Wednesday 08/12/09

Crew: Brian, Seth, Bob & RW
Winds: ESE at 10 to 15 kts
Current: ebb - North Hill 1524
Start time: 1800, 02:36 into ebb
Start/Finish: Vicinity of X, Groton Long Point
Course: (s/f-I-s/f)*2, Distance: 3.12 nm
Shrouds: +3, +5, +3, possibly another turn on the fwd’s may have helped on the first upwind.

Except for a couple hours mid-day with glimpse of blue sky, it was cloudy all day with an East wind in the single digits during the morning, building into the low teens by mid-afternoon.

Approaching the starting area, I could discern with the binoculars,  posted on the committee boat, a two lapper to Intrepid; a pin end start became obvious. We had a good start in a 12 knot breeze at the pin with Cosmic behind us just to windward, and other than Breakin’ Wind, the rest of the class started down near the committee boat. Within a couple of minutes, the crew popped in the flattening reef which helped immensely in the 12 to 14 knot breeze. Cosmic eventually pulled away to windward. They were sailing very upright compared to us, which may have accounted for their better lift to windward, while we were often at twenty-degrees, occasionally more in the puffs. As Cosmic ahead tacked on the layline, we followed suit short of ninety-degrees, due to an expected overstand from current push. As Brian set the pole for the rounding, Seth & Bob were hiking hard in the 14 knot wind. We rounded with a good set to chase Cosmic down to the leeward mark. Watercolors rounded a good distance behind us with some difficulty in their set.

I called for a conservative douse short of mark which gave us a tight rounding nearly hitting the mark, allowing us to quickly harden up into the wind. The flattening-reef was not necessary this time as the wind had dropped off a couple knots. Tacking on the layline sooner this time, we still ended up with a bit of an overstand. Following another good set we were able to maintain our distance on Cosmic if not gain little. The wind clocked some, so we were a more downwind on this last leg with lulls down to ten knots occasionally. It would have been a good night to have posted the first lap down to Ram Island and the a second to Intrepid.

We crossed a minute, 23 seconds behind Cosmic, & 53 seconds ahead of Watercolors. This may have been our first ever boat for boat finish ahead of Watercolors.

We corrected over Cosmic by a minute and 29 seconds (summer ratings) and by a minute (standard ratings).

Andy later told us as we motored alongside Cosmic that he was pinching to flatten the boat. Me wonders if they would have faired better with a bit a heel and greater boatspeed?

1st in Class
1st in Fleet
Link to chart