Nov. 4, 2006
Well, we had 8 boats show up to Stan Sayers park for the #4 fall series race but the weather forecasts were not good. A front was coming in and the National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for the day. Wind speeds of 30 mph gusting to 50 and heavy rain. These conditions are too much for our boats dn the race was canceled. Those boats that showed up will get a DNS status and those that didn't will get a DNC.
Afterword, we all went out to a local coffee house and had a Fleet meeting. We discussed the Fleet 1 schedule for next year, what fleet meetings we will be having for next year, and who will be wanting to do what for next year.
Oct. 21, 2006
We had 9 boats on the water for the Fall series race #3 at Sandpoint. Winds started out very light and built throughout the day to top 15 mph in the 4th race. Wooglin proved again why she is the class of the spinnaker class with 3 wins and one second. Bob got in front in the last race and fended her off for the win. Charmed Juan took second place for the day with Bob third and Great Excuse fourth.
Scout took four first places in the working sails class sporting newer sails with a familiar number (1524), Good thing I didn't sell my sails to a Spinnaker class boat, and was up among the spinnaker boats. Rascal took second place and new member Kathleen Schaefer with her new boat Hakla (1800) took third.
The Current Fall Series standings through 3 race dates;
Working Sails class;
1st Scout 12.00 points
2nd Rascal 12.75 points
3rd Sublime 16.00 points
4th Habagat 29.00 points
5th Hakla 29.00 points
Spinnaker Class;
1st Charmed Juan 9.00 points
2nd BoB 15.75 points
3rd Wooglin 18.25 points
4th Great Excuse 19.00 points
5th PGS Juan 31.00 points
6th Serendipity 39.00 points
Congratulations to the Road warrior winners
Working Sails:
1st Rascal 21.00 points
2nd Scout 26.75 points
3rd Windever 49.00 points
4th TwoFourJuan 56.75 points
5th Habagat 65.00 points
Spinnaker Class:
1st Wooglin 18.50 points
2nd Charmed Juan 24.75 points
3rd Great Excuse 47.75 points
4th Obi Juan 74.50 points
5th PGS Juan 85.00 points
6th Serendipity 86.00 points
Fall series race #1
Stan Sayers Pits
August 26, 2006
We don’t normally sail in the summer due to the lack of winds and the very busy launch ramps around the area. However due to scheduling conflicts we put a late August date for our first Fall Series race.
We had four boats in each class. Sublime, Scout, Rascal, and new Member Fausto Deguzman aboard Habagat, #465 in the working Sails. BOB, PGS Juan, Great Excuse and Charmed Juan flew the chutes.
We set up a short course as there was very little wind. One minute before the start, one boat still didn’t have it’s sails up and another hadn’t even left the dock. With the fact that there was no wind we aborted the start. We waited for about 40 minutes for some wind but decided to start anyway after everyone got their sails up and we towed PGS Juan to the start line.
The start of the first race happened in very little winds, Boat speeds were less than 1 knot. BOB was Leeward boat and pushing Charmed Juan up to the line, It was close for a while but Charmed Juan kept out of BOB’s way and got clear in front of BOB. Most of the fleet went off to the right while PGS Juan, BOB, and Charmed Juan went left. The winds started to build on the run up to the weather mark. Eventually they came up to about 5 to 10 mph and stayed there for the rest of the day. Charmed Juan lead the fleet to the windward mark and rounded ahead of Sublime, BOB, and Great Excuse. On the run down to the leeward mark, we were on a reach. When the wind came just a little behind the Chutes came out. Not sure they did much good as Sublime kept right up with BOB all the way to the leeward mark. BOB keeps the chute up to the last second and rounds the mark with the chute still being pulled in to the boat. Charmed Juan lead from start to finish with Sublime second, BOB third, Great Excuse third, and Rascal fifth.
The second race had Charmed Juan starting on port tack at the port pin and headed almost straight to the mark. Charmed Juan snuck in front of PGS Juan who was on Starboard and got a great start. Charmed Juan again lead to the weather mark. Great excuse was second around the mark with BOB third. We waited for the wind to shift behind and brought out the chute after a couple minutes reaching. The winds were a bit more supportive of the spinnakers as Charmed Juan, Great Excuse, BOB were the first three across the line with Sublime fourth.
The Third race had Charmed Juan again starting on port tack at the port pin and missing the rest of the fleet coming up the line on Starboard. Winds were constant around 10 mph as the fleet took off to the weather mark. Charmed Juan lead again with Sublime and BOB closer than before. The wind never quite clocked behind us so we kept our spinnaker in the bag. Bob brought out her chute but it didn’t do much good as Sublime took second behind Charmed Juan with BOB third. Great Excuse passed PGS Juan and was only inches in front at the line for 4th.
In the 4th race, I didn’t think the Port tack port pin tactic would work again. Any boat coming down the line on starboard would force a port tack boat away. We went to the starboard thinking to come up the line and then tack over to port at the start. Well, that didn’t work as we were very late turning around and were last to cross the start line. Sublime, Rascal, and Scout were the first three to make it to the weather mark, BOB and Charmed Juan rounded next. Everyone stayed on a reach to the mark. Charmed Juan caught up some ground on BOB, and the order was the same rounding the Leeward mark. Charmed Juan almost caught BOB on the run up to the finish but took 5th.
So Sublime takes first place in the Working sails (1,1,1,1), Rascal second (2,2,2,2), Scout third (3,3,3,3) and Habagat fourth (4,4,4,4). A very consistent set of finishes.
The Spinnaker class had Charmed Juan first (1,1,1,2), BOB second (2,3,2,1), Great Excuse third (3,2,3,3) and PGS Juan fourth (4,4,4,4).
The season Hi Point championship standings are;
Working Sails
Rascal 34.5
Scout 45.75
Windever 90
TwoFourJuan 94
Sublime 95
BOB 99.25
Freyja 101.75
Habagat 108
Spinnaker class
Wooglin 29.25
Charmed Juan 30.5
Great Excuse 70.75
ObiJuan 104.5
PGS Juan 105
BOB 109.75
Serendipity 119
Spring Race #4
Lake Union
April 22, 2006
I remember when I liked Lake Union. Lake Union was nice to me. Lake Union was my friend.
Our 4th Spring Series race looked to be a fantastic day in the forecasts, Sunny, Temps in the 60’s, winds in the 5 mph range. After the last race, I was looking forward to it. Besides, I like Lake Union….
While I was rigging up the boat at the 14th Street ramp, I noticed that the winds were just a little higher than 5 mph. No problem, I thought, They should calm down as the day goes along, and besides, I am not doing so bad this year in moderate winds. We cruised down to the lake and I set up the start line, and put out a Weather mark on the North West end of the lake and decided to use the Red and Green Nun buoys as the other marks. The winds now were solidly in the 10 to 15 mph range. OK, maybe a little front is moving through and we should be OK in another 30 minutes or so.
Wooglin was there with Charmed Juan for the Spinnaker Class. Rascal, Scout, TwoFourJuan, and BOB represented the Working Sails Class.
A new Member, Tom Killroy got a ride with Jeff Marshal on TwoFourJuan and I was introducing a friend to the exciting world of sailboat racing as well so at least no one was single handing. Well, Rascal was handling the sailing alone as his crew is still leaning the lines.
When we started the first race, winds were now in the 15 to 20 mph range. After the last race where the winds were 20 to 25 and driving rain, this should be much nicer. I had the course as the Orange mark at the Northwest corner of the lake, then over to the Green Nun at the Northeast corner, then down to the Red Nun at the south west corner, and back to the Start Finish.
We got a great start on the port side of the line on port tack; Wooglin was on starboard and headed right for us and called starboard. I though we were just enough ahead and called for them to hold their course. I risked the penalty turn but we missed by about 5 feet with Wooglin going behind us and not having to change course. As we approached the Orange mark on the Northwest corner of the lake, I realized that our standard port roundings were going to be a problem as we would have to do a 270 degree turn around the marks. No time to change it now, fortunately with only 6 boats and rather spread out, there weren’t any problems at the marks (that I know of, I was rather busy trying to hold on to my own boat). Charmed Juan lead at the orange mark and the reach over to the Green Nun. On the down wind leg, I kept the spinnaker in the bag and saw that Wooglin was doing the same. We were making close to 7 knots with the Jib polled out. Wooglin was headed a little more to the center of the lake and then brought out her spinnaker. She caught up a little and was closer behind Charmed Juan rounding the weather mark. On the run up to the finish, Charmed Juan was headed straight to the port finish pin and Wooglin was up wind and behind, but not able to catch up and took second behind Charmed Juan. Bob was first over for the Working Sails class with TwoFourJuan second.
At the start of the second race, winds were now doing 20+. We changed the course to head first for the Green Nun at the Northeast corner, then the orange Mark at the Northwest, down to the red Nun on the southwest and back to the start finish. I reefed the main, mostly to keep my new crew from screaming quite so much but also I have had good luck doing so in prior races this year.
We did another port tack, port pin start and were headed up to the red nun. Wooglin tacked over to starboard early and got a lead. She rounded the mark first with Charmed Juan second. After the orange mark, we both headed downwind. Wooglin brought out her chute and pulled ahead a little but Charmed Juan made it back on Wooglin’s takedown. Wooglin rounded first with Charmed Juan second and that was how we finished. Bob was third and first in the Working sails with Scout second.
The winds were continuing to build when we started the third race. Wooglin was again out in front and Scout was in second place on port tack a little ahead of Charmed Juan. I kept checking Scouts position as we were close but when we separated some I stopped checking every couple of seconds. Scout tacked over and I missed it. I heard a Starboard call about 3 seconds before she crossed in front of Charmed Juan on Starboard tack and we collided. My bow road up and over Scouts Jib tracks. Both boats became entangled as Scout’s Shroud hooked a cleat on Charmed Juan’s boom and it took a minute for us to get the boats apart. Once we were apart, I visually check the bow to see if we have a hole, and went below to check the insides. No water leaks that I could see. We continued on in last place. I was rather disheartened and berating myself for not keeping a closer eye on Scout. The damage to his boat was a little worse as there was some cracking of the fiberglass at the combings and a broken tiller tamer. I owe Scout for the Damage. Moral of story, “When you are on port tack and another boat is also on port tack a little ahead of you, you must keep an eye on them”. With the heavy winds we had, it’s difficult to do this with the boat healing as much as we were and Scout completely covered by the sails. This is the second time I have had this happen to me in heavy winds.
On the other side, If you are approaching another boat and have rights, don’t assume you are seen. Call out your right of way and listen for a response. In this case, Scout could have called Starboard, or even called out that they were tacking over before they did to let me know they were approaching. This does not mean that I am not responsible, I was, but avoiding collisions is everyone’s responsibility. Don’t assume you are seen.
Wooglin continued on to take first place with Bob second, TwoFourJuan third.
After the third race, Wooglin clocked a gust over 30 mph so we decided to call it a day.
So Wooglin takes top honors in the spinnaker class with two firsts and a second, BOB wins the Working Sails with three firsts.
Rascal wasn’t having the greatest of days having to single hand in the high winds. Here is what Jack wrote;
The racing this past weekend on Lake Union was anything but boring.
Because the winds were in the 20-30MPH there was little that my young son could do to help out so I was basically single handing it.
I had some problems with some new and some old equipment. The new equipment was some jib sheets that must have been slippery because of their newness, they tended to slip on the winches and when I put an extra wrap on the winches to keep them from slipping they would over ride and get stuck there in a way that prevented me from trimming the sail. This didn’t help for forward progress in the desired direction. Of course until I could free them the sails would be flagging away and making a terrible racket, then we would lay over on our side sometimes and create a waterfall coming into the cockpit. This happened many times and my crew and I were becoming accustomed to having water in the cockpit and also looking under the water through the cabin lights.
In the 2nd race on the down wind leg while in the midst’s of wrestling for control of the boat a dock came up quite suddenly and we missed colliding with it by inches, in fact, we were so close that the tiller extension was bent when it struck a ladder that rose up a foot or so above the docks deck level. I quickly forced it back into a more useful shape and continued on and finished the race. Also I noticed something peculiar about the spreaders, they were bending in a way that I had not seen before. This inspired visions of them breaking and making for more excitement and danger than what I really had planned for that day. So I decided that we would start the 3rd race and head for the north end of the lake and retire from the race to the shelter of Waterway 18. Upon inspection and disassembly of the spreaders today it was noted that the spreader through bolt was bent as well as loose. Repairs are under way.
Jack Caldwell
Spring Series Race #3
April 8th, 2006
Stan Sayers Park, Lake Washington, Seattle
An interesting day on Lake Washington.
I am always worried when we go to Stan Sayers Park just north of Seward Park. The city of Seattle sometimes closes the road leading into the park for bicycles so I was relieved when there were no barriers as we approached the park. My relief turned to dismay when the entire park was full of rowing shells. Some sort of regatta was taking place and the lot was full of parked cars and the launch ramps were blocked with even more parked cars.
Rascal, Wooglin, Great Excuse, PGS Juan, Scout and Charmed Juan were there and we decided to go to Coulon by heading south on Seward Park Ave. Gene stayed behind to let any other boats that were going to show up where we went.
Along the way south we ran into the Atlantic City Boat Launch Ramp which is only a couple of miles south of Seward Park. We pulled in there thinking that anyone else coming from Stan Sayers would see us there.
We got the first race underway around 12:20 under heavy rain and winds in the 15 to 20 mph with gusts over 25. Rather Fierce conditions for our boats.
With 3 minutes left in the start sequence, I decided to reef the main. Somehow I managed to get it in and be in rather good position at the start. Even with a reefed main, I got knocked over enough to get water coming over the combings several times. Great Excuse departed the course with some sort of problem so we just had 4 boats on the course.
I noticed that I was able to sail higher than the other boats that had not reefed, not faster, but higher. With the regular gusts and wind shifts, it became a struggle to get up to the windward mark. We all got a lesson in heavy weather sailing. When a gust hit or the wind shifted, we would heel over to 40+ degrees. I would head up and have to pull back on the tiller to keep from heading straight into the wind. We would end up going back and forth this way to the windward mark. I am sure this isn’t the fastest way to sail. Never the less, we were the first rounding the Windward mark with Wooglin second and Scout third. I was happy to see that Wooglin wasn’t bringing out their spinnaker because there was no way I was. We shook out the reef and polled out the Jib. On the down wind leg, Scout got ahead of Wooglin and the rounded the Leeward mark in second. Charmed Juan put the reef back in (I am starting to get good at this) and that was the way we finished. Rascal was suffering through the weather as well and once it looked like they almost got knocked down.
Despite getting brand new foul weather gear for my son, he got very cold and I had to put him in the cabin for the next race and single hand it. I got a good start but wasn’t able to keep everything together and rounded the weather mark a close second behind Wooglin. Instead of having the main in tight, I had it eased out a little so I wouldn’t have to head so much into the wind when the gusts hit. I guess it didn’t work. On the down wind leg, Wooglin kept the lead and since I couldn’t pole out the Jib, Scout passed Charmed Juan for second rounding Leeward mark. On the run up to the finish line, Charmed Juan, once again with a reef, was able to out point Scout and took back second place.
We decided we had had enough and called it a day.
After the race, we learned that Serendipity and PGS Juan went to Coulon via a different route. PGS Juan requested that the results be thrown out for the Spinnaker class boats since they were unable to race. The results for the Working sails class will stand with Scout getting two firsts, and Rascal getting two seconds.
Spring Series Race #2
March 25, 2006
Magnuson Park, Seattle
Our second Spring Series race was held at Magnuson Park on March 25 to sunny skies and moderate winds. Scout, Rascal, and TwoFourJuan were sailing in the Working Sails class with Serendipity, PGS Juan, Great Excuse, Wooglin and Charmed Juan entered in the Spinnaker class. Winds were 10 to 20 in the first race and lessened to 10 to 15 by the second race.
We set up a 0.8 mile long course between windward and leeward marks and started to use the 5 minute start sequence the rather than the 10 minute we have been using. This new sequence is what is used in most regattas and has a horn at the 5 minute mark, 4 minute, 1 minute, and then the start. This keeps Jorgen busy.
In the first race, Charmed Juan pinned Rascal against the start line, both boats on starboard tack, Charmed Juan being the windward boat. I could of pushed him over but didn’t, I was being a nice guy and it bit me. When the start horn sounded, we both headed up but I got stuck in Rascal’s bad air. What I should have done was to give Rascal the opportunity to loosen her sails so I could get ahead, or push her over the line. Wooglin was to weather and just a little behind but in clean air. We eventually got ahead of Rascal and high enough to be able to tack when we wanted to. Wooglin tacked to port and we followed shortly after. Wooglin tacked back to starboard and we ducked behind them and continued on port tack. Wooglin tacked too early and had to tack again and when they did, they passed behind Charmed Juan. Down wind we were dead even but Wooglin rounded first with Charmed Juan right behind. Going up wind we got ahead when Wooglin again tacked early thinking the port pin was the starboard pin. This allowed Charmed Juan to slip ahead and take the win. Scout took third and first in Working Sails followed by PGS Juan, Rascal, TwoFourJuan, Serendipity, and finally Great Excuse
The second race was pretty much a carbon copy of the first race. Wooglin got a good start and was windward of Charmed Juan. They lead at the wind mark and leeward mark. Charmed Juan got ahead at the last leg when Wooglin stayed in the wind shadow too long. PGS Juan was third followed by Great Excuse, then Rascal, first of the Working sails, Two Four Juan, Scout, then Serendipity.
In the third race, Charmed Juan got a great start. At full speed, right at the line when the horn sounded the start. Wooglin tacked to port early and Charmed Juan covered a little later. Charmed Juan led at the windward mark and did a Jibe set with the spinnaker. Wooglin did a bear away set and went off to the right side. On this tack, Charmed Juan was going almost dead down wind but still got to the mark ahead of Wooglin and continued to the take first place. Wooglin was second, Scout third, first of the working sails, TwoFourJuan, Rascal, Serendipity, Great Excuse, and finally PGS Juan.
The fourth race saw Wooglin lead at the windward mark and did a Jibe set. Charmed Juan cut inside and was to weather. Wooglin tried to take Charmed Juan up but Charmed Juan had not put her chute up yet and could head much higher than Wooglin. Charmed Juan waited for Wooglin to bear away before setting the Spinnaker. Wooglin got the Leeward mark first and Charmed Juan couldn’t catch up to the finish. So Wooglin takes a win with Charmed Juan second, Rascal third, Scout fourth, Great Excuse fifth, TwoFourJuan sixth, PGS Juan seventh, and Serendipity rounding out the fleet.
This from PGS Juan
I had crew for the first time in several races. I had my normal crew of Ziggy, who has been moving from Mount Vernon to Burien, and Joe Carpenter, and his five year old son. His son was good and did very well for someone his age. We found some floating tennis balls, and his mission became to land one on another boat. A mission is a great occupier. Joe has not sailed on San Juan's before and was eager to see how they handle. He found them much less tender than he thought they would be. We got two fair starts and turned them into two third place finishes. The spinnaker in the basket in the companionway seems to work better than anything else we have tried. It goes up and down very easily. The fact that we were rusty showed, and we were not sharp in our sail handling. We missed the first horn on the third race and started dead last and finished the same way. I seem to get tired after two or three races, but having crew helped a lot. I felt a lot better after today than the days when I single handed. I guess I need a physical training program to build myself back to where I was. Overall it was a fun day, and I hope to have two new boats out by the end of April.
Gene Adams
Here is Scout’s Report
We were going back and forth with Jack all day. I think we won 2 races and Jack the other two. On one downwind leg we were right next to each other the whole way, each with our mains on opposite sides. We did manage to stay ahead of Jeff all day, enough so that he asked "Are those the sails Gene gave you with the boat?"
Paul Von Stubbe
Serendipity had this to say.
Serendipity lagged behind all day. We got a decent start the first race, but our attempt to fly the spinnaker on the downwind leg turned disastrous, and we didn't fly it the rest of the day (need some practice and consistent crew). The second race had a poor start but went well from there and the third race just proved to me that until I replace my blown out main and reduce weight with a lighter outboard, etc., I just can't keep up with the rest of the fleet. I'm not positive, but I think I finished next to last, 3rd from last, and last, in the 3 races.
It was a great day for sailing...even finishing last doesn't feel bad on a good sailing day, and my crew enjoyed it too.
Roland
So the final results stand as this. In the Working Sails class, we have a tie for first place with Scout (1,3,1,2) and Rascal (2,1,3,1) both having identical finishes and 6.5 points each. TwoFourJuan (3,2,2,3) was third with 10 points
In the Spinnaker class, Charmed Juan (1,1,1,2) finally beat Wooglin (2,2,2,1) on a day that had some wind. PGS Juan (3,3,5,4) was third, Great Excuse (5,4,4,3) fourth and Serendipity (4,5,3,5) rounded out the field.
Our next race is April 8 at Stan Sayers Pits in Seattle near Leshi. Start time is 12:00
Spring racing series #1
Renton’s Coulon Park
March 11, 2006
Another great start to the racing season
Despite rather stormy weather Friday night with Lightening, hail, and snow in some areas, the weather for our first Spring series race on March 11, 2006 was held in partly sunny skies with winds in the 5 to 15 mph range and rather steady out of the north.
New Member John Hawkinson aboard Freyja, Jack Caldwell with Rascal and Paul Von Stubbe skippering Scout represented the working sails. The Spinnaker class had Gene Adams helming PGS Juan, Stephen Jensen with Charmed Juan, Chris Popich aboard Wooglin, and Mike Dukes skippering Great Excuse who moved from working sails last year to Spinnaker class this year. The skippers meeting was held at the marina at 11:15 and three boats were not even in the water yet. We delayed the start from 11:30 to 11:45 but those boats still had not shown up.
The first race was started with rather light winds and Wooglin was first rounding the mark with Charmed Juan second. Wooglin lead the rest of the way and Charmed Juan stayed second. Freyja took third and first in the Working sails in her first race and Scout was second. The other boats had finally came out and were on the course racing as we finished so we waited until they finished before starting the second race.
The second race was pretty much a carbon copy of the first for Wooglin and Charmed Juan. Rascal took first in Working sails and Scout second.
The winds picked up for the third and fourth races, now in the 10 to 15 mph range. I got a lot of practice in keeping the boat moving ahead without having to fight rounding up. I have had problems in the past with allowing the boat to heel to far, then the boats starts to round up and you have to really pull the tiller to keep from heading too far into the wind. This really slows the boat down.
In the third race, Charmed Juan lead at the windward mark but had a nasty hourglass spinnaker twist and by the time it was cleared, Wooglin had caught up and passed her. Great Excuse also caught up and on the windward leg to the finish she was pinning Charmed Juan out to the layline. Charmed Juan tacked over to head to the line and was going to either duck behind and concede defeat, or tack on top of Great Excuse and try to take their wind. For some reason, Great Excuse also tacked over. Now it was a drag race to the line and Charmed Juan took second by about 1 second. Great Excuse should have stayed on that tack and waited for Charmed Juan to either pass behind or tack on top of her before tacking over.
Here is what Great Excuse had to say for the day.
The day was lovely and the crew prepared to race. Largo (Scamper) could be found sleeping in the SUV (important that one be well rested prior to all sailing events) and Macaulay (Jumper) could be found reading her book (important to be well versed on a topic) on horses, while El Capitain (title derisively assigned to well meaning husband and father who has angered family members –routinely known as crew) rigged the boat.
We overcame the issues of rigging a boat with six extra lines for the spinnaker (that was probably the problem) to tangle and managed to get into the water only one hour later than planned. We could hear the starting signals for the first race sound and as each passed a new sense of urgency welled over us. As the last starting signal sounded and with the Great Excuse still just out side of the breakwater, the words of Jorgen, age twelve, rang in El Capitains ears. “You should always at least start a race so you get some points”. We revved the Yamaha 4hp motor to max rpm’s, were hopeful that we were exceeding the speed limit in the marina, and powered ourselves to the start line. Looking up the course we could see the lead boats popping their chutes on the downwind leg as we frantically raised our sails to start the race. We rounded all marks and went wing and wing to ensure that we completed the first race and saved our attempt at a spinnaker launch to a more closely contested race.
In race two, with the confidence of the unwary, the spinnaker launch was textbook perfect. It blossomed out and took the air. We controlled it well without collapse through solid work on the guy, sheet, halyard, and pole. As we approached the mark we retrieved the spinnaker and brought it into the boat, a very successful first race spinnaker launch with the new crew. Unfortunately as we rounded the mark and went to reset the jib we discovered we had brought the spinnaker down inside the forestay and shroud and now we were setting the jib with spinnaker sheets over lapping the jib sheet and the spinnaker was catching a little air. So with the directions of El Capitain, Scamper (named such for the proposed manner of movement about the fore deck) now alternately called Slither (due to the actual manner of movement about the fore deck) and Jumper (named so because of desire to ride on jumping horses rather than sailboats) disconnected and brought in the halyard and sheets to clear the lines. With this well executed act by the crew, El Capitain had effectively disabled the launch of the spinnaker in subsequent races.
On race three, The Great Excuse got a good start on the upwind and raced head to head to the upwind mark. As we rounded the mark the leaders popped their chutes and we figured it was all over for us. But low and behold, the Charmed Juan’s spinnaker fouled during the launch and our wing and wing gave us a hold on second place, however briefly, as Charmed Juan fought to free their spinnaker. Ultimately Charmed Juan freed the spinnaker and over took the Great Excuse, but it took long enough to give the Great Excuse a chance on the up wind leg, which resulted in a head to head race to the finish line. Unfortunately the race was won by Charmed Juan do to a tactical error by El Capitain.
We settled for wing and wing and on race four went head to head with Rascal on the down wind leg, beat him around the mark and then Rascal took a better line on the up wind leg and beat Great Excuse to the finish line to by seconds. So while grousing about the loss to Rascal El Capitain wasn’t paying attention and Scout blew by. So went from third to fifth in moments.
All in all a great start to the racing season.
Scout had this to say
It was a great day of racing, a little cool, but fun/easy to sail wind. Last week at West Marine I made up a 3' long pig tail for my jib so I could use the Jensen furler and get the jib to come all the way down to the deck, cool I thought, till the wimpy crimps on the end of the pig tail failed on the first upwind leg and the jib came down and the halyard went up! Great, now what! I tried to reach the halyard with the whisker pole but was way short. Earlier in the morning I bought a used spinnaker pole from Gene and I taped the two poles together and was able to snag the halyard and restore order.
Paul Von Stubbe- Scout
And Freyja sent this in
During race #3 we had a good start to the lee of the race and fell off some so we could stay out of everyone’s wind shadow. When we were about a quarter mile from the mark, with some boats already rounding, we found an open spot to cut across and tacked. but when we hauled in the jib sheet with the Genoa’s winch, it overrode a couple times around the winch with the jib over sheeted. We couldn’t tack because the jib would backwind so we held that tack until we could pry the line off the winch.(since the jib was sheeted in too tight it fouled the mainsails air flow) meanwhile the rest of the boats were far ahead of us.
For the day in Working Sails, Rascal took the win with 5.25 points (3,1,1,1) Scout was second with 8 points (2,2,2,2) and Freyja third with 9.75 points (1,3,3,3)
In the Spinnaker class, Wooglin had a perfect day with only 3 points (1,1,1,1), Charmed Juan was second with nothing but seconds (2,2,2,2), Great Excuse third with 13 points, (3,4,3,3) and PGS Juan 4th with 17 points (DNS, 4,4,4)