| 04.Nov.07 | The predictions were for lighter air today, starting at 9 knots from the NW and moving W with dropping pressure by 2 p.m. What was not predicted was how shifty the conditions would be. The RC ran the final race to a course of 310 with five legs of 1.5 miles each. It was cold and dreary again. Those who tried to time the shifts and headers, in general, failed miserably. Those who sailed through the shifts did better. As a matter of fact, MASQUERADE, who had given up hopes of winning the regatta because of falling back early, banged the right hard up the last leg to pass a passle of boats and win their second consecutive NAC regatta. On VMAX we tried to play the shifts. At times it looked like we were doing well and at times it looked like we were doing poorly. The pressure was on and off, but with each tack we were losing a couple of more boat lengths to the boats who were just sailing through all the false shifts. At one point our tactician looked at the fleet and said it was the first time he had ever seen an entire fleet all pointing in different directions. It was that bad. After racing we took the boat back to Jabin's with at least a dozen other boats. Their efficiency at getting the boats out of the water and the masts pulled was phenomenal. Jabin's more often waiting for the boats to be ready than the crews were waiting for Jabin's. On our way to the airport at 4:30 p.m. we saw GIGI being towed back to Chicago (or points unknown). Hope you have enjoyed the commentary. More insights available at Kattack.com. |
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| 03.Nov.07 | It was cold and overcast at the beginning of the day, but it warmed a little toward the end. Two races were sailed by both the Gold and Silver divisions. The first was a four legger at 2.0 miles to the north (0 degrees). The best boats hugged the shore even with the flooding current. And the left seemed to pay big dividends with lifts along the shore. In the second race the RC posted a five legger with 2.0 mile legs to the northwest (330 degrees). This put the weather mark up near the western shore of the Chesapeake below the Severn River. Again the local wisdom was to go left and the right bore no fruit that we could see. And the shifts were again rather substantial in the range of 20-30 degrees. But it was difficult to tell how long they were going to last. For the most part the wind was in the middle teens with gusts to over 20 and lulls to about 10. Overall it was an excellent sailing day. The first race saw BAT IV win in the Gold and C-JEM win in the Silver. In the second race it was LE RENARD in the Gold and C-JEM in the Silver. Tomorrow there will be one final race with both divisions still very much in play with no throwouts for the series. It was a bad day for VMAX. In the first race we did a port approach and failed to fully tack and got into irons. We fouled boats and did our 720, but could not recover with the better competition in the Gold fleet. In the second race we again got into a cluster in the starting sequence and were spit out the back. In both instances there was some bumper boats going on, but with no serious damage. Tomorrow will be a better day for us. |
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| 03.Nov.07 | Just a few more random thoughts about yesterday. First, it was cold. You could see quite a few crew with woolen hats and every was dressed to the teeth in foul weather gear. Not unlike the worst at Key West or an early spring regatta in SF. Second, all the boats mentioned below made the Gold fleet. They filled positions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 10 in the top ten. The three boats that broke in were MIRAGE at #4 (local boat), and IT and KATANA at 5 and 9, both from the mid-west. Nice work, guys! Malcolm Gefter and I are switching between helming and pit on VMAX, so #23 put us ahead of a couple of boats among my top picks. We probably have among the oldest crews on average and yes I did my Rolling Stones imitation on one of our tacks. It was a soft fall and it helped that I had my life vest on. Only a few sore spots this morning. Ready for high winds today. |
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| 02.Nov.07 | Today was a great day of J/105 racing. We ran three races (to make up for only one yesterday). And they were long races in great breeze. In the first race they set the course to 50 (NE) with 1.8 mile legs with winds in the upper teens and gusts to twenties. The second race was the same, except the wind calmed down a bit. In the third race they moved the weather mark to 40 degrees and gave us five legs with 1.2 mile legs. There was no carnage that I could see from my position on VMAX. In the first race we managed to beat a few boats, but did not have an exceptional race with the rig and sails a little too tight. But our second and third races of the day were exceptional with good starts and good decisions on the race course. We finished with 8-8 to put us in the gold division for the last two days. We were helped by good starts and good tacking decisions and good crew work. There were frequent shifts of 10-20 degrees and the trick was to figure out which ones were going to last long enough for a gain. And getting clear air was also a key. Tomorrow the fleet will be divided into Gold and Silver fleets with scores carrying forward. The Gold fleet consists of the top 36 boats and the Silver consists of the next 33 boats competing for five trophies each. The party tonight was exceptional. With live entertainment, free Gin from Bombay, and a buffet dinner everybody seemed to be having a good time. And the Kattack presentation was enjoyed by all. If you have not seen this, you should visit kattack.com and get your race player. There is much to be learned by watching your boat go around the course in the company of 34 other boats. Kattack tells you the boat speed, the angle, and gives the trails of all the boats. It shows you when you should have tacked (and didn't) or when you should not have tacked (and did). You can run it like a recording -- stopping, zooming, labelling, rewinding, seeing speeds and angles compared to other boats and much more. Go to Kattack and get the player. It's free thanks to the J/105 Class. Yesterday while we were drifting around, I was counting. I noticed that among the 69 boats there were nine with dark hulls. One red, two green, and the rest flag blue or other dark color. I noticed wands on the top of about 20 percent of the masts (a wand is the four foot extention that places the wind instrument above the upwash of the sails that can disturb the correct readings). I also calculated that we had about $7 million worth of boats out there and $1 million worth of sails. I am totally amazed at this tour de force for the J/105 Class. Thank you Fleet #3 and AYC! |
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| 01.Nov.07 | The first race went off without a hitch. We were in the first start and the predictions were for the wind to clock right and lighten from the 235 and 12-15 knots at the 11 a.m. start. And that is exactly what it did. There were quite a few boats called over early in the start for the blue and pink fleets. We started late at the boat end and almost squeezed between the RC and UNBRIDLED. But we couldn't and were forced to continue on starboard, when we wanted to protect the right. MASQUERADE must have been over early because we were ahead of them shortly after the start. But by going to the center of the course, we got more wind and got to the weather mark in good position (about 10th). Then on the downwind we gybed early and looked to be in good position going downwind as the wind clocked right, but we ran into a hole and were passed be a number of boats. On the second upwind we climbed back into the race and were in decent shape at the second top mark. We were passed shortly after rounding by a couple of boats who went higher and faster, but GIGI and VELOCE took each other up, and we passed both of them. We finished about 14th, which (at this early stage), would be good enough to put us in the Gold fleet for Saturday and Sunday. The second race was another story entirely. After all the boats finished, the wind died almost completely and the RC waited patiently for the wind to come in. The waited and waited and waited. When the wind finally came it was from the SSE and they did manage to get it underway posting a 1.0 mi, four leg course to 170. Yes, the wind came in from a different direction. We managed to be OCS despite a large number of boats to weather of us punched out well above the line. By the time we returned in light breeze, we were near the back of the pack. Then the wind lightened some more and by the time the first fleet made it to the first leeward mark, the wind was down to under 2 knots and the boats were going under 1 knot downwind. At that point the RC had seen enough and abandoned the race to everyone's glee. Not ten minutes later the wind was honking up to 20 knots from the NW (305). And they say that the weather is changeable in New England! By that time it was too late for the RC to start us off again, so they sent us in to try again another day. Tomorrow they will try to run three races to make up for the deficiency today. |
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| 31.Oct.07 | Today was a fantastic practice day, with half the fleet turning out for the three starts and one race conducted by the RC starting at 2 p.m. The first two starts were general recalls and the third was a start with many individual recalls, and considering only half the entries showed up, it was probably a good decision that was made to split the fleet into two starts of about 35 boats each. Since it was only practice none of the boats recalled went back to restart after the third practice start, and a regular four leg race ensued. The wind started to pick up around 11 a.m. and built to 15+ in the afternoon. All those who came out got a good day of practice. I was going to try to pick a top ten, but there are so many good boats here that I ended up with fourteen boats in the top ten, with other good boats left off the list. The local boats to beat will be LE RENARD, INIGO, and MAX POWER. Two from the west coast that will be tough to beat includer MASQUERADE and PERSEVERENCE. The top three from Long Island Sound are KINCSEM, GUMPTION, and ECLIPSE, all deserving of top ten mention. Two top boats from the mid-west are CONVEXITY and GIGI. The northeast is represented by SAVASANA and INDEFATIGABLE. And Canadians who deserve attention are HEY JUDE and RE-TERN. I'm sure these represent many of the seeded boats and have been placed in separate fleets so they don't have to take on the others all at once. Those fourteen will take most of the slots in the final top ten. Others are worthy but will have a hard time cracking through this group. But some will. I'll be back to report tomorrow on the results of the first day. I'm sailing on VMAX with Malcolm Gefter. Shortly after racing you will be able to follow the races on Kattack, which will be linked off the Fleet #3 regatta site. |
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| 30.Oct.07 | I'll be leaving for Annapolis tomorrow morning and will do my best to give you some insights as to what it is like sailing in a fleet of 69 boats.
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