Day 3 Started light, we were a few turns below base. By the end of Race 1, it was blowing dogs off chains. As predicted, the big air caused many teams to self destruct. Unfortunately we had a few issues as well. Jibes were all good as were the take downs. It was a set that we had an issue with and a couple of times on the run, we came off plane and then got hit with a big gust. That set us on our ear...once it coincided with a big wave which sort of broke (as much as a 3-4 foot swell can break) on us as well. For a split second I thought we might be swimming.

Remember jibing a bit too late onto starboard so that we were not on top of the leaders coming up on port but below/on them. Remember sailing past Ullman below him, and he saying "thank you" Top speed on the speedo was 17.8 knots. The new spin halyard started slipping, and we parted the sheath on the jib sheets trying for that last 1" of trim. In general though we did great for us. Awesome team work and with a bit closer attention we can put together a clean race that will put us in the 40s for a finish.

Some numbers from Brian Hutchinson of Team Pegasus on line lengths for the Melges...
Jib sheet 55' with 4' taper; Main halyard 53'; Spin sheet 75' with 9' taper; Tack line 35' with 12' taper

Day 2 Rig now set to base rake.
Race 1. Don't remember too much about this start. Had an awesome 1st leg and rounded with Smokin'. We'd learned the previous night that Kevin's team had been sailing together for 7 years. They typically are 1st or 2nd in the Bay fleet when they compete. So it was a Smokin' leg for Team Nothing Ventured. First leeward leg was also good. We were in displacement mode and working the middle as the fleet was compressed and split. In the clear air we made gainers on the Personal Puff folks and rounded right by them as well. Then disaster! We snagged not just a little kelp, but enough to stop us fully. It took 30-40 seconds at least to clear the mess off the keel and rudder, but at 6 knots that's nearly 200 yards. We went from middle of the B fleet to middle of the C fleet in that sub-minute fiasco. Rounding with the C fleet, we rounded inside of our scrub competition. I wanted to jibe to out of their bad air and over to the breezier side of the course ASAP. The leeward takedown was so awesome that I thought I could push the crew. Mistake. We weren't ready, totally screwed up the jibe -- twice and now we were battling it out for DFL with 140. They beat us by 1/2 a length at the finish -- we could have bet two other boats but they took us up and both of us lost those boats.

Race 2 So after seeing Nick Pullen our Laser Fleet Champion cross us repeatedly 10 lengths ahead seconds after the start we decided to take a page from his book. Side note on Nick, Nick is a Canadian National Laser Champion and obviously a hell of a starter and driver. So we decided to set up past the pin boat and come in on port and tack into a hole. We set up a bit too early and wound up taking into Shark's hole. His crew was pissed ;) We got pushed up and probably early -- luckily general recall. Second try, we were still a bit early, and got a fair start. It worked out much better than the other option, as soon as the fleet thinned we had pretty clear air as one of the left most boats. Worked to the right and had a solid mark rounding. We (and the whole fleet by the way) have been cronically overstanding the marks. So we're getting better at picking the layline and not banging the right corner so much. Can't remember too much about the leeward legs on Race 2, other than we had previously learned that jibing 3 times just before the gate, then coming in DDW is slow! So we jibed right in front of the port tacking leaders and came in as hot as possible for the right gate on starboard. It works. After two laps we were right behind Flyer and Mad Boat. They are now our goal to beat each of these boats in one race. We were really struggling to make BS improvements the whole day. Will try to talk with Madrigali tomorrow am. Anyway, we split from Flyer after the first third, and they made a pretty big gain on us. So we decided to stick closer to our competition on the 2nd+ laps. We just sail better when we're closer to other boats. We finished to windward just behind these guys. This is the performance we know we can accomplish. If we can get our speed issues tweaked we can do even better!

Day 1 Two goals for today. One -- win the race to leave the harbor. Check. Two -- Get blind drunk. Check. Honestly can't remember much about the starts, other than trying to defend a hole just to left of right boat and then accelerating off the line, did not pay off for us today. Breeze was forcasted to be light, so I made a change to the higfield lever set up so we could rake the rig forward. I left it at the light air setting. We on pace with the C fleet, but way off the leaders. After race one, we put the rake back to base (we thought) By time we finished Race 2 we were up 30/20. Turns out the rake setting was 1" back! Downwind middle of the course works when the fleet is compressed. On the second lap, splitting from our competion does not work.
Back on shore it was Pusser's Rum night. 5 grogs later, Jen and I crashed Matilda's party. Had a tremendous evening with Matilda and Smokin's crew. Richard and I have a bet for a 2 lt bottle of rum. Doesn't quite seem fair as his pro is a coach for the UK olympic team and my "pro" is an ex-computer jockey for 3DL! Anyway all in good fun.

Pic is a leeward gate rounding with our "velocitek" logo showing.

Pre Worlds May 5/6
Saturday conditions were wild. Two wind patterns where competing over the race course for the entire day. 15-20 knots from the NW and same from the SE. The stagnation zone was more or less over the starting line. We started on the right segment near the right boat. Then it shut down. At one point we had boats on full plane downwind approaching us from boat directions. Unusual to say the least. We set the chute and were planing into the swell for practice after the first race was abandoned. Planing into a 4-6 ft swell was interesting and wet. One shock parted the sheath on the spin halyard so we were done for the day. We did hang out and start the first race. Breeze was 10-15 and we were at base. Had a very nice start just to windward of Joe Fly, Full Throttle and I think Shark. Kept pace with most of the leaders and rounded the windward mark in the top 20. Then peeled off and watched the carnage downwind as it built to 18ish. It's too bad it will be light this week, I think some of the light air teams would explode if we had 15-20 knot and we're pretty used to those conditions. Oh well!

Sunday we left the dock super early, due to our chronic tardiness. Chris was onboard for Norm and Jim for Blake, Jen trimmed jib and Chris spin. Jim and Chris were great to have onboard, both fit the vibe of the boat. Given their backgrounds in small keel boats and dingies they stepped up to the big dingy M24 well. Hope to sail with them again.

First race was light 6-8 knots. Stupidly we didn't rake the rig forward like we knew we should and paid dearly. We also caught some kelp and both mistakes were apparent by the first windward mark. DFL. Ouch. Reeled a couple of boats back downwind and took 12 turns off the forestay, second windward leg we were back on pace with at least the C-B fleet. Managed to work out of the basement on that one.

Second race start was weak, late and slow. We peeled off to the far right looking for the geographic righty that Jim (the local) said pays off most days. We were mostly on pace the wind had built to 12-14. Downwind was displacement mode still. Second leg wind built up to 15+ and second downwind leg was a hoot. Finally planing (really surfing) down the Santa Cruz swell of 3-4ft. Kept it hot to ride the waves and reeled in at least two boats. Kept in front of our Tahoe housemates and competion the Personal Puff crew. Didn't quite have enough distance to complete the passing of Sailing Anarchy famous "Gybeset" aka Gary on Cool Beans. next time. If it's windy I think we'll be at the top of the C fleet for sure, if it's light and we can't get the light air grove back on we'll be plodding along.

Notes from Practice Weekend Mar 31/Apr 1

Here are Jeff's comments:

Firstly I think there has been quite a bit of progress since I last sailed with you. The boat has been greatly upgraded and is now working well and can be raced hard. There are still many improvements that can be done and I am confident we put together a very good list this weekend. Boat speed was good on a Sat., so I think the changes that you have done have been very positive in the performance. There are still many areas that can be worked on to further increase the team’s results.

1. Crew Work and Kinetics. I think this area is much better then the last time I sailed with you, but still has much potential for improvement. These boats really reward cohesive crew movement and polished maneuvers. Having switching crew makes this more difficult, but is a challenge that you will have to work around. As discussed, proper steering and angle to the wind can make or break these critical maneuvers, so continued practice here will really payoff in the long run. Crew mechanics is still an area that should be concentrated on.
2. Starts, Timing & Tactics. This is also an area that we can make large gains in performance. I seemed like when I was helping in these areas we were doing well and when I let you handle these aspects we were having some difficulties. I think as you become more comfortable with the mechanics of sailing the boat you will be able to free your mind to look outside the boat more. I also think you can divide some of these responsibilities among the crew. Time and distance to lay lines, traffic avoidance, wind calls, observations of course advantages and disadvantages, relative speed calls all can be shared a bit to help you. You still will have to make the final decisions, but with more people looking around and helping the team will miss less. Make sure that before a race you have a discussion on the race strategy or plan. Where on the line do we want to be so as to get to the side of the course we think is advantaged? What is the line bias? Etc. This pre race plan can be modified by circumstance or changing conditions, but it is critical to have a plan and get everyone thinking about this well before the last few minutes before the start. Same deal as you are ending one leg and about to start the next. Discuss a plan for the leg well before you get to the mark.
3. Steering and Control of the Boat. Here is another area that has great potential for improvement. This will get better with time in the boat for sure. Having the ability to control the boat in close boat on boat situations and around the starting line is paramount. This is done with good steering, proper sail trim and proper weight movement by the entire crew. I would say that sail trim was hurting our ability to control the boat more then the other two, but all three need to be working to get control of our boat placement. I think just sailing around marks can really be of help here. No spinnaker, just two marks (one a short distance upwind of the other) and just go around them with two sails over and over. You can also set a line with two marks and practice luffing with the jib in and try to be able to just sit there for a long time without moving and then timing the bow down, jib out and accelerate to the line on time. This can be quite effective even with no other boats around.