I'd entered with some illusions on where our limited practice and lack of collective race hours were going to place us, but in the reality dawning there was a glimmer of hope. A couple of legs where we were mixing with the fleet. And it was fun.
2015 was going to be a different matter, on the racing front not the fun factor, and with a great group of people who had all raced on Kraken in the prior year signed up I went in feeling we had an outside chance at a top three finish.
The picture above was dawn on my trip down. The Santa Anna's kicking in already it was going to be a hot hot weekend but looking likely to hold wind in the afternoon. This was true on my delivery trip and held true for the weekend peaking at 15-20 knots breeze for the final race.
Saturday
Saturday started hot and light. We were buried in the start and never got to play the wind on our first upwind beat, downwind we'd closed back up again but as we approached the finish heard them shortening the course and finishing the boats.
6th.
Second race, 8 -12 knots, we were solid on the first beat but had the spinnaker halyard hold the genoa up (hadn't re-led it post the previous drop on the starboard side). This cost some time but once the bow team had diagnosed the hold up they wrapped the genoa in a poor mans roller furler and we finished fourth. The start had been better but still not great.
4th.
Third race we decided to approach the start differently and come in on port looking for a gap. For once the fleet was all pretty cohesive hitting the line and we ducked stern after stern before tacking behind Adventure at the committee boat. This ended up working out really well as we were able to hold the fleet below us as we lifted on the great circle. Adventure was the only boat who remained free and were able to hold in front of us on the final beat. As we've seen them do before.
2nd.
One thing worth noting was that for the first couple of races we were tuned lighter than ever before, about 29 on the loos gauge, and pointing sucked. In the final race we upped to about 31 and seemed to be able to point with the other boats.
Coming back to the boat I felt we'd probably worked through a few kinks. The expectation was for potentially lighter winds but that wasn't what transpired.
Our first race we stuck with the 31 tuning and saw 7-13 knots, 13 towards the end. Boat speed was great the furschnaffle was Kodachrome calling a penalty for us as our kite touched their shroud right at the windward mark rounding. Getting the kite down and pulling two 360s was a lot of work and something we need to practice if we're going to get serious about winning these regattas. We got really lucky and the fleet got bunched at the leeward mark allowing for a significant recovery. Second beat and runs were clean and we almost snuck 2nd, ironically from Kodachrome but according to the results got third. Must have been by inches or perhaps they projected their kite better!
We made the choice ahead of time to stay near the committee boat on the start and had a pretty good start with a timedish run.
3rd
The second and final race of the day saw building breeze. We were seeing over 17 knots as the other fleets started and we scrambled to get battens in our #3 and tighen the rig. The fleet ended up split between #1s and #3s but I think the #3 with a moderate rig was a good place to be. Lot of power, fast tacks and good speed. I'll check but think the outers were at about 37 with loose inners.
With the rerig and sail change we were setting up in the five minutes and scrambling for position. We hit the line with speed at the boat end but on the second row, catching a break as Adventure was forced to spin around. Not in a position to tunnel through Sorcerer who'd pushed Adventure out the way we tacked out and sailed a clean beat leading at the windward mark. With winds to 20 knots we headed for the leeward mark deep, sometimes by the lee, with enough separation for the fleet behind to be unable to do anything.
Snagging a piece of kelp shortly after the leeward mark our lead started dwindling but Joe was able to hook some out and we got enough speed back to hold on comfortably for the win.
Our first One Design win.
1st.
And taking us to third in the regatta!
I have to spend some time digesting the weekend. It was an amazing amount of fun and hard fought by our crew racing nearer the top of a strong fleet than we've been used to. There are many things I've read about in the last couple of years that make more sense now, not worrying about a front row start so much as starting with speed, air and the ability to go where you want, sailing clean, tuning right - hell we're still learning how to make this boat sing.
I love seeing the other boats storming and realizing we're doing the same.
I love having a crew come together, get past a disappointing start and steadily improve through a weekend.
I really need to make sure my spinnaker doesn't hit other boats.
I don't like it when big boats collide. This wasn't us, but was in our fleet and there's no call for it if it can be avoided. We have flags and a protest room if needed. We can take our turns and race on or have a panel of experts help us through the rules.
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