This was a lot of fun, and we were doing really well until the wind deserted us mid channel coming back and we sat and watched a LOT of boats pass us. Looking at the track we lost 15-20 minutes and about 30 places there, dispiriting but once we got back into the wind we were trucking, held off larger faster boats and caught Adventure who had passed us while stranded.
After a bunch of good starts in recent races we were late, very late - perhaps a minute. Not sure what happened but with a strong tide I did a timed run towards the line but when trying to replicate it for the actual start we didn't accelerate.
However.... we crossed the line with speed and worked high and had overtaken all the other boats on our start time before leaving the shadow of Point Loma. Part of this was good strategy - a delayed spinnaker launch to work high, and convincing a couple of larger boats not to roll us. Much of it was great luck, just as we were getting into our stride we approached a graveyard of boats. They were sat in no wind, and busy destroying what wind there was for each other. With a bunch of fast boats behind us I had some trepidation as we approached but a small gap opened up and our momentum carried us through.
On the other side we picked up speed again and found the wind and soon got our legs stretched at eight knots.
My rough notes are below - then some pictures courtesy of John - check out the number of Spinnakers trying (and mostly failing) to chase us down!
- 11/8/14 - 9 - Tom, John, Cheryl, Charlie+1, David, Jonathan, Ted, Kelly
- 69th or 72nd. 2nd 367, 14/34 in class
- For the most part we raced a great race, with a 20+ minute section of the wind gods stranding us (right, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but sat there as a warning for all who would follow).
- About a minute late to the start line but good speed and a lucky break on a boat graveyard near the sub pen put us heading for the first mark in a really good position (ahead of all 36.7s just beyond it).
- Holding off on spinnaker hoist to get high on fleet worked.
- Lightweight spinnaker line worked, combined with our <0.5oz spinnaker we were trucking at times others weren't.
- Foredeck crew work was great. Our test hoist left the spin halyard in the wrong place but we fixed it on with a quick spin drop Followed by a genoa hoist. Something to watch for but it worked out okay.
- Bottom reach leg was essentially an upwind leg and we were out pointed by everyone but fast.
- Backstay for pointing is now critical to pointing (perhaps even 3-5 degrees?) with the rig tuning as it is. Adding backstay got pointing up without sacrificing speed (we were already "fast" at > 5kts).
- New guys Kelly and Anna were awesome. Cheryl and Anna trimming were awesome.
- We got stuck below point loma, actually doubled back on oursleves. Lost about 20 minutes. Right. 20. No really, see the link below if you want:
- Race replay (some boats, not all last time I checked)
- My conclusion is in any midrange or less W-NW breeze that is wrapping around the point you should hug the point high, and keep driving high.
- Once beyond the Bermuda triangle we were significantly behind Adventure. We kept high and beat a few other boats to the finish line. It seemed like we were faster and higher than Adventure and we weren't short of them at the finish line. We also tacked on top of and and handsomely beat a 40.7 then beat off an unknown significantly larger boat that tried to roll us. Thank you to the handy lift we luffed on top of to drop them off.
- Rig tune: V1s ~34, D1s Loose. Worked well in the conditions.
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