SYSCO Spring Series, Thursday, May 27, 2021 This race was the first race I intentionally retired from. We had an equipment failure, before that, the boom lightly taped my on my check bone when I was trying to adjust the main sheet. The tap was not bad, but it popped the right lense out of my brand new as of Monday glasses. Of course, being on a boat and on the Columbia, the lense plopped right into the river. The race course was "X", Start-1-5-1-3-finish. We had planned on a port start near the committee boat. We ended up with a port start at the middle of the line. We had not rolled the jib out entirely and had put in Cunningham ties to de-power the main sail. The boat pointed much higher than with the sails fully out in the wind of 10-12 knots. We managed to make quite a distance on the lead boats, because they pointed lower and tacked away from the mark. We were about to go to starboard tack and lee bow Blew Str...
Posts
SYSCO Spring Series, 2021, Race 5 Windy night. Winds 10 knots with gusts to 15. Course was simple Start-Buoy 2-Buoy 14-finish. Had my good crew on board. We started in the middle of the start line with two boats above us. We were trapped and could not tack to port. We had to wait until we had room to tack to port. Tacking was better this week. We adjusted tacking by slowing down the tack so the crew could bring in the head sail more easily. This shows in the smaller lower speed tracking areas after the tacks in the track below. If you look closely at the first tack after the start, you can see where we had to pass behind Braveheart. We were third around the windward mark. We got the pole up fairly quickly, but instead of going with the herd toward Oregon, we stayed near the Washington shore. We were hoping to stay close behind Ryan point and avoid the brunt of the channel current. We ended up following ...
SYSCO Spring Series Race 4, May 13, 2021 The wind was a summer like wind out of the north north west, right up the river. We decided to do a starboard start. We had to do a couple of 360's to make the mark on time. We did not want a repeat of last week's start. We managed a good start and then went to port. It took us a while to get the head sail set. The track, below, shows reduced speed after the tack. We never got up to speed before the next tack to starboard. Again, we took a little time to get the head sail set, but it was much better than the first tack. The next tack to port almost a repeat of the first. We finally made it around the first windward mark third. We took too long to get turned back up river but finally got our pole set to port on a wing on wing configuration to run downwind to mark 5, just a little ways down stream from the committee boat. We were second around the mark just behind Blew Streak....
SYSCO Spring Series Race 3 Wind was up to 11 knots. We did not extend the head sail all the way during wait for the starts. But the wind abated slightly to 9 knots by the race. The committee boat set the start and finish marks very wide. The wind favored the committee boat. The wind also had a southerly element at the starting line that made going upstream a port tack affair. The course was start-1-2-3-finish, W. Most of the boats in our class like to start on starboard tack. But all that would do would take us across the river. We decided to start on a port tack near the committee boat. Blew Streak agreed. We were the only boats to start that way. Unfortunately we were a few seconds early and had to go back behind the finish line after the start. The track shows our loop at the start. On our way to the windward mark we had a close encounter with Wildheart. We passed a few feet behind h...
SYSCO Spring Series Race 2 Another so so start. The course was start-1-3-finish. We walked the line a while on the start. We started to turn back upstream thinking we were over the line, but the committee boat said I was clear. We started back to starboard tack but lost a little speed in doing that. We rounded the windward mark third with La Dolce Vita and Wildheart ahead of us. After the windward mark we stayed to the Oregon side to take advantage of the shallower water and weaker current. We were followed by Blew Streak. We were in clear air all the way around the finish mark. We pulled down the pole, which was set to port, after the mark. We set a beam reach toward the leeward mark. The other two boats reached the mark before us, but had to take their poles down and come to a starboard tack. They both had difficulties. We thought we could duck under them after the mark and just come about...
SYSCO Spring Series Race 1 The winds are fickle. We, my new crew, well almost new, husband Jon has crewed with me, but his wife Jill is new to racing, waited for almost an hour idling in the river waiting for the wind along with every other boat the night of April 22nd. But when the wind did come up, it came at 10 knots. But by then it was too late for a long race. The race we ran was start-1-finish, "A". We had an average start not first, not last. We rounded the windward mark third. Blew Streak and Wildheart ahead of us. We poled out to port for wing on wing. But we stayed in the crowd. Toward the finish line I tried some shenanigans by trying to force La Dolce windward while we skirted by the committee boat. He would not have anything to do with that and forced me leeward. I yelled protest. He ignored me. We finished 4th. New crew is working out, very nicely.