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Fall Race 3, Report

Thursday, September 4th, 2008


Report from 181

Crew aboard: Dirk Johnson, Dirk Johnson Jr., Heather Shaver, Chuck Allen & Darris Witham

On arrival to yacht club there was a light northerly present, chances of sailing looked slim, however with the tide about to turn, Dirk Jr. called the southerly to fill. As usual, Dirk Jr. was right…it did fill.

We had the great fortune to have Commodore Charles Allen aboard and he started out by checking our rig. He loosened our lowers (we went to about 100 lbs (setting for light air)) and kept the uppers at base. With the rig looking good and a pretty solid southerly we headed out to the course.

The course was weather to the special mark off of Hammersmith then down to the red gong West of Goat Island with port roundings. The pin looked favored with a majority of port tack up the beat and a flood tide. We decided too risky to fight for the pin so we proceeded to do a port tack approach and start to the right of the majority so we could tack when we wanted. We were able to execute most of our port tack approach plan and we had decent speed at the start. We were able to hold our lane for a while but we still had a boat to weather therefore we were not able to follow through with our plan to tack. We continued on Starboard tack with about six other boats (226, 145, 101, 21, 254 and 17) right up to Fort Adams. The first boat to tack away from the fort was 21 Bandit followed by 101, then we tacked (this was a bit too late for us because it forced us to sail upwind for that stretch of the leg in mostly bad air from 21 then at times we were in bad air from both boats). We sailed through the puffs and lulls looking across at the competition from the right hand side of the course; things were not looking too good for us. The fact that we were in the presumed dominant breeze coupled with the fact that we didn’t have to cross the adverse current like the boats coming in from the left, we thought we were going to make out okay; however, that is not what happened. The breeze from the right never did subside, in fact it took over. So 217 with Anthony Kouton driving came across looking golden and proceeded to round the mark first.

We made our way up to the mark, set then jibed and sailed low. There was a course change announcing the new leeward mark to be the yellow off of Jamestown channel. We stayed low of a group of seven boats (245, 226, 107, and others)   at first we were looking good then the group of seven accelerated as they approached the Jamestown mooring field. As we approached to leeward mark we thought we saw an opportunity to round inside of a few boats (thinking they wouldn’t be able to get to us) … they did.  107 was able to just close us out. After rounding we proceeded to do our 720. Sailing upwind now we started the maneuver with a jibe at which point Dirk Jr. yells “my opti coach, Matt Hersch, on the 254 says we should always tack first when sailing upwind and jibe first when going downwind when spinning circles!” It was too late we had already started our slow….very slow circles.

Sailing upwind to the finish, we followed a majority of the fleet and ended up deep. We heard the RC announce two protests and we announced our 720. During our sail in we practiced “opti coach Matt’s” recommended 720 approach…it turns out he was right…with a calm “I told you so” from Dirk Jr.

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Race Report, Aug 27

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Just a little more wind would have put an already spectacular Wednesday night over the top.  Nevertheless it was another great night of racing on Narragansett Bay…..and it was part of the “Fall” series.

 

At the start we called the wind from 200 at 7-8 knots, tide at the end of the flood, pin was favored, and the course posted was Start-Zp-Gates (near V)-Finish…..very interesting.  Prior to the race we thought that there was more pressure on the Jamestown side and decided to set up at the boat third of the line and then go right when we could.  At the one and only start, for a change, we were slow off the line and had to wait to clear before going hard right.  Our next problem was that we didn’t go far enough right or even left for that matter.  We got stuck in the middle and the fleet kept moving away.  North of the bridge, it looked like both corners paid off.  South of the bridge, it looked to us like the Jamestown side was favored, but you had to go far right….hindsight is wonderful.  First boats around the first mark were 59, 108, and 101.  With the wind dying and clocking to the west, Robin shortened the course and put the gates on a bearing of 035……setting up a reaching parade back up the course, with most boats staying pretty high.  We sailed a reasonably decent downwind leg, but ran out of race course before the gates.  First boats around were 59, 108, and 145.  The fleet seemed to split on the last leg with a majority favoring the right.

 

We were pretty far back at the finish, but it looked like the finish order was 59, 108, and 101.  Congrats to Earl Stubbs and his crew for their wire-to-wire romp.  Next time we’ll be less timid and maybe bang a corner.

 

Bernie Patterson  S-163

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Race Report, Fall 1

Monday, August 25th, 2008

random thoughts from ABIGAIL #76 on Wednesday Aug. 20th race…

Our Mainsail Trimmer saw it this way…
20 minutes before the start, we sailed up the east side of the beat, on port tack, and saw strengthening breeze further north – the port tack off the line looked good then, but 10 minutes later, we were “seduced ” by a westerly blast south of the starting pin, changing our plan to one in which we wanted the west side – left – off the line.
A bad start forced us to bail right, a good thing, but we had that left hand thing in our mind and checked back left after a few hundred yards.  Misfortune at the start had sent us the correct way, but we “over-rode”  and went left, under the ships.
The fast guys appeared to either “bang” the right corner, or got into some good velocity lifts up the left center.
Current was not really a factor.

Maybe we broke our cardinal rule again – get clear air and let Abigail do the rest.  Also turn infrequently and DO NOT tack short of the starboard layline.

Our Driver saw it this way…
Well, it looked like the velocity was stronger on the left before the start so we went left and wandered into the middle after a while. At that point we realized that there was more pressure on the right and we were in the cheap seats.. So we ended up playing catch-up for the rest of the race. It took us quite a while to recognize that our height  upwind was not as good as usual, made some adjustments and finally started to move on the last beat. We are still working hard to figure out west/east, east/west courses north of the bridge.

Our Foredeck saw it this way…

We liked the velocity on the left side of the course and were looking to set up 2/3rds of the way down the line towards the Pin end.  We came back to starboard for the start a little to early and got pushed further down the line than we would have liked, and came into heavier traffic than is good.  Off the line we needed to tack to clear our air, it felt good so we held there on Port tack going off to the right and Off Our Game Plan… so writes the ending of our race story. 

The winds were real “squirrely” in the cone between the two commercial ships.  We would see boats in front and back 10-15 degrees higher in point, then a minute latter down 5 degrees on our course.

BUT we all noticed that #217 got it VERY right for this night… nice job!  From our vantage we heard only the faint report of the cannon…

 I would be remise if I didn’t mention the great job the race committee does, CONSISTENTLY, WEEK AFTER WEEK. Thank you so much – you make this fun.

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Bullet Blog, Fall Race 1

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

First Signs of Fall Approaching :

The days are getting shorter , the evenings cooler but the best days of Southern New England are just around the corner . Last night brought us the 2nd day of a beautiful  Northwesterly gradient  wind pattern . First signs of autumn perhaps ? With this wind pattern often comes fantastic Shields racing ; nice shifts , flat water, more than enough breeze, no water on the deck and an awesome sunset . Does it get any better than this ?

We were a little late to the starting area so we did not have a lot of time to do much re-con pre start. It looked like the starting line was about 5 degrees favored towards the pin in the median breeze direction . However , just prior to the start a left puff settled in making the pin more like 10+ degrees favored . Our game plan was to start in the pin 1/3 of the line and be able to tack as soon as possible . Our reasoning for this was that the breeze was already as left as we’d seen it and that the next  shift would be right given the normal attributes of a northwesterly, and we didn’t want to get strung out on the left . Some how, however, we ended up only 2 boats up from the pin by the time the starting gun went off instead of 1/3 of the line away from the pin. Luckily for us  we were able to tack and cross 254 immediately to windward of us as well as all the boats on our hip within less than a minute or so from the start . This was very fortunate as Jeff Gladchun in 108 was directly to leeward of us and were about to squeeze us off . Once we were on port tack the wind was so far left that we were nearly on the layline , for a while . As we’d hoped prior to the start , the wind eventually faded back to right . By that point we were “bow out” on everyone to the  right of us ,so the shifts helped to lever our gains . From there Tim Healy and the rest of the 217 crew of Jeff Dionne, Eric Hanson and Chris Greenman did an excellent job of keeping us in or near the most breeze and on the lifted tack or headed gybe . On the second leeward leg the breeze filled in from behind helping Andy Burton and crew onboard 201 to reel us in quite a bit but luckily for us we were able to hold them off through the finish .

Our rig settings were as follows :

Uppers – 28-29 on the Loos’ Gauge
Lowers – 0-4 on the loos Gauge
Head stay – at our max length which is 49″ to the datum 

Thanks to Robin Wallace and his RC team as well as Peter Denton and the Ultimate Pressure team for doing a great job of race management and providing us with such a beautiful evening of Shields racing on Narragansett Bay .

Respectfully submitted ,

Jamie Hilton
John Dory – Shields #217

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Summer Race 7, Bullet Blog

Thursday, August 14th, 2008


We had classic summer conditions for the final night of the Summer Series – warm seabreeze, a flood tide, and plenty of cold beer.  The Race Committee set up a huge course, twice around, which allowed the fleet to spread out and stretch it’s legs.  I often question the fleet’s propensity to race north of the bridge and conduct only a single race, but last night it seemed to make sense. I suspect that had we finished deeper in the fleet (as often happens), we would have begged for two races, once around, so that we could have a chance to improve on the night.

 

As for the racing, our pre-race discussion revolved mostly around the fading flood tide and whether we should approach Can 13 from the right or left.  We chose the left, and tacked up the passage in the middle of the pack leading up the left side.  We converged with the middle and right groups at the top mark, rounding right ahead of 36 and 222, with 17 and 107 rounding a strong 1-2.  The first run was a long starboard pole, can’t recall if we ever gybed but I do remember the fleet charging hard to leeward of us and taking gains on the leaders on the right.  Going into the bottom right gate we knew we needed a flawless rounding, so we “started things early” and managed to round with the kite half down, jib half up, and spin pole swimming along side.  It was all grins though, and we had the boat settled and going fast within a few boatlengths, beers in hand. 

 

The second beat was much like the first, except that we noticed 217 hit the right side hard and look good doing it.  They looked lighter, but their breeze was right and they appeared free of any residual flood in the channel.  We converged at the top and rounded, in order, 107, 108, 217, with 17 and 59 close behind.  The second run was much like the first, except that we noticed 59 charge hard early down the left side of the run, and then start to fade as we approached the leeward gates.  Combing these observations (217 on the beat, and 59 on the run), we decided to head up the right side on the final beat and rounded the left gate, splitting with 107 and 217.   That proved to be a great move, as we looked good early and even better further up the beat, eventually taking the gun.

 

Congratulations to Summer Series winner Jamie Hilton and his team on 217, to Andy Segal and his team on 101 and to Charlie, Kurt, John and company on 36 for rounding out the top 3.  Shields Fleet 9 is a competitive fleet with a deep bench, and putting it all together (crew, sails, and cold beer) on a consistent basis is a great accomplishment.  Thanks again to our top-notch Race Committee for giving us yet another great night and Series on the water.

 

My thanks to Chuck Norris, Phoebe Patterson, and Alex Hood the crew last night, and to Tommy Burnham, Pete “Pirate” Henderson, Sean Horrigan and Rob MacMillan for being part of 108’s Summer Series team.  And to my wife Alyssa, for letting me go sailing when she’d rather be.   

 

-Jeff Gladchun, Coffee Grinder 108

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Report, Wednesday, Aug 6

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

We have been struggling to keep our upwind height and speed this season and we had finally come to the conclusion that our main sail (after serving us for way too many years) had to be retired.  So this was the night to make the debut of the new crispy North main sail complete with Chuck Allen onboard to help get things organized.  Compounding our difficulties we also had some major tuning to do to the rig at the last minute…so after scurrying to get this done, we left the mooring at about 5pm.

Once we sailed under the bridge on our way to the race course we realized that we may be, in fact, already racing to the start…this was not a good to be a place to be …no real time to tune up!  We decided that the right looked good, complete with good pressure and about an hour left on the ebb.  So the first start we absolutely nailed the boat and with great speed…but guess what? … GENERAL RECALL! Why does it always seem that you have the best starts on general recalls….?  After observing both the I Flag (around the ends) and Z Flag (20% penalty)…we knew the RC was determined and serious to get this race started in the dying breeze.  Again we started at the boat end with speed and after a few minutes we tacked on port and thought we really were looking great.  It was after about 2 minutes on this board that we noticed the boats on our port hip (on left side of the course) were getting a huge lefty by about 10-15 degrees…there was nothing we could do as we were committed and could not get back left.  So suck it up…and just sail fast, get a good lane, and round the mark.  The boats coming out of the left corner looked great and really separated in the last 1/3 of the leg.

After rounding the windward mark in the cheap seats, the wind was still so left on course that this was basically a starboard broad reach to leeward leg; not much else to do but join the parade.  The wind was dying…so the rich got richer with leaders extending.  Looking at the leeward gates most everyone but a few boats rounded the starboard gate.  After rounding  we decided to stay left on starboard and this paid off as we picked up 5-6 boats half way up the leg…only to give this back at the top 3rd of the last leg with a dying breeze and the boats on left making out yet again.

Moral of the story this night was being on the correct side of shifts wins; while we were trying to connect the dots with breeze and get things going with our new main…the big left north shift is where the gainers were this night!  While our speed and height improved…being on the wrong side loses every time…yet another humbling evening in a very competitive fleet!  We still had fun, learned a ton and were thankful of camaraderie, competition, and good times.

Dan Faria

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Aloha, Report

Monday, August 11th, 2008

ALOHA RACES 1-3 August 9

 

Suuny skies, 8 knots from the south, music from the Newport Jazz Fest to serenade us as we ran down from Hammersmith in a gentle flood, seven boats, tight racing, a super committee, and a relaxed, non-spinnaker format which means you can bring newbies along for a taste of classic keel boat racing in one of the world’s most scenic sailing venues  – this is what Aloha racing is all about!

 

3 boats won races: Jay Gowell on Fox, Charlie Shoemaker on Hawk, and Tom Derecktor on Gosling. Race 1 ended with the top four boats overlapped (We on Grace, with apologies to Agent 86, missed it by that much, taking 4th).  But the big winner of the day was the Navy’s own Ron Oord, sailing Icea, taking honors for the day with finishes of 2,3,2. Ron had blazing speed downwind, sailed smart, and made no mistakes as far as I could tell. Hats off to him and his crew.

 

Hats off to Ian (PRO), Dick (Ida driver) and Andy for filling in at the last minute to do the RC duties. Thanks, guys!

 

The Aloha Series continues on Saturdays August 23 and September 6. Come on out! If you cannot sail, please volunteer to help run the races.

 

Reed

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Race 3, Bullet Blog

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Started at the boat, cleared air to the right, and enjoyed a 10-degree righty back across the long starboard tack.  Around the first mark we held a little high to keep the air clear and tried to keep the air clear going down wind.  Surprisingly didn’t seem to be much of a tidal difference between the sides downwind, but a lot of confused chop made the velocity the most important find out there.  That leeward mark came up surprisingly quick with the full-moon rip.  The last beat proved more nerve-wracking than we hoped as we debated which corner to cover.  Thankfully a reasonably stable breeze allowed us to keep our nose out as we bounced between the left and right hand packs.  A 10 degree shift would have sent us plummeting down the ladder.  Thank god for that win because the youngest brother and his agenda caused us to be very late for the first start (anyone notice the spinnaker coming at them at the gun? We really hope not.) That could have caused a long swim for that sibling if there hadn’t been that opportunity for redemption.

John Edenbach, #36

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Race Report, Summer Series 1

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Summer Series First Race Report from Raven (201)

We got a great start a little down from the boat and were able to tack to the right in the sea breeze pretty much when we wanted…into a 20-degree header and way less pressure. After a long while plodding across to the right, hoping for breeze and the header to affect the rest of the fleet on the left, we bailed and banged the left. Catholic sailing, Roy calls it; crossing the course. 26 transoms we saw. I find these boats look a lot better bow-on.

We rounded Can 13 deep, as you can imagine. Had an indifferent downwind leg to mark V as the left shift that made the right such a disaster made the run one-sided. Thank dog for a race committee headed by Robin Wallace! He set a new weather mark, and didn’t shorten there to put us out of our misery.

Having learnt our lesson on the first leg we short-tacked up the navy side of the course with Paul Sollitto (76) and Tom Hirsch (254)…as the breeze started easing back right. We managed to drop most of the boats  we’d passed downwind. We rounded deep…again. Going downwind we got a few boats and got
within striking distance of a few more as we hung left. We had a nice rounding in between Wendy Lotz on 138 and Bill Shore on 101 and managed to live on Richard Sugarman (21)s hip for a while out to the right again.

Way up ahead I saw Stubby (59) and Kim Roberts (143)–who¹d been leading a tight two-boat race with Stubby all night‹shoot the line. Stubby apparently got the gun by half a length. Nice horizon job on both crews’ part.

We managed to finally do something right and got back to a mid-fleet finish, which, given where we’d been, we were pretty pleased with. Especially given quality of the sailors on the other boats around us who obviously had as much trouble figuring out the breeze as we did.

The upside of our mediocre finish was that everyone aboard Raven was in tactical agreement throughout the race. It¹s nice to sail with a crew in total harmony. Even if we did all have our heads up our…

–Andy

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Bullet Blog, race 6

Friday, June 20th, 2008

I’m leaving for Bermuda today so this will be short . The title is “The Rich Got Richer-This was Good for 217″

We had the starting line square to 225 magnetic . We were getting wind readings at 210 to 206 minutes before the start . BIG incoming tide . Weather mark off the grave yard at Hammersmith . Not normal afternoon SW’trly . Wind is showing left with leftish puffs . All that considered ,plan boiled down to start near the pin go left get relief from tide , hook in to left puffs . We were the second boat up from the pin at the start , with 17 below us . We were able to live off their hip long enough to out of the current . When we got in behind Ft Adams and tacked on to port we were able to cross any starboard tackers . From there on it was a matter of staying ahead of the conga line tacking up the shore . With the breeze more left than normal the port tacks were much longer than the starboard ones . It also seemed as though with the breeze a bit left of usual , the corner bangers on the right , who looked ok for a short bit by Clingstone/Ft Wetherill, would be unlikely to send in a winner.

We set without the pole at the weather mark as we were in a right shift . Gybed straight away onto port and got out into the current as soon as possible .

From there not alot happened . It did help that we were able to stay clear of the PHRF fleet the 2nd time up . It was definitely a night where all the conditions were favorable to being in front , so the rich got richer.

We were a little tighter on our lowers . We had them set at 21 on the Loos gauge . Headstay was at max long setting , 49″ , I think. Cap shrouds at 29 on Loos gauge .

Thanks to Jeff Dionne, Tim Healy, Eric Hanson and Chris Greenman the crew on 217 last Wednesday .

Cheers

Jamie Hilton

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