much like Saturday, except now from the southeast. Wind dropping all day. OK, now we have wind against current, and a nice boost upwind. Quinn Tobin went left for 3 minutes and I went right before the start, and I crossed about 10 lengths ahead, even though I was in a hole most of the time, OK, good current right side, start on the boat and kick out that way. Got a great start, but no, now that we have current pushing us over the line, general recall. One more general recall later, I had a poor start, first time of all the general recalls, and it is a clean start, figures. Well, get right when I can, but for the first third of the leg, I am pinged around just hunting for lanes. Still have to nail every roll tack. But wait, left side is paying off, huh??? Doesn't make sense, right side is the channel and faster running water theoretically. Well very deep when I get to the weather mark, back of the fleet, well long downwinds against the current to make this up. Excellent downwind speed and working left course side to the left gate, I passed several boats and rounded the gate cleanly and went out left this time, good idea, as I pick off several more boats, good, this is how it should work, keep nailing roll tacks, and shifts. Hit the next weather mark in about 30th place and worked to the left course side again, at the approach to the gate, I roll jibed to pass a boat to my left, went to a boat to my right on starboard, roll jibed back to starboard to pass him and set myself up inside a third boat that was ahead of me. Nice work, passing 3 boats on one mark rounding set up. Head back to the left side upwind and work the shifts, staying out of the holes and let the current carry me up to the finish to somehow work myself back to 16th. Wow, nice come back, but really got to keep myself from getting deep like that. OK, another race, not going to make the right side mistake again. Go for the pin and win the pin end at the start, only to be called back for another general recall. Ah well, back on the good starts. Next start, back to the pin end, and start cleanly on the right side with two boats to leeward, and a gap to windward where I was not pinned. Nice, work out left, a couple of small shifts, roll tacks nailed, great, then wind starts to shut off, and sure enough, it shuts off from the left, giving all those on the right a little breeze to help them to the mark. I rounded with only about 4 boats behind me, yikes, not good especially with no wind downwind against the current. Start working hard now, roll jibing to every zephyr, roll jibing to keep the boat moving, and somehow picking off boats, then just a hint of a breeze to get us into the shortened finish after two legs. Yikes, that sucked, but did some good things downwind to finish in 28th.
This left me at 14th for the regatta and third master behind Hiramitsu Yamamoto in 8th and Bob Tan in 13th. Very respectable considering the conditions and quite happy that I was able to climb out of some deep holes. That is so important to doing well at any regatta, sometimes things conspire to go wrong, but the best sailors somehow manage to fight their way back to respectable finishes nonetheless.
This is it before Laser Masters Worlds. TESOD on Tuesday looks like no wind again, and the Melges 24 class is not looking good for Annapolis Race Week, so I may get the Labor Day weekend to practice anyway. Then off to England September 9. Getting close now, and I feel my boat handling skills and kinetics are streets better this year than last. I guess those days on the beach laser doing 50 roll tacks and 50 roll jibes really helped. Fitness level was good too, and I was happy to do 8 roll tacks right at the finish of the first race, when others were reluctant to do so.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Preparations for Masters Worlds
Well, I think I am finally, ready for the trip to England for the Laser Worlds, well mostly ready. After much searching and talking to Laser Performance Dealers around the country, I was finally able to get a folded North sail for the Worlds. The problem is that the airline won't let me take anything longer than 80 inches on the plane, and the rolled sails are 108 inches. Well I finally have the sail with numbers and national letters, thanks to West Coast Sailing. I built a container for the tiller and tiller extensions I need to take with me, and did my twice annual replacement of my traveler line. Now just waiting for my jumbo sized duffel bag to arrive, hopefully this week. I have to take all lines and my tiller and extension with me, as well as the sail since those are not provided with the boats for the Worlds.
My flight leaves on September 9 and I arrive in England on the 10th. I will head straight to Hayling Island from the airport and hopefully get my boat for the regatta and get it measured in. Then off to the hotel in Portsmouth to check in. I am looking forward to spending some time in Portsmouth, I have heard there is a lot to see. The first race is scheduled for Monday (9/13) with 2 races a day with a lay day on Thursday. Since this is a Masters regatta, all us old guys really appreciate that day break in the middle of the regatta.
Preparation on the Chesapeake has not been very good this year, with light winds for all Laser events so far. I have been getting out on the beach Laser by my house (on the South River) on a fairly regular basis which has been helpful. Lots of opportunity to drill roll tacks and roll jibes. The practice has been evident with my roll jibes, using them often in both Tuesday evening races and weekend races to get past a competitor when needed. I was able to stay with a much lighter competitor on a Tuesday by roll jibing downwind effectively.
Not many more opportunities to sail before the Worlds now. This weekend is the District Championships at Corsica River Yacht Club. Unfortunately the forecast looks like we will once again have very light air for this event. The following weekend is Annapolis Race Week, but I do not think I will be sailing which will give me some practice time (hopefully). Then off to the worlds. Keep checking in and I will try to keep you all updated as things progress.
My flight leaves on September 9 and I arrive in England on the 10th. I will head straight to Hayling Island from the airport and hopefully get my boat for the regatta and get it measured in. Then off to the hotel in Portsmouth to check in. I am looking forward to spending some time in Portsmouth, I have heard there is a lot to see. The first race is scheduled for Monday (9/13) with 2 races a day with a lay day on Thursday. Since this is a Masters regatta, all us old guys really appreciate that day break in the middle of the regatta.
Preparation on the Chesapeake has not been very good this year, with light winds for all Laser events so far. I have been getting out on the beach Laser by my house (on the South River) on a fairly regular basis which has been helpful. Lots of opportunity to drill roll tacks and roll jibes. The practice has been evident with my roll jibes, using them often in both Tuesday evening races and weekend races to get past a competitor when needed. I was able to stay with a much lighter competitor on a Tuesday by roll jibing downwind effectively.
Not many more opportunities to sail before the Worlds now. This weekend is the District Championships at Corsica River Yacht Club. Unfortunately the forecast looks like we will once again have very light air for this event. The following weekend is Annapolis Race Week, but I do not think I will be sailing which will give me some practice time (hopefully). Then off to the worlds. Keep checking in and I will try to keep you all updated as things progress.
Friday, May 14, 2010
2010 Laser Masters US Championships - Day 1 - 13th Place
A beautiful spring day in Charleston, SC, 90 Laser sailors enjoying a beautiful day with breezes from the south in the 10-15 knots range with some higher puffs. The first three races saw a strong ebb current, which indicated that the right side should be favored. I started race one a little way down from the boat, but definitely on the right side of the line. The current was sweeping from right to left along the starting line. I was able to get out quickly to the right in clear air. Ali Meller led out to the right side, and hit the corner hard and was first at the windward mark. I worked a few shifts on the right side and rounded in the top 20. Downwind I went to the right side (course side) and allowed the current to sweep me down to the leeward gate. This was quick and I had good downwind speed and passed a few boats. I followed the same pattern for the remaining upwind and downwind legs, and was able to finish in 15th, a nice solid finish. The next two races saw very similar conditions, and I followed the same pattern on starts and upwind and downwind legs. I finished 16th in race 2, and 11th in race 3. I was feeling good and while preparing for the last start of the day, I noticed that the signal boat was now sitting on the wind and not the current, indicating fairly slack current. I knew the pin was favored, but stayed away in the first three races to work the right side. Unfortunately I didn't settle on a strategy and ended up starting in the middle of the line and working the shifts right to middle. Left paid off big, and even right was better than the middle. Ended up very deep, but still worked the right middle on the last upwind and didn't make any gains finishing 45. This put me in 13th place overall, even carrying the 45. Hope is that 45 will be a drop race for me.
Conditions tomorrow look similar with a little less wind. Current will hold an hour later, so should not see anything but an ebb during racing tomorrow. Right side should once again be favored, both up and down, so that is my strategy. Let's see how it works out. Solid finishes in the top 20 will see me well in this 10 race regatta.
Check back tomorrow night for more updates. Cheers for now.
Conditions tomorrow look similar with a little less wind. Current will hold an hour later, so should not see anything but an ebb during racing tomorrow. Right side should once again be favored, both up and down, so that is my strategy. Let's see how it works out. Solid finishes in the top 20 will see me well in this 10 race regatta.
Check back tomorrow night for more updates. Cheers for now.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Light and Sloppy
Friday was cool again with partly cloudy skies and light winds from 4 to 7 knots. We were only able to get off two races today, and to be quite honest this was not a good day for the Dancing Bear. However, a bad day sailing is still better than almost any good day doing almost anything else!
We started late today, after the Radials, and after a postponement to reset the course for the continuing left shift. Set myself up for a start at the pin, and got away well second from the pin and with good speed, only to find out it was a general recall. Second try, went for the pin end again, and this time set myself up on the pin, but pulled the trigger a hair early, I could have sworn I was over early and black flagged, but for some reason I dodged the flag. I still got set into the pin by the current, and after sliding down the pin, had to duck under the transom of the pin boat tack, clear their anchor, do my 360 and then finally get under way. Worked hard to get back in touch with the fleet and passed a few boats, on the upwind by working the shifts. Solid reach and downwind to pass another couple boats, and held the upwin, actually passing one more boat. Then tried to work the left on the run to protect at the left turn to onto a reach and lost one boat. Passed a group of boats that went high on the reach and tried to work the middle on the last short upwind, big mistake, lost all the boats I passed on the last three legs in about 200 yards. Some went right and some went left and all passed me.
The last race I would just as soon forget, the RC went into sequence as I was taking a nature break. Had to gear back up, and make it to the line in time for the start, and never could set up right. The rest of the race went just like that, from bad to worse, every tack was onto a header, and every wave seemed to stop the boat dead. I guess those kinds of races happen.
Tomorrow promises more light wind and slightly warmer temperatures. I could use the warmer temperatures, but light winds are abundant back home, it would be nice for some fun wind and waves. I think the water will be flatter tomorrow, as today I think we saw a lot of residual wave action.
We started late today, after the Radials, and after a postponement to reset the course for the continuing left shift. Set myself up for a start at the pin, and got away well second from the pin and with good speed, only to find out it was a general recall. Second try, went for the pin end again, and this time set myself up on the pin, but pulled the trigger a hair early, I could have sworn I was over early and black flagged, but for some reason I dodged the flag. I still got set into the pin by the current, and after sliding down the pin, had to duck under the transom of the pin boat tack, clear their anchor, do my 360 and then finally get under way. Worked hard to get back in touch with the fleet and passed a few boats, on the upwind by working the shifts. Solid reach and downwind to pass another couple boats, and held the upwin, actually passing one more boat. Then tried to work the left on the run to protect at the left turn to onto a reach and lost one boat. Passed a group of boats that went high on the reach and tried to work the middle on the last short upwind, big mistake, lost all the boats I passed on the last three legs in about 200 yards. Some went right and some went left and all passed me.
The last race I would just as soon forget, the RC went into sequence as I was taking a nature break. Had to gear back up, and make it to the line in time for the start, and never could set up right. The rest of the race went just like that, from bad to worse, every tack was onto a header, and every wave seemed to stop the boat dead. I guess those kinds of races happen.
Tomorrow promises more light wind and slightly warmer temperatures. I could use the warmer temperatures, but light winds are abundant back home, it would be nice for some fun wind and waves. I think the water will be flatter tomorrow, as today I think we saw a lot of residual wave action.
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