• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Race Report - 2019 Jack & Jill

Geoff W.

Makes Up For It With Enthusiasm
Blogs Author
Last Saturday was the final of the three "Triple Crown" races, the single/doublehanded race series put on by Sloop Tavern Yacht Club in Puget Sound. I once again raced non-flying sails, as I still don't quite have a chute that seems race-able (and my manual windlass has ended the lives of two geriatric spinnakers given to me by friends already). There were eight total boats in my NFS class, and six made it to the start line. As usual, my boats to beat were the Q-Class Grayling and a Newport 28, Blue Lullaby (these were the only other two boats competing in the entire series with me). My girlfriend was my stalwart crew member and she did a great job working the main and helping trim jib - the traveler on this boat is not ideal for heavy-wind racing, as the ancient, single-block control ends do no favors in helping bring that boom to centerline when fully loaded.

Winds were up and gusty (for our area), averaging around 15kts throughout the day with gusts up towards 20kts. A slight tick to the wind direction meant it was blowing slightly from the NNW, which made for fun, if simple, racing - we only needed to tack once or twice on each upwind leg to get around a buoy.

70557932_386769972012265_6551881831619231744_n.jpg

The 32-3 as ever is a fun boat to race in fleets like this. I was definitely sailing overpowered most of the day, but I suffer from "one degree higher"-itis when I look at other racier boats pointing higher than I can, and I was worried that furling up my 135% jib would sacrifice too much point for speed/handling. As such I spent most of the day feathering into the wind, a.k.a pinching with purpose. It seemed to work well enough in the gusts, though. My weather helm indicator is generally "if the center knot on the wheel is stuck 90 degrees to the side, you're overpowered" and I spent most of the day holding the wheel tight at 90 degrees. Feathered, I was able to hold around 6 knots which seems pretty fast for super-close hauled in this boat. I used the inside jib track, cars set back towards the very back edge of the aft fixed portlight. In big gusts, or if it got even harder to fight, we'd dump the main with the traveller. We spent the day with the main pretty much flat as a board, as I was pointing too high for any twist to hold shape. And even then, the main mostly flogged, not actually doing any driving. The full battens were a boon here - instead of violently shaking itself apart, the mainsail sort of lazily undulated while depowered.

My start wasn't award winning - I was headed to the line full speed, ready to cross right on time, but on port tack. Blue Lullaby came in on starboard at exactly the wrong moment and made me tack right at the line, so we lost our advantage there. The Swan 441 and Grayling had nice clear starts and took off ahead of the fleet. Upwind we seemed to point 5-10 degrees lower than a lot of the other boats, but we held our own and made good speed on a number of them. We walked away from the Newport 28 right after our kerfluffle at the start line, and they never seemed to catch back up.

Downwind, the angles were such that my signature wing-on-wing move wasn't the right choice, but moving the jib to the outside track and moving the cars forward meant we were able to hold a convincingly deep reach. I thought we should've been able to go faster as a couple of the other boats started to make gains on us here, but we held our own by the time we hit the first downwind mark.

The next upwind mark solidified our place in 3rd as the two fast boats zoomed away but we made gains on the boats behind. It looked like everyone else was pointing higher than us, but everyone still had to throw in a last-minute tack before the buoy to get around it, including the boats ahead.

70963341_10103353389522531_5292697768047935488_o.jpg

The final downwind leg was awesome - the wind picked up super high and we were at hull speed the entire time, once even getting carried to 7.5kts by a strong gust. Of course, all the bigger and faster boats were at hull speed too, and this was when all the spinnaker boats started catching us early-starters. We got rolled a few times by people catching up, and once even tossed a bit by a J120 throwing the biggest wake I've ever seen a sailboat put up.

We had one close cross at the downwind mark as an Andrews 53 came plowing between me and a J30 I was pretending I could keep up with. Pretty exciting to have the entire underside of a massive race boat towering over you - their transom cleared maybe 12 inches in front of us. That's racing, though :)

71139265_10103353389582411_64825689450217472_o.jpg

The last upwind stretch to the finish was mostly us trying to keep the boat upright and me wishing I could point as high as that J30 that was walking away from me. We had a confirmed lead on the boats behind me in my fleet, and Grayling as well as the Swan 441 finished in their respective "fast boat" places. A couple quick tacks towards the Shilshole breakwater, a quick duck behind a starboard J30, and we were across the line. A great race!

70234677_10103353389517541_1387447201667481600_o.jpg

We ended up 3rd in the fleet for this race, and got 2nd place in the NFS division for the entire series. I think I've learned a lot and am looking forward to figuring out the spinnaker situation and leveling up my racing out there. The 32-3 is a great boat, but we already knew that. I must be making people pay attention, because folks in my club have started to scratch their chins at my rating ;)

Final results:
Finish.png
 
Top