April 15, 2004
April Series Race 2
We had thought the winds were going to be light for this race, but about 3:30 they picked up and we had a good breeze. 10-15 with some gusts a little higher.
The tide level in the lake was low and the RC called the race off for the keelboats.
Happily foir the rest of us, they ran the races. We had nine boats cross the starting line, unfortunately, the Coronado-15 had jib halyard problems and had to retire.
The boats were Two Day Sailers, Two Lido-14s, a Thistle, a Finn, a Flying Junior, a Vanguard 15, and a Coronado-15.
I don't recall our start being great shakes but I knew I wanted the pin end of the line. I think I lost count of the time and I was a little slow getting the boat up on point after the start. I had hoped to have speed and point enough to go over to port and cross the fleet, but found myself underneath the Thistle and a Lido-14. The Lido tacked and we went about, ducking the Thistle. We managed to stay close to the faster boats (Thistle, Vanguard and Finn). Our first spinnaker set was okay, I recall I didn't let the main out far enough and felt the helm fighting my command to go downwind. So I had to let it out more before hoisting the spinnaker. we made good speed downwind, and kept up with the Thistle, Vanguard and Finn.
We ended up correcting out seven seconds ahead of the Finn for first.
The boat is definitely tuned for higher wind. If we get a light wind day I'll try reducing the prebend in the mast.
I have the plots, for last week and this week, I just need to find a moment to turn them into images and post them.
Update:
Here's the plot.
Magenta is the prestart,
Red is the first beat,
Blue the first run,
Green the second beat,
Black the second run.
