Notes from Labor Day Regatta 2/3 September
Fun regatta at a different venue, between Angel Island and the Golden Gate. It was fun for me as I hadn't really sailed there since sailing with Curtis on his J/24 in the Corinthian Friday night series. Results eventually will be on the SFYC site. The picture is of us following Grinder just after the start of Race 2. Shots are couretesy of Norm (for tracking down the photog) and Sergei. He has tons more shots posted on his site on Flickr.

Tactics
Once again we sort of screwed the pooch on researching the tides. But when we arrived at the course it was apparent that it was flooding. Duane and Curt mentioned (after the fact) that the current in this area is some of the strongest in the Bay. In the earlier races each day, the wind seemed pretty uniformily fluky over the whole course. So going right into the shallower water payed. But you didn't want to go so far right that you sailed into the dead area upwind of Belvedere Island. (Funny how once we sailed into that big hole, I instantly remembered how looked it during the Friday night series...it still looks the same) As the breeze built, getting out to the left and the bigger breeze paid. Also, I think there is a geographic shift to the left at the top of the course once the breeze fills in.

I think on both days, staying out to the right of the downwind course paid better than the left (for sure) and the middle (maybe) Downwind it was puffy like the lake, but I think it was pretty difficult to discern the puffs on the water with the light and tide.

Starts were 50/50. We had a couple of great starts, and three really really bad ones. Line was short enough that all 10 boats could not fit on the line. Good practice. On day two, on the first race I tried approaching on port and tacking into a hole. With the light air, chop and number of boats, we tacked and parked..and parked. On the last race, we came in on stbd, ducked into a hole to leeward of Shawn Bennett, we were too early, held it there too long and instead of bailing out and getting back up to speed, we parked...and parked.

Caroline mentioned a tactic for ducking at the start, wereby the jib is left backwinded after the tack so that the bow is driven down fast enough to duck a windward boat that is quite close. We should practice this move, perhaps?

Competitors
Ten boats out, Grinder and Bennett where the A fleet, Don Jesberg was not driving so they sort of lead the B fleet on Ego, O-positive and Flyer where out ahead of us, Matilda and Aquanut in the expanded B fleet, Bones trailed the lot.

Boat Issues
Well, we did manage to explode one of the two newest kites. Rather dramatic and a bit weird as it split in four seperate places. Two places in the material and two along the seems. It's kite material now.
Other issuse, caribeaner for spin halyard tore out of boom

Tuning Comments
We had one really good leg, 2nd to the windward mark. We had speed with Grinder, but weren't quite pointing on them. I think the picture shows that we had a very full main compared with them. To us, it seemed like they must be using the new North main, it was very twisted off at the top. While this leg was good, and we were better on Saturday than Sunday, I think we were way off on point. Speed was pretty good vs Aquanut and Matilda, but we had speed and point on them during Summer Keel. For the majority of the regatta, as soon as the crew was hiking I had a lot of backstay on. At the top of the course, I had all the backstay on I could get (7-8.5 on my scale) I'm thinking that we should have been up on the rig more. We stayed down and used a bunch of backstay because it was relatively light at the bottom of the course. Maybe we should have had more.

Base numbers were 36 5 3/8" rake at 33 turns and loos 13.5. Caroline measured Personal Puff with our measuring stick rig, and 36 6.5" measures out the same with our measuring stick and when their designated measurer uses their tape measure. So we now have an apples to apples comparison.

Crew Comments
Crew all mentioned that they felt a bit rusty this weekendMaybe the change in the conditions might have had something to do with it (it was light and fluky not nuking as we expect in the Bay) I for sure think that was the issue with the spinaker sets. When it's blowing hard, clearing the spin halyard from behind the main isn't a critical step -- it's so windy that the spin blows out from behind the main. However, this weekend, we had some pretty big issues with that on Saturday. So the steps are, 1-spin out of the bag, 2 - clear the halyard, 3- prefeed the tack.

We are all psyched up for the worlds and have a tentative schedule for staying on the boat through the winter and early spring. Fall is going to be mostly out though as we all now have commitments for September and October.

Memorable Moments/Quotes
Had a great sail back to Brickyard Cove with Caroline and Norm after the race, awesome curry at the Thai resturant with Jen, Norm and Caroline, nice rounding 2nd to the windward mark in Race 2, sad to loose three boats when the kite exploded in the same race!

Notes from Summer Keel, August 12/13
Fun but frustrating weekend. One of the G10 plugs came out of the spreader bar, so Craig and I epoxied back in. This of course ment that we had to remove the spreader bar. When I replaced it, it wasn't correct. It worked fine until we started to put a lot of bend into the mast. Then we couldn't raise (but could lower) the chute. While we had some good upwind legs, we struggled raising the spinaker while everyone shot by. Results should be posted on the San Francisco Yacht Club site soon.



Tactics
Ack. I think we (I) screwed this up this weekend. While Berkeley Circle isn't the City Front, I believe current relief is of high if not paramount importance here as well. We had a reasonable game plan for Race 1 (left at the bottom of the course for current relief and right at the top to get the right shift at the top) It worked. Then the current got stronger and we didn't adjust. By the race 3, Seadon and the A fleet were banging the right corner and we were still doing the left at the bottom right at the top thing.

Sunday was worse. We didn't spend the time with the current tables to figure out how much the cycle had shifted. We pretty much played "follow the leader" and tried to tacked on the headers. It wasn't good. Next time we (I) need to delegate the tide research to someone else besides myself too.

Picking the layline at the top with the current was definately tough. We overstood several times and had to tack at the last minute a few times as well.

On the downwind legs, seemed like the wind was stronger on the downwind right side, so the fleet pretty much banged that corner and back to the gates.

Competitors
10 boats competed. The A fleet was Taboo, Grinder and Brick House, Jam Jam and Flyer seemed to be consistently in the C fleet and Aquanut, Full Throttle, T-Reb and we made up the B fleet. T-Reb was definately the top of the B fleet and Brick House the bottom of the A fleet. The last boat was Matilda, who normally dewels in the C fleet, but as we learned, Seadon was sailing with them. By the last race, he got that boat dialed in. Doesn't he know that it's not good for sales to beat everyone with 4 year old Pentex sails?

Boat Issues
Of course the spreader bar issue. Norm was unimpressed with the new spin sheets, I expect after a couple of regattas they'll be more manageable. It was the same drill when we got the last ones. On a good note, the new non-skid looks great and more imporantly works great.

Tuning Comments
We started with the base at 33 uppers@13.5 loos.
Here's Caroline's notes
Saturday:
>Immediately went up 6 and 4 turns. We continued to put turns
> on throughout the day. We ended up maxed out on the uppers,
> and at 37/35 on the lowers (this was my mistake not paying
> attention to how many I was able to get on the lowers). The
> desired number was 37, this was what the starboard lower was
> at, and I believe we were more comfortable on that tack.

The boat was faster and higher on Saturday than Sunday. On sunday I had maxed out the backstay and the rig was less tight.

>
> Yesterday we ended the day with the uppers at 53 (the last
> four turns were put on during the last upwind leg). The
> lowers ended the day at 29 (the last two turns put on during
> the last upwind leg).

Seadon had some comments as well. I've put those into the comments section for this post

Crew Comments
Crew did great this weekend -- everyone kept their head in the game despite the boat issues. Even though we had to sail the last downwind leg of the regatta with no kite at all, we still managed to stay pretty close to several boats and pass one upwind.

I did notice that as we are now "in the thick of things" at the mark roundings, boat handling at the corners is definately highlighted. It's one thing to be a bit slow on the sets when you're in the cheap seats, but the times that we rounded at the top of the fleet, it's amazing to see the gains that the leaders make over the rest of the fleet and between each other. A few extra seconds getting the chute up and drawing makes a huge difference in these boats. As one of said this weekend, it's a big difference between 7-9 knots downwind with main and jib and 14-16 knots with the kite.

All that said, the crew pulled off some very nice roundings at the bottom of the course, picking up boats each time.

Memorable Moments/Quotes
The rediculously wide offset mark on the first day, followed by the ridiculously narrow gate. And of course the unmentionable events off the race course. Who knew Brad likes 'za? "Puff on in three, two, one, building..."

Notes from Summer Beer Can Series R6/R7 9 Aug

We're out for this day as the boat is down in the Bay at KKMI. Looking forward to sailing in the Bay this weekend. Forcast is for 15-25 on Saturday anda little less breeze on Sunday.

Notes from Summer Beer Can Series R4/R5 3 Aug
Great night. Caroline's boss Dan sailed with us as Craig is buried with work. Can't write much now as I've got to get the boat out of the TPUD parking lot and down to KKMI for new non-skid.

Tactics

Competitors

Boat Issues

Tuning Comments

Crew Comments

Memorable Moments/Quotes
Dan said "[In catspaw puffs], keep the windward side of your sails pointed towards the center of the puff"

Dan and I were discussing the spreader bar thing this week and I mentioned that the clearest description of how a rig works I've read was written by Glynn Charles in his book Keelboat & Sportboat Racing. Here's an excerpt that covers most of the tuning elements. Spreader angle is discussed on page 16.

Notes from Summer Beer Can Series R2/R3 26 Jul

Tactics
Seemed like a standard Tahoe breeze, puffs and lulls alternating every 1 minute or so. In R1 seemed clear that more pressure was to the left. Amazingly the course was straight as was the line. Game plan on R1 was to be on starboard in the lulls heading to the pressure and riding the puffs on port. We lead the fleet out to the left, then decided to tack on pressure on to port, we took a slight hitch back and when we crossed back the fleet had gained. At the wx mark, Dan, Stan rounded then we tacked inside the 2 bl circle leebowing the Twins. They were pissed, but they did not come above close hauled. Caroline and I had too lively a discussion of Rule 18.3. Turns out she's wrong (or as I'm sure she'll clarify I've missunderstood her position). Rule says when either boat tacks inside 2bl circle not when one boat tacks and both are inside 2 bl circle. We stayed too high after the mark and twins and grainger got inside of us. A little shift and they were ahead. On the leeward mark, Stacy barged in on port fouling the twins ahead of us, grainger was on the outside of the wheel and we rounded wide and tight and stayed ahead for the leg with a 3rd.
R3, Caroline saw a big header to the right and wanted to go to that side, when Puff and PS went to the left, I forced us to follow the leaders. The twins took the "flyer" to the right and beat the fleet to the wx mark. Stacy rounded behind us all, took the flyer to the shore side of the course -- sorry that seems to work in the spring not so much now I guess -- it didn't pay off and while we made some gainers on the last windward leg not enough.

Competitors
Standard Tahoe Fleet. Puff had 5 on board, everyone else sailed with 4.

Boat Issues
Nada new

Tuning Comments
R1 at new base of 13.5 on loos at 33 turns. Rake was still far forward, tape measure rig broke so gotta start from scratch on that again. That said, first race we were fast, had a solid start and were higher and faster than fleet. In R2, had less good start, and were on pace with the fleet. On last windward leg of R2 we detuned -6/-6 and again were on pace with the fleet or a bit faster maybe? Need to really think about rig tune during the race and especially just after we finish and are waiting around for next start.

Crew Comments
Solid work from the Lake Team. Bruce is really starting to understand what's up and helped keep Caroline and Tom's head in the game after yet another incident with the Twins.

Memorable Moments/Quotes
Matt Clark relayed something he heard from Mark Reynolds when he was working for him. It was something like "Have the same person look at the rig and the sails everytime you go out and note when you are fast. Over time that person is going to know what fast looks like"

Notes from Albert T. Simpson Regatta at St Francis July 22/23

Tides
Used past three days of actual tides available from NOAA
Appeared changes occured 30-40 minutes earlier than predictions, exception of slack after the little ebb, which occured 60 minutes earlier. Seemed like we had the game plan right, see Tactics next.

Tactics
Max flood occured about 90 minutes before the first start on Saturday and 45 minutes first start on Sunday. Slack tide occured at about 1245 and 1330 Sat/Sunday. Melges started first then the dreaded bus drivers on the 105's. Express 27s, Etchells and J/24 also attended. First race and most of second race was race to the shore and short tacking up the City Front. Wind shadow just west of Blackhauler was in effect making cutting inside Anita Rock an option not taken by anyone we say. SI's seem to indicate that going inside of Anita Rock is okay again this year. Need to confirm.

By end of second race, more options for watching the breeze seemed apparent. We thought Seadon and Kevin Clark were watching the shifts as was Matt on our boat. Again, seemed like we had that right, I think we even beat Seadon to the weather mark once or was that just wishful thinking! For sure on the second to last beat of Race 5 we were hanging with Seadon and Kevin upwind. On the short tacking beats, we really seemed to lose out to the A fleet boats--need to work on the tacking.

In Race 1 and 2 had major issues with the 105 fleet on the second downwind leg. We tried to cut through their fleet to get to the right side of the course and just could not punch through. Ugly. Next time we'll just use them like a shore line and reach into them, then jib out and zig zag downwind. Better yet, go faster on the upwind legs and don't worry about them at all! The A fleet was able to stay infront of them, so they put lots of distance on the B/C fleet.

Race 1/2 were W-L-W-L finish downwind. Races 3-5 where W-L-W-L-W finishing upwind.

Competitors
Seadon sailed Steve Pugh's boat Taboo. He was light with only 4 onboard. Using the new North main. Shawn Bennet had Melissa and Tom Purdy on the boat (at least for Saturday didn't see if they where onboard on Sunday) He was using an old North Pentex main and I think an new Ullman jib. He, Seadon and Kevin Clark were the A fleet. Grinder was the B fleet and Mosley, Peter and I made up the C fleet. St Francis has the results.

Boat Issues
Spin halyard slipping through brand new Harken 150 cleat. Tear in blue AP (which was still fast) Didn't tape in the foam wedges onto keel, damaged one side due to rubbing.

Tuning Comments
Saturday rig was at 36'9" of rake. Base setting was 28/11. Wasn't horrible but Peter was beating us.
Sunday moved rig forward (off forestay turnbuckle 10 turns) New base was 33/?
Race 4 was 16-18knots, up 12/10. Won the start, Very fast--beat fleet to the beach, got killed on the tacking.
Race 5 was 18-22knots, up 24/22. Again pretty fast, Matt says we were catching upto Seadon and Kevin on 2nd upwind leg. After race, Seadon commented that we were hanging well with them.

Crew Comments
Super happy with the crew work this weekend. Thought that we'd have light air but City Front didn't dissappoint. Only two comments to think about; 1)spinaker is either up or in the boat, never in the water 2)perhaps shots after midnight when racing on the City Front not such a good idea! Many thanks to Matt Clark, great job!

Memorable Moments/Quotes
The smile on Norm's face driving the last upwind leg. Tom falling after just one tack on the rail and realizing that yes we really do need to redo the non-skid soon. Cartwheels on the St Francis lawn. Yummy shrimp on the barbie, whipped non-fat sundried tomato cream cheese. Norm's asprin joke. Broach on last downwind leg of Race 5. Departure of the liscense plate, "I'd rather be mowing my lawn"sticker and one tire on the ride down and back.