Tuesday, November 21, 2006

C.O.R.A Double Handed Race Report

Double Handed Race 11/18/2006


The weather cooperated giving the competitors a sunny but shifty breeze that varied as far left as west and as far right as north. The velocity was up and down as well, varying from 3 knots to 10 knots in the puffs. The race committee chose course 11 for the A,B, C and course 2 for D. These courses provided plenty of windward leeward work and kept everyone close, providing plenty of opportunities for some and misfortune for others.
In fleet A is was Ric and Deb Campeau (Hoodoo) leading the way for four the first four legs then falling into one of those holes. Someone forgot to connect the dots (Ric), luckily for Ric, Deb is a forgiving person and he didn’t have to sleep on the boat Saturday night. The Buckeye’s (Arrow) ended up prevailing in fleet“A” in the shifty conditions followed by Emocean and Pagan.

In C Fleet it was Quintette continuing their winning ways despite getting caught at the start with the chute up on the wrong jibe. They were eventually able to make the set work as the wind shifted back to the west. Quintette never looked back, and extended their lead throughout the race due so very energetic young crew work.

In B Fleet Footloose took the lead early but changes were to happen throughout the race. The last leg the breeze filled in from the east and the boats that jibed over towards the east were able to take the lead. The race was definitely not over until you crossed the finished line. Footloose was able to regain the lead just before the finish followed by Latte and Nautiest who finished a second or two apart.

The D Fleet was led by the Soveral 39 Avalon. Avalon showed a good lead but couldn’t finish far enough head after getting on the wrong side of a right hand shift. Raven with Tim Burke at the helm navigated the shifts and up an down breeze to finish second boat for boat and correct into first place. Raven was followed by the well sailed English Beat and Avalon corrected to third.

Help spread the word on our first Turkey Regatta being held this Sunday first start is scheduled off the Carolina Yacht Club dock at 1:00 pm. What better way to get outside and give those holiday guests a tour of the harbor.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Savannah Challenge Race Updates

Here you will find the latest information regarding this upcoming weekend's Savannah Challenge. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Randy Draftz at rdraftz@charlestongyachting.com .

5/19/06 22:00
They are off and running literally, nine boats left the Charleston Harbor for their respective turning marks off the Georgia coast. Midnight Rider a Turbo Rigged Santa Cruz 70 lead the A fleet followed by the J120 Emocean, the J109 Hoodoo, the Sabre 362 Buena Vida and the Beneteau 35s5 Andiamo. Fleet B is the non spinnaker who were all tightly bunched with Tohidu, Lyric, Naut On Call and Drifter chasing each other out of the harbor. With a strong westerly and ebb tide it didn’t the fleet very long. Forecasts were for the westerly winds to gradually ease up and go more south making for upwind beat to turning mark. At 9:30 referencing the NOAA weather buoys there appeared more breeze offshore 14knots out of 200 degrees compare to the 8 knots inshore at approximately 230 degrees. Heading to the turning buoy 234 degrees it should be a long night.

5/20/2006 7:00 EDT

At 3:00 EDT this morning Midnight Rider was rounding the Savannah Light buoy marking the half way point for the race. From referencing the weather buoys it looks like the buoy is making a good weather mark. Current wind conditions still have the wind out of the southwest at about 14 knots with wave heights about three feet. We would expect the next boat to round to be Emocean. If Emocean is sailing to her rating she would be rounding roughly 2.5 hours behind Midnight Rider. Unfortunately if they were dead upwind to the mark the extra distance sailed will favor the larger Midnight Rider. With the current conditions and forecast I would expect Midnight Rider could be finishing before noon today.

5/20/2006 11:00 EDT

Midnight Rider finishes! Midnight Rider with the crew hiking hard crossed the finish line this morning 10:28:18. Emocean called in earlier this morning reporting their rounding of the Savannah Light buoy at 8:44 this morning, Wind was holding out of the southwest continuing to make the mark upwind for all the competitors. Emocean did see Hoodoo the J109 and said they appeared about another hour away from the turning mark. Emocean was making 8 knots running downwind back to the harbor entrance. If the wind holds out of the southwest at its present 14 knots Emocean should be finishing around 6:00 pm this evening well after Midnight Rider’s time allowance expires.

13:00 EDT

B Fleet rounds the Port Royal turning mark. Tohidu was first around at 12:18 followed by Naut On Call at 12:33 with Lyric close to rounding at the time of this posting. Drifter was several miles back after finding a wind hole near shore. Wind is starting to lighten up a bit but continuing to blow out of the southwest. With 58 miles to go for the leaders in B Fleet it is looking like a finishing times will be around 22:00 to 23:00 if the wind holds. The remaining A Fleet competitiors will be finishing early this evening.

Monday, May 01, 2006

CORA Sheriffs Cup 2006

Sheriff’s Cup 2006


What a race! As most of you know the Sheriff’s Cup to Rockville is different from most races in that the starts are staggered based on the individual handicaps. In this years race we had the boat that started first and the boat that started last, finish first and second within thirty seconds of each other. Finishing first was Tim Burke with his Tartan 30 Dissipation and Steve Orchards Melges 32 Grins thirty seconds behind. Boats that started earlier might not have gotten the benefit of the ebb tide but did have their breeze from a more northerly direction allowing them to fetch out of the harbor. The boats starting later had to deal with a more easterly breeze making for several tacks before turning downwind towards IS and on into Rockville. As the breeze shifted it also came in a bit stronger, solidly in the mid twenties and puffs in the thirties. Almost the entire fleet could have sailed in the main and jib class today, only Grins the Melges 32, Emocean the J120 and Buena Vida hoisted spinnakers. Unfortunately for Emocean their spinnaker came down in pieces. With the big waves from the Northeast steering was difficult to say the least. Without the use of spinnakers keeping the distance sailed to a minimum was the key. Another factor was keeping enough sail area up to maintain your pace with the waves. It is amazing how much easier the boat will track when it’s surfing with the waves versus wallowing in the troughs. The post race comments were, tales of record boats speeds on many of the boats. The Melges 32 spent a good five minutes on their side after one spectacular wipe out but took only three hours and ten minutes to sail the 33 mile course. Emocean was sailing so fast with their small spinnaker before it exploded they had to reach back in under jib from the Bahamas. Buena Vida was coming into Edisto and was starting to get passed by the larger Tohido when they decided to set their spinnaker for the sprint to the finish. I was wishing I had a video camera as Buena Vida crashed and burned and then struggled to gain control. In the end it all worked out and Buena Vida extended to beat Tohidu across the line by thirty five seconds. When sailing with a jib underneath a spinnaker remember to ease its sheet and let the sail luff. Overtriming the jib will make it very difficult to control and trim your spinnaker effectively. Another important heavy air spinnaker trimming tip is, never overtrim you spinnaker sheet. If you are overtrimmed and the boat goes to wipe out you will have too much sheet to ease out and the sail will continue to stay full accelerating and increasing the harshness of the wipeout. Keep the sail on its edge just as if it was blowing ten knots.
It took roughly another hour for the rest the fleet to finish with the last boat finishing just around 3:15 P.M. Plenty of time to clean up the boats and have a few beverages, while getting ready for the great BBQ dinner and Texas Hold Em tourney.

With the forecast for Sunday predicting similar conditions there were already discussions of returning to Charleston via the ditch. As expected the bulk of the fleet looked at the 25 knots out of the Northeast and turned right to the ditch instead of left to the ocean. We did have six starters that included Emocean, Wings of Freedom, Hoodoo, Tohidu, Suwannee, and Buena Vida. Buena Vida quickly found that they hadn’t sufficient sea sickness medication and turned around and headed to the ditch. Hoodoo had almost gotten back to IS when their mainsail started disintegrating along the leech from all the flogging it was taking. Hoodoo returned downwind back to Bohicket. The seas were running six to eight at a nasty interval making for a very bumpy ride out of the Edisto. Eventually the breeze (as predicted) shifted more to the east lifting the remaining fleet to the jetties of Charleston. As the breeze shifted it also began to diminish allowing the two leaders Emocean and Wings of Freedom to enter the harbor with their spinnakers, then jibing at BP and reaching across the finish line. Emocean finished first at 5:02: 10 with Wings of Freedom finishing at 5:26:35. The breeze continued to diminish leaving the Stephens 50 Suwannee to finish at 6:23:24 and Tohidu at 7:28:10. A tough day, beating in 25 knots earlier in the day and finishing the day light air running and having to fight the flooding tide to cross the finish line. Sailing does reward patience.

For those who missed this great race make sure you put October 21st and 22nd on your calendar for this years dates for the Alice Cup.

Results are posted on the CORA website.

Rear Commodore.

Monday, January 30, 2006

CORA Frostbite Race 2

Frostbite 2

With the wind up in the high teens to low twenties and wind at 210 degrees with a prediction to go slightly more west. We sent classes A, B, and C on course 11 (BP-J two times ) and class D on course 4 (BP to G27 two times). The wind ended up staying put and gave course 11 a windward leeward course while course 4 had some fetching and running. We ended up using our new starting mark as a replacement for J and many thanks to David Mullen for showing up with his powerboat for placing J and our starting line marks. For those who raced you might have noticed a less than square line. We made the decision to place the pin more up current to keep the pin from being so favored. It appeared to work as we had several boats start more towards the dock. The conditions were tame compared to Frostbite 1 and we saw boats on the line at the start with Latte in class B OCS. Latte was down closer to the pin (more current) and just missed by 2 feet. Boats that found themselves early for the start were better off heading up towards the dock for three reasons. One, less current, two, heading up into the wind, three the angle of the starting line made the dock very favored giving you more distance to the line. Buena Vida did just that and had the start of the day, which would later prove to be a very important part of their victory (take a look at the results).

Hoodoo, just back from Key West showed the way to BP in Class A. After rounding, BP they showed the rest of class how important consistent crew work is and then proceeded to provide us spectators with several nice wipe outs. Meanwhile the Melges 24 Thunderbird reveled and the Dauntless the 47.7 really like being able power up in this big breeze. A note about reaching with spinnakers in a breeze, several boats had issues keeping their spinnakers full or their boats under control coming into the finish. One boat had their number three up and trimmed in, if you going to sail with a jib or staysail inside your spinnaker make sure you are able to let it luff as the spinnaker starts to collapse otherwise the spinnaker will never re-fill. The jib or staysail can provide plenty of blanketing if not allowed to luff always under trim these sails. When you become overpowered on a reach don’t try to maintain your heading. If you bear off just 5 degrees, you will maintain control, spinnaker will stay full and you will go much faster. Sail back up to your course after the puff subsides and you will still make the finish line.

In Class B Footloose appeared to have the edge, likely gained by their move on the first leg back from J. Footloose stayed on port tack, tacking just short of the finish line gaining nicely on Orange Crush from being in more current. The rest of B had nice close racing and working those spinnakers in from R4 paid especially for First Star who grabbed a nice third place behind Orange Crush and Footloose.

In Class C rumor is Andiamo attempted a new lower center of effort spinnaker by hoisting the clew of their spinnaker instead of its head. Meanwhile Dissipation was enjoyed the breeze and sailed on to a comfortable win.


It looked like Class D was sailing a little more comfortably this week with less sail area. We did have a protest in this class at the start but otherwise it appeared good clean sailing. Unfortunately with the wind holding steady the upwind leg from G27 to BP never developed. A good question for class D is would you rather sailed have sailed a windward leeward course where you have to sail downwind? Or was the course sailed what you enjoy doing?

Sailing Instructions are posted on the website. Please make sure as skippers you are familiar with the CORA Sailing Instructions. Realize once racing starts the race committee can not assist you with the rules. Sunday’s conditions were fantastic don’t miss Frostbite 3 on Saturday February 18th.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Charleston Harbor Frostbite Series Race 1

It wouldn't be a Frostbite series if it wasn't cold and windy. The big cold front came in Friday night and the CORA racers had plenty of breeze 25 knots with puffs in the 30s, mostly out of the west with small oscillating shifts to the north. In my new position of rear commodore my duties have changed from the participatory level to that of race management (on the dock). We sent the first three classes on a 8.5 nm race, in all this breeze it wasn't going to take very long. The final class to start was the D Fleet which is the main and jib class who sailed the same course but only once around for a 5.5 nm race. Reading this it sounds fairly manageable but let's add an outgoing tide at a pace of 3.5 knots and you now have a very fast downwind leg with the current and and a very nasty upwind, upcurrent leg! Think San Francisco Bay with an extra 5 to 10 knots of breeze. What could we have been thinking as race committee to send sailors out into this and then make them do, not just one lap, but two! Ok we were, well I was thinking it's only 8.5 miles and only three of it upwind. Everyone had made the effort to get out there so, lets not send them on a short 45 minute beer can style race. We also have this new offshore challenge series this year and skippers and crew need to experience some big breeze. It was obvious from the starts that boat handling in today's race was an issue with the out going tide and a beam reach first leg, no one in any of the classes came close to the line at the start. It was obvious from my chair on the dock that the boats that set up to sail a little lower to BP were fast using the puffs to accelerate, (by bearing off) while boats that were sailing slightly higher were rounding up and sometimes spinning out (never fast not even in the out going tide). Sail low and fast in the puffs and work up in the lulls setting youself up for the set of the Ashley current to BP. The next leg was a run from BP to R2 and you would of thought the whole fleet was sailing main and jib, not one spinnaker to be seen, there was a Melges 24 out there though and they looked liked they were flying just under main and jib (lets think about this a second blowing up to 35 air temp mid fifties, Melges 24) not me!. My chair just got a lot more comfortable. Well you can't have fun all the time, what goes down must come up, these phrases do not do justice to the upwind leg back to BP from R2 as usual you had the group that hugged the James Island side and the group that went right over middle ground behind Castle Pinckney. It was hard to see which side paid, but at least you had less a chance of running aground on the right. Kiaora found the beach on the James Island side trying to stay out out of current. This big westerly obviously was pushing more water out of the harbor than usual. Thank goodness Kiaora and the crew were fine other than the Tow Boat US invoice. For the boats that lasted the final leg from R4 to the finish turned into a one tack beat as the wind had continued to clock to WNW. It appeared that boats that had the appropiate sail combinations were able to still point and have a better leg into the finish. The Ranger 29 had a heavy weather jib and a reef in the main and showed good balance and control with very good speed. Boats that had roller reefed headsails just were not able to point and a terrible time going upwind with tacking angles that looked like 100 degrees instead the usual 90 degrees. In this kind of breeze use a smaller headsail and keep up as much mainsail as possible, this will greatly increase the ability to control the boats heel while maintaining its pointing. Most boats that appeared to have control problems had too much headsail or they were dumping the mainsails but not the jibs. In puffs this large both sails must be eased and better to sail with the jib a little eased . You could see from my chair (of course) when a boat would get rounded up from being overpowered how quickly they got set back in the current. It's so easy from this chair!! As always sailing in this much current maintaining boatspeed is crucial you are better off footing than feathering which is very hard to do in 30knots of breeze. Its critical to have your sailplan balanced to the conditions. So what did we learn, use smaller headsails, and get the sail area down to increase control and keep your speed on. This will make it easier to maintain the neccesary speed to counter the adverse current. Above all don't forget to thank that race committee and complain to the Rear Commodore.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Charleston Yachting Signs Up for Strictly Sail Chicago

Charleston Yachting signs up for the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Chicago. Charleston Yachting will be in booth 644 featuring our website and products from our many suppliers. Stop by and see us at the show February 2nd thru February 5th at Chicago's Navy Pier.