More January racing in Texas

Jan 22, 2008
763
Hunter 340 Baytown TX
JRT, the club is the Galveston Bay Cruising Association, www.gbca.org. They have a few big events, Texas Race Week and Performance Cup. But the big turnout is for the Icicle and Rum Race series’s and the after parties. And there’s also the Lakewood Yacht Club and Houston Yacht Club events. And our little group has Peanut Regattas when there’s no other races.
And we had one on Sunday again. Six boats raced, came out the fog at the first mark within a half mile of each other and bunched up at the second mark. We were in fourth on the last leg behind a Hunter 34, C&C 35, and Jeanneau 379, managed to pass them and come in first.
F0978823-54D4-41A6-B073-F41DDE62846E.jpeg

Lot’s of real close action, working on a video.
 
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Jan 22, 2008
763
Hunter 340 Baytown TX
Link to the video of last Sunday's race, if you're interested in watching it. We have raced every weekend of 2020 so far, another race scheduled next Sunday, we'll see if we can make it.
The ID35 and F-31 that show up in the video weren't in the race. Nor was the Jeanneau 51, but the 379 was.
Dani's brother was crew earlier this year for one race, he has a YouTube channel, SailBros. 16K subscribers, he rebuilt a Cheoy Lee 27.

 
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Jan 22, 2008
763
Hunter 340 Baytown TX
Made the next race, eighth in a row. Ten boats on the bay for this Peanut Regatta. A real mixed bag, three Hunters (34, 340, 37.5), three Catalinas (30, 355, 42), a C&C 41, a Beneteau 42.7, a Diva 39, and an F27 all racing in one handicap class. Pursuit start, about a ten mile race, less than 10 minutes between first and last place. No committee boat, no judges, no entry fee, just a lot of fun and great practice.
Three of us used spinnakers, the Hunter 34 used a symmetrical on the last leg and got first. I used both my asymms on different legs, had a lot of trouble with the sock on the little one after bragging how easy socks are to use on another thread. I was real envious of the Catalina with the furler after wrestling my sock down on a wind shift.
There's another next Sunday, I'm thinking about it.
 

PaulK

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Dec 1, 2009
1,223
Sabre 402 Southport, CT
The time to put in a reef is when you first think of it. We went out once in a 40+ knot breeze, (LaGuardia Airport was closed) hoisting the main with a reef and no jib to see how it went. Hit 12.5 knots dead downwind, with spray from the bow wave shooting out past the boom. Upwind was wet. Fun ride!
 
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Jan 22, 2008
763
Hunter 340 Baytown TX
The time to put in a reef is when you first think of it. We went out once in a 40+ knot breeze, (LaGuardia Airport was closed) hoisting the main with a reef and no jib to see how it went. Hit 12.5 knots dead downwind, with spray from the bow wave shooting out past the boom. Upwind was wet. Fun ride!
We had two reefs in the main and 110 jib unfurled all the way. Wind was above 30 a couple times, but mostly 20 to 25 knots apparent for the race. No downwind runs, two beam reaches with an upwind beat on the middle leg. The Hunter 34 running one reef and with a back stay won , we were third. A lot of flex in the 340 forestay in that wind!
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PaulK

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Dec 1, 2009
1,223
Sabre 402 Southport, CT
You need a good vang to tighten things up, perhaps. We have running backs that can be rigged when things get too bendy.
 

JRT

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Feb 14, 2017
2,039
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
My wife would kill me, this would be a guys time out only!
 
Jan 22, 2008
763
Hunter 340 Baytown TX
You need a good vang to tighten things up, perhaps. We have running backs that can be rigged when things get too bendy.
Vang was tighter than I've ever had it, 16:1. We can rip the sail in half with it if we're not careful, well... not really, but you know what I mean. A 340 has NO backstay, no way to rig runners.
I just had the shroud tension checked by one of the local rig shops when I noticed slack in one of the reverse diagonals. B & R just flexes that much in high winds, but I'm getting it checked again soon.