Team Seacats

We’re still experiencing some ‘bumps’ after the server upgrade for the website that resulted in some strange happenings with the primary site. I’ve made this the current site for now but still have some plans for the template to change as soon as I can spend some more time with it. Meanwhile the work on the Nacra 20 boat is just getting started – we rigged the boat to really go through everything but realized that with the short winter daylight hours, I was having to use a flashlight far too often. I took a break this weekend and installed a couple of halogen flood lights on the house so I can work into the darkness without issue. I really should have thought of installing these before now because I always seem to be preparing something late at night for a regatta weekend (it was really one of those “duh” ideas kinda like when Dodge first introduced a minivan with a sliding door on BOTH sides).  At any rate, Bonnie has promised to write some updates as soon as I get her the notes on the boat work thus far…stay tuned!

John Williams and I finished tied in points with 2nd place but lost the tie breaker (best last finish) to Kirk Newkirk and Glenn Holmes in the sixteen boat F18 fleet. Ollie and Kelly Jason showed strong and firmly took first place. Going into the 3rd and final race with a 3rd place and a 4th place on the board for us and a 5th and a 2nd on the board for Newkirk, John and I knew we needed to be in front of them in order to break the tie and have a chance at being in front of them in the standings. With 90 seconds to go to this ever critical start, we were fighting for the committee boat end of the line but were in a vulnerable position and not able to control it. We had been able to maintain that spot for the first two races. As the start gun went off, we had to stop the boat because we didn’t have room to clear the committee boat. We ducked a stern and started to accelerate when another F18 came under us a full bore that had right of way. I steered us up into the barging buoy Rick White placed aft of the committee boat and we speared it between the hulls. The line holding the buoy broke and John quickly cleared the buoy from between the hulls and we finally got going. This was not what we needed to have a shot at someone like Newkirk. We originally wanted to go to the right side of the course so we were able to tack back soon after getting underway. We went out there and were pretty much alone – tacked back for A-mark and were able to lay it and had caught back up to 9th place or so. It was a tight reach out to the B-mark and I stayed on the wire while John worked the boat. We were able to roll 4 boats on this reach. Newkirk was in sight with one one boat between us.
Before we got down to C mark one boat managed to sneak back under us. The next upwind leg we were able to get clear of that boat and two more boats in front of us, and beat them back to A. We battled with David Ingram for position on the next down wind leg. Ding had some trouble getting the spinnaker up and we managed to roll him right around the mark. John stated “look out – he’s not going to like that” an Ding fought back hard and passed us back before getting back down to C. After rounding C, Ding was in front of us and we could still see Newkirk ahead but time and distance were running out and it was not looking good for the home team. I spotted that there was not much wind ahead on the right side of the course (where Newkirk and Ding were heading) and asked John to look for breeze up the course. John looked over our shoulders and said that we needed to go there. We tacked. Again mostly alone, we’re coming back across the course about 100 yards under the layline for A mark and we’ve made a strong gain on Newkirk and Holmes and passed Ding. We could read their minds when we saw them peek under the sails at our progress as we steamed in behind them and made our last tack for the last A mark rounding. John and I have been making up a lot of distance on the downwind legs so we rode hard and I tried to stay smooth. Newkirk was certainly not going to give up and we just couldn’t close the gap. We got down to A mark still chasing and tacked to the opposite side of the course hoping for a miracle – but there was none to be had. Newkirk finishes 3rd and we finish 4th in that race…but it was an incredible race. We are on the road heading for Jacksonville but are are stopping for some well deserved grub.

We got some great racing in today. The first race started out in about 15 knots of breeze – John and I squeezed out a 3rd finish in that race. The wind began to lay down and the 3rd and final race finished with about 8 to 12 (in the gusts). We got a 4th in the second race and the 3rd race we think we were 5th … maybe 4th. I’m not sure if it’s enough to put us in the standings but we are very happy with our performance. I’ll tell some more stories in a bit – right now we’re trying to get packed up to get on the road.

It’s 7am and we are certainly going out today. However, it looks like a feast or famine scenario as the forecast is to get pretty light and variable. Currently it’s chilly but there’s about a 10knot breeze…going to get some breakfast.

The wind continues to build here. They expect the wind to be pretty favorable tomorrow (15-20) so Rick has told us that we will start at 9am instead of 10 to try and make up for some of the missed time today.

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originally uploaded by Team Seacats.