2nd In Class, 6th overall (out of 94 boats)
Center Sound Series
Currently 4th
Coming up next: Ballard Cup 4/18, then Southern Straits 4/22
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Great Day Except for the Wind
The last South Sound Series race was a bit different than the others. Lots more sun for one thing. We woke up to the sounds of the Tantivity crew rafted next to us falling all over our icy, slippery deck. Hmmm, that was not in the forecast...Wonder what else the weather gods have in store for us?
The delivery down was good fun. Got out and underway before the rain squalls hit. It was my first singlehanded trip on Kotuku and I really enjoyed it. Normally I prefer to have a friend along, but I was hardly lonely as the porpoise and eagles were out, the water was full of bait fish and the 20 mile slog in the rain passed pleasantly with me gawking, noting wind shifts, and puttering pleasantly.
Janna met me at the dock in Gig Harbor. She hustled down just in time to catch a line as I rafted up next to Duke, a Catalina 36. We had a really nice dinner at the Tides Tavern where we watched the Huskies beat Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Basketball tournament and then retired back to Kotuku where we had the "race" heating system installed. (A couple of terra cotta flower pots over the stove burners.) No idea it would freeze overnight, but slept nice and cozy with beers in our bellies.
Al, Stu, Scott, and Charlie showed up after breakfast. Brad, Burke, and the others we thought might show......didn't. Turns out it was just as well because it was very, very light day.
The start was pure chaos management. Something we aren't bad at, as it turns out. With a knot and a half current running down course and about 3 knots of apparent wind, we didn't want to be late, but didn't want to be early either. We threaded through the crowd at the milling around the start on starboard, got to the pin end and flopped over on port to try and negotiate a thin line across the fleet to clear air. We crossed, only ducking one or two boats and found ourselves windward and bow out on most of our fleet, with just a couple of boats ahead of us.
That soon changed, as we missed a big shift that the guys behind us caught, and soon the better half of our fleet was ahead of us. Not to be outdone, we then caught a monster shift going the other way, and put the two J-Boats (a J-92 and a J-105) in the rear-view mirror. Lest you think this all happened quickly, let me clarify that this happened after about three hours of slow tacking in a fading Northerly. The same un-forecast one that started at 3 knots.
We noticed before long (a couple hours later) that the boats behind us had spinnakers up. Wait a second, the boats ahead of us have spinnakers up. We had been monkeying around with the #1, the drifter, and "screw it, I am pointing the boat at the mark" tactics. Then Zip, up went the kite, down came the drifter, and off we went. For about a half mile. Which was exceedingly painful, at 0.21Knots. I love the South Sound.
Finally, desperately we found a finger of the northerly wind and were able to drop the kite and gradually pull away from the boats behind us. 2 knots became 4 knots, and we were sailing. Interestingly, the boat that managed to hang with us was a Beneteau 10M(also a Farr design I think). After they slipped by us on a bad tack too close to shore where I pinched for too long before tacking out, I realized we had better get our heads back in the game. Newer, lighter, and very close to us on handicap, I quickly realized sloppiness might be painful. To make matters worse they had their sprit extended 6' in front of their bow, making crossing them a real gut check on the close tacks we were swapping with them.
I shouldn't have worried. Stu and Al called a masterful last series of tacks with a couple of pretty lee bows and we parked them behind us for good. Shame on them for bothering us while we were wallowing in light air misery. Just to seal the deal, Al called for the A-sail at the last reach to the finish (they shortened the course at Blake Island) and we beat them by a couple of minutes with our vaunted A3 hauling the mail. As I luffed up to shoot the pin as we crossed I nearly threw Al off the bow.
Just one of those days I guess. Sorry Al.
The delivery down was good fun. Got out and underway before the rain squalls hit. It was my first singlehanded trip on Kotuku and I really enjoyed it. Normally I prefer to have a friend along, but I was hardly lonely as the porpoise and eagles were out, the water was full of bait fish and the 20 mile slog in the rain passed pleasantly with me gawking, noting wind shifts, and puttering pleasantly.
Janna met me at the dock in Gig Harbor. She hustled down just in time to catch a line as I rafted up next to Duke, a Catalina 36. We had a really nice dinner at the Tides Tavern where we watched the Huskies beat Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Basketball tournament and then retired back to Kotuku where we had the "race" heating system installed. (A couple of terra cotta flower pots over the stove burners.) No idea it would freeze overnight, but slept nice and cozy with beers in our bellies.
Al, Stu, Scott, and Charlie showed up after breakfast. Brad, Burke, and the others we thought might show......didn't. Turns out it was just as well because it was very, very light day.
The start was pure chaos management. Something we aren't bad at, as it turns out. With a knot and a half current running down course and about 3 knots of apparent wind, we didn't want to be late, but didn't want to be early either. We threaded through the crowd at the milling around the start on starboard, got to the pin end and flopped over on port to try and negotiate a thin line across the fleet to clear air. We crossed, only ducking one or two boats and found ourselves windward and bow out on most of our fleet, with just a couple of boats ahead of us.
That soon changed, as we missed a big shift that the guys behind us caught, and soon the better half of our fleet was ahead of us. Not to be outdone, we then caught a monster shift going the other way, and put the two J-Boats (a J-92 and a J-105) in the rear-view mirror. Lest you think this all happened quickly, let me clarify that this happened after about three hours of slow tacking in a fading Northerly. The same un-forecast one that started at 3 knots.
We noticed before long (a couple hours later) that the boats behind us had spinnakers up. Wait a second, the boats ahead of us have spinnakers up. We had been monkeying around with the #1, the drifter, and "screw it, I am pointing the boat at the mark" tactics. Then Zip, up went the kite, down came the drifter, and off we went. For about a half mile. Which was exceedingly painful, at 0.21Knots. I love the South Sound.
Finally, desperately we found a finger of the northerly wind and were able to drop the kite and gradually pull away from the boats behind us. 2 knots became 4 knots, and we were sailing. Interestingly, the boat that managed to hang with us was a Beneteau 10M(also a Farr design I think). After they slipped by us on a bad tack too close to shore where I pinched for too long before tacking out, I realized we had better get our heads back in the game. Newer, lighter, and very close to us on handicap, I quickly realized sloppiness might be painful. To make matters worse they had their sprit extended 6' in front of their bow, making crossing them a real gut check on the close tacks we were swapping with them.
I shouldn't have worried. Stu and Al called a masterful last series of tacks with a couple of pretty lee bows and we parked them behind us for good. Shame on them for bothering us while we were wallowing in light air misery. Just to seal the deal, Al called for the A-sail at the last reach to the finish (they shortened the course at Blake Island) and we beat them by a couple of minutes with our vaunted A3 hauling the mail. As I luffed up to shoot the pin as we crossed I nearly threw Al off the bow.
Just one of those days I guess. Sorry Al.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Kotuku Qualifies for the Dyneema Experience Challenge!
For those of you who haven't heard, Kotuku qualified for the Dyneema Experience Challenge. According to the website, that means they will be sending us lots and lots of high-tech rope for the boat.
Interestingly, one other boat from Seattle qualified, Terremoto. Scott and Susan Burbank also rallied their social network and earned themselves some new line. A third boat, one of the Canadian 6 meters from Victoria also qualified. Well done for the PNW!
for full details check out the site: http://dyneemaexperience.com
We are still waiting for full details, but there is an additional prize of a trip for two to Alicante and some time aboard a really swoosh race boat (TBD) there. When we know more, we'll post it here.
Thanks again everybody for your support. We are looking at dates for a big salmon BBQ on Blake Island to say thank you to all our crew, aboard and online. Couldn't have done it without you!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Center Sound Series Summary
Wanted to update folks who haven't been racing with us on the results so far.
Our class looked to be very interesting, but got even more interesting once they combined the J-109 one design fleet with the heavy displacement boats in class 4. J-109 Tantivity is real competition, and the crew of Absolutely and Different Drummer are always going to be tough. Shoot the Moon, the J-35 Tahlequah, and Illusionist have also proven to be a real challenge to beat.
So where are we after 2 of the 3 races? 4th of 14 in race 1, 7th of 14 in race 2. 5th of 14 overall, with 3 of the 4 J-109s behind us. Not bad, not great. Need some serious redemption in race 3. Let's all hope for a big blow, shall we?
Race #1 was a bit of everything. Light going really light following by big shifts and us being the winner of some, and the loser on others. We sailed well, and scored OK against a tough fleet. Zero to Hero to 4th, with tactics, luck, and light air work being the big keys to success.
Race #2 we measured in a new UK carbon tape drive main. Battens weren't perfect, and we took a 6 sec/mile rating hit but the sail was a nice improvement in the light stuff. Put a long, slow rip in the Russian kite when we couldn't keep it filled in a jibe and then put the prod through it when we sheeted on. After grinding our way back to contact with the leaders, the wind piped up to 15-20 we struggled to change gears uphill and lost them again. We finished overpowered in 20+ knots with the #1. Nice problem to have, looking back at it. The old main was really shy, and led us to carry the #1 longer than we should have. Finished 2 minutes out of 2nd place. (Others would say we finished 7th). Let's hope we can figure out a way to make up the difference in the last race, eh?
Our class looked to be very interesting, but got even more interesting once they combined the J-109 one design fleet with the heavy displacement boats in class 4. J-109 Tantivity is real competition, and the crew of Absolutely and Different Drummer are always going to be tough. Shoot the Moon, the J-35 Tahlequah, and Illusionist have also proven to be a real challenge to beat.
So where are we after 2 of the 3 races? 4th of 14 in race 1, 7th of 14 in race 2. 5th of 14 overall, with 3 of the 4 J-109s behind us. Not bad, not great. Need some serious redemption in race 3. Let's all hope for a big blow, shall we?
Race #1 was a bit of everything. Light going really light following by big shifts and us being the winner of some, and the loser on others. We sailed well, and scored OK against a tough fleet. Zero to Hero to 4th, with tactics, luck, and light air work being the big keys to success.
Race #2 we measured in a new UK carbon tape drive main. Battens weren't perfect, and we took a 6 sec/mile rating hit but the sail was a nice improvement in the light stuff. Put a long, slow rip in the Russian kite when we couldn't keep it filled in a jibe and then put the prod through it when we sheeted on. After grinding our way back to contact with the leaders, the wind piped up to 15-20 we struggled to change gears uphill and lost them again. We finished overpowered in 20+ knots with the #1. Nice problem to have, looking back at it. The old main was really shy, and led us to carry the #1 longer than we should have. Finished 2 minutes out of 2nd place. (Others would say we finished 7th). Let's hope we can figure out a way to make up the difference in the last race, eh?
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