Thursday, August 04, 2005

Charleston Yachting

Charleston Yachting
Wednesday Night Race 4 Series 2:

Hoodoo Crew: Ric, Deb, Rando, Dan, Katy, Ben, Jim, Randy

Wind 7-11 knots ESE; Current Flooding
Course #9 8.5 NM BP, R2, BP, R2, R4 Finish

The first leg to BP was a fetch with our TWA at about 60 degrees. The dock end of the line was slightly favored so goal was to start down to leeward in clear air and make sure we were on the line with speed. The rest of the class tended to favor the windward pin end of the line allowing us and Emocean (J120, to leeward) to get off the line with good speed. Emocean quickly worked out and away while we consolidated and sailed up in front the class. Emocean rounded BP first while we followed in second about four boat lengths behind. We rounded BP and went very hard on the wind (almost pinching) to make sure we were to windward of the boats rounding BP behind us. We felt the right side was going to have better current relief and the wind direction was expected to shift right as well. If we could maintain our height the boats rounding after us would have to tack off to the left to clear their air. We succeeded and Emocean and Hoodoo continued up the right as long as we had enough water. Meanwhile Temptress (SR33OB) continued off to the left. Emocean was first to tack back left (I don’t think they have working depth sounder) while we had some more room we continued right towards the James Island shore. We tacked well inside of Emocean and started sailing back out on starboard tack, unfortunately the wind was now swinging left giving Temptress some significant leverage and we forced to continue on starboard while looking for more space to tack back to right. We were holding our own against Emocean but Temptress was now leading on the left. We dug back to right and tacked backed left short of the starboard tack layline. With the incoming current it was too difficult to call the layline at a distance so we worked back and got the left of Temptress and Emocean setting up about 50 yards to leeward of the layline. We had to duck the starboard tack Emocean and rounded R2 in third with Temptress clear ahead in first. Emocean jibe set at R2 while we bored away and set. We gained on Emocean and they proceeded to jibe back to leeward of us onto starboard. We continued down the run to close to Middle Ground and jibe over to port to back into the more favorable current. We jibed two more times staying the middle of course while Temptress worked the right and Emocean went to starboard tack layline. Temptress extended her lead to about 2 minutes while Emocean kept her one boat length lead over us. In our second rounding of BP the jib halyard was accidentally released causing Hoodoo to sail low while we sorted things out giving several boat lengths back to Emocean. We continued to work the right sided of the course and the wind was now lighting up to about 8 knots. We used our backstay tension to adjust the entry of genoa easing in the light stuff and tensioning in the puffs, it was obvious the velocity of the wind was trending down. Hoodoo excels upwind in winds under 10 and we closed in on Emocean. Three quarters up the second beat Emocean crossed Hoodoo and tacked to cover but tacked too late allowing Hoodoo to sail through. We felt we wanted the left and we tucked up under Emocean sending them back to right. Unfortunately there was more breeze back to the right and Emocean was able to cross us easily as we came back towards the starboard tack layline. We tacked onto starboard a little too quickly and the combination of bad air from Emocean and incoming current we had to shoot the mark to avoid tacking again. We rounded and had a nice bare away set with Emocean a good five to seven boat lengths ahead. We seemed to sail a little deeper and closed on Emocean I did not feel we would be able sail around her to weather so we just stayed close knowing that they give us a couple minutes on corrected time. I think as the wind lightened both Hoodoo and Emocean where both guilty of sailing too deep. We eventually jibed onto port in search of more favorable current and Emocean followed a minute later. We gained initially than Emocean appeared to have slightly been breeze to the right. Meanwhile Temptress sailed all the way to the port tack layline maybe even over standing a bit but still managing to put another minute on us. We approached R4 from the starboard tack layline several boat lengths behind Emocean. The leg from R4 to the finish was a beam reach that had enough velocity to allow Emocean to leg out slightly and beat us across the finish line by 25 seconds. With the wind velocity on a downward trend the leads boat only got richer as the night progressed and we easily saved our time over the third place boat Wrinkles (Olsen 30).

The keys to the race as with most, was the start and first leg to BP. If you can get to BP in clear air ahead of the traffic you have much better control strategically and tactically. Keep you eye on the wind pressure sailing out of pressure against an adverse current is a killer. A pretty famous sailor once said racing sailboats is easy “get out in front and extend your lead”. Nice job Temptress.


Randy Draftz
www.charlestonyacting.com

Charleston Yachting

Charleston Yachting
TOUGH COMPETITION ON FRONT ROW OF ROLEX FASTNET GRID

August 4, 2005

There is more than one way to win the Rolex Fastnet Race. One is to be fastest around the 608-mile course, to be first past the post in Plymouth. This Sunday the battle for line honours is likely to come down to a high-speed duel between two Antipodean Maxis, Skandia Wild Thing and ICAP Maximus. Another way to win the Rolex Fastnet is under the IRC handicap system, and this is a possibility open to almost all of the 286 boats competing in the fleet this year - which, by the way, is the largest fleet to compete since 1979.

While the theoretical possibility exists for any boat to win, many of those 286 crews have not come to Cowes with thoughts of victory, but simply to take part in one of the great ocean racing classics. One team with its eye very much on handicap success, however, is the newly launched Irish TP52 Patches, owned by Eamon Conneely. With a crack crew headed up by two double Olympic medallists, skipper Ian Walker and helmswoman Shirley Robertson, this lightweight 52-footer has been tearing up the Solent over the past week at Skandia Cowes Week.

The measure of her dominance these past few days has taken the racing world by storm. After all, the TP52 is not designed specifically to the IRC rule and yet its handicap performance is proving staggeringly competitive. Robertson, enjoying a break from Olympic campaigning in small keelboats, is loving her job at the wheel of Patches. "She is probably the most responsive yacht I've ever sailed," she says. "As soon as you crack her off the breeze, she lights up and takes off. If we get reaching conditions in the race, then I think we can do well."

That too, is the assessment of Patches by Jeremy Robinson, helmsman of one of the TP52's chief rivals for IRC honours, Nick Lykiardopulo's 55-footer Aera. "In downwind conditions, Patches will be off, we won't even see her," admits Robinson. "But if we get a lot of upwind work then we could do well." Aera certainly proved her ability to tough it through the rough stuff in a wild and windy Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race at the end of last year, when Lykiardopulo's team beat a fleet of 116 boats on IRC handicap.

The Rolex Fastnet Race brings back the winning team from downunder, with 11 of the 15 Hobart crew reunited under former Volvo Ocean Race skipper Jez Fanstone for an assault on the Fastnet. "We've got a very strong team, four very good drivers which is vital in a race like this," says Robinson. "But you also need the luck of the weather in a race like this. All you can do is put the bits in place and see if it works for you."

While the two big swing-keeled Maxis are primarily gunning for line honours, Robinson has not ruled them out of the handicap race. "Looking at the weather, it could suit the big boats. If they get around the [Fastnet] Rock and there is a shutdown in the wind, then you could quite easily see one of the Maxis win line honours and handicap."

Then again, there are a number of interesting machines that could upset the predicted dominance of the 100-foot Maxis, not least the Volvo Open 70 Telefonica Movistar. Skipper Bouwe Bekking and his crew set the 24-hour monohull record of 535 miles earlier this year, so what she yields in length to the Maxis, she may well make up for in her awesome power-to-weight ratio. A fleet of 14 Open 60s will also enjoy a high-speed ride to the Fastnet Rock and back, with a number of round-the-world specialists such as Mike Golding, Nick Moloney, Marc Thiercelin and Bernard Stamm among the line-up.

Aside from the desire to win, the reasons for competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race are many and varied. Some sailors think of it in terms of their 'personal Everest'. For Simon Le Bon, lead singer with pop group Duran Duran, it is a matter of unfinished business. Twenty years ago he and his crew were rescued by the RNLI after his Maxi yacht Drum capsized in stormy weather off the coast of Falmouth. Now reunited with the same boat, renamed Arnold Clark Drum after her current owner, and with much of his old crew, Le Bon is back to complete the course. One of his reasons for competing is to bring more awareness to the volunteer body that saves hundreds of lives around Britain's coastline every year.

The first signal for the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race sounds at 1050 on Sunday 7th August. In addition to the two main prizes - the Fastnet Challenge Cup and the Fastnet Rock Trophy, there are more than 30 trophies to be awarded at the conclusion of this year's Rolex Fastnet Race. The prizegiving will take place at the Royal Citadel, home of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, in Plymouth on Friday 12th August.

Further information about the RORC and the Rolex Fastnet Race can be found at: www.rorc.org

Copyright free high resolution photography, for editorial usage only, may be found at: www.regattanews.com

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Charleston Yachting

SailJazz the new website offered by Cheryl Bolye has Charleston Yachting listed under retailers. Please post your review for Charleston Yachting at http://www.sailjazz.com/docktalk/browse/retailer

Thanks
Randy