WYC final official race of the year, held last weekend in 40F degree air temps and 12-16 knots of breeze, gusts mostly around 18. BlueJ has a history of winning this race, but this year was going to be hard because we would going to missing our pit person (Jean), a key player in a buoy race in breeze. So our plan was to have Jodi do upwind main trim, and then take over pit when we approach the windward mark. Matthew (new guy) would do main during the downwinds. That plan worked (mostly).
Here's it working fine... 5.9 knots upwind in perfect trim and balance. Due to the breeze we brought an extra crewmember (Keith) along as ballast technician and wind caller. I love everything about this picture. We're on our polar speed, Optimal heel, active trimming, people calling breeze (puff on its way), and we're lifted 10 degrees. Normally the RaceGeek tracks that, but our Pit person manages the device to get that to happen. As she was missing, I went old school, and we wrote our mean wind angles on Etape on each side of the hatch. You can see the 220 vs 230 in the picture.
Here is it not working so well. PHRF 1 sailed an OM (Olympic Modified) course, so the first downwind had a tight reach over to a gybe mark. All of that went well, but after the gybe Matthew didn't ease the mainsail to the run course, and an ensuing puff overpowered us when he failed to react in time and we rounded up. Decent recovery however.
One more incident later... on our 2nd spin hoist the spin halyard shackle popped when the kite's head when over the lifeline on the hoist. Never happened to us before. It took 2 minutes to get that sorted. Next year, Tylaska shackles! So we ended up with 2nd. Not bad all figured. Plus a nice easy reach home!
Here's it working fine... 5.9 knots upwind in perfect trim and balance. Due to the breeze we brought an extra crewmember (Keith) along as ballast technician and wind caller. I love everything about this picture. We're on our polar speed, Optimal heel, active trimming, people calling breeze (puff on its way), and we're lifted 10 degrees. Normally the RaceGeek tracks that, but our Pit person manages the device to get that to happen. As she was missing, I went old school, and we wrote our mean wind angles on Etape on each side of the hatch. You can see the 220 vs 230 in the picture.
Here is it not working so well. PHRF 1 sailed an OM (Olympic Modified) course, so the first downwind had a tight reach over to a gybe mark. All of that went well, but after the gybe Matthew didn't ease the mainsail to the run course, and an ensuing puff overpowered us when he failed to react in time and we rounded up. Decent recovery however.
One more incident later... on our 2nd spin hoist the spin halyard shackle popped when the kite's head when over the lifeline on the hoist. Never happened to us before. It took 2 minutes to get that sorted. Next year, Tylaska shackles! So we ended up with 2nd. Not bad all figured. Plus a nice easy reach home!