Phoenix regatta 2008- RECAP 2 of 2

[Five Cubed Skipper]

Here's the puzzler answer:
Keith appeared in his friend Joe's vehicle (Joe works at Ruth's Chris
and apparently Keith was not thrown out) with about 10 minutes to
spare. Though he was looking quite wobbly when he first emerged into
the sunlight. So #102 made a strong reappearance on day two of the
regatta.

here are the highlights:

1) there was a southerly sea breeze! so there was racing to be done!
2) our PRO got the message and we leaped in the start order to 1st!
Ahead of the thistles and lightings!
3) there was no confusing pre-race briefing!
4) I broke my spinnaker pole in a 5-6 powerboat wake on the way to the
race course. (It was nice breeze8-10 out of the south, so we beat our
way up to be able to reach down to the racing area. A large power
boat left us a big wake, we hit it on a broad reach with the kite
going probably 5-7 knots through he watter, not killing it, but goin'
well enough to smack the bow down into the trough of the wake, and
bang the trough pretty hard. the kite popped, and when it did the pole
cracked upwards and to the port side right on the load line the kite
was putting on it! Great. Discussions and a jury rig resulted in our
sailing the regatta with the pole jammed in about a foot and a half,
so that we could still fly the kite. I tied off the pole extension
line and we tested the kite a bit more. We were witnessed immediately
after the break by Marc in #146, however apparently he had his own
technical difficulties and retired before racing after discovering a
dangerously thin fore stay.)
5) despite the broken pole, WE and the other J18s (besides Marc in
#146) made it out to the course and RC immediately set a four leg
windward leeward course.
6) I got a lousy start in the first race but we made a good call
ggettign the right early and gained on Rick (#132) and Chris (#180),
grabbing an early lead. WE didn't give the lead up and covered
covered covered.
7) as luck would have it Chris (#180) ran his Spin halyard to the top
of his mast, so he was forced to either dump the boat to retrieve it,
or be relegated to the ranks of non-spin racing for the day.
8) In the early race with the breeze not yet built to full force,
Chris suffered through and took a 7th. A hard way to follow up a 2
from Saturday.
9) the Boys on #102 after drinking half the keg and Keith barely not
posting, sailed well to a 3rd pace in the first race, concentrating on
boat handling and having the pure luxury of tell tales that apparently
had been missing in day one of the regatta. Plus, really, what did
they have to lose? Last place, well they certainly did that!
10) some tight racing between the 4-7 boats shook out the results of
Nate (#116) in 4th, Bill (#186) in 5 and Eric (#151)taking 6th with
solid boat handling and down wind sailing.
10) the chop and wind built after a quick first race. the first race
only took a 1/2 hour and RC decided to lengthen the course a hair for
the next races.
11) For race #2, I got buried again at the start and could get a leg
ahead on Rick who nailed the start at the boat end. We went right
again to try the same ploy but Rick stayed on top of us. I did my
best, to get by on starboard but a well executed lee-bow by Rick left
us eating garbage and we had to settle to tack back to the right. That
lead producing slam dunk, turned out to be all Rick needed to hold us
off and cover us for th rest of the race. Once he let us get back to
the left, we drag raced out to the layline, before, he tacked for the
mark and lead all the way there. We split going down wind and WE gave
away more distance by heading to the left side headed down wind. Rick
sailed well upwind, tacking to stay in the same breeze we were in the
whole way up the leg. we narrow the gap slightly but rick still have
5-6 boats on us at the top mark. it was nip and tuck headed back down
to the finish and we did our darndest to catch some different wind
heading out right for a one jibe to the finish strategy, but Rick
hedged though and caught good enough pressure to hold us off at the
pin. We had to take one more jibe just before th finish and Rick
nipped us by 2-3 boatlengths. This narrowed the standings to a mere 2
point lead at teh time. So we resolved to not let any boats between us
and Rick. I confess it's much harder to watch what is going on with
the fleet behind you wen you are in 2nd rather than first, so I can't
testify to what went down, exactly. But Chris and Eric had an epic
spin non-spin battle on the last leg with Chris pulling out a hard
earned 6th place by some combination of his crew hanging off the
shrouds holding the jib, and him hiking out on the other side. Nate
(#116) sailed well to a comfortable 3rd and Bill (#186) got it in gear
to take 4th. Bob (#102) struggled a bit and took 5th.
12) Though Chris was struggling down-wind, He'd been pretty much on
each start. So It was him I was hoping to find at the RC boat as Rick
was following me reaching on Port tack down the line with 25 seconds
till the start. sure enough, Chris was right on time and had luckily,
for me, left enough room for me to get below him and tack back under
the RC boat. It was a bit of a moving pick on Rick, but effective,
since Rick would have to perform the same maneuver as me, but 5-10
seconds later. We were a hair late for the gun, but lucky that no one
else in the fleet was closing the hole behind Chris on starboard. In
the end, we were able to bury Rick in some dirty air right through his
tack and stay on top of him. we worked up to windward a bit on Chris
and waited for a clear lane to cover Rick who went back to the right
since we were in his breeze. Some solid covers later and Chris nad
Rick do ing a bit of duelign themselves, left us with a nice lead and
a clear port tack into the windward mark. we played conservative for
the rest fo the race. That back fired as we got way out of sink on the
first downwind leg allowing Rick with a nift bit of down wind
"personal" breeze to pass us to windward and come into the leeward
mark ahead.
13) I jammed the boat up on starboard to get a little room at the
right side of the mark and we had a great douse and jibe. I put the
bow right inside Rick's transom and the mark, and a knot in his spin
halyard gave us the window to sail through as he left enough room by
slipping sideways a hair through the rounding. Rick's was the next
aggressive move. without having his kite put all away (or his pole
retracted) Rick came up towards us and eventually, through a tack, but
we had just enough speed and were blanketing him enough that a foot
and a half of his pole swung between my tiller and the boom, but
didn't hit us. Which was good. since Rick had indeed made goo on his
"no contact" promise of Saturday morning. Rick continued to have
problems getting the kite down and, we legged out and loose covered
for the rest of the race.
14) the rest of the fleet apparently was learning that Chris (#180)
had figured how to make very good VMG towards the leeward mark with
just the jib up.
15) Chris finished strong with a #4, and Bob and Keith in #102 sailed
a strong race in the building breeze to take 3rd.
16) Nate hung on despite a jab or two from Bill's pole for 5th, and
Eric cruised across for the final finish of the Phoenix Cup Regatta.
17) the out of towners were consulted and consensus to head in was
reached, given a long trip back to Pittsburgh and Mertztown was in
store.
18) Decent breeze got everyone back to the lifts by probably 2:30 or
so.
19) Susan (Chris' crew) presciently figured that we would drink all
the keg beer and that reserves were a good idea. So the fleet enjoyed
a case of Penn Pilsner from the steel city as we dropped the rigs and
waited for the awards ceremony. Thanks SUSAN!
20) The final standings were tight for the 3 and 4th place hardware:
http://www.severnsailing.org/results/2008/914j18.shtml Bob and Chris
actually TIED for 4th with 19 points each, but Chris snagged the tied
breaker by beating Rick on day one, and Bob couldn't match his 2nd.
Bob sailed a Strong second day, but after the snowman on day 1, it was
still an impressive showing. Yet not quite as impressive as Chris'
who sailed 3 of 4 races without putting up his kite! Great job, Chris!
you guys showed steady improvement with 7,6,4 on day two! Nate sailed
consistently and didn't blow any races us too badly, finishing clear
in third with 7 points. Rick who had been getting the better all
season of us guys on #125, didn't have the same magic and finished
second with 8 points. and thanks to my crew (Jeremy) and solid boat
handling and decent enough tactics, Five Cubed won the Inaugural
Phoenix Regatta with 5 points.
21) Hardware went 4 deep and Chris and Susan stuck around for a group
shot of 7 of 8 boats. Amy and Bill efficiently hit the road, and we
only got picture of the them headed out the gate!
22) Thanks to Bob, Jeremy and Rick and Mel Doptis who help put
everything together. Bob for the trophies, Jeremy for the T-Shirt
designs- which are still available if you want them- Rick for carving
out the date with SSA and reaming the appropriate parties to have our
PRO get everything straight for day two and Mel for arranging the Beer
(go for Yingling next time MEL- it's even the name of a boat!) and
Food Saturday!

Please watch for next years plans which ought to be coming together as
far as a date shortly.

-Brian