We raced around the island today. The race started in about 10-11 knots, and built to 16-17 knots by the time we sailed around and started coming back upwind.
We started on the boat end of the line, to windward of Rambler. After a few minutes of sailing upwind, we had to take a clearing tack. Once we found our mode we felt comfortable upwind but as we exited the channel, the Wizard (our old boat) had some more favorable current and got around us before the top mark. Both boats set overlapped with each other, sailing high angles to try and stay clear of the slower boats that had started before us. We gybed countless times all the way down the channel. Half way down, a small tear appeared in the bottom part of the kite. We kept a close eye on the tear and after a few more gybes, it started to get worse. So we decided to gybe peel to the next kite, Although the maneuver was a bit noisy as we are still getting settled as a crew on the new boat, it went relatively smoothly. On the whole run we kept trading places with Shockwave and Wizard. All the boats are incredibly close and the racing this weekend will be close, especially in the light air. On the long beat back to the finish line, we split from the fleet and made a very nice gain that won us the race. Rambler was first to finish, with us crossing the line in second but winning the race on corrected.
It was nice to win the first race but we are under no illusion that it will be easy. In the light air, our competition is very quick and will be very hard to beat. The forecast for this weekend is for light air so we are hoping that the sea breeze will fill in nicely.
Racing coming soon
This weekend is the NYYC annual regatta. Friday will be the Around Island Race, followed by 2 days of windward leewards on Saturday and Sunday. The last couple of days we have been working towards getting the boat ready for inshore racing. That means getting our string line system functional and all the little inshore systems sorted. We have been working on mark rounding’s, sets, pre start maneuvers… The team is looking forward to finally racing the boat and seeing how we line up.
Good day of breeze
Today was a good confidence builder for the team. We headed out in 20 knots and a very confused sea just outside. The breeze slowly built to 30 knots over the course of an hour as we sailed upwind to get enough runway to have a good run downwind.
We sailed hard upwind and took a reef as the breeze built to 26 knots. The reefing went smoothly and worked as we hoped.
As we approached the top we brought the A3 up on deck and began connecting it. That was a fun experience as we launched off a few good waves as the breeze built to 30 knots. We bore away, hoisted the A3, unfurled it, and off we went. Plenty of water came over the deck as we punched through some good sized waves. We sailed with this set up for a bit and then furled and sailed with the jib and main with the boat speed sitting at 20-24 knots.
After that, we called it a day and headed in.
Sailing again
We have been sailing for a couple of days now to continue our testing and training. The systems are starting to work and we are slowly starting to look at our crew maneuvers. Some of the sails are a handful, such as our A4. That will be a monster to hoist, drop, and pack. We are hoping for more wind in the coming days so that we can really stretch our legs and get the boat in some big wind and wave conditions.
2nd Session
The boat has been back in the shed for a weeks now getting finished and fixed from the last sea trial session. The list is long and it had been lots of work by Pirate and his team to get the boat going again. The current plan is to be sailing the boat again by this Sunday. We have quite a bit of stuff to do get the boat race ready. We have to build our confidence in the boat, get familiar with the angles and our sails, get comfortable with all the systems, and get the boat fully ready to race offshore. So stay tuned for a few updates in the coming weeks as we work up the boat and get it race ready.
Sea trials video
Take a look at a really nice video from Billy Black from our sea trials.
More sailing
Yesterday was again blown out but today we had a good day on the water. We got off the dock around 8:30 in a brisk, cold breeze. After hoisting the main, we hoisted the jib top and genoa staysail and had our first look at those. We sorted out some sheeting points for the Jib Top and sorted out the GS system. The GS goes on a lock in the mast and then gets tensioned with a ram at the tack, so we had a few adjustments to make it work. There are a few more things to sort out to get that sail up quickly. Then we hoisted the A3 and got a good look at that. We are using a top down furling system for the A3 and so far it seems to work well. This system should make the sail more user friendly and not have the horrendous packing job the A3 was on the old boat. We then sailed upwind for a while and then turned back toward Newport with the A3. Again, the A3 seemed to perform well. We tried a few different techniques to connect and hoist it. Tomorrow we will continue working on the main reef system and we will also start looking at different options for certain sail changes.
Doogie
Sailing Photography
More sailing
We were not able to sail yesterday due to too much wind. We made up for it today with a range of conditions allowing us to really give the boat a good test. She passed with flying colors. More systems to test tomorrow.
Trials, day 2
We had a good second day of sea trialing today. Sailing in 20 knots allowed us to load the boat and rig more than the previous day. It all went really well and everyone was satisfied with the outcome. We are still tuning the mast and keeping a close eye on all the systems. We have a small issue with our outhaul being controlled but we should have that solved tomorrow morning. It is supposed to get quite windy tomorrow afternoon, so boat call is 7:30 am and head out as soon as the boat is ready. We will continue to look at more sails and hope to be able to get a kite up. That will open a whole new can of checks: bowsprit, topmast, sheet sheaves…
The body of water we are sailing is about to get a whole lot smaller!
Doogie
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- …
- 57
- Next Page »
