The Bird Likes the Breeze

Well, it was a battle.  I finished the race tired, wrung out, and not happy about the way I drove.  Despite my best efforts to throw the race in the last few tacks, the crew and the boat did great.  We had a good start, wanted the boat end and got it with clear air and a nice lane.  Off the wind we sailed deep.  Maybe too deep, according to some of our competition (that'd be Chris Winnard, who beat us to the leeward mark.)  We worked hard to catch waves and surf ahead of Tahlequah, and then boat speed picked up a little.  But it was hard work and boats were wiping out all around us.  No panic on Kotuku, and even a few smiles.  Pretty stoic bunch.  GPS speeds were 9-12 knots for most of the ride down, and we still rounded the halfway point 4th in our class of 15.  These are fast boats we race against, and Dos, Different Drummer, and Karma were all flying downwind.

As we got close to the buoy at Whidbey we could see chaos everywhere.  Flash blew up a kite, and a minute or two later Neptune's Car lost theirs.  Now each one of those colorful football fields of nylon costs about $15000.  Ouch.  Moment of silence please.  Ok, nice mark rounding, let's beat back home, shall we?

Upwind in a blow, Kotuku doesn't get beat much.  Still takes a lot of focus from main trimmer (Matt) and the job trimmers were active too.  Al once again put us in the safe, favored place.  We were able to get back to the east side of the sound and we began to march away from the competition.  We lost a tacking duel at the end to Elusive but they owed us time.  So we were pretty sure we won our class.  Turns out we did, and finished we 2nd overall to boot.  Some tired happy folks when we got back to the dock.

Thanks everyone for joining us!

Photos are here:
http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/Scatchet-Head-2012/21884571_gbtWT2#!i=1745064893&k=JPtc8Vj

Results here:
http://www.cycseattle.org/racing/results-and-registrants/

Photos From Blakely Rock

Some nice photos from Jan.  Thanks again everybody!

P.S.  There is a rumor that results may be changing...

CSS #1: Blakely Rock Debacle

What an interesting day of sailing!  Started at the right end of the line (boat) but without much in the way of clear air.  Footed our way into the lead.  Lost the lead at West Point.  Rounded the Rock in the back of the pack, headed west.  Changed our minds, headed east.  Passed pretty much the entire fleet, were caught by pretty much the entire fleet.  The highlight for me came when we were basically dead in the water, about to be rolled by Different Drummer as we were between sail changes when a Puff from God comes.  Oh the look of joy on my face when the A-sail went back up, the jib can down, and we shot away.  Then the pressure built, and we finally saw the forecasted 15 to 25.  Kotuku took care of the rest.

The real debacle is still happening, as they try and untangle race results.  Not sure how it will all shake out, or who won overall.  But our crew was top notch.  Sail changes were sharp, gybes got better and better.  The boat was reasonably fast in the light, considering the furniture we lug around the course.

And after the race, Matt took us out in a J-80 so we could plane around for a bit.  Whoa Nellie, that was interesting!

Preliminary results are here:

http://www.cycseattle.org/racing/results-and-registrants/

Jan's fine photos are here, as well!

http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/Blakely-Rock-2012/21772383_7Mmd7b#!i=1735649325&k=nKjX6bH

Toliva Shoal 2012: The Wind That Almost Was...

The pre-race sail was a thing of beauty.  We had this massive A2 spinnaker up and were doing over 6 knots in maybe 8 knots of breeze.  The only glitch was a concern that maybe it was, well, too big...to be legal that is.  Even though we are rated for oversized kites, we didn't have a chance to measure this one and we didn't want to  sacrifice our team's chances by taking a DSC--the Sloop Tavern team of Muffin, Nefarious and Kotuku was in first place, after all.

So down came  the big sail, up went the jib, and into sequence we went.  Unfortunately, our strategy and our execution were both impaired by other boats, and we weren't able to start where we wanted to (at the boat) or cross the line on the board we wanted (port).  Instead we had to clear traffic and then gybe behind the fleet.  Turns out we should have gone with them anyway, as the starboard gybe boats made big gains and we found ourselves at the back of the pack.

That was about the only thing that went wrong though.  Despite fluky wind that seemed to go from "oh yeah, this is what we are talking about" to "um, where did all the wind go?" and tricky currents, we shifted gears and ground back through the fleet with solid upwind speed and good reaching to finish second.  Again.

Boy, that black boat is good.  We had moments where we thought we could save our time, but mostly Absolutely has owned the South Sound.  Will be interesting to see what happens when we move north for the Center Sound Series.

Results are here:

http://www.ssssclub.com/toliva.htm

Sloop Tavern Yacht Club

Sloop Tavern Yacht Club Results: Kotuku takes care of business.

Great day of sailing (meaning plenty of wind, no rain); fun people (Emily, Kevin, Trent, Matt, Nick + yours truly); solid results.

Only one 5' rip in the A3 to worry about. Thanks everyone who came out and joined us. Next up, Toliva Shoals, Feb 11. See you then!

Ben's write-up here:  http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?2170-Iceberg-Style

'via Blog this'

A nice race to Duwamish Head

Mild conditions and light winds seem to be what the winter series is serving up, and yesterday's race was a good example.  Winter Vashon was light and cold.  Despite the early departure from Shilshole and the long run down, the worst we saw on the race course were a few drops of heavy fog in the dark.  Otherwise, conditions were pretty similar, but with a bit more wind.

We chose the Duwamish Head race to test the idea the 6 people could do any maneuver on a race course, and the good news is we never felt like we needed another set of hands.  We had pretty experienced crew aboard though, and the wind was probably never more than 8 knots.  Not exactly Pac Cup conditions, we hope, but we got a lot of gybes in and felt that this crew could handle more if conditions had allowed..

The start was very congested as the wind shut off, so that they postponed as we were coming up to the line.  Probably best as there were maybe 30 boats parked at the line, and we were looking to be a little late.  Almost an hour later we re-started, and with some time to think about it, we led the fleet around the pin and gybed out immediately for wind, just getting our bow out ahead of Wildflower, with Absolutely breathing down our necks.

With clear air, we were able to extend our lead on the fleet, and hang in front of Absolutely.  At Three Tree Point we separated, with us holding the shore breeze on the beach, while they went offshore.  Turns out the offshore line paid big dividends, and by the time we could get back out there they had separated from us and were on their way to a 1st place finish.  We tried to get some of it back after rounding Alki, but with their new A-sail they were fast and there wasn't much we could do against the very well sailed old One tonner.  So we likely settled for second again.

With the shortened course and the early afternoon finish in Elliott Bay it made for easy duty.  Thanks to Eli, Matt, Al, Nick, and Alex for joining us.  Good fun, easy sailing with you guys.  Almost too easy...no drama, no issues, the boat is in good shape.  Now, if we can just dial up a little more wind for Toliva Shoals...

Kotuku takes a second at Winter Vashon

Kotuku battles the light stuff to take a second at Winter Vashon, 14th overall out of 89.  Great effort, considering the light and fluky winds.

Results and Photos here
http://tacomayachtclub.org/site/event-677.html