Iceberg Regatta: A fun ride with a small crew

7 of us did the Iceberg Regatta on Saturday.  Really six line pullers + my dad, who is still recovering from some pretty serious health issues.  All of us had a great time, in spite of the lousy weather forecast for rain and light air.  Turns out it was pretty dry, and we had enough breeze to get us around the course.  Dad was quite impressed with how we handled the boat, and didn't even grumble about having us stuff acres of dacron on his head repeatedly as we swapped spinnakers.

We started pin end which was heavily favored if you wanted a starboard approach.  We did, and managed to fend of the competition (Muffin, Bergen Viking, Kowloon, Idefix) for clear air near the pin.  We got the obligatory "Nice start, Asshole" cheer from the Muffin, and others who were late but flopped over onto port quickly.  The real winner was Bravo Zulu, driven by Ben Braden.  They chose the port tack and did well with it, carrying the tack all the way to the mark.  We tacked once close to the breakwater and then were hot on their heels, extending on the slower boats and staying higher and faster than the J-35.

Had a decent mark rounding, and planned to set the A3 when we rounded but were slow doing it.  When we finally did, we had the tack line led wrong, requiring a lot of effort by the crew to get it re-led.  This distracted us somewhat from being able to hold the hot sail angle we were on with the reacher, and ended up dumping the kite a couple times because we weren't as focused as we needed to be.  Note to self:  got to communicate in advance what we need to do to keep the kite up on a puffy reach--trimmer, driver, and main need to be really quick to stay ahead of the boat.  Mostly driver needs to talk more, but main has to dump early and everybody has to work together with a lot of focus.

Leeward mark rounding was a thing of beauty as we fought off the J-35 above us, sailed higher and faster than Tuesday, and rounded the mark in clear air.  The run was deeper than the A-sail wanted to go, so I called for the Russian.  Got the Audi (our smallest kite) instead, though it set nicely and the assy douse was perfect .  Both bags are blue, North bags, and now say Russian and Audi on them in large bold letters.  The J-35 and Bravo Zulu ran away from us at this point, although they later said nice things about the peel.

Our final beat back to the finish was OK, we gained back most of what we lost on the J-35, but BZ just kept running.  Worse, when we finished we noticed that Kiwi Express was only about 8 minutes behind us.  Turns out they corrected over us by 11 seconds to take 2nd, leaving us 3rd across the line and 3rd in our fleet.  (4th overall for the regatta.)  We happily accepted a small pint glass at the sloop that evening with 3rd place on it and really didn't mind the ribbing we got from the other boats for our somewhat visible slip ups.  Live and learn.  Don't make the same mistakes twice.  But is good to be on the podium, and in the hunt.

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  We sailed pretty well, but a couple of little mistakes cost us the 2nd place.  The folks on Bravo Zulu are great competition for us, and we need to set our sights on faster boats if we want to continue to improve.  Thanks to everyone who came out!

Results are here:  http://www.styc.org/race_info/Iceberg%20Race/2011/race1.htm

OK, let's win some new rigging!  If you are here, please take the time to sign up and Follow Us on the Dyneema experience site.  Just click the link below and then there is an orange tab that says "Follow Us" on the boat below.  Let's get busy!

http://www.dyneemaexperience.com/profile/kotuku.htm

New Race Dates

Need more racing?  Me too.  So we are adding a couple of dates:

Sat. Jan 29.  9:30 departure.  Let me know if you can sail on short notice.

Sat. Feb. 19 Toliva Shoals.  Back by popular demand, Kotuku tackles the South Sound, notorious for its light wind.

After that, the Center Sound Series starts up and the racing will be fast and furious right up until VanIsle.  So let's get the boat out and start getting ready!

Duwamish Photos from Jan

Here are some of the shots of us that Jan and Skip captured over the weekend.  According to them, we are photogenic.  Ha!  (Apparently the graphics on the side of the boat help.)

Nice start sequence, with us flopping over to port after rounding and the competition a tack behind us.

Approaching the first mark.  Dump it, Scott, dump it!

The gentle beat.

A bad start to a good race

First off, our thoughts are with Trent today.  For those that didn't hear the news, Trent tangled with the boom on a tack in pre-race warm-up.  His nose was broken in several places and may need more work to get it fixed right.  
The good news is that he was in good spirits, and was more worried about missing the upgrade for his work trip next week than the possible affects the boom may have had on his good looks.  We hope the nose mends nicely, and that the upgrade can be moved over to his next flight if he has to postpone it.  
Trent, you get high marks for your pain tolerance, and your sense of humor.  And Eli, you get Wingman of the Year award, thanks from all of us for taking care of Trent.  We felt better about going out and racing knowing that you were with him.

As far as race results go, don't hold your breath.  3 days later and nothing posted.  We finished in the dark, and they didn't get our sail number or anyone else's.  The race committee called this morning, and I gave them our recorded finish time, but they are still trying to sort this out.  So here is a quick summary.

After a killer start at the pin end (good call Stu!), we lead the fleet down the course with the A-sail flying off the new custom mini-prod.  It proved to be a powerful weapon in the 10-12 knots of wind we had.  By the time we reached Alki we were showing our transom to the J-35s and C&C 115s, who started 5 minutes in front of us, and who owe us something like 12 sec/mile.

The beat across to Blakely Rock with the two J-35s hot on our tail was an interesting one for me.  The wind was starting to go lighter and lighter, and it felt like they were pointing higher and sailing faster but we tried to work every puff by taking an extra bite to windward and managed to hold them off by the skin of our teeth, tacking round the rock with Absolutely not far in front of us and the two Js pressing up on our transom.  Our fleet was no where to be seen at this point.  If only the wind had held...

A couple of miles after we rounded it went really light.  For a couple of hours we drifted, watching the Olsons re-appear and coast  by us on the outside while we struggled to make headway along the coast.  Eventually we were able to set the A-sail again on a very close reach.  This allowed us to gain back some ground on the Olsons, but we couldn't carry the a-sail long enough, and we were back to a light upwind beat to the finish, just behind the last Olson, who we owe 15 seconds a mile to. 

Not a great result for us, but it was good sailing, it hardly rained at all, and our crew work was rock solid in spite of being short handed.  Well done, all of you.  Can't wait to show Trent and Eli the new weapons though, so get healthy and we'll get back on the water. 

Pictures are here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157625664288151/

Duwammish Head Drifter?

Personally I am planning for a drifter.  The Sailflow and forecast models don't agree, but everybody sees the possibility of a convergence zone.  Where, you say?  Here...

Prior to posting this we had a nice, full crew with most folks jumping on the boat at Elliott Bay.  Now, not so sure...