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"
1 comment:
Caroline said...
Wednesday Beer Can:
Crew work is coming together. Two major things need to happen:
1) I/we must have a line sight. I was certain we were over, but it was not the case. This can be done by dialing in sooner at the the start.
2) We must sail our race. Protest or not. Make a descision and move on. This costed us three boats getting inside after rounding the windward mark in second in the first race. This is tough to do and requires mental toughness.
RECAP:
Race 1 - Speed off the start. We were in an excellent lee bow position on Stan. The Puffers seperated slightly ahead and to leeward of us. We tacked early to get to the right of the fleet as we all headed up to the left, giving us a little bit of leverage. Stan and company tacked to go right. Stan made out, where as the others did not. Came in on port layline. Protested by the twins for "tacking in two boat lenghts". This did not matter to them, for we were ahead and completed our tack by the time they entered the circle. Slow around the mark. Sailed higher and missed the breeze that filled in below us. Immediately dropped to fifth. We all trucked it to the leeward mark. Approaching the mark, we tacked early onto starboard to get inside overlap on the right hand gate. Ended up picking up Granger, Twins, and Stacey. Good speed to the finish. Granger and Twins worked way left. We stayed closer to middle with good boat speed, and remained in phase throughout the leg. Finished thrid behind Dan and Stan. Solid race, good stuff to build on. Lesson learned at windward mark to defend position.
I felt that in the second race, we tuned the rig down appropriately. Starts were on time and great. Although the line did not seem as "pushy" as it could have been.
9:34 AM
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