The View from 138.

Well, here we go again- Wednesday Night Shields Racing! A nice little turnout for the first week with 15 or so boats hitting the line. Too bad for those members that did not sail because it was a killer night with a nice southerly flow ranging from 6-12 knots and plenty of sun. The course was 4p Sp twice around with an incoming tide, except for up by The House on the Rock or Andy Burton’s Corner as we call it, where the tide was still going out. The last race of last season I sailed with Andy and the same scenario played out, we started on the right side, tacked toward The House on the Rock, hooked into the eddy and crushed it-so I am a believer now.

The typical Tuesday Afternoon/Wednesday Morning rig up was the play with hopes of going sailing at 3:00pm to figure it all out again-this usually does not happen and did not this time either. Sure enough a few parts are always missing, West Marine runs interrupt the flow for sure-I think Wendy and I only had three… Pretty fun though as there were five Shields rigging up and we all help each other put rigs up and launch together-good fun! We put a new rig in 138 so there were some pieces that needed to be tweaked and the rig needs a bit of time to “find itself” with stretch, etc…

Anyway, all the boats left Sail Newport towards the course, Robin set up directly south of Rose Island and was nicely communicating on Channel 72 what his intentions were, when the start was going to happen, etc… it all went off on time with no individuals or generals. We were off like a heard of donkeys! The new compass showed us sailing on starboard at 174 degrees and when we got headed you could actually read the numbers: remember squinting towards the old card compasses-no more. The line had a right phase in it with 245, 138 and 254 starting up at that end, as boats started to tack onto port from the left side they would end up lee bowing these three boats. Some of the boats with not so great starts bailed toward Andy Burton’s Corner and made out nicely getting back in the game big time, Kip Curren (with his new Shields 258), Ron Oard and Reed Baer led this group out in the favorable current. 217, 226, 222 and 224 led the “pinball game” out of the left side as it got real light and shifty each time up when approaching Hammersmith, there was a nice left angle on the final approach to the yellow buoy if you could hook into that.

As we were sailing to The Red Gong off of Rose Island downwind (SW Corner), the best play was to gybe early rather than later as you would find yourself much more in phase with your bow pointing closer towards the upcoming mark. There was not a lot of change in positions on this leg . The next upwind became interesting as some boats tacked towards The Fort while other kept going towards Jamestown. We decided to go straight with 217, 258 and 245-all of us made out nicely as there was good breeze, better current, flat water and a great angle. 217 made out the best as they dug in even deeper to the right which brought them into the weather mark with 226, who came out of the left side nicely. These two boats would battle for the top spot, 224 was kind of in their own zone owning third place, while back behind them was a nice group including 245, 138, 222, 258 and 254 all going for the four and five spots. The R/C had changed the leeward mark over to the Green buoy on the SE Corner of Rose Island, so it was more of a bear away and hold versus the previous downwind. 245 and 138 held the right side of the group as this paid off at the bottom when both boats extended on the group. It was a short up wind to the finish: ½ mile or so-meaning that there were not a lot passing opportunities in such a short distance, so how you rounded the last leeward mark would pretty much stand as your result.

Congrats to 217, 226 and 224 at the top. Also-Kip’s new Shields looks great, check out 258 when you get a chance-awesome!
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