505 sailing on Mission Bay

[Channing Hamlet]

Five boats made it to the start line yesterday for great sailing on Mission Bay.

Dan Merino and crew

Bill McKinney and Stine 

Gary Lee and Dan Downing

Kris Shand and her daughter

Me and Fred 

Very warm day by Mission Bay standards with temperatures in the parking lot at the club over 80 degrees.  The day started with a nice shin scrape on the mainsheet swivel and a shoe full of blood.  After recovering from that, we enjoyed three tour of the bay and tower finish races with breeze starting in the 8 knot range and gradually lightening.  We of course enjoyed the typical puffs and shifts that Mission Bay is known for.

Congrats to Gary and Dan for winning the day with a 1-4-1 followed closely by me and Fred with a 2-2-2-.  Results are published on the MBYC site (Results).  Here is what I remember:

Race 1:  The course was set for two laps with a finish at the tower.  The race committee set a very very long starting line which made it relatively easy for all of us to get away from the line clean and with speed.  At the first windward mark Gary came in on port and managed to tack just inside us and we rounded in second with Dan hot on our heels.  We did not have a great set and lost some ground to Gary on the leeward leg.  I think the rest of this race was spent following Gary.

Thanks to Dan we were able to enjoy a beer on the way to the start of race 2.

Race 2:  The RC shortened the line and we did not get a very good start, with Gary rolling over us to windward.  We tacked away and wound up in last place at the first mark.  On the first downwind leg we manged a quick set and caught some nice puffs on the way to the leeward mark.  I think it was this rounding where we had an inside overlap on Dan.  After I looked up from dousing the kite, there were suddenly two Finns that magically appeared from nowhere and Dan was right next to us.  I am not sure how it happened, but somehow there were no collisions.  We had a terrible rounding and a very slow tack to try to get clear air.  I think Gary's boom may have hit our shroud as well, but I was too busy to notice.

On the next leg, Dan stuck us with a lee bow on the layline and forced us to tack twice to get around the mark.  We managed to catch a nice puff on the next downwind and catch back up.

At the final windward mark, Bill and Stine (after removing the cobwebs from Fever in the first race) rounded just behind Gary and when Gary decided to sail an extra leg, sailed into an easy victory.  We launched the kite on a close reach and were gaining on Fever ... but had some issues with the launcher line slipping in the cleat and had to douse becasue the pole was resting on the headstay..  It amazing how much a carbon pole can bend without breaking.

We sailed into second place just ahead of Dan.

Race 3:  The RC gave us a one lap course.  I think Gary lead from start to finish.  We started to windward and slower than Dan and got to enjoy some bad air until we could tack away.  I think we managed to pass Dan on the downwind leg to mark 6 and then tried to figure out how to catch Gary ... but he kept a loose cover on us and we managed a second place.

After the racing we enjoyed a beer on the back deck and did a debrief.  I think the consensus was that finding the shifts and puffs was critical.  We were set up at 25.8 on the rake with ram moving up as the wind got lighter and I think this helps keep the top telltale on the main flying.  I learned this spring at the ABYC tuning session that small changes in jib trim as the wind changes, have a huge impact on keeping the boat moving.  We tried to keep the leach telltales stalling about 50% most of the time and were constantly adjusting sheet tension to the keep the tell tales flying.  The other thing that really matters is hiking hard and keeping the boat flat in the puffs ... which Gary and Dan did very well to keep speed.

The fleet's next event is September 21 short courses at MBYC.

There are a couple local boats for sale and some available as loaners.  If you are reading this and interested in coming out, get in touch.

Channing

Channing Hamlet
channin...@gmail.com
858.342.4939