Mills Trophy Race, Lake Erie

[Ben4195]

I'll be crewing on a J/92 in this Friday night's/Saturday morning's Mills Trophy Race. Our start is at 5:20 pm on Friday, and is expected to finish up between 4 and 6 am on Saturday at Put-in-Bay. I'm super excited about this, but nervous too as I'm not really sure what to expect. It's my first time with a "real" race on Lake Erie since I did Cleveland Race Week almost 20 years ago, and by far my longest race (52 nm, doing the Governor's Cup Course).

I'm a bit nervous because it's a night race, and not sure how I'll hold up, knowing that sleep will pretty much be impossible. I'm hoping I don't "bonk," I think the term is. I'll be up 24 straight hours or more. I'm taking some Red Bulls to help combat this.

Any insight? Advice?

 

[Jackdaw]

Should be a great time, the 92 is a fun boat. First, how many crew? The 92 only needs either 2 or 3 active sailors between maneuvers, so if there is 4+ on board it should be planned that 1) people rotate positions, and that some can go down and snooze for a nap on the high side when needed and it makes sense. Those steps really do refresh you. A single night race is hard because there is no watch system set up. But you DO have to account for people's need to shut down for bit.

Hopefully the boat has lee-cloths set up on the settees. That (high side) is the best place for crew weight when sleeping..
Stay warm, and stay on top of getting cold. Its is much easier to stay warm than get warm.
Hopefully you have real sailing boots, not the rubber jobs.

If I read the NOR right, the course features a long ESE leg after the first turning mark. The breeze is forecast to be ENE, so them might be a long leg jib-reaching or closehauled. Good time to get some rest!

 

[Ben4195]

Thanks JD, there will be five of us on board, so it's good that we may have the opportunity to go down below if necessary. not sure if the boat has lee cloths or not. I think i have plenty of layers so I'll stay warm, but sadly have no sailing boots. Yes, I think your interpretation of the course is correct.

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks JD, there will be five of us on board, so it's good that we may have the opportunity to go down below if necessary. not sure if the boat has lee cloths or not. I think i have plenty of layers so I'll stay warm, but sadly have no sailing boots. Yes, I think your interpretation of the course is correct.

You should be able to make that work out. With 5, at least two crewbies will be ballast between maneuvers. In the forecasted lighter conditions, hopefully everyone gets some downtime when needed.

If no lee-cloths, you can fashion slings that keep you in place. Better then rolling on the floor, of being on the low side!

 

[Ben4195]

For sure, JD. My guess is I'm mostly going to be rail meat, as I'm not a regular crew member on this boat, but am taking the place of a regular who wasn't able to do the race this year.

 

[shemandr]

Go buy boots! They don't have to be Dubarry's. And good socks. I spent a very cold night in that race with large steep waves. The water was still cold. Those on board not dressed for it suffered. Not one of them would have balked at paying for decent boots once the waves started combing the rail.

 

[Ben4195]

Thanks for the recommendation, Shemandr. Perhaps I'll take my "winter" boots that I use for ice fishing, I'll just wear thin socks as my feet will likely get too hot otherwise. I'm sure they're unmarking, but I'll make sure before I do too much damage (mess) to the deck.

 

[Ben4195]

Thanks everyone, the race was a blast, and quite the experience. Night racing was very interesting. True wind speed was between 11 and 14 knots, with apparent wind being between about 17 and 20 knots. Oddly, the wind was NEVER aft of the beam, so we were never able to fly the asymmetrical spinnaker. Our start was a 5:25 pm, and we seemed to be doing pretty well, passing a handful of other boats in our fleet. About an hour before the finish, around 2 or 2:30 am, something with the backstay broke, either the dyneema line or a block. The decision was made to drop out, which was the right decision, but a tremendous disappointment. It was very intense, and racing the J/92 was much more strenuous than when I race the Ranger 26-2 on Wednesday nights. Had we been able to finish, we would have finished second in our fleet. We got fouled pretty early on, but no harm was done, other than some tempers flaring. I've posted a link to a recording I made below, the foul is at the 10 minute mark if anyone is interested in viewing it. I'm the guy in the gray and green raincoat.

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks everyone, the race was a blast, and quite the experience. Night racing was very interesting. True wind speed was between 11 and 14 knots, with apparent wind being between about 17 and 20 knots. Oddly, the wind was NEVER aft of the beam, so we were never able to fly the asymmetrical spinnaker. Our start was a 5:25 pm, and we seemed to be doing pretty well, passing a handful of other boats in our fleet. About an hour before the finish, around 2 or 2:30 am, something with the backstay broke, either the dyneema line or a block. The decision was made to drop out, which was the right decision, but a tremendous disappointment. It was very intense, and racing the J/92 was much more strenuous than when I race the Ranger 26-2 on Wednesday nights. Had we been able to finish, we would have finished second in our fleet. We got fouled pretty early on, but no harm was done, other than some tempers flaring. I've posted a link to a recording I made below, the foul is at the 10 minute mark if anyone is interested in viewing it. I'm the guy in the gray and green raincoat.

Interesting sequence. While it was a bit of a dick move to try and pass to windward that close, its interesting that your skipper and boat didn't seem to notice or care until blue was overlapped. I would have been calling back to them early that NO WAY they are going to drive over us. Take them up if need be. Reacting when they are abeam of you? Too late except for the yelling match. Who was talking about 'proper course'?? That was funny.

 

[Ben4195]

The fellow talking "proper course" was the skipper of the overtaking boat. His argument was that since he was on his proper course, he didn't have to give way. We were flabbergasted. We had no idea he was going to come down on that like us. When he was originally overtaking us but still aft of us, he was windward of us by probably 20+ feet, but then he came down on us rather abruptly. We believe he was trying to intimate us into heading down, so he wouldn't have to deal with our wind shadow.

 

[Jackdaw]

Huh. That's messed up, makes no sense. He is way bigger and going to roll you anyway, as he was through the windshadow already. If he really thought he was ROW, someone should tell him to read the 15th word of RSS17. He's got that backwards.

But back to communication. Someone should have been telling him you were ROW boat and to stay clear. 'We're leeward down here... Don't come down on us!'

You protested. Did he spin?

 

[Ben4195]

We were yelling at him, but he kept coming back with "proper course." How do you argue with an idiot? In any case, he did NOT do his spin. Not sure if our skipper escalated the matter after the race.

 

[Jackdaw]

We were yelling at him, but he kept coming back with "proper course." How do you argue with an idiot? In any case, he did NOT do his spin. Not sure if our skipper escalated the matter after the race.

He was scored and the board shows no protests, so I'm guessing not. That's too bad. Pulling the flag and then not filing the protest is not a great thing. Particularly when the other person needs to get a clue. But keep it calm and professional, not sure flipping the bird was a super idea. No matter how much he deserved it! ;^)

 

[Ben4195]

I agree completely.

 

[Jackdaw]

But that's too bad about the backstay. Having something break in the middle of the night is never fun.

 

[Davidasailor26]

My guess is that he was headed by your bad air as he approached and had to turn down because of that. He probably got caught up in the closeness after that point and didn't realize he was past the bad air and could point up again. The part about him thinking he had any kind of rights because of proper course or any other reason is indefensible. Taking him to the protest room might have helped educate him before the next time he's in that spot, but given that you had to retire anyway I could understand not wanting to follow through and further escalate things.

 

[Ben4195]

Yes, i was very disappointed that we weren't able to finish. You may be right about him being headed, David.

 

[Jackdaw]

My guess is that he was headed by your bad air as he approached and had to turn down because of that. He probably got caught up in the closeness after that point and didn't realize he was past the bad air and could point up again. The part about him thinking he had any kind of rights because of proper course or any other reason is indefensible. Taking him to the protest room might have helped educate him before the next time he's in that spot, but given that you had to retire anyway I could understand not wanting to follow through and further escalate things.

Any effect of bad air hits and effects you way before you get abeam. At that point you've blown through it, as you would expect a five foot longer boat to do.

He must have some down because he wanted to. The amazing part is no one said anything on either boat, in particular on Blue where someone would have said 'hey boss, they're leeward....'

The RRS regarding 'when boat meet' in open water is FOUR rules, and FOUR general limitations, each a sentence long. Why someone would venture on the racecourse without knowing these is a mystery to me.

They came in last, which might be its own reward.

 

[Jumpstart]

Yep he kind of snuck up on us. The C&C 115 is 7 feet longer than us and took 8 min to catch us which kind of tells you about his abilities. We were in the same start but a different class. If you notice in the video our sails were not luffing but his were during the incident. he had no ability to point up and in acuality he was falling down as his headsail was stalled. The J/92 can point pretty high when you need to. I edged up as he approached and he didn't get the message. No requirement to hail as the windward boat is required to keep clear. The gap closed to 3 feet and I hailed. Response of proper course irritated me a bit since skipper was supposed to have been an experienced race and former commodore of a Detroit area sailing club. I headed down when I realized a collision was imminent to comply with rule 14. We did not follow through with the protest as it was late when we got in and that we had withdrawn. Issue was that splice in multi part backstay had pulled out. I am replacing lines in the purchase, splicing and stitching the splices to prevent this from happening again. We turned down wind, dropped out and spent a half hour jury rigging a fix. Fun race, not as cold as predicted, All upwind work and reaching. We only tacked twice and gybed twice in 54 miles. I've reached out to some people that know the skipper who will explain the rules to him. I'm not sure that will make difference.

 

[Davidasailor26]

I edged up as he approached and he didn't get the message.

Edging up as he approached should be fine, just be careful that you don't do that while he's right next to you in such a way that he doesn't have room to keep clear. Looking at your course at 10:31 it looks like you were turning up just a bit (judging by the sailboat in the distance over your Windward crew's head). I don't think you turned enough that he could say he didn't have room to avoid you, but it's something to be conscious of. In any case you're absolutely right that his call for proper course is just nonsense, so he definitely needs some reeducation there.