May 27 2008
San Juan 21s at the NOODs continued…
On the second day of NOODs I was the last boat on the water and the first into the marina. The delicate balance of managing family obligations and campaigning a sailboat tipped in favor of the family, and I missed the last two starts of the day. Despite that Saturday was a beautiful day and it was great to get out even if it was just for a few starts. I had Dave Coons with me and we challenged ourselves to once again fly the spinnaker despite the freshening breeze from the south.
In the first race as we sailed back and fort watching the classes ahead of us start I talked about starting tactics with Dave. As we watched the J24 fleet restart 2 times (eventually flying a flag that over early boats must round a start mark), I remarked to Dave that it really doesn’t pay to be early on the line. Of course at our first start I was over early. I think it was a close thing but we waited for traffic to pass, and dipped the line to start again in dead last place. Luckily it was a long race, with two upwinds and two downwind legs. We used the spinnaker to our advantage and despite some nervous moments where we couldn’t get lines released in a puff we sailed past PGS Juan, No Excuse, Habagat, and Bob, to finish 6th.
The second race was almost exactly the opposite of the first. Not only did I nail the start with perfect timing, speed and clear air… I actually managed to push Wooglin over early! I got leeward position and just kept coming up on him. If you can’t win a race pushing the best skipper in the fleet over early is the next best thing to shoot for. Of course Chris went on to win the race, and I managed to get passed by every boat in the fleet and finish dead last.
After waiting around for the third start I looked at my watch and realized that it was time to head back to the docks if I wanted to make my family appointments. So we bailed and missed the third and fourth races of the day. Ultimately abandoning these races cost me significantly in the standings, as if I had finished in front of 2 boats each race, I would have had finished with better points than BoB and Habagat. However, not starting gave me two 12s on the score card (there were only 10 boats racing but since Rascal had registered they counted the fleet as 11 boats), and that was enough to push me well down the stack for the remainder of the regatta.
Sunday was another beautiful day with much lighter winds than we had the previous two days. I had my third different crew mate in 3 days, but this time it was my Wife (AKA The Capital Review Committee) who kept me entertained and significantly improved the view onboard Limpet. With my wife on board I was a little leary of flying the chute, but with the light winds and some rigging adjustments (running the sheet & guy directly to some swivel cleats on the coaming just aft of the deckhouse rather than through the broken turning blocks at the back of the boat) I decided that we might as well take the opportunity to practice with the spinnaker. I put The Capital Review Committee on helm as we approached the windward mark and she did GREAT! I forget that non-sailors don’t respond well to directions of “Come up a little” or “Fall off,” as they generally have no idea where the wind is coming from. Instead of just calling direction I took to pointing in the direction I wanted the boat and she was very quick and smooth with the helm.
We did very well as a team taking a 7th in the first race, and 6th in the last race of the regatta where we managed to pass Habagat, BoB, and No-Excuse on the last down wind leg. By the time they extracted themselves from the 10 boat rounding pictured in my previous post, we had a solid finish lined up.
Coming out of the regatta I feel a very strong need to get a traveler set up, as once again in the lighter breeze the fleet sailed away from me. I also have questions on the viability of the used Sails I purchased last year.
Anyway next big regatta will be the Treasure Island Yacht Club, where I will not be able to make the Sunday sailing due to family commitments once again. I will stay focused on getting Limpet into competitive condition so that I can really give the fleet a run for their money once the kids are old enough to crew!