Surprise's Log Day Sailer 11750

September Series 1

Unfortunately I didn't have my GPS configured correctly to record a track, but I did get the track from Jim's receiver. Here's the data
and the plot

We didn't do too well, our start wasn't in clear air again, and we fouled one of the Vanguards at the leeward mark. He had inside overlap and I intended to give room, but the waves caused me to bounce into him. I wanted to make the turn as early as possible, but there was a lot of traffic and we had to stay out of the way of several boats to do it. Jim sailed a very good last leg and caught us right at the end. and we finished 4th.

We might need to reduce our mast bend some in these lighter air conditions to give us more power.

August Series 4

Winds were semi-light, We had a pretty bad start, as we were sat upon by three boats. I need to be a little more assertive f or the starts. It's easy to get complacent. in a handicap fleet. As it was, we lost time to the Vanguard -15's, and I was surprised to see that I still won on corrected time by about 9 seconds. I really had thought he did better.

Here's the comparison between Surprise and Cacafuego. Again, Jim gained on us on the second down wind run. Perhaps we are still sailing too deep on that leg. He seems ot be sailing roughly the saame course, so for some reason he is faster on that point of sail. Perhaps he's sailing the boat better, or perhaps his lighter weight is an advantage here. An interesting trend and I'll be even more interested to see what the reasons are behind this.

August Series 3

Despite the weather channel's warnings of rain, thunder and destruction, we had good weather. The winds were 5-10, from the SE. We were given a gold cup course tonight which is fun because it gives us a chance to practice reaching.
Our start was okay, but not one of the best we have had. I found myself in between two Vanguard-15's. Our first beat was not as good as I would have liked it and I think we got out of phase and were pulled over to the left side of the course more than I would have liked. The second beat was better; we regained some of our discipline and worked at keeping the boat flat. There was one encounter we had with a Vanguard 15, where we were lifted and about on the rhumb line. Joe called for a tack, but I overrode his call and ducked instead. As it turned out, it made sense and we picked up a lot on the vanguard. Our last run was poor, we were by the lee more than we should have been and the boat was slow. If I were to do it again I'd be less hesitant about sailing hotter angles and jybing more frequently.

Jim's track is here

After examining the data, it appears that Jim had a better spinnaker run on the last leg, and he made up 17 seconds on us. His average angle to the rhumbline was larger and our and his speed was better. We worked our angles better on the second beat which was confirmed by the fact we got closer to the vanguards on that leg. The analysis is here.