Race 6

The last race day! We arrived early get approval from the jury to replace our broken spinnaker pole. It's interesting, once you have your boat & sail measured and checked in, you can't make any changes. Everything has to be formally submitted to the jury. Thanks to Jon Knowles, we had a spare pole in the box and the swap was approved.

The lake was beautiful when we headed out on the tow -- 5-6 kts from the SSW. We did our tune up with Bill Hardesty in full light air mode. By the time of the first start, the wind was blowing in the mid teens from about 250 deg.

And the chop built! 84 Etchells reaching back and forth along a start line for 30 minutes really stirs things up. The RC postponed at the first attempted start to rebuild the line. The second start was a general recall -- just a well for us since we were pretty buried. The third attempt was with the "Z flag up (if you are over during the final minute, you get a 20% penalty). We were shooting for a start just to weather of the mid boat and hit the line at the gun. The boat just under us was over the line and had to bail out, leaving us with a lane to live in on starboard tack.

We tacked to the right and worked that side of the course to the weather mark. We had changed to our hight wind range GM jib and did our best to drive through the short steep waves. Lots of COLD, fresh water came on board and Craig had to pump for most of the leg.

We hit the top mark somewhere in the upper middle and immediately gybed to port to get clear of the parade. We found that you really have to work these boats down wind. Blaine trimmed the 'chute from the leeward side, Craig pumped the main from the weather side and I tried catch every possible wave.

At the leeward mark, we were able to push inside of three boats (2 of which we had inside rights on -- I think that I owe Senet Bischoff in the third boat a beer) and get a lane on port to the still-favored right side.

The last two legs were similar to the first two. Lots of waves, lots of water. We picked off several boats on the upwind leg and a couple more on the run. The finish was a full on go as low as you dare surfing contest and we crossed the line in 30th.

The photos show the start and some of the spinnaker work as well as finish. Joyce did RC on the signal boat for the entire regatta and managed to snap off a couple of these shots.

Bill sailed a conservative race to maintain his lead over Judd Smith and ended up winning the regatta -- a huge win for Bill and his team. Chris Busch from San Diego went for it and won the race to take second overall. SDYC was well represented in the top ten with Artie Means in 7th and Vince Brun in 9th.

We were able to discard the 84 point DSQ and finished 41st overall for the championship. All of us in the USA1149 team are pleased with the regatta. We had highs and lows and managed our way through them in good humor. Our condo looks like a scene from Animal House, our foulies are foul and we're ready to pack it up.

I'll offer some more thoughts later -- Tonight we party!

Race 5 Again

The postponement flag finally came down at noon and we headed to the race course where we found a very light lake breeze trying to happen. The RC set up the course on a 110 deg axis and we went into sequence. In no particular order, the lake breeze died, the wind clocked to 220 deg and we had a general recall.

The new cold front wind built to 15kts or so and we all changed gears -- GM jibs, crank down on the rigs, etc. We lined up pretty well for the start on the reset course. About 30 seconds before the start, we got hit -- hard by a boat tacking onto starboard. The contact was right at the starboard chainplate and we ended up with a trashed spinnaker pole, two bent shroud studs and some cosmetic damage to the hull.

We flagged the protest and went on to recover our race. We sailed about 10 minutes of the 3 mile weather leg in the 12-15 kts and then the wind became really unsettled -- light, then a gust, then a shift, then a big wave set. We made it to the mark in something like 62nd place.

The broken pole fitting made the spinnaker work tough. Craig had to put the pole in the mast fitting upside down and then crank down the foreguy to hold it there. Somehow it worked. We changed jibs to the LM and unwound the rig to get a little more punch upwind. We picked off a couple more boats and finished 57th. --- That's the good news.

Since there was considerable damage to the boat, we filed the protest, gathered a good witness and Blaine went to the jury room. This jury is a full-on ISAF team, so we were confident that
our well-reasoned argument would prevail. GACK!! We were both disqualified!

We spent about a half an hour hating the sport, hating the jury, hating each other, hating Chicago
, we regained some clarity over a cocktail or two and are ready to get back on the horse.

The final race(s) are set to go this morning.

Race 5 - Delayed

We were shooting for an early start on Friday and every showed up at the club for a 7:00 weigh in.
I am pleased to report that team 1149 held within 1.2K of our original weight.

Again, the winds didn't cooperate and we ended up holding on shore until 1:30 PM. These pix show how we all dealt with the pressure. That's Team Laffitte on the foosball; Teams Hardesty and Pedlow on the lawn; and unidentified dozers. It was a long delay.

Race 5 - The First Day

No wind, no racing. We sat in shore hold for 5 hours and then finally gave up at about 2:00PM. We had lake breeze competing with city breeze and nobody won.

Race 4

Wednesday, Race 4 day started out on the ugly side. The weather radar showed a line of storm cells coming from the southwest throughout the morning and another set building in the mid afternoon. This made it tricky for the RC to find a 3 hour racing window. PRO Tom Duggan opted to hold us at the dock while the first set passed and then get us out there as quickly as possible. The talk in the clubhouse during the hold was scary to those of us who never see lightning. " Yeah, mate, I was on this Melges 32 in Florida and we took a lightning strike that vaporized the mast" Yikes! Vaporized the mast?

Our weather briefing from Ed called for wind from the southwest in the 8-14 range with cells passing through that could disrupt the flow and bring big wind. We expected the wind to go right during the day.

We sailed to the course area and the wind was in the 12-14 range out of the south. That wind speed makes jib selection a tough call. The lake conditions are short and steep and you really need punch, so the LM-2 is the choice. However, that's well at the top of its range. The GM can handle the higher breeze, but doesn't have punch in the waves. We went with the LM, probably ensuring that this is an "end of life" regatta for the sail.

We wanted the right side and Blaine positioned us about halfway up the upper half of the line -- between the mid line signal boat and the top. The "smart money" guys were pushing for the lower (left) end of that half. These starts are BUSY. Again, we had a good position at the gun, but were fouled by NZL 716 on port -- nice blokes and all that, but they really hurt. So we took transoms and more transoms to work to the right side. The wind did trend right and kicked up to about 19kts. We rounded the weather mark in 17th. The runs were pretty hairy, but we kept the keel pointed down and held our position. Craig did a great job up front in some nasty gybing conditions. We favored the right on the 2nd and 3rd beats as well and ended up with a respectable 18th for the race.

Some of the regatta leaders got stuck on the left and were really hurt on the first beat. Bill Hardesty was 39th and Vince Brun 51st!

The pictures are in some sort of order from top to bottom -- pre start at about 30 sec; starting lineup (note the sag); us (1149) bailing out to the right; us at the weather mark; our set; 20 yds from the finish.

Race 3

We were over early at the start of Race 2 and had to go back. That put us in a clear 84th position as we headed up the weather leg. We worked the left side pretty hard in a persistent left shift and were about 50th at the weather mark. We gained a few and lost a few on the next legs and ended up 52nd.

Race 2 Photos

1008 (Mike Goldfarb/Mark Brink) was way over the line in the top photo. The bottom photo is our morning "brain trust" meeting with Ed Adams, & team Hardesty. Bill is sailing a great regatta -- they had 2 bullets yesterday.

Race 2

Started with our normal pre-race brief at 0900. We're looking for a firm sea (lake) breeze at about 120 degrees today with pressure in the 10-14 range.

We got a great start in the first race today. Had to hold a position for about 30 sec pre start and then press down to a slot that we had cleared under us. We cranked up at the gun and had a pretty good lane to the left (which we wanted). We ended up on Judd Smith's weather hip and were actually able to hold the slot for almost 7 minutes before having to tack right for another lane.

Blaine had us work the favored left side most of the beat and we rounded the weather mark in 18th, I think. The run was kind of a jumble, but we managed to hold our lane to the leeward gate. We found that it's really important to drive downwind to the last minute rather than relaxing and getting set up early for the roundings.

Our upwind speed continues to be good. We have been sailing the LM2 jib and carrying the rig in a pretty soft mode. The lake today was really flat, which made for relatively sane upwind driving.

We lost a couple of boats and ended up with a 21st for the race.

Race 1

Started the day at 0900 with our weather briefing with Ed. We expected a persistent right trend throughout the day.

We opted to sail to the course instead of a tow since we had a beam reach and arrived there about an hour before the warning. We tuned with Bill Hardesty and then went into nerve calming mode before the start.

The pin end was favored, not because of line bias, but more because we wanted to get right. Rather that fight it out there, we elected to to go for a top third of the line start. We had a good line position but had to tack to clear 45 sec after the start.

We worked the middle of the course and got hung out a little on the left side in a right trend. It gets really busy at the weather mark -- fat laylines become no laylines, etc. We rounded the first mark in 51st.

We gybed right at the mark, caught a couple of boats and lost a couple of boats on the run. It was really lumpy so we elected to use the VMG kite. At the leeward gate, we picked a left turn and pressed out on port.

Our upwind speed continues to be pretty good and we picked off a few boats on the weather leg.
At the second weather mark, we elected to do a bear away. An Aussie boat tried to mow over us to weather, but using our Bellingham skills, we made him pay and dove down to a gybe.

Most of the downwind leg was ugly -- lump, lighter winds, etc. We sailed the long port gybe and flipped to starboard about 500 yds from the finish. We ended up in 47th, a little below mid fleet. All things considered, we felt pretty good about the first race. Bill Hardesty, our tuning partner ended up in 7th, well positioned for the rest of the regatta.

Time for a glass of wine..............

Sunday AM Weather

So just sail towards this, take the spin and then tack away. Got it??

Practice Race

We made weight this morning by 11 kg, dressed! Lots of crews stripped to their scanties trying to get the last gram off.

We had a weather briefing with Ed before heading our to the course. We had a couple of significant storm cells pass through -- no lightning. You sail to the cell to get whatever spin is there and then get away from it as fast as you can to avoid the trailing lull. Today, we saw a prevailing right shift.

The RC gave us 2 practice starts and then (tried) to go with a full start. During the first start, oh, about 50 boats were OCS. The second practice start was a little better. The first real start was a general recall with most of the fleet over. When we finally did start, the RC called 25 OCS and let the race go. There are no long runways on the line. You have to find/build your very small hole, hold it for 30-45 seconds and then pull the trigger just before the guys above and below you. We were mostly front row, but it's hard to hold the lane after the start.

Joyce is working on the RC signal boat in the center of the line can occasionally snap a couple of quick shots like above.

We sailed the first weather leg in pretty good company. Boat speed and point are good, but finding your way through the traffic can be difficult. We rounded the top mark somewhere in the middle. Our first run was SLOW. We found what we thought was a long clear lane in the middle, but is was slow. Looking back, we should probably have run hotter and sailed the edges. We made it through the leeward gate cleanly and sailed about half the upwind finish leg before breaking off to do some more spinnaker work.

It's showtime tomorrow!

Measurement Wrap-up and Practice

Friday speed testing and practice racing. We spent a lot of time doing straight line tuning -- move this a quarter of an inch etc. Our courses for the regatta will have 2.5 -3 mile weather legs, so speed is king.

Coach Ed Adams set up a practice course for us and a couple of other boats joined. Notice that I am only uploading shots where we are ahead!

The shot with the 3 spinnakers is 1149 followed by Bill Hardesty (979) and Tom Hughes (1306).

When the wind kicked up, we got a hiking lesson. The first pic is Hardesty and crew, the second shows our gentler, kinder, more gentile approach. We're working on it.....

Great to have all of the measurement details out of the way. Saturday was a last minute panic for those who just arrived. We spent our time on the water which was far more relaxing and productive.

Our speed seems pretty good. We just need to control the other 84 boats around us.

Later

Measurement Day

CYC had things pretty well set up for this. Since we had the hull measurements done prior to NOOD, all that we had to do was get the boat weighed, safety equipment checked and sails measured.

The measurement team "muled" the boat to a portable crane & load cell. While they were weighing the boat we did the safety equipment check. 1149 weighed in at 1518 Kg, 10 K's (22 lb) over minimum. Crew weights are Sunday AM.

At the sail measurement tent, we checked in our 5 sails and matched them with the sail card and left them for measurement.

Tried to sail in the afternoon, but there was just no wind. Abandoned our practice at about 3:00 for a beer or two.

Joyce, Joyce! Call 911!

So it's Wednesday and a day off until measurement. Spent the day spending money at West Marine and getting organized.

Went to Target about noon to pick up some supplies and parked in the lot. We returned to the truck and started it up -- it sounded like Monster Truck II. Blaine and I dove under the truck to see what had broken and couldn't find the catalytic converter, the muffler or the oxygen sensor. Damn! In Bellingham, we don't even know that you should steal that stuff. These city crooks are good. Noon in the middle of the Target parking lot. Vroom, Vroom, we headed off to the closest Midas shop, filed a police report, a State Farm claim and parted with some $$.

Lessons learned today -

Catalytic converters cost $955 new and sell for $400 on the fence market.

A battery powered sawsall costs $250. --- you do the math!

Comprehensive insurance coverage is a good thing to have.....

Last night, we had a full moon rise over the Navy Pier fireworks display. The pix don't do it justice.

Tomorrow we go back to work.

More Action from Sunday

Photos From NOOD Last Race

That's USA1149 (bow# 68) rounding the top mark behind #65 on Sunday. The guy trying to get in on port didn't make it!

NOOD Last Day

Thunder lightning & rain greeted us for the Sunday racing. The weather radar showed a storm with winds in the 60 kt range headed for town, so the R/C gave us an indefinite shore hold. Finally about noon, we were sent out to the course for one final race.

The racing area is about 4 miles down wind from Belmont Harbor where we are based, so it's a spinnaker run to the start line. The R/C had a hard time getting things going today due to another huge righty that swept through just prior to the first start. We had a challenged front row starting position for the first start that probably been a disaster had the R/C not postponed at the start.

On the restart, we had a good position and ended up with a great lane after a short clearing tack. We ended up on the inside of the continuing right shift. The wind piped up to the high teens/low 20's on the beat and the waves were really boxy (like the worst of Post Point times 2). We rounded the top mark in 5th and headed down on a really hairy run. Arty Means from San Diego did a full on brodie about 2 boat lengths in front of us that put us in avoidance mode.

Just when we thought that we were running faster than man should go, Andy Beadsworth and his crew charged down on us, heeled to weather pumping the sails and going really fast. We held them off until the gate, but that was it. We rounded the gate in 7th and lost 5 places on the upwind to end up 12th for the race. It was a great learning experience.

Random thoughts...........

Glad we sailed this race with the old main --

The right shifts are warm, the lefts colder....

Stuff that works well at 8 kts falls apart at 25...

Switch to the heavy spin sheets....

Later..........................

NOOD Pre-Worlds Day 1

This was our peak action on the first race day. Radar predictions showed the "perfect storm" headed into the area and the R/C postponed for a couple of hours and then abandoned for the day at noon. Their concerns were either that the storm would create winds that were too strong or that the storm would kill the local breeze. I hate to lose a day's racing.

Thursday Pre NOOD

We snagged Denis Haywood, the chief measurer for the class in the parking lot and got out hull measurement done early. No problems. The most common problem according to Denis?? Wing nuts for the bulkheads.

CYC has a pretty slick setup for launching. It is a "drive through" with two hoists (see picture) that eliminates all of the trailer positioning.

Mooring 85 Etchells is a challenge. CYC has assigned each of us a mooring zone that we will keep for the duration. The boats will have to stay in the water for the entire NOOD, come out for the lay week and go back in for the Worlds. We've been trying to figure out the slime factor in 59 degree fresh water. It looks like a wipe down ever other day will be in order.

We launched and went our for a test sail. Interesting -- In the 12-14kt southeasterly that we had yesterday, the water was very confused for the first half mile from shore. Once we got outside a little, the breeze settled in. The chop feels a lot like Bellingham.

Last night, we cabbed it to the main CYC location on Monroe St. for the skippers' meeting. The NOOD is a huge regatta here, with 251 entries ranging from Tartan 10s to 70 raters. There are 51 Etchells entered, so we'll have a good taste of sailing in a crowd.

The R/C will be testing its Worlds setup -- three boats on the starting line, 9 boat length offset at the top and a leeward gate. We'll see how it goes.

We delivered the boat from the Goose Island to Chicago YC's Belmont Harbor Station which is the base for the Etchells NOOD and Worlds. There were 5-6 boats here when we arrived and another 25-30 showed up during the day. We spent the day getting the rig up sorting out strings and washing/tefloning the hull.

Ontario is here with 3 new boats. Selden has a quiver of masts sitting out for selection. It would drive me nuts to be trying to get a new boat/mast ready in a couple of days., but they have lots of help.

The hot ticket for mast stepping is a carbon gin pole. Anybody know of a spare piece of carbon rig kicking around??

The Trip

Joyce and I headed out for Chicago, Etchells in tow, iPod playing and road food at the ready. Somewhere just west of Vantage, WA (I didn’t know that there was one) KAPOW! – Trailer blowout. No sweat, we pulled off to the side of the road, got the jack, put out the triangle danger thing that we had, watched for semis passing inches from the trailer and attempted to change the tire.

Unfortunately, the wimpy jack that came with the trailer wouldn’t come close to lifting the trailer, so we called AAA only to find out that we hadn’t upgraded to full “RV/Trailer” coverage. We did find a local who would make the service trip.

I should mention that my Tracer trailer is a multi-national contraption with one set of Aussie wheels and one set on ‘Merican ones. I had made a “what are the odds” decision a couple of weeks before to only carry a spare for the Aussie wheels. Go figure. We did get if fixed.

25 miles later, just east of Vantage, WA KAPOW! Again – this time the US wheel. Fortunately, we were closer to civilization and were back on our way in an hour. Lesson learned – tires that sit in a parking lot in southern California for 5 years may not be road worthy. We put on four new tires at and bumped for a spare on a new US wheel and headed east.

Montana is a big state, maybe not as big as Texas, but it’s big. And we learned that the “big sky” is big so that you can see the hail and thunderstorms coming for a long time.

North Dakota and western Minnesota are not good places to be if you are a deer – or someone with a Bambi complex driving at 65 mph.

Our granddaughter, Gracie has an aversion to public restrooms which she communicates by saying “this place is not for me.” After making pit stops in truck stops across half the country, I now understand.

$100 in gas only gets you 200 miles down the road.

We pulled into Chicago and got the boat tucked away at Goose Island Boatyard where the boats are living until the regatta.

The beaches along Lake Shore which were cloudy, cold and windy last week are sunny and bikinied this week.

Questions from the trip --

How did the trailer hitch pin fall out?

Why do the Aussies have 4 3/8” centers on their wheels and the US 4 ½”?

Why is there always a deep mud puddle in front of the only gas pump that you can reach?

Observation - People's reaction to the Etchells declines in direct proportion to your distance from the coast.

Later……………