Shields Fleet 9 Race Report 7/11/12

Summer Series Races #1 & #2

Conditions: SSW 10-12, Ebb

What a great night for the 254!  A 2,1 night would be great for any boat out there, but it’s really sweet for some relative newcomers like us. Great job by the race committee to get the two races in to make up for a couple of weeks ago (feels like we haven’t raced in forever).  The announcement on the radio did cause a “do we have enough beer for 2 races?” panic on board as we cut from the mooring in Jamestown thinking, “who do we know who has a powerboat and is sitting around doing nothing?”

We were out early (for once) which was nice because we were still fiddling around with the tack set up and lead positions on our new jib.  Nice consistent breeze for the night for the most part, our thoughts were that there was nice pressure out of the left and it might get you into stronger current sooner. But at worst it would be even current advantage as the right.

We didn’t think it was a GET LEFT situation, so with the weather end favored we decided to start 1/3 of the way down from the boat.  This turned out to be a great place to start as it was a nice jump on the boats to leeward and we were able to lead the group to weather into the better pressure to the left. The new jib is definitely fast, the boat has a whole other gear than with the 2 year old one we’ve been using.  Lesson #1: We definitely waited too long to pull out the new one!

Once we were on to port we had nice gains to the boats on the right and were probably leading until up near mark 13 where the toll booth righty started to have an effect.  224 and 36 crossed and we fell in line to round T in 3rd.  Lesson #2: Know the sailing instructions!  Most of the racing Scotty, Nate, Ian and I do is in big boats where you always have to go through the center span. So we thought we were pretty smart jibe setting to head back towards the center span, we’d beat the two ahead to the jibe, and roll them putting us in the lead. It was going to be awesome. After wallowing in bad air and bad chop from the whole fleet, all the while heading out into stronger current, we weren’t feeling so smart watching boats sail toward the other span in clear air in less current. Center 3 spans, copy. Think we’ll remember that now.  Now what’s that list of marks we have to honor?  We always seem to argue about that too . . .

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Race 2, the one I’m probably supposed to be writing about was a quintessential “I love it when a plan comes together” race on the 254 for all you A-Team fans.  Sorry, the movie is on HBO right now and that BA is no Mr. T.  Square to pin favored line so we wanted to be as close to the pin as we dared and lead to the left that got us around the course in Race 1.  With a little luck, we were the first off the pin with 108 and 253 I think stuck or slow at the pin boat. Our trusty lefty got us around in the lead. Dirk and 181 challenged on the run, but trouble with the douse put them to leeward after rounding the right gate with us. We were able to extend to the left and our lead with 181 hanging on for 2nd.

An awesome 2,1 night! A lot has to go right for you, nights like that don’t come often even for the good guys. This same boat posted a DFL in the spring series, so who knows next week!

Remember the 2 lessons – don’t let your jib get too old and know what the hell you’re doing out there.  It’s tough enough without making stupid mistakes.

Great job and thanks again to the race committee for getting two in.  For those worried, we did have enough beer, just . . .

Tim Dawson for Tom Hirsch’s Aeolus #254