Course: A2
Sails: EP Sails 169LPgenoa and Interrupt main with single reef. EP Sails spinnaker.
Skybird used full main and #1 genoa...too much sail for the conditions despite the number of people aboard, they had trouble holding the boat at a reasonable amount of heel. With only three aboard, Constance was well heeled over, dipping the rail.
Race committee boat was anchored outside and a tad downstream from Horn Point.
From watching other fleets start, it appeared that the right side of the course, had less wave action and nearly as much wind as the left and center. Avoiding larger wind driven waves which severely slow the boat was a priority. To that end, decided to start at the boat on starboard and tack over to port early. Approached the line early and had to burn nearly minute. Powered up with about 30 seconds to go and started about 5 to 10 seconds late, above and a bit behind Skybird, and tacked over to port quite soon.
During the first tack to port, the jib sheet caught on one of the mast fittings, either a cleat or the double cheek block. Turned the boat more than needed during the tack, perhaps due to the distraction of the fouled sheet, calling out the issue, and watching attempts to free the sheet. (The sheet catching and oversteering happened more than once.) Allowing the jib sheets to be thrown around wildly as the sail flogs before filling on the new tack allows the sheet to catch. Took Zach a bit to understand that he needed to free the sheet from the mast. This mess was caught on tape by the SpinSheet film boat. During the race, the jib sheet caught on the mast at least once more, if not twice. Its possible to reduce the chances of this by maintaining a bit of tension on the sheets so that they are not free to whip around so freely. Skybird maintained starboard tack from the start onward. Once we straightened out the mess, Constance was moving well at five to five and half knots, matching or exceeding the polars for 12 and 16 knots true. We were seeing as much as 18kts apparent.
Tack back to starboard as we approached the shore, without a depth gauge, there's a definite tendency to tack earlier. At the first cross, Skybird was well ahead, perhaps six boatlengths. We had excellent speed on the starboard board, often well above polars. High tide was about 1745 at the Naval Academy, so it should not have played a major role in our speed at any time during the race. Weather buoy showed less than one-tenth of a knot for the duration of the race.
At the second cross, we had gained significantly on Skybird closing the gap to about three boatlengths. At the third cross, the gap had re-opened to about six, in part due to fouling the jib sheet on the mast again and taking too long to clear the mess. Constance was measurably slower on port tack than on starboard...due to driving or set-up. Don't know. This difference has been noticeable for some years.
On the last starboard tack, approaching the turning mark, we encountered well developed wind driven waves that impacted boatspeed. It is these waves that we sought to avoid as much as possible by keeping to the right side of the course on the beat. As we past Lake Ogleton, the wind clocked a little to the south, as expected, allowing us to lay the turning mark with about a boatlenght to spare. Skybird overstood the mark rather severely. We should have been able to round tightly and close the door on Skybird as there was no overlap, but slow movements and reactions aboard Constance saw us take the turn quite widely. Both Skybird and Constance hoisted spinnaker at nearly the same time with Skybird slightly ahead and less than a boatlength to windward. On the run to R"8", we were joined by an Etchells 30 which was never able to separate from us. During the run in, crossed the stern of Skybird, too close, unnecessarily so. From the windward position, we blanketed their sails for a bit then heated up slightly and moved into the lead. Solid six to seven knots on the run, again faster then indicated on the polars. Averaged 5.9kts, 1.68nm in 17 minutes, for the run, including the time to set and douse...averaged 6.5kts (1.08nm in 10 minutes) after removing the slow time at the start of the run and the slow time at the douse.
Decided to drop spinnaker a bit early, more than 50 yards, hoping for a quiet, uneventful drop. Worked out well. Rounded R"8" inside and abeam of Skybird. Sailed a bit high of course to separate from Skybird as well as hoping to draw ahead as we would be able to focus fully on sailing fast without the distraction of another boat close alongside. The J/30 , Avita which had sailed the A5 course was a couple lengths above us and ahead. Fast board to SC"1". Pulled ahead of Skybird by two boatlengths due to responding more quickly as the wind changed.
Was able to round SC"1" closely and sail above the about half the mooring field. As is the case normally, the wind was quite variable in Spa Creek, with the apparent wind dead ahead at times as the boat's momentum carried us faster than the weak breeze behind the buildings. Had to tack mid-mooring field as we could not clear all the boats. Makes me wonder if it might be better to deliberately sail below the first row of moored boats, doing so would force a tack in Spa Creek versus the (forlorn?) hope of making the finish without tacking. Painful tack in Spa Creek. Skybird went below the first row of boats and pulled ahead. After we tacked back to port for the final board to the finish, Skybird crossed ahead of us by one boatlength. We were able to make the finish line on the second port tack board in Spa Creek in company, slightly behind, the two J/30's Jaguar and Ragdoll. Skybird might have tried to tack on top of us as we passed them.
Avita, Jaguar and Ragdoll finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th among the J/30's.
T2P.tv video.
GPX formatted track. Estimate distance: 6.01nm, estimated average speed: 5.1kts, estimated duration: 1:10
