Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

April Series Race 4

We finished second which was amazing considering how badly we did.
First most critical mistake:
Shortly before the start, we were sailing on port tack away from the committee boat. Joe called for a tack. I had a bad feeling about it and wanted to jibe, but didn't trust myself. I hesitated, and then tacked. There was Jim Wells, under our lee and I knew he'd pinch us off for barging. I wanted to put the helm hard up, bear away and duck his stern. As you have guessed, we didn't duck successfully and tagged his starboard quarter. It's the worst feeling in the world. But, since I didn't think we caused any damage, we did our penalty turn and headed for the line, well behind everyone else. The wind backed and as soon as we could, we tacked to port. It would have been best to be on port tack at the pin end at the start, but that was not practical at the time. I had pretty much given up the race in my mind (second mistake) but we worked on sailing the boat. We found ourselves slowly catching up to Jim Wells, and on the first downwind leg we managed to pass him. Jim did a good job hanging with us and shadowing. As we came down the course I saw that the keelboats were rounding their mark and we would be blanketed by them as we continued down the course. So we jibed to port, bore up, lowered the board a little and went behind the last keelboat rounding their weather mark. As we passed her stern, I bore away and Surprise came up onto plane for a while. We gained some time on Jim as a result of that, but as we rounded the mark, We dropped a spinnaker sheet over the bow of the boat and had to re-rig it on the last upwind leg. Jim caught up to us and we were just ahead of him at the last weather mark rounding. Jim kept shadowing us and we were not able to break out of it. I wanted to jibe, but couldn't, being to windward of him. Then something happened and Jim jybed and went hard up. We also jybed and came out of the shadow and continued down the course.
We corrected to second, which was a big surprise, no pun intended.

All that aside, I think we we were sailing the wrong tack often on this race, I have the GPS plot and will post it. I should have more time for that stuff now that my classes are winding down.

April series race 3

We had pretty strong winds, 18-25, gusty. Fun to sail in actually. Had a little trouble going up wind, but off the wind we were pretty fast. We had seven boats out, the Thistle, The Vanguard, Surprise, the Flying Junior, a Lido-14, a Finn, and a Coronado-15. We were able to hang with the faster boats well, and we finished the race 1:10 seconds behind the Thistle who crossed the finish line first.

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.

April Series Race 1

Light winds, clear skies. Wind ranged from probably 3kts to 10kts. I tried to start at the boat end but was too early and ended up sailing down the line. At the start, I ended up midline to windward of the Thistle, but couldn't point with him and lost a lot of speed. We tacked away as soon as we could, but it wasn't early enough because we had another boat to windward. My general impression is the boat was slower than she should have been. How much of this is rustiness on our part, and how much is the tune, I'm not clear. The plan for next week will be to reduce the prebend a little, if the winds are similar.

At the last windward mark rounding we were slightly behind the Flying Junior. The PHRF mark was to the right and to windward of our mark. Several PHRF boats were rounding their marks, and although we had the right of way, being leeward and starboard, we realized that they would not likely yield to us. Also, we were below the layline. So we tacked. The Flying Junior did not and was fouled by at least three of the PHRF boats, despite his hails of "Starboard". And none of the boats exonerated themselves despite his hail of "Protest".

We have a different spinnaker pole stowing system which I found in Sarasota.
The diagram is here:

I recorded a GPS track and will post it later.

2004 Season kicks off today!

Here we go, it's April and Wednesday night races are starting.
Winds at JSC building 30: East at 5 peaking 10 mph.
Kemah Bridge is showng a west wind. I think the JSC reading is correct.

Forecast:
This Afternoon: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Chance for precipitation is 20%. Partly cloudy, with a high around 83. Southwest wind between 8 and 13 mph.

Tonight: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1am. Chance for precipitation is 20%. Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. South southwest wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming calm.