Windsor Wednesday Race

The first leg was a beat to mark Dp8 in moderate winds 10 mph. I was a little late getting to the pin side of the starting line but on starboard we seemed to have speed. Merlin and Jwalker hit the pin side but were going slow. After the gun we tacked on port which was a heavily favored board. We got good pressure further down the leg with a slight lift. We managed to roll Flyin' Irish to our right and crossed in front of Jwalker on our starboard tack to the mark. After J. passed behind us I put the boat in point mode to hopefully gas J. We rounded in first and we put up the .6 oz because I thought it would pay off on the following leg. We got headed and started going really slow. Merlin out of last place charged by us with a code 0 and rounded a ahead of us. At that point we caught some distance on the following leg but it just was not enough. The leg up to dp7 I tried raising the 1.5 spinnaker because we no longer had anything to lose to catch up to Merlin. We barely made it past dp7 when we got headed again. The major mistake I made in this race was not recognizing the changing conditions when we got lifted on the first mark. That means on the opposite board we would be headed and I should of used a different chute. We then could of gone to the .6 oz. Merlin did it with our famous chute change gybe. Oh well.

Result 2nd out of 4 J120's
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2006/WYC%202006%20Spring%20Race%202.pdf


COURSE C - 7.6 nautical miles
Start to DP8 (243o) leaving it to port
-then to A (091o) leaving it to port
-then to B (007o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (247o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.

Great Lakes Regatta, - Love, set, and match

This was a windward leeward course with two 4 leg races. We had only 4 people show up so we enlisted the help of Sara who sails on Jayhawker so we had 5. This must not be a popular race because only Merlin showed up with 9 people aboard so we got a match race. At the start it blew about 12 knots but because of it being shifty by the time we got to our start it had shifted left. With this piece of information I was determined to start at the pin end. I actively tried to stay of the right of Merlin and gibed and went on starboard before the start to barely make the pin. We started slow but gassed Merlin clear ahead so she was force to tack. We tacked once in front of her but was unable to keep going upwind with her when the wind speed picked up to 14 knots. She just had too many more bodies. We managed to stay with her the rest of the race and if we would of had another 100 yards we may have passed her when she blew a gybe.

The 2nd race Merlin started a little closer to the line and we were caught leeward and a little behind. I stayed on starboard for a little way to get the boat speed going. I had Rod set up the cockpit for a tack and then had the crew move to their positions when it was time to go. We completely took Merlin by surprise and when she tried to tack to cover it was done badly. With the speed and coming off a good tack we managed to nose a little ahead and then slowly worked our way into their lane. Since this was the leg to the mark they had to take our gas and rounded maybe a 100 yards behind us. At the top mark they gybe set and went left. I did a rough cover but Merlin managed to get more pressure in their lane. At the bottom of the leg they came in hot, got an inside, rounded in front of us. Caprice was rounding at that point so when Merlin he started yelling starboard. He must of scared the tar off of Irv Yackness because he immediately made a 90° turn away. We had not got our headsail out in time and with that and the spinnaker coming down at the same time it go wrapped around the headsail. It took nearly half a leg to clear everything but because we kept our cool Merlin tacked only 75 yards in front of us. For some odd reason he kept going and I stayed on port because I saw a giant header coming with some pressure. When the wind hit I tacked and we rounded right behind Merlin. With our spinnaker up I decided to gybe away in order to get the wind I thought was on the left side of course. Immediately after the heavier air hit Merlin and drove him to the leeward mark. After that it was meerly follow the leader.

All in all we were not expecting to win because of a shortage of bodies, but we needed to show up so that we could qualifiy for the year. We could of done a lot worse but we made Merlin earn her win by sticking with them. I think the crew came through for what we had. If we had more people we could of done better in the heavier air gust and would have done much better on the upwind legs. In any case we got to do some match racing and that is different mindset needed for that type of competition. It was a lot of fun

Result: 2 out of 2 for both races.
Link: http://www.drya.org/race2006/Results/glyc.htm

Windsor Wednesday Race

This was our first race of the northern season.

The first leg was a beat to mark D in moderate winds 5-10 mph. I wanted to start on the committee boat side but got caught barging by Merlin and did a circle to round behind them. We could see there was more pressure on the right side of the course so we immediately tacked on port and went on the right side of the course. Fortunately when we crossed Merlin again we were slightly ahead on starboard so we controlled them from then on. I even overstood the mark a little bit to keep speed on the rounding. The next leg was a run with the .6 spinnaker and we managed to stretch our lead to mark a. The next leg was a close reach so we dropped the spinnaker and went to the next mark. We tacked to port about 1000 ft past the mark but I could see that there was air closer to the Canadian shore so we again tacked on starboard. At this point we just kept stretching the lead. We beat the next J120 by 11 minutes and just ended up with a nearly perfect race. The crew work was near perfect so they deserve kudos.

Result 1st out of 4 J120's
Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/regatta2006/WYC%202006%20Spring%20Race%201.pdf

COURSE D - 7.2 nautical miles
Start to D (309o) leaving it to starboard
-then to B (081o) leaving it to starboard
-then to A (187o) leaving it to starboard
-then to D (296o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (212o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.