Sunday, September 14, 2014

Race: 2014 Beneteau Cup

The Beneteau Cup was a fun event. Our final result was 5/8 and we're properly mixing it with the fleet, losing some battles but finally winning others. Fourth wasn't too far off and that would have us top side of the table. Looking at the distance to lead boat Kea there's a lot of work over next couple of years if we want to challenge but hey, that's why we're racing - if it were easy what would the point be!


Day 1
On our first race we were pretty solid up the first couple of beats and run. It was gratifying to see our downwind now as a competitive tool rather than a scare.... until the final leg when we got the biggest knot in a spinnaker to date. Five minutes spent sorting this out on deck without a head-sail up of any description saw us lose three boats, dropping from fourth with boats ahead in reach to seventh without. Lesson learnt - if its bad enough to drop a spinnaker too the deck and you have a spare packed throw the spare up and deal with the mess later.
On the second race we were again mid race and in a building watched the other boats have spinnaker issues, headsail issues etc. Then sat on our laurels and saw boats we'd passed round the top mark ahead of us. Lesson remembered. Play the shifts. Always play the shifts.
Now we're mixing it on the downwind legs we're learning new things there. We pushed above Adventure and Sorceror to get an inside overlap but went too far to windward and couldn't hold speed to the mark. On day 2 we took this lesson and during the first race drove up over Adeline and ate their wind.
Another lesson, at a bottom mark we rounded just behind Sorcerer with Fandango right behind us. Sorcerer was slow and we tried to drive under them only to become pinned. Bad idea.... eventually we tacked to clear our air but by then Fandango was long gone and ahead.
Final lesson, the current was strong and the safest course to the mark was a port tack. We didn't hit the mark but dropped the pole two times out of six roundings to emergency tack to clear. Other's weren't as lucky.
Beyond basic sail management and tactics I also wonder if we needed more twist on starboard as we were pounding into waves. Experimentation to be done....

Day 2
Day two were two WL races outside harbor island. This was an interesting variation but I certainly had some trepidation about local knowledge and suspect this might have been well founded.....

First race we went right when everyone on the fleet went left. We did this from a pretty good position and had to stall out a bit to make the tack. Ended up in third around the mark. Had a slow hoist again and were a couple of places from last at the bottom mark. Made a place back on the next upwind leg and caught up with the bulk of the fleet at the leeward mark but with everyone and their dog having an inside overlap on us. Went in low, picked up speed to the mark with a leeward drop and managed to squeeze up back into fourth. Were comfortably in fourth when we had a horrible shift on our tack for the line, having to throw another in to make the end we hadn't been intending on hitting but doing so seconds ahead of the approaching pack. FUN!!!

Second race we were slow.

I still don't understand this... but I guess the left was paying off better than the right. Looking at the data Kraken was sailing better than we've ever sailed. Tight (for us) tacks, high on polar speeds, speed over ground agreeing but somehow running last place until the final few hundred meters where we clawed a place back. We had one major mistake with a spinnaker drop but it only cost five to ten boat lengths and shouldn't have placed us in last place.

I'm missing something about wind or current in the bay.

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