Newport Regatta Report

[wthu...@gmail.com]

I think the story of the event is a youth movement.  1st and 3rd were both young teams sailing the boat well.  The combined ages of some of the teams were definitely below several individual competitors, me included. We'll start there:

1st - Ian Mathiesen and Trevor Davis

3rd - Christian Voyer and Luke Strickland

I snuck into 2nd sailing with Ben Greenfield.  We were almost immediately, more on that in a minute, on the pace after a bit of a 505 break for Ben.

We tried the Vakaros starting/tracking systems and opinions were mixed.  I'll say this - regatta reports get a lot longer when you can replay the races... (Tracker here: https://vakaros-racesense.web.app/watch/RYXdovgfaTlhgVKZrYHs/5o5?live=true)

Conditions were "classic Newport Regatta." That is not "classic Newport" which I'd define as a nice sea breeze that allows trapezing.  We got light southerlies that did not bring much trapezing.  Some predictions had it getting into the teens Saturday but we didn't really see that.  Buoy data claims we got a gust to 13 but the entire day was maybe 8, give or take.  Great job to RC and Sail Newport communicating and holding ashore while it was way down and all over the place.  Once the southerly filled in we launched and went north of the Newport Bridge and got 3 good races in for the breeze we had with a pretty good ebb through the second race.

Race 1: Good start for us off the the line, yep line starts with the Vakaros systems, but we were the meat in the sandwich.  We started to weather of Adam/Craig while Ian/Trevor were going well in the lane to weather of us and they got over the top.  I never really felt good about the jib setup: too full, not sheeted hard enough while closing the top off, and you can see it in the tracking.  We were lower and not quite as fast as everyone else.  We had the jib up/down all the way off but still couldn't get there.  Craig/Adam and Ian/Trevor had a good battle all the way around with Ian/Trevor sneaking by on the last downwind to take the win.

Race 2:  We got ourselves sorted between races, breeze was still 8ish but we found that the jib up/down was just sticky (note to boat owners: sail your boat) and once we got it well eased we were much happier with our jib shape.  We won the pin and were now on the pace, pushing left into the more favorable current ebbing upwind.  Adam/Craig eventually tacked out and hooked into a good righty that took them into the lead at the weather mark and they defended well from there.  The right shift stayed in and even playing into the current couldn't get us past them.  On the final run the breeze dropped a bit and it turned into a game of staying in the pressure.  Adam/Craig defended well as Christian/Luke charged and Ian/Trevor made a move inside while Mike/Duane drove the chasing pack high.  Win to Adam/Craig, lots of boats right on their heels.

Race 3: The ebb was pretty much gone but we had no reason not to work the left.  We won the pin with Mike/Duane to weather of us. They couldn't live there so they kicked our butt, reaching through to get clear and then working back around us to lead at the weather mark. (editors note: the universe is conspiring as Sailing world sent me this story today - The Reach-Through Escape: One Way to a Better Lane | Sailing World)  So Mike/Duane lead at the weather mark with a bunch of us close behind.  Downwind not much changed, Adam/Craig were the first to gybe out but everyone went shortly thereafter and all got to the gate about the same time, Ian/Trevor and Adam/Craig opted to head left so Mike/Duane covered after rounding the left gate before us.  We extended right since we figured the left wasn't great and we'd seen some righties.  That didn't quite work as we found some lighter spots and the top boats paired up toward the weather mark and we all rounded close.  Downwind it was a pressure game and Ian/Trevor won out.

Craig led a great debrief Saturday night after putting up a 2/1/2 to lead, once we got away from the band.  We had a lot of discussion of the racecourse, setup (to include our jib foolishness), and moding downwind.  There was consensus was that you had to be pretty aggressive about changing between pole forward and building apparent in the light vs squaring and biting low in the pressure.  There was no consensus on crew directly holding the guy/sheet vs squaring through a cleat or block or something.

Sunday. 2nd verse same as the first, except lighter and choppier. It was a frustrating day in a lot of ways, one might say Annapolis-like conditions.  Ebbing all day, the breeze teased us a little early but wound up a touch lighter than Saturday.  This is getting way too long so I'll sum up by saying lighter crews who could dig a little deeper downwind and could keep the boats going all of the time with the chop did well.  We were at 25'9" all day and just tried to sail shifts/fleet/current tactically.  Ian/Trevor did it the best putting up a 1/1/2/1 to walk away with it.  We snuck by a couple boats to slide into second and the Canadian team of Christian/Luke sailed well to sneak by Adam/Craig into 3rd.  Good for them to hit a season goal of being on the podium in an American event.

Ultimately, great competition throughout the event. As always a small bobble or mistake could cost a good number of boats.  Great to have new and old faces in the boats.

Full results here:

https://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative/50010

Ted

[Craig Thompson]

Great report Ted. Excited about the youth movement in the 505 class.

___

Craig Thompson

+1 603 918 1771 (mobile) 
iqc...@gmail.com

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