6/22 Training Event
I arrived at the club around 5:45 to survey the situation and see whether to go sailing or work on the boat. The forecast from the way cool wind site was for a southerly to fill in at around 10 kts in the evening. This appeared to be happening. My driver, an SSA summer jr. program instructor named John Loe, said that the wind had been flakey all day, so I was thinking we'd do boat work. It was hot. When I got to the club though some breeze appeared to be filling in so we decided to rig. Keith Davids and Mike Coe were on hand both rigging boats. John and I hit the water first and headed out to mid harbor, then put the kite up and came back in to reconnect with the other guys. Then we all headed out past the spider, set kites and did some gybing practice. Conditions were full on wire running towards whitehall bay. It was beautiful. Then we took kites down and did upwind speed tuning back up towards Bay Ridge. There was a lot of back and forth as we each adjusted our boats and driving technique, but nobody was squirted out the back. Once we got near shore we put kites back up and went down again. By this time the breeze was somewhat lighter so not much wire running. But there were some nice waves running and we practiced riding those as we came in. We were on the dock around 8:30, after a beautiful sunset. It was an epic night for sailing.
The one big lesson I took away from the evening:
We pulled ram way down (-2 or so, with rake at 3'3") in the moderate air but big chop. This really helped us to make the middle of the sail look fuller and get the leech to hook. I had not done that before, but it really seemed to work.
The one big lesson I took away from the evening:
We pulled ram way down (-2 or so, with rake at 3'3") in the moderate air but big chop. This really helped us to make the middle of the sail look fuller and get the leech to hook. I had not done that before, but it really seemed to work.
posted by J Bergquist at 4:24 AM
2 Comments:
Davids/Ostbye
skipper 165
Crew 220?
Rondar 8850
Superspar M2 mast
North Kevlar/mylar main, North Dacron jib, unknown kite
Segelsport Jess molded CB
Segelsport Jess molded rudder?
Meller/Coe
skipper 175?
Crew 185
Rondar 8776
Proctor D mast
North Kevlar/mylar main, 2004
North Dacron jib, old
North V8S spinnaker "The poor bastard kite" .. a slightly chicken version of the 2004 V8
Waterat HA3-540 CB
Waterat HA rudder, circa 2000
Loe/Bergquist
skipper 160?
Crew 190?
Lindsay 6987
Proctor D mast
North 3DL mainsail, early 2006
North Dacron jib (oldish)
North extended chicken
Waterat old standard CB
Waterat old standard rudder
John Torgeson couldn't make it, but Keith teamed up with SSA Junior Program director Brent Ostbye. College star (and SSA junior program instructor) John Loe drove J's boat with J on the wire. Ali Meller/Mike Coe were out in 8776 using their "best sails not shipped to the worlds".
Conditions were rather better than the forecast, as we were trapezing on the way out, and wire running and gybing downwind (if we had been racing, we might have chosen to go low some of the time, but wire running was way more fun). The three teams lined up and went upwind for miles, with a couple of good runs, including one all the back to the club. It was just about the longest day of the year, and we used virtually all the daylight available to us. We sailed back admiring the sunset, packed up the boats at dusk, and drove to Davis' for refreshment in the dark.
Keith/Brent and Ali/Mike were both fast upwind at times, with one team or the other having the advantage depending on the conditions. Starboard tack was almost directly into the chop, while port was more across the chop. The ride back from Tolly Point was great, as the shoal apparently increases the size of the waves, and we were riding them all the way to the shoal pole.
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