We started the day with about a 2-hour harbor postponement, while we waited for the forecasted southerly breezed of 6 to 8 knots to settle in. We spent the time working on the boat, finding a set-up that allowed us to be fast in the predicted light conditions. After getting out on the course, and sailing along with some other boats we felt pretty good about our work.
We sailed two races. In both Gretchen got us off to good starts, both midline. In the first race we worked the right middle along with about 35 other boats. The far right didn’t pay today, and we crossed the majority of the boats as they tacked back onto port and headed left. We hit the starboard layline with about 200 yards to go to the weather mark. We were probably in the top 30, with lots of boats. Boats were pouring in off port, and despite being on the layline, we died in the massively disturbed air. Our options were few as we were blocked by other boats from tacking to clear our air, so we pinched, pinched, pinched around the mark, very slowly and were probably passed by as many as 20 boats. We had a good downwind leg, but on the weather leg we came in on the port tack layline and sailed in more gas and lost more boats. We were feeling a little better about a 73rd finish as we could look back over our shoulder and see some boats as we crossed the line, and the bulk of the fleet was within minutes of us.
We refined our tuning before the 2nd race, went over our errors from the first race, grabbed a bite to eat, and took a pee. And went off racing. Once again, Gretchen got us off to a good start and we worked hard on the weather leg. We got to the weather mark clean, had a good downwind leg, the sun was bright and right in my eyes trimming the chute, not quite enough suntan lotion as I’m a little red on the cheeks and lips this morning. We rounded in the top half of the fleet, as Gretchen once again chose the correct gate and made a great leeward rounding as we picked up a number of boats. As we approached the weather mark we dueled with our friends on 1207, tacking on their air and pinching them off as we approached the mark. We had to hike hard till our stomachs burned to pull it off. Flat sailing boats are fast. Downwind, we broke from our normal practice of an early jibe and stayed right, and we lost boats that went down the other side. Right near the finish a Canadian boat jibed twice right on our stern and took our air, that cost us about 4 or 5 boats. Bummer. We felt OK about the improvements our 63rd place finish showed, and remain optimistic as we approach day 3. Weather calls for rain, thunderstorms, and 15 to 20 knot breezes. Might be wet and wild.
More to come.
Ralph
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Right was right.
And we went left. End of story. The local guys had it figured out, and took 2 of the top 3 spots. Start at the boat and immediately tack onto port and bang the corner. That was the secret to race one. The wind was blowing from the East. I had reviewed the last 5 years of June wind data for Chicago and found the winds blow East less than 2% of the time, so I didn’t spend much time analyzing it. We started on the left/center on a square line with the center boat punched ahead by about a boat length. The boat ahead of us was OCS and gave us his dirty air which also didn’t help us get a jump off the line. We worked for a clear lane, heading left, and waited for a knock and lane to go back right. By the time we did it was way too late. EVERYBODY right of us had us beat. And in this fleet, everyone is fast like Andrew and tough to catch. We had some good speed downwind and passed a few boats, but struggled getting upwind speed in the shifting and dying winds. We made some good moves in preparation for the second race, and felt we were faster, but after waiting about 45 minutes they blew it off and sent us in.
Bottom line, thank God we have a throw-out. Day 2 will be a better day.
The race committee organization here is unbelieveable. 41 people, 8 boats, not even counting all the safety boats. They even have a separate boat for check-in. The start line is 3 boats, one on each end and a signal boat in the center. They use 5 mark boats to for each windward, leeward end, and one to wander and feedback wind info to the PRO. Last is the Judges Boat. In addition there is a press boat and a spectator boat, and probably 15 or 20 teams have coach boats which also function as safety boats. Quite an operation.
We were really pleased to see Eric and Justin win the first race. First they are amateurs, second they are great guys, humble, friendly, open, and helpful. Also, they are damn good sailors. They previously had USA 1101, but decided to trade up to a new boat gearing up for this Worlds. They have lacked the chance to practice for this event as much as the pro teams, but are very focused, they know Chicago conditions, and they are smart. They very well may end up being a real surprise team in this event.
Good Luck sailing tonight, and wave to VooDoo when you head out. We’ll miss you.
Best regards,
Ralph
Bottom line, thank God we have a throw-out. Day 2 will be a better day.
The race committee organization here is unbelieveable. 41 people, 8 boats, not even counting all the safety boats. They even have a separate boat for check-in. The start line is 3 boats, one on each end and a signal boat in the center. They use 5 mark boats to for each windward, leeward end, and one to wander and feedback wind info to the PRO. Last is the Judges Boat. In addition there is a press boat and a spectator boat, and probably 15 or 20 teams have coach boats which also function as safety boats. Quite an operation.
We were really pleased to see Eric and Justin win the first race. First they are amateurs, second they are great guys, humble, friendly, open, and helpful. Also, they are damn good sailors. They previously had USA 1101, but decided to trade up to a new boat gearing up for this Worlds. They have lacked the chance to practice for this event as much as the pro teams, but are very focused, they know Chicago conditions, and they are smart. They very well may end up being a real surprise team in this event.
Good Luck sailing tonight, and wave to VooDoo when you head out. We’ll miss you.
Best regards,
Ralph
Monday, June 23, 2008
Worlds: Day One
The stress filled process of measurement, weigh in, sail checks etc are over. It took the better part of two days for us to get all our measurements and check ins done, I was impressed with how thoroughly they go over every inch of the boat, sails, hull and sail cards, insurance, etc. Boom, mast, spinnaker pole, every hull dimension, every last wing nut on the bulk heads, even the length of the hiking line on the console. All are checked. The boat weighed in at 1523 kg, just a few pounds more than when she was weighed when made in 2001. Just about average for the competing boats. The check of the safety gear was impressive. They even had a template to assure the paddles blades were of the correct square inch size and length! They even checked the length and diameter of the tow line. You all know me, I had done this myself preparing over the last year. I was amazed at how many boats we have competed against over the past few years at major regattas that had paddles too short, or anchors without a proper chain, or PFDs without whistles. I hope the Chicago West Marine was well stocked. You must select only 5 sails for the entire regatta, and they are precisely measured. If they fail, they are placed in Quarantine, and you don't get them back till after the event.
Seems like we are building a reputation for having a good inventory of tools and spare parts. All day long its was:"can we borrow your dremel, can I borrow your drill, do you have a 1/4 20 tap and die", etc, etc. 1199 is sailing with one of our spare Jib C/Forestay/sealing block assemblies, 1313 is using one of our spare TackTick compass brackets. Must be something about being from Maine that people think you are prepared and willing to help out.
We launched on Friday, and I had the honor of sailing in a "mock" race, designed to expose some of Chicago's inner city kids to sailboat racing. The two kids who sailed on VooDoo Too were Jesus and Alida, ages 14 and 16. What nice kids, very polite and excited. It was the first time Jesus had been on any boat, of any kind. and Alida's first time on a sailboat. They had a live camera on Andy Beadsworth's boat and the event was shown on the local ABC new channel 7 affliates nightly news. It was an honor to participate. Even though we didn't win, Jesus was on the helm as we crossed the finish line and got our horn and wave from the race committee. We pumped our fists and high 5ed, just as if we had won the America's Cup. Yesterday was the practice race, with all 85 boats out. They gave us 4 starts, where we went through a full sequence, then they post a general recall about 5 minutes after the start so everyone came back and we did it again. Finally on the last one they let us go. We thought it was another practice start and we were OCS, so waited for the General Recall and it didn't come so we kept racing. Glad it was practice. We had a good day, the boat seemed fast at times, our crew work was solid, and we picked up some good technique at sailing though the tricky lake chop that is so different than ocean seas.
Now today is the big day. I can't tell you how anxious I am. The weather call for fair skies , but fairly light breezes of 7 to 10 knots. Whatever the conditions we'll be ready to give it our best shot. First warning is scheduled for 11:30 Chicago time or 12:30 in Maine. Check out the etchells worlds website, (link through http://www.etchellsworlds2008.com/Results.aspx). Give us a cheer and throw us a little love, we certainly can use it with this competition.
Best regards Ralph
Seems like we are building a reputation for having a good inventory of tools and spare parts. All day long its was:"can we borrow your dremel, can I borrow your drill, do you have a 1/4 20 tap and die", etc, etc. 1199 is sailing with one of our spare Jib C/Forestay/sealing block assemblies, 1313 is using one of our spare TackTick compass brackets. Must be something about being from Maine that people think you are prepared and willing to help out.
We launched on Friday, and I had the honor of sailing in a "mock" race, designed to expose some of Chicago's inner city kids to sailboat racing. The two kids who sailed on VooDoo Too were Jesus and Alida, ages 14 and 16. What nice kids, very polite and excited. It was the first time Jesus had been on any boat, of any kind. and Alida's first time on a sailboat. They had a live camera on Andy Beadsworth's boat and the event was shown on the local ABC new channel 7 affliates nightly news. It was an honor to participate. Even though we didn't win, Jesus was on the helm as we crossed the finish line and got our horn and wave from the race committee. We pumped our fists and high 5ed, just as if we had won the America's Cup. Yesterday was the practice race, with all 85 boats out. They gave us 4 starts, where we went through a full sequence, then they post a general recall about 5 minutes after the start so everyone came back and we did it again. Finally on the last one they let us go. We thought it was another practice start and we were OCS, so waited for the General Recall and it didn't come so we kept racing. Glad it was practice. We had a good day, the boat seemed fast at times, our crew work was solid, and we picked up some good technique at sailing though the tricky lake chop that is so different than ocean seas.
Now today is the big day. I can't tell you how anxious I am. The weather call for fair skies , but fairly light breezes of 7 to 10 knots. Whatever the conditions we'll be ready to give it our best shot. First warning is scheduled for 11:30 Chicago time or 12:30 in Maine. Check out the etchells worlds website, (link through http://www.etchellsworlds2008.com/Results.aspx). Give us a cheer and throw us a little love, we certainly can use it with this competition.
Best regards Ralph
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Counting down the days: Worlds 2008
84 boats, all working on last minute details for the big show. All have been preparing for over a year, and in just 6 days we will leave it all on the coarse. Man are we excited to be a part of it!
We arrived, as planned; in Chicago at 3:30 a.m. last Thursday morning. The last thing I wanted was to fight city traffic the last 30 miles of our 1150-mile journey pulling VooDoo Too from Falmouth Maine to the Windy City. Just my luck some Chicago commuter would T-bone us and ruin our dream. Thank God for Ohio, gas there was ONLY (?) $3.91 a gallon.
Our immediate impression was what a beautiful city and great place to race. We found the Chicago Yacht Club and Fleet 11 extremely well organized. Parking was secure and reserved, lots of grass for folding sails, assigned slips once we got in the water, a two week membership at the Yacht Club, so we can eat and drink there. You name it, and they’ve got it covered. The Chicago lakefront is all open parkland, and I took my bike to ride through the park, back and forth from our hotel, 3 miles from the Yacht Club. That should help me maintain my required weight.
This last weekend, we sailed in the Chicago NOOD regatta with 54 other Etchells to tune up for the Worlds and get used to lake sailing. They canceled the first day due to Thunderstorms and high winds. The big boats sailed and we saw some severe carnage, broken masts, booms, etc. Kind of glad we didn’t go out and tear our boat up in what was a tune up regatta for us. We are sailing with a new mast, and have new sails we didn’t want to blow out. We finished 37th out of 54, but were less concerned about where we finished and more in understanding the new rig, getting it tuned in to it to maximize our boat speed, and getting used to the crazy chop and shifty winds of Lake Michigan. We made some progress, but would sure love about another week to prepare. Instead we have just 1-1/2 days. That’s where the pro teams really have an advantage. One pro team competing has been virtually sailing their Etchells 8 hours a day, 4 to 6 days a week for the past 2 months! They are going to be hard to beat. One of our goals is to be in the top half of the all-amateur teams. All amateur teams make us less than half the boats entered. Many of them have years of Etchells sailing under their belt. With the high level of experience and skill many of these teams have it will be tough to meet that goal. Also, we are one of 6 boats entered who will be skippered by a woman. It is another goal of ours to be the top finishing boat skippered by a woman. With the high percentage of woman involved in our fleet it would only be fitting. Our toughest competition will probably come from Julia Bailey from Great Britain, and Shannon Bush who comes from the Houston fleet. Also competing are Betsy Altman from Chicago and the reigning Adam’s cup champion, veteran Etchells sailor Pat Stadel, and an unknown from Ireland. Gretchen will have her work cut out for her but we have complete faith in her skill and instincts. Other than that we want to sail to the best of our abilities, get the boat going fast and feel good about being a part of this event. Pretty simple goals.
Another interesting part of the Worlds will be a “mock” race, being held on Friday afternoon. Two members from each crew, as well as, 2 kids age 14 to 16 from Chicago’s inner city will participate as a crew in the event. The kids participating all come from the Rickover School, a talented and gifted program that emphasizes Marine themes in their Science classes. The kids have been studying the Physics of Sailing. The event will be televised as a feature in the Chicago area and ends with a big picnic dinner with the sailors and kids. Should be fun.
I will try and post a number of reports back from Chicago to all our friends in Fleet 27 as the World’s progress via our blogspot on the web. We are extremely proud to represent our fleet and the Maine sailing community. We will do our best to positively represent our fleet both on and off the water.
Right now, our biggest worry is to shed those last couple of pounds so we can confidently make weight, and have a little room so we can have some fun in Chicago. It seems the challenges never end.
You can follow the series, live through the International Etchells website www.etchells.org. , but only if you’re going to be rooting for Bow number 50.
Ralph
We arrived, as planned; in Chicago at 3:30 a.m. last Thursday morning. The last thing I wanted was to fight city traffic the last 30 miles of our 1150-mile journey pulling VooDoo Too from Falmouth Maine to the Windy City. Just my luck some Chicago commuter would T-bone us and ruin our dream. Thank God for Ohio, gas there was ONLY (?) $3.91 a gallon.
Our immediate impression was what a beautiful city and great place to race. We found the Chicago Yacht Club and Fleet 11 extremely well organized. Parking was secure and reserved, lots of grass for folding sails, assigned slips once we got in the water, a two week membership at the Yacht Club, so we can eat and drink there. You name it, and they’ve got it covered. The Chicago lakefront is all open parkland, and I took my bike to ride through the park, back and forth from our hotel, 3 miles from the Yacht Club. That should help me maintain my required weight.
This last weekend, we sailed in the Chicago NOOD regatta with 54 other Etchells to tune up for the Worlds and get used to lake sailing. They canceled the first day due to Thunderstorms and high winds. The big boats sailed and we saw some severe carnage, broken masts, booms, etc. Kind of glad we didn’t go out and tear our boat up in what was a tune up regatta for us. We are sailing with a new mast, and have new sails we didn’t want to blow out. We finished 37th out of 54, but were less concerned about where we finished and more in understanding the new rig, getting it tuned in to it to maximize our boat speed, and getting used to the crazy chop and shifty winds of Lake Michigan. We made some progress, but would sure love about another week to prepare. Instead we have just 1-1/2 days. That’s where the pro teams really have an advantage. One pro team competing has been virtually sailing their Etchells 8 hours a day, 4 to 6 days a week for the past 2 months! They are going to be hard to beat. One of our goals is to be in the top half of the all-amateur teams. All amateur teams make us less than half the boats entered. Many of them have years of Etchells sailing under their belt. With the high level of experience and skill many of these teams have it will be tough to meet that goal. Also, we are one of 6 boats entered who will be skippered by a woman. It is another goal of ours to be the top finishing boat skippered by a woman. With the high percentage of woman involved in our fleet it would only be fitting. Our toughest competition will probably come from Julia Bailey from Great Britain, and Shannon Bush who comes from the Houston fleet. Also competing are Betsy Altman from Chicago and the reigning Adam’s cup champion, veteran Etchells sailor Pat Stadel, and an unknown from Ireland. Gretchen will have her work cut out for her but we have complete faith in her skill and instincts. Other than that we want to sail to the best of our abilities, get the boat going fast and feel good about being a part of this event. Pretty simple goals.
Another interesting part of the Worlds will be a “mock” race, being held on Friday afternoon. Two members from each crew, as well as, 2 kids age 14 to 16 from Chicago’s inner city will participate as a crew in the event. The kids participating all come from the Rickover School, a talented and gifted program that emphasizes Marine themes in their Science classes. The kids have been studying the Physics of Sailing. The event will be televised as a feature in the Chicago area and ends with a big picnic dinner with the sailors and kids. Should be fun.
I will try and post a number of reports back from Chicago to all our friends in Fleet 27 as the World’s progress via our blogspot on the web. We are extremely proud to represent our fleet and the Maine sailing community. We will do our best to positively represent our fleet both on and off the water.
Right now, our biggest worry is to shed those last couple of pounds so we can confidently make weight, and have a little room so we can have some fun in Chicago. It seems the challenges never end.
You can follow the series, live through the International Etchells website www.etchells.org. , but only if you’re going to be rooting for Bow number 50.
Ralph
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Thank you, Nor'easterly
This week's Tuesday night races looked like they were not going to happen given the weather forecast and dead calm conditions at 5:30 p.m. Shortly after postponement at 6 p.m. we had a fairly steady light northeasterly filling in, allowing us to get things underway at 6:15 p.m.
Ten boats were on the line. Boogie T.Y.P. won the evening with a third and a first. Welcome back to Rick Tonks, who came in second. Third was Rob Haile/ESP and fourth was one of our newer members, Todd Lalumiere, in Joy Robber.
We had a shortened course in the second race. To review, a shortened course is always at a turning mark that the boats would round as part of the race. We made two sound signals and hoisted an S flag on our race management boat anchored outside the windward mark so as to finish boats as they passed the windward mark to port.
Thanks again to Dave and Mary for their help on the committee boat. Those two are a big help!
—Andrew Carey, RC
Ten boats were on the line. Boogie T.Y.P. won the evening with a third and a first. Welcome back to Rick Tonks, who came in second. Third was Rob Haile/ESP and fourth was one of our newer members, Todd Lalumiere, in Joy Robber.
We had a shortened course in the second race. To review, a shortened course is always at a turning mark that the boats would round as part of the race. We made two sound signals and hoisted an S flag on our race management boat anchored outside the windward mark so as to finish boats as they passed the windward mark to port.
Thanks again to Dave and Mary for their help on the committee boat. Those two are a big help!
—Andrew Carey, RC
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