The last weekend of June, the KYC Lightning fleet held the annual Champagne Regatta. We had 11 teams with 6 off lake boats for the regatta. I had asked Maria and Zach Hudson to sail the races with me as my regular crew Mike had his son’s high school graduation that weekend. I am still struggling to find a consistent third crew. Maria had sailed with Bob Cole in last years regatta so I knew she was familiar with the Lightning. Zach had never sailed on a Lightning before but he runs the jib on the Hudsons E-Scow so I was not too worried.
I went over the boat before the races to acclimate them to the boat. My only goal for this regatta was to be top Keuka boat. I felt I had a chance to accomplish this. I had Maria on the spinnaker and Zach on the jib. We went out as early as possible and did a few sets and gybes before the start of the first race.
The wind was out of the north, 8-12 kn. It was enough to have all three of us on the high side at times. We sailed 5 races on the first day. In race 1 I had an excellent start, mid line and with speed. We were 3rd around the first windward mark and had a good set and an ok gybe. We struggled to get the spinnaker filled right after the gybe. We were still able to stay in the front pack by the leeward mark. Up the next beat we lost a few more boats and then had a terrible set. I had the main out too far and the spinnaker got caught between the main and the shrouds. We then gybed to see if we could free the sail. We got the sail out flowing, but then gybed again and the sail wrapped around the windward shrouds. We were able to get it down and sailed the rest of the run without issue, but lost all but 2 boats to finish in 9th.
The second race started the same way. A good start with a top 4 windward rounding and had another ok set. We were not as fast as other boats downwind. The pack came up to us around the leeward mark rounding. I went to the wrong side of the course on the next beat and lost 4 boats. We held onto finish 8th.
The third race started with a terrible start. I tried a port approach but tacked onto port at 30seconds, which is to late in these boats. They do not accelerate like an MC. We were left behind and never got better than second to last the whole race.
The fourth race was to be our best finish. We had another sub par start but we were able to escape and get clean air. This put us midpack at the first windward rounding. We actually communicated better about our gybes and were able to not slow the boat down. We stayed near this place the whole race and finished 7th.
The fifth race was a lesson in getting screwed at the start. I was over the line and had to wait for all the boats to pass us as we could not tack to bail out. It was a struggle to get close to anyone after that. We were able to pass two boats to finish in 9th, but were in 10th overall for the regatta. We noticed a couple of rips in the spinnaker, so we had to fix it after dinner.
On Sunday, we had the last race of the regatta and it meant we could drop a race. The wind was much heavier and out of the south, close to 15kn. I struggled all race with boat balance and with helm balance. I had tons of weather helm and I could not figure out what to do to fix it. We were in 8-10 most of the race, but got caught right at the finish to finish in 10th.
Zach and Maria did ok as crew but they both tried to sail the boat like an E-Scow. They were not quick to recognize the heal in the boat. The Lightning likes a slight windward heal, the E-Scow over 10deg. I think they are so used to the heal in the E-Scow that they were slow to react. Maria also tried to sail the spinnaker like the a-symmetrical spinnaker on the E-Scow, which meant that she wanted to reach more than I wanted and more than any other boat out on the race course. It was a very frustrating regatta. The boat never felt right and I don’t think we really worked all the well together as a crew.
After talking to the guys that finished 1, 2, and 3, I realized I needed to retune the boat and see if I could diagnose a set up issue with the boat. The other thing was that I needed newer sails. I can’t afford brand new ones (cost over 3k) but I had already ordered slightly used sails that should be in better condition than what I have now. I hope someone will try to sell barely used ones from the NA’s, and maybe I could use those as my racing sails and keep the newer used ones, they had about 1.5 years use according to the seller, as my fleet sails. Mine are definitely blown. I don’t get any of the tell tale wrinkles like I did last year in either the main or the jib that I would expect to see.
I am still learning this boat and the spinnaker is a constant struggle. If I could ever find a regular third, then maybe I could go out and practice with them and really learn the boat and get good crew work.
We will see…
No comments:
Post a Comment