Open Season

Memorial Day Weekend marks the beginning of the racing season at Keuka Yacht Club.

The Lightning fleet was not able to sail on Sunday as a fleet due to some scheduling conflict with getting the boats to the club. Two more of the five boats of our fleet showed up on Sunday, so we now have four at the club.  The fifth boat should arrive in late June straight from the factory. I was unable to secure crew even for cruising so I lazily made my way to the club in the morning. Since I had no crew, I decided to perform some maintenance on the boat. When I inspected the boat while putting it together I noticed an eyestrap that had the line smushed under the metal right by the screw holding in the vertical direction. An old friend generously donated some boat parts to me earlier in the month and one of the parts was a bullseye.  I had to take the load off of the centerboard in order to release the line and crawl underneath the deck to unscrew the eyestrap. I started to put the bullseye in only to discover the screw hole width did not match. I did not bring my cordless drill so I had to borrow one. Luckily one of the fellow sailors happened to have one available. Another crawl inside the boat and a quick hole drilled and I was on my way to having a good line holder. This change will hopefully keep the line from breaking quicker. I also replaced one of the traveler blocks that was cracked and had the bearings showing. I will be replacing the other block soon, but I had to order that one.

On Sunday afternoon we had the first MC races of the season. We had a late start due to two fleet meetings and missed some really good wind for what is normally our first hour of racing. The awards for last season were handed out with order being Chris Hawk, Sean Treacy, Bob Cole, Brent Penwarden, and Brent Gillette.We started the season with all 10 of the boats out on the lake. We were missing two boats in the first race as they were late to the course.  In the first race I positioned myself near the boat for the start but unfortunately set up too early and did not get myself going quick enough. Chris rolled me at the start. I tacked to port to get some clear air but unfortunately went too far right before I tacked back.
Due to the elbow tendinitis in both elbows I have had to modify my sailing technique. I used to be able to hold onto the mainsheet all the time, no matter the wind speed, but now I have to cleat the main. The MC is very sensitive to mainsheet tension, so I don't know how much this is going to affect my results. Between getting used to that technique and the bad start I rounded the first mark in 6th place. Trying to stay in the best air I gybed a few times downwind. Chris and Brent G rounded first and second. I picked up one boat on the downwind and rounded the leward mark in 5th, just behind Brent P.  Halfway up the beat Brent P. was able to catch up and pass to Brent G.  I made a quick tack on a lift at the port layline to the committee boat and was just able to finish in front of Brent G. for third place. Chris won and Brent P. was second.
  Correction 6/1: The RC scored me in 4th for the first race so Brent must have just beat me.

In Race two I wanted to start near the pin. I arrived early at the pin on port and kept going towards the committee, at one point I was headed right for Chris. At about 5 seconds I tacked and was able to start right in front of Chris with good speed. I stayed left in good air and tacked below the port layline. Steve Bender crossed my and I yelled at him not to go to far. I have noticed he tends to overstand the laylines. I tacked right at the starboard layline, this forced Steve to tack (starboard has right of way over port). We rounded 1 2 with Steve just in front. Right at the mark Steve had an equipment malfunction forcing him to gybe away and sail away from the course some as he fixed his issue.  The wind shifted more to the right so I sailed mostly straight to the mark on a broad reach. I rounded in 1st with Brent P. just behind. Knowing that the wind was still mostly right I wasn't sure how far to sail out before I tacked. I did the classic tactics maneuver of tacking when your competition rounds the mark and then when he is perpendicular to you, tack back. I did this using Chris as the guide. Unfortunately this was the wrong thing to do. Brent P. was able to extend out to the right and had more wind. Chris went even farther right and had great speed coming into the finish. Brent passed me easily and I was lucky to be able to finish just ahead of Chris.

Race three was still right favored. Chris was over early and had to re-start.  Brent P. was on my  right hip, so I could not tack to the right like I wanted to. Even though he was over early and had to re-start, Chris was able to go far right and passed everyone but me going into the windward mark. Chris gybed right away. I extended from the mark some before gybing to get some air. I split the downwind between Chris and Brent P. Chris complains that he is consistently losing boat lengths going downwind. This time he not only passed me but had a good lead. Around the leward mark it was Chris in front followed by me and then Brent P. Brent tacked soon after to get out of my air. I followed Chris. Surmising that the wind was going to stay right I stayed with Chris going farther right. Unfortunately this was again not the right move. Chris was far enough ahead that it did not affect him and he won the race. Three other boats tacked earlier and got a lift to the finish line passing me on the way. I had to settle for 5th. One of those that passed me was new MC owner William Hudson. It was his first time in this boat, though he has been sailing E-Scows for over 10 years.

All in all it was a successful day with a 3,2,5. This could shape up to be a tough season. Both Brent G. and Brent P. have improved, Bob Cole is always fast and Chris is just plain hard to beat. The others are also getting better and I know they will have many good finishes during the season. It will be lots of fun having 10 boats on the line this year.

We had a wonderful opening dinner at the club. On the way home I had a good view of what mother nature had waiting for me. A nasty thunderstorm blew through the area soon after I got home. It was as if someone was flicking the light switch on and off with a bunch of kettle drummers above my house having a rocking good time.

I was able to secure crew for Mondays races so I arrived at the club just after 9am to meet my crew. One of the crew had not been on a Lightning in over 15 years and the other was essentially brand new to sailing.  This is my first big experience skippering a boat as an adult. I skippered an E-Scow a few times, but that was with experienced crew.  I had to explain everything to these two, where lines are, what they do and whatnot. With all the information they had to absorb I knew not all of it was going to sink in right way. Luckily, the wind was very light and variable and there was not going to be much pressure on getting things done quickly. We were able to get the boat in the water and everything working just fine. I walked my crew through what to do, but I would give myself a C- for the day. I definitely need to work on my communication skills with explaining lines and who I am talking too. It was quite an experience and my patience was tested a few times but thankfully we did not have to worry about being in a race.  The wind never came in enough to have one. We did hoist the spinnaker but there was not enough breeze to fill it. I think it was good learning experience for all three of us. Neither of them wanted to mutiny so I must not have been too tough on them. I felt like it was a good equipment check too. I did find an issue with the centerboard pull up line which thankfully had nothing to do with my fix on Sunday. I could only pull the board up 3/4 of the way.  It turns out the elaborate pully system the previous owner installed can get caught on a support beam under the deck. I will have to figure out someway to fix it next time I am at the club.

The wind stayed light all day so the MCs never went out. As I have a regatta in Saratoga Lake, NY next weekend I packed the MC up for traveling. It was a most awesome weekend even though there was only three MC races.