Summer Series First Race Report from Raven (201)

We got a great start a little down from the boat and were able to tack to the right in the sea breeze pretty much when we wanted…into a 20-degree header and way less pressure. After a long while plodding across to the right, hoping for breeze and the header to affect the rest of the fleet on the left, we bailed and banged the left. Catholic sailing, Roy calls it; crossing the course. 26 transoms we saw. I find these boats look a lot better bow-on.

We rounded Can 13 deep, as you can imagine. Had an indifferent downwind leg to mark V as the left shift that made the right such a disaster made the run one-sided. Thank dog for a race committee headed by Robin Wallace! He set a new weather mark, and didn’t shorten there to put us out of our misery.

Having learnt our lesson on the first leg we short-tacked up the navy side of the course with Paul Sollitto (76) and Tom Hirsch (254)…as the breeze started easing back right. We managed to drop most of the boats  we’d passed downwind. We rounded deep…again. Going downwind we got a few boats and got
within striking distance of a few more as we hung left. We had a nice rounding in between Wendy Lotz on 138 and Bill Shore on 101 and managed to live on Richard Sugarman (21)s hip for a while out to the right again.

Way up ahead I saw Stubby (59) and Kim Roberts (143)–who¹d been leading a tight two-boat race with Stubby all night‹shoot the line. Stubby apparently got the gun by half a length. Nice horizon job on both crews’ part.

We managed to finally do something right and got back to a mid-fleet finish, which, given where we’d been, we were pretty pleased with. Especially given quality of the sailors on the other boats around us who obviously had as much trouble figuring out the breeze as we did.

The upside of our mediocre finish was that everyone aboard Raven was in tactical agreement throughout the race. It¹s nice to sail with a crew in total harmony. Even if we did all have our heads up our…

–Andy

Course 81, 2x SW 12-14 RC duty 217 z flag , 34 boats

Notes

I’m leaving for Bermuda today so this will be short . The title is “The Rich Got Richer-This was Good for 217″

We had the starting line square to 225 magnetic . We were getting wind readings at 210 to 206 minutes before the start . BIG incoming tide . Weather mark off the grave yard at Hammersmith . Not normal afternoon SW’trly . Wind is showing left with leftish puffs . All that considered ,plan boiled down to start near the pin go left get relief from tide , hook in to left puffs . We were the second boat up from the pin at the start , with 17 below us . We were able to live off their hip long enough to out of the current . When we got in behind Ft Adams and tacked on to port we were able to cross any starboard tackers . From there on it was a matter of staying ahead of the conga line tacking up the shore . With the breeze more left than normal the port tacks were much longer than the starboard ones . It also seemed as though with the breeze a bit left of usual , the corner bangers on the right , who looked ok for a short bit by Clingstone/Ft Wetherill, would be unlikely to send in a winner.

We set without the pole at the weather mark as we were in a right shift . Gybed straight away onto port and got out into the current as soon as possible .

From there not alot happened . It did help that we were able to stay clear of the PHRF fleet the 2nd time up . It was definitely a night where all the conditions were favorable to being in front , so the rich got richer.

We were a little tighter on our lowers . We had them set at 21 on the Loos gauge . Headstay was at max long setting , 49″ , I think. Cap shrouds at 29 on Loos gauge .

Thanks to Jeff Dionne, Tim Healy, Eric Hanson and Chris Greenman the crew on 217 last Wednesday .

Cheers

Jamie Hilton

Shown here with race 6 results, and overall points, 2 throwouts.

For full results sheet, Click Here

Division: Shields (34 boats) (top)

Course 62, twice, gate SE 6-10

Notes

Race 4
At 4pm it was hot with no breeze. Off the porch in t-shirts and shorts was the call. Would we have yet another cancellation? As we realized nobody brought along foul-weather gear, we chuckled about the time last year (or the year before) we paddled off the mooring in similar conditions, but was hit with a good 18-20 knot blow in a matter of 10 minutes. Robin announced.. “Better to have one good one than two bad ones, so we’ll give it a go”. We came around the corner in a nice 6 knot Southerly, with super flat seas. Alright !!, finally.. our conditions! (Equus seems eerily fast the lighter it gets — don’t ask us.. we don’t know why.)

So we get a reading… and wait.. spins coming toward us from both directions? Big righty? RC boat mo