Whipped at PSSC

Don't know why it happened.  Saturday we couldn't do anything right.  Maneuvers were slow, boat speed was inconsistent.  Sunday we handled the boat better, but boat speed was so awful that we were all alone at the back of the pack.

No wind, but still managed to blow up the light #1.  Pinched when we should have footed.  About the only good news was that the Seahawks won.  Light air is hard on me--the crew tried hard, the boat was unloaded and the bottom supposedly clean, and we got slaughtered.

Back to the drawing board now, though.  Getting our butts kicked has made us humble, and hungry.  We will work harder to get the boat prepped, and the crew dialed in early.  We will foot religiously in the light stuff.  We will start more aggressively, and praise clean air above all else.

Now for the good news:  the weather was nice and we didn't break anything.  The crew had fun together and a few of 'em even got riproaring drunk Saturday night.  Perhaps the skipper should have joined them!

Jan's gorgeous photos are here:

http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/PSSC-2011/19447849_9snxCR#1522040979_msZdhgP

Just Entered Pacific Cup...

Small entry, big event.  Finally paid the fees to enter the race, and got 3 confirmation emails back from Pac Cup within the hour.  Guess that does it...

John's killer VanIsle Video

http://vimeo.com/29177509

Star and Bar Report--my post in the pressure drop forum

Well, the first fall regatta was a hell of a lot of fun. With lots of boats (12?) and a good mix including the 109s, the quick little guys (J-33, D30, Soverel) the furniture racers (Dehler 39, Centurion 40s, and us) plus lots of well sailed lead mines, we had a great fleet for the breeze. The Davidson 30 Dangerous When Wet was clearly the boat to beat in the light stuff. Unfortunately when the wind picked up they peeled their primary winch off the deck. Done for the regatta, but I hope they get it fixed soon as that boat will be a real handful in the PNW in normal conditions.

Absolutely was the class of the fleet all weekend. But when the breeze built Kotuku has a waterline thing, and a Farr thing that makes her tough on the old IOR boats, especially down wind. We snuck by Absolutely a couple of times in drag races to the finish, including a photo finish in the last race on Saturday where boat boats finished beam to beam, one good roll from doing damage to our not-so-lovely 80s era spinnakers and boats. Good fun though.


Sunday started with a bang for us, as we rounded down on the way out to the commitee boat. Who needs coffee? Wake call has just been served. We ended up going with a reefed main and a #4 and that worked for us, as we got out ahead of the fleet and stayed there. 2nd race started like the first, but then went light as they sent us to the hamburger mark. Not ideal #4 conditions and we had managed to cross our halyards, so we were hosed. Got it sorted at the windward mark and our tactician (Al Hughes) found a hero shift for us inside that let us slip through to the front of the pack.


After 7 races, we thought we had a 2.5 point lead on Absolutely. So we sailed fairly conservatively and tried to hang with them. Unfortunately they are faster, a lot faster in the 12 knot stuff. Boats that gybed out early found a bit more win eventually, and we watched helplessly as Corvo, What a Tripp, and Shoot the Moon went scooting in front of us. Absolutely needed to put 4 boats between them and us, and they did. Shit.


Luckily for us, help arrived in the form of a Big Red boat, who was not about to be left out of the fight. Shoot the Moon had sailed an incredible race, and actually corrected over Absolutely to take the final bullet. Leaving us the win, by a half point. Go figure.


Great racing though. SYC team did a wonderful job, and I look forward to PSSC and Grand Prix. Keep the fleets big, the lines short, and the racing interesting. The fall season has started!

Let's get set for the Fall Season

For those of you who took the summer off to go cruising, it is time to get back in the swing of things.  Kotuku spent the last two months of summer recovering, cruising, harvesting seafood, and trying to swallow the racing bug.  Burp.  Nice try.  It's back...

Race calendar is to your right.  Lots more good stuff coming, like Star and Bar in a couple of weeks, buoy racing at PSSC where we aim to improve on our dead last finish, and of course the Grand Prix.  Oh yeah, Round The County, where Al will try to find another magic nut (lead us, oh blind squirrel, through the Peapod Rocks again!)

Team Kotuku Wins the VanIsle 360 with Grit, Luck, and Funny Hats

So much for suspense.  After 8 hard bashing legs to windward, we were tired.  But we were leading.  With the wolves nipping at our heels and with the target squarely on our back, we knew that we'd be fighting all the way through the islands and passes to the finish back in Nanaimo, 14 days after our start.

Foolishly, we served notice to the fleet on leg 1 that even after doing a 720 for fouling Cinco de Mayo we could come back and win with a combination of good boat handling, decent speed, and solid tactics.  We were newbies, and didn't realize that winning the early stages doesn't do much more than make sure that the faster boats cover you once they get ahead.  And so the battle begins...

Leg 2 started well, but ended up being our worst finish, mid-fleet and looking at the stern of California Girl (2nd slowest boat) as we reached back to the finish after missing the shore lift.  Sometimes the middle doesn't pay.  Consistency does though, and one stinker was enough for us.  We would find ways to stay on the podium until the last race and except for legs 2 and 3, we would lead the overall point total until the end.

Legs 3 and 4 we were increasingly breezy upwind bashes through the top of the Strait of Georgia and the bottom of Johnstone Strait.  Back and forth we found ourselves trading tacks with Kiva, Opus, Rubato, and many of the faster Div 2 boats.  We finished 2nd and 3rd after fine results by Kiva and Rubato who both seemed faster than we are upwind in a blow.  Masts broke, sails blew out, and keel bolts loosened for others, but Kotuku took care of us.  And we took care of business and stayed in the hunt.

Leg 5 started horribly as we were involved in a close crossing with Anam Cara that separated us from our horseshoe as they picked it cleanly of the rail with their anchor roller.  I thought they were coming for me, but Tom (the driver of Anam Cara) managed to swing their bow just as we surged forward to avoid them, and all they got were our padded bits.  The stage ended better than it began though, and won it in the final 5 miles with the aid of luck, great boatspeed and good tactics at the finish.  The icing on the cake was the escort provided by a pod of dolphins to the harbor entrance.  That was a stage we will remember for a long time, both for the great finish and for the wonderful food and hospitality of Telegraph Cove.

On the long, grueling outside legs, we dug deep and found a level of focus and consistency that none of the other boats could match.  We might miss a shift or get stuck in a hole--it happened to everybody, most more than once. But when the sun rose, again and again Kotuku seemed to find herself near the front of the pack, taking line honors twice more before Night Runner came on form as we all knew she would.  Sometimes slower boats would correct over us, but we kept the other race leaders in our sights and fought for leverage over the top boats and gradually built a point lead until by the last race, we had a 50 point lead over our closest competitor, Rubato.  I believe it was in Uclulet that we broke out the wigs and hats.  (Photos coming...)

Leg 9 showed that while we don't have Night Runner's downwind speed, Kotuku is no slouch off the wind.  And we were really glad to shake out the nylon after carrying the kites around for 3/4 of the way.  After a solid start and an early surfing match that we eventually conceded to The Old Brown Boat Who Can, we ended up finishing 3rd.  For us, it felt like vacation for most of the run down from Uclulet to Victoria, where we had speeds in the 12s at the beginning and end of the leg.  We actually gave up a place to Rubato with a spinnaker change through Race Rocks, figuring it was better to be third with all our sails than have to fight again tomorrow without a light air kite.  A wise decision, as it turned out.

And in dramatic fashion, leg 10 proved that when the going gets tough and the night is long, Kotuku does not quit.  We finished first over the line despite multiple re-starts and current gates that left our closest rivals well behind us.  And that was how we won the VanIsle 360.

We finished first in Division 3, and it looks like we were the high point boat for all classes for the entire regatta.  (I think we were the only one tracking this as it turns out.  Sorry Tom and Terry, they only gave out divisional trophies, and shortest overall elapsed.)  Still, not bad for a bunch of oddballs, eh?

If I haven't said it yet, the boat is good, but the crew won this race.  I'd like to thank Becca, Trent, Eli, Garth, Chris, John, Stu, and a special thanks to Al for getting the boat up there, bringing it back, and making sure we were pointing in the right direction.  Our teamwork and sail handling was rock solid.  Our tactics were consistently excellent.  But most of all we had a great time.  Not sure quite how it happened, but Team Kotuku forged itself into a tight-knit, easy-going, fun loving family that could be consistently focused on the race course.  Thank you one and all for the great time, and the great results!

One last note:  This race is a logistical nightmare.  Without the continuous work of our shore support team, this result would not have been possible.  A big thanks from all of us to Tom, Marie, Talia, Savai, Solomon, Barry and Amy.

And most of all, thank you Janna for organizing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, wrangling, and just plain making this crazy dream come true.  As those who know you can attest, your support regularly makes
Big Hairy Audacious Goals Happen.
I love that about you.

Thank you!

Deep disappointment from a 5 year old...

Apparently Talia has been reading Trent's emails about our ability to win the Ballard Cup.  With the Cup on the line in the last race of a 5 week series, we needed a bullet or to beat Delirium by 2 places and she knew it.  Needless to say we didn't, and I have been hearing about it ever since.

We had a nice mid-line start with good boat speed, and we were able to go right to get into the beach when we wanted to and cross the heavy hitters in our fleet at the same time.  We rounded first, failed to jibe inside, and watched Delirium leg out underneath us in the stronger shore breeze.  Damn.

Spent the rest of the race trying to reel her in.  With Bob Pistay and new sails aboard, they weren't giving us many breaks.  We are faster uphill, and closed the gap, only to round the leeward mark behind them again.  The boat felt sticky and slow all night.  Hoists were slow too, but only part of the problem.

Ended up 2nd across the line, 3rd on corrected.  Delirium wins the series, we take second.  Sorry, Talia.  We will try to get our boat speed back so we can bring home some shinier stickers.