Shields Fleet 9

Fall Series Race 3, Report

Race 3 was the second race of the day.  We were first to the windward mark in the first race so we modeled our strategy on that race.   We planned to start as near to the pin as possible yet staying out of danger. With a few minutes to go we saw that the pin end would be a bit crowded so we delayed our tack to stbd for about 20 seconds. Tacked into a nice space below 222 and opened some room to leeward then launched with very good speed. We sailed parallel to the bridge until we got our first 6-7 degree left shift. We immediately tacked to port. Now we were in the lead. Later we did have to tack to stbd on a shift that allowed us to protect our lead over a few boats gaining on the left. We did a bare-away set and stayed in phase down the leg. We round the leeward gov. can overlapped with 224 but in the lead. We held the lead up the short leg to the finish. In Chuck’s Race 2 report, Wendy and Chuck won the first race in very much the same conditions but emphasized current over wind.   We did just the opposite; we emphasized wind shifts over current. We actually ignored current because before the start we observed almost no current on pot-buoys and on the new mid channel gov. buoy in the middle of the course.  This often happens on the flood tide as it comes in underneath the fresh water after 3 days of rain.

It was a good day for Team Karaselet 74. Curtis, Dwight, Ken and Mary; thank you for a job well done. Nice work Robin and crew.

Bill Shore

Race 2-Fall

It sure was nice to see the sun pop through after four days of rain just in time Shields Yachting…  All was looking good to get the scheduled two races in after the drift fest the week before.  We were seeing wind shots ranging from 320-005 degrees with current pushing into the bay.  The “current push” would be the deciding factor aboard 138 on where we would position the boat on the line allowing us to take the fastest route to the first mark. We figured a third up from the pin was the place to be, the line was fairly square but… we wanted to be one of the first boats to reach the center spans, where the current was strongest. Our boat, 74 and 107 all reached this area first and got into “the elevator” rising all of us up to the rest of the fleet, where tacking and crossing the majority became easy enough.  As soon as you could tack you had to pull the trigger because there was about 70% port tack sailing up the beat.  After rounding just behind Super Bill Shore we were able to pull off a nice set, where Bill looked to be having some issues, he gybed to port, as did many of the boats around us.  We thought it was important to stay on starboard, keeping the bow more into the current flow (versus on the beam/port) and get to the relief of Rose Island.  We had to gybe twice on lifts because they were so pronounced, but for the most part we sailed on starboard 75% of the time.  Sure enough when reaching the relief, we began to really punch forward on the fleet and it became quite easy from there.  Nice early dowse by the team (Wendy, Nate Merrill, Mike and David Marshall-pretty much our core team since spring) helped 138 have a sweet rounding and it was a fetch from there.  Race two we would try to duplicate but there was more “right in it” and we got pinballed around the race course-basically we got smoked… Nice job by Bill Shore and Team 74-they seem to be back on track, Jamie Hilton credits it to his 12 Meter collision in Edgartown “clearing his head”, I though he bought new sailing slippers.

-Chuck Allen-138-Envy

Shields Fall Series Race #1 report from #74

Weather forecast:
SE 5-10 mid-day, going E 5-10 in the afternoon and evening. Winds diminishing late night then back to E 5-10 Thursday morning. Tide low at 2:58 pm.

The wind at race time was more like SE 6-11. Curtis noticed the wind was more E on the left side of the course and more SSE on the right side, but he felt the wind was stronger on the left.

The weather leg was short and the starting line was fairly long with plenty of room for everyone to get a clear lane at the start. We liked the pin end for several reasons and got a very good run at it, building speed for about 6 seconds and nailed the line near the pin at full speed. Before the start we did range the line using Portsmouth’s “skyscraper” as the land mark. A few minutes later, still on starboard tack, we started to nose into that left shift Curtis noticed before the start and immediately tacked to port and in-phase. We first looked to be about one hundred yards below the port tack lay line, but as we crossed every starboard tack boat (very close to 101, 181 224 and 138) we continued to lift as the wind came even more left and with the current on the lee bow we were pushed right up to the windward mark about 10 yards in front 101 the second place boat. All alone at the mark we pre-set our pole on the leeward (starboard) side of the boat in order to have a very fast hoist, and bare-away set and the pole in place ready to go. 1/3 down the leeward leg with Dwight on the sheets and Christine on the pole we jibed to port which put us just about on the lay-line to the left gate. We were still on the lead, with only one tack and one jibe so far. After rounding the gate it was no problem to loose cover the few boats nearest us as they tended to stay bunched instead of split for the corners.

2..181
3.. 76
4.. 138
5.. 224
6.. 101

Sometimes things just go right. Last Wednesday was one of those times. Thanks to our fiends and sailors on IDA, it was a nice day and a nice course.

Congratulations to Wendy in 138, she is having a great year in ALL of her sailing.

Bill Shore #74

Greetings from the Fox team on 232, led by our skipper Jay “Ahab”
Gowell, who is obsessed with his quest for an elusive puff of white
smoke at the end of the race course. The best decision of the evening
came before we left the dock at CYC when Jay shanghaied not one but
two younger Gowells from their duties with the CYC Junior Program,
bringing our total crew to 6. We also shortened our headstay by a
half inch from the max long position that we like for most light to
moderate conditions.

Setting up for the start of the second race of the night, we judged
the committee boat to be about five degrees favored and with the new
windward mark “13” a bit to the right of directly upwind, so we wanted
to start toward the committee boat end and tack over to port once we
got a clear lane. With more breeze than the start of the first race
and lots of current keeping everyone back from the line, we had a
chance to do the rarest of things in a Shields; a dinghy style luffing
start. We tacked onto starboard about six boatlengths to astern of
the committee boat at 1:30 to the gun, then luffed our way up to the
line putting the bow down a couple of times to defend what turned out
to be a one and a half boatlength hole to leeward. Putting the bow
down for the last time at five seconds, we were able to get bow out on
the two boats to leeward and then blade out the sails and put the crew
weight to work generating lots of straightline speed.

It turned out that most of the fleet liked the boat end even more than
us, so about two thirds of the fleet tried to squeeze into the 1/3 on
the line to the right of us. This meant delaying our tack onto port
for about two minutes as we waited for the last of the boats to our
right to tack over. After getting pingponged a bit in the first race
trying to work the current relief on the left, we were happy to focus
on boatspeed while waiting for a nice clear lane to get across the
fleet on port. Patience paid off as we were able to take a port tack
all the way to the starboard layline without any ducks and tacked onto
starboard ahead of 254 about 15 boatlengths from the mark. We
overstood by two boatlenghts allowing 138 to tack below us and
threaten to get inside at the mark, but we managed to reach over them
and round just barely clear ahead.

Downwind we were left to defend our position in the lead. We stayed
on starboard briefly after the top mark to stay clear of the bad air
from the fleet on the starboard layline, then jibed to port with 138
to defend an inside position at the leeward mark. By staying low and
occasionally by the lee, the current carried us all the way to the
leeward mark on port tack with 138, 254, 108 and others nipping at our
heels.

On the final beat, we covered our closest competitors, 138 and 108, as
they went left while 254 and the next pack went right. We tacked
across about midway up the leg and were lucky that no big shifts came
through to give our competition a chance to use leverage against us.
Hearing the gun as we crossed the line was a relief after coming up
just short a few times earlier in the season.

BOTTOM LINE: a great start and a little edge in boat speed makes the
tactician’s life much easier, especially when there are no big wind
shifts to play. So always ask the generous skippers of Fleet 9 to
leave you a nice clear spot to leeward when coming up to the line!

Dexter Hoag

Fox

232

Our #17 crew were psyched for a prefrontal sea breeze that lived up to the forecast and then some.  Only problem we were missing Carroll and Sharon.  So Dirk Kramers, back from 2 years in chase boats following Alinghi and Dave Moffet and I said “they sail with 3 on an Etchells, we’ll be all good”. The line seemed slightly boat favored to us and with the mark up beyond the bridge we were thinking right side.  Dave recalled a similar situation on an Aloha race where Charlie Shoemaker made out in similar conditions. Going to the left for current relief and lots of tacking wasn’t high on our list.  We also saw more breeze on the right. We started at the boat end and tacked early to port for a long leg toward Jamestown.  We started to get some good blasts, which were headers, and once into solid breeze and about a 15 degree knock we tacked and were close to layline.  We just crossed Jeff Gladchun in 108 and looked good with the boats on the left although we were in more current and the left would have some relief under Rose I.  We had two more tacks to clear the bridge tower and were surprised we were doing well with 108 who had 5 crew.  We did have some light spots where we could pull the trav up and power up easing backstay.  We gained slightly on 108 and rounded a few boat lengths ahead.  We had an uneventful run, just trying to stay in clear air.  A pretty big sustained blast came in as we rounded the leeward mark and we were overpowered getting up to speed. Dirk started to complain that he wished he had done more sailing than chasing in the last few years.  We lost a little on 108 who was right on our tail as we cleaned up the mess in the cockpit.  We tacked a little early for the line and we were starting to feel like “Where are those girls when we need them”….we were overpowered and sailing a little high, whilst on our hip, 108 had the bow down and with a bit more weight on the rail, clearly had better VMG….we held on and tacked twice to make the pin end and just nosed out the guys on 108. It always feels good to win on a windy day!  Where’s the cooler?

Phil Garland

Gosling – 17

Race #1 – Summer Series ( Make Up sailed Weds June 30^th)

Report from Shields 217- John Dory

Greetings fellow Shields sailors and Fleet 9 enthusiasts from the John Dory team. Our successes on board the mighty 217 have been limited, few and far between thus far in the 2010 season. This is reflective of the depth of competitors in the fleet and the high level of competition our fleet has come to know. It’s tough to win a race because nobody gives an inch out there. No friends between the Warning gun and the finish line! Except for the second race last Wednesday night when, in our view on John Dory, the entire fleet decided to forego the Pin end of the line which we figured to be 10-15 degrees favored except for Charlie Shoemaker, Craig Auman and the Hawk team on 245 as well as the team on 165. It was an uncomfortable feeling being down near the pin, virtually all alone, with 90% of the fleet packed up near the Committee Boat with less than 15 seconds to the start. But there we were, at the pin, at the gun. Us, Charlie and Craig and 165. We sailed right up to the boundary of the War College stand off bouys, tacked on to port and started feeling really, really smart. We crossed 245 by about ½ boat length and were crossing everybody else easily. It didn’t seem anybody to leeward was going to have any chance to get to us no matter which way the breeze shifted. Any left shift would favor us. Any dramatic right shift, big enough to help the boats to our right,  would have been ok because we’d have been close to laying if we’d tacked back to starboard. In any event, the pressure and angle was better the farther left you got.  In fact 245 got by us when we tacked near the layline onto starboard. They crossed us on port, but once again the pressure was better left so we were happy to switch sides with them and were able to get back in front of them by the top mark. We stayed on starboard gybe after rounding and were able to make slight gains when we got a small veering shift and gybed onto port gybe. 245 made one last strong gain as they got out to the east side of the course near the bottom of the leg. We’d gybed back on to starboard and were converging with 245 about 4-5 boat lengths from the mark. They being on port, we being on starboard. 245 could not cross us and were forced to gybe to avoid us. Thanks to some good driving by our fill in helmsman Brian Fisher, some deft bow work by Co-Owner Chris Murray and some top level pit work by Jeff Dionne we were able to gybe away, break the over lap and round cleanly ahead. From there it was an exercise in patience and we were able to hold on for the win.

I think the key take aways for the race were :

1. loose rig settings . We were too tight from the first race
2. start at the favored end virtually by yourself when ever possible
3. don’t screw up a good thing when you’ve got it
4. savor the win, they are not easy to come by

Shields Fleet 9
File: Spring 2010 race2
Year 2010
Class: Shields . One design (Finish position)Spring 7: Wind Speed 7: Direction SE: Start Date 06/16/10

Pos

Class: Shields . One design (Finish position)Spring 6: Wind Speed 6: Direction SE: Start Date 06/16/10

Save the Bay has made a serious entry into the fight against the Weavers Cover LNG terminal.  yes, that project still has potential, and a mean set of side effects to go with it.  please go to www.savebay.org and sign the petition, email our government leaders, and spread the word.  The impact on our bay if this terminal goes forward will be insurmountable, and we’d all have to move to Annapolis and drift around and wonder what happened. do something.

The season is creeping up on us fast.  We will be announcing a kickoff party soon, likely the week of April 27, likely at Newport Yacht Club again.  Racing starts May 13!!! We are accepting registrations on the website again, feel free to start now, click here, or you can do it in person when you come to the party.  Some rule changes this season, we hope to have another seminar/quick talk about that too.  The NOR and SI will be online soon, some changes in there as well.  Keep an eye out for an email, or here on the site.  If you changed your email lately, or just don’t remember, it can’t hurt to plug it into the newsletter site again, click here to enter your address.