This is your Race Committee John Z and Rod M. We had a nice turnout and excellent weather for a race but since Rod and I didn't get to sail the course it would be great to hear from those who did. Which way did you go, CW or CCW? Any lessons learned, lucky positioning or bad guesses, broken gear, etc.

Please jot a few notes on your day, it looked exciting!

John Z

Thanks Race Committee!

Good weather for a race. I did have concerns before the start with how the weather would go, but it proved sporty without being over the top. I went clockwise given the winds and currents.

Firth of Tay and I were happy to provide comic relief at the start.

John,

I thought it was near perfect conditions. We went clockwise mainly due to the currents. Secondarily, counterclockwise the last leg would have been dead up wind vs a near fetch on the second leg going clockwise.

The first leg was a close reaching with good breezes. On that leg we stuck close to the thumb line. In the gusts and lulls, we agressively played the traveler, mainsheet, jib lead, and backstay to keep the heel and rudder angles small. That resulted in really good speed and minimized distance traveled.

The next leg was a close to a fetch mostly on port. I expected the wind to back and provide a port tack lift in the near the western shore so we tacked straight onto port ar the mark mainly since it was the favored tack. Part of the operating theory was that the still outbound current gave us a lee current and so a bit more apparent wind.

Michael Viens and crew, had chosen to sail his J-100 "Specific Gravity" on starboard for a while after the rounding before tacking. My thought was that had the current change occurred as predicted, that might have been a really clever move. But given the observed current at the mark, getting to shallower water before the current changed seemed to make more sense.

A little more than half way up the leg, the current changed and our apparent wind diminished and consequently, we appeared to be headed. It also looked like Specific Gravity had gotten the predicted lift and we hadn't. They also appeared to have a bit more breeze. Another factor was that even if we had gotten to the lift, we would be on the outside of the lift and that would not have been good.

So we tacked over onto starboard to take advantage of the knock, to get to the lift on the other tack a little sooner, and hopefully consolidate any lead that was left.

As we approached Specific Gravity's line we had been progressively knocked and so tacked back onto port. By then, Specific Gravity had closed the gap consideably and was making trees on us.

I expected a progressive veer as we got closer to the curvature of the western shore, and so we tacked back to starboard a little early rather than risk overstanding. That paid off as the veer and the new current brought us close to the mark for a last short tack and a bear away rounding.

By now the breeze was up substantially. We were seeing apparent wind near 20 knots in the gusts. It was not clear whether we would be able to carry the spinnaker on a beam reach in those conditions.

Realizing that we were in the spinnaker class after all, the decision was made later than normal that we had no choice but to send the chute up. Seriously, the thinking was that even if we ended up to leeward of the rhumb line, we could douse the chute and then come in a little hotter under the jib.

Once the spinnaker was up we were seriously unequivocally roaring along. We lowered the pole end to stretch the luff which allowed us to creep up above the rhumb line in the lulls, which in turn allowed us to bear down in the gusts.

About a mile or so from the finish, we were taking some pretty big gusts. The boat seemed to be handling them okay until the boat stood up and the chute flogged violently, the foot seeming to drop like the halyard had partially dropped. A quick run to the mast revealed that the flogging occurred because the body of the sail had separated from the head reinforcing and leech ribbons.

After a quick jib set, and spinnaker douse, we were back up to speed for a fast, but slightly slower and less dramatic than previously remainder of that leg.

Feeling pretty beat, after the finish, we cleared away the wrecksge, and bore off for a fast reach home.

Blowing up the spinnaker was a bit of an emotional buzz kill on an otherwise fun race. But a good time was had by all on Synergy, the crew returned with all of their fingers and toes, and so there was no complaints to be heard.

That's our story and I am sticking to it....at least for now.

Jeff

I went clockwise because I could lay the first mark on one tack; looked like it would have been a few tacks to start with the longer, western leg first.

Also, as a non-spin boat, I didn't want to be nearly dead downwind on leg two.

My little (7,000 pound) boat was overpowered on the last leg and I was fighting the wheel a lot. Every time I would think about reefing, the wind would ease. Then in a few minutes I would get slammed again. I didn't want to give up the time to reef (on my older boat, you still have to go forward to hook the tack; no single-line system), but in hindsight wish I had.

Post-race, beating all the way upwind to Hartges, I think it was the strongest wind I've sailed against in the West River. I was pretty tired by then and found that motor-sailing with reefed main only was the easiest way to go.

Thanks for the update guys, I'm sure that everyone was exhausted by the end of the day.

Sorry to hear about the spinnaker blow out Jeff but thanks for the detailed play-by-play along the course and the report on duking it out with "Specific Gravity".

Peter, glad that you made it around in spite of the 20 kt gusts, you did great.

Bob, I know what you mean about reefing. It usually takes me about five minutes to reef (for no specific reason) and I have to be on starboard tack to do it so I often put it off and let the main flag, regretting it later.

I hope to see you all on the water at other races during the summer and eventually at the "Last Hurrah". Happy Shorthanded Sailing,

John Z

Robert - It's just a good thing West River was ebbing with the 25-30 WNW blowing straight down the river so there was no chop at all.

Ahoy CHESSSmates!

REVOLUTION sailed clockwise as we thought we could sail directly to 84A and then upwind to 83A, then broad reach to Finish. It worked out as such.

We had a good start, only 2nd start since returning from Bermuda last June. So, we were happy. We got a bit of a lead and worked hard to maintain that lead.

With the breeze up from the start to 84A, we furled in the headsail a bit, maintaining good control and speed. When the breeze gusted, we got a lift but managed no to sail to high, but just keep a little in the bank. We twisted off the main a bit.

When we got to 84A, the speed dropped as we tack and we unfurled our headsail. When the wind gusted, we were not headed, but the gust were not as great so we played the low and higher wind speed. When we were about 95% across to the 83A mark, we tacked south and actually had to furl again mid-way down to play the lifts well and get best speed. When we were 1/4nm east of 83A and 111 degree turn, we tacked and unfurled again.

When we rounded the mark, we still seemed to have a good lead. At one point we started catching the multihulls that had past us approaching 84A. But then you can see a band where the breeze was gusting and they worked west towards it and Cloud Splitter really took off. We didn't catch them. We did ride the band edge as much as we could. We also used our whisker pole sailing up to the finish to keep the head sail in good shape.

The changes of breeze during the day required us to stay in tune with wave state and currents. Staying focused and making adjustments was key but made the race more enjoyable.

Thanks John for organizing and running the RC!

Douglas Ellmore

Commodore, CHESSS

revolution4515@gmail.com

301-807-2193

Moody Blue (Cal 25) had a brand-new sailor on board, who served as helmsman since I don’t have an autohelm at the moment. Naturally, with a new sailor onboard, it was necessary to manage heeling too much in the gusty conditions to avoid forever scaring my new crew away. I worked my Harken traveler to the point that the Torlon® balls wore out so the traveler became sticky. Of course, reducing sails to keep her on her feet certainly slowed the PHRF 243 non-spin even further. She’s only got 1700 lbs of ballast and can be quite tippy and with 20 feet of waterline the swells can practically stop her in her tracks.

We also chose to run the course clockwise for the forecast wind shifting to WNW in the afternoon as well as avoiding some of the current. I will say, being out there longer, the current switched so we were essentially against current both ways. Regardless, the leg back up North was a blast with apparent around 260°. Then the wind further picked up around 3:30. Around 4pm, Sailflow data showed 24 sustained with gusts to 30 so getting back into West River was a bit of what us old backpacking Boy Scouts refer to as Type-2 Fun.

All-in-all, I’d call the day a success and we had a ton of fun. Thanks to RC’s John and Rod for hanging around and for an awesome race!

Mark- Thanks for mentioning the effect of chop on smaller boats. I had good boat speed on the first leg and the beginning of the second, but then the chop picked up and my 23' waterline boat pounded to a crawl. I've noticed this before, but glad to confirm that it's not just me. Speed-surfing on the third leg made up some of the lost time, but not enough.

In any event, it was the best sailing day I've had in a long time and I was well-satisfied with just handling the boat around the course under those conditions.