The Spring Reggtta,  Spring Series, and Overall Result are now posted. Hope you all enjoyed this season. 

Please make sure you remove your boat this week end as the Drysail is full of summer fleets. 

See you at our own Nutmeg Masters the end of June.

 

Sunday started out cool and bumpy, with a 5-12 knot Southeasterly driving in chop on top of some big wave sets that were at a slight angle to the wind. Tide proved a major factor, with noticeable differences between to two sides of the course.

I misjudged the strong tide in the first two races and was forced over. Fortunately, was able to find lanes quickly to stay in touch by the top marks. Downwind I tried to get clear air and waves quickly, usually heading to the left looking downwind. Once I had some room to work, concentrated on taking the few BIG waves left, then working back right in lighter spots. As the breeze faded and current switched to flood, I stayed more middle and it seemed to work out.

Getting clear air, and especially waves, downwind was critical. In one race Grand Master Amnon Gitelson rounded the top mark 2 BL ahead while I had Mike Curtin right on my stern. I managed to hang onto clear air, but Mike flattened the waves enough that Amnon was able to scoot right away from the two of us, gaining an insurmountable 5 BL to win the race--congrats Amnon!

The bumpy sea state made it seem windier than it was. As the day progressed I made the rig more and more powerful. In such light & lumpy conditions, find leaving the vang & downhaul loose helps power up the top part of the rig by keeping the leech from twisting off. That, combined with hard hiking and torquing the boat through the waves, help keep the boat flat and moving compared to others. It definitely wasn't a day to be heeling over and pinching--those guys just slid sideways into my wake, slower and ultimately lower.

Racing was tight out there, with only 8 points separating 2nd from 6th after 7 races. Curtin sailed an awesomely consistent day to end up 2nd, Britt Hughes was 4 points behind in 3rd, and there was a three-way tie for 4th, Gitelson's bullet allowing him to prevail over a rapidly improving Brad Thompson and Mark May.

Sailing is one of those things that one can do when nothing else would be appealing. The day looked kinda yucky from the comfort of one's home, but racing was terrific and it wasn't bad temperature-wise when wearing proper clothing. I hope to see more of you out there in the ensuing weeks!

Marc Jacobi 

Due to the combination of rain, northeast winds, and a high tide we
must cancel racing tomorrow!

I would expect the fire department to close the island in the early
morning hours. The roads should be under water by the middle of the
morning.

See you all next week!!
--
Marv Pozefsky

 

CP Spring Frostbite Week 1- Warm weather + BIG courses = Great racing

For those of you who missed it, Sunday brought temps in the 50’s with the breeze averaging 10 kts or so. Using the word “average” is painting a very broad brush stroke over the velocity range since in the first race the breeze dropped to zero for a few seconds yet we also saw flat out hiking and easing conditions later races. The best part of the day was sailing on March 7th in my “warm weather” gear. Wasn’t it just last year that we had to chip the ice off the crash boat engines to get them started for the first race day? What a welcomed difference!

Mike Matan was PRO for the day. He and his crew did a good job of changing things up by setting a long windward beat for us. This was still short course racing however since who ever got the best start was immediately advantaged for the first half if not the entire first beat. A few things helped me on Sunday:

1. Gear. I am not a fan of laser sailing in sub 40 degree weather and always wear the minimum to get a better feel for the boat. This year I wanted to try to buy a wetsuit top that was windproof and water resistant, so I did not have to use my old wetsuit top and dry top together. I bought just the item I was looking for from Scott the morning of the event and loved it. Mine is made by Zeik but Matan has a Rooster one, and I know Ronstan also makes one that is wind proof/water resistant. Anyway, I was perfectly warm and had a ton of flexibility. For me I know I sail better when I am unrestricted by my gear. I hope to never have to wear my dry top in anything over 40 degrees any more.

2. Starts. The starts I won or was top 2 out of ensured me a top 2 placing at the weather mark. At times it was difficult to tell just how favored the pin was until after the start and we all tacked over. I think most of us underestimated this, myself included, since there was not much of a fight at the pin. I will be sure to triple check my angles out of the boat and pin the next time we race. Starting at the favored end is such a gift, it is a shame to give up such an advantage and start anywhere else. Places like Cedar Point and fleets like ours instantly reward great starts at the favored end.

3. Puffs down wind. For races 2-5 we had very small waves and large puffs at the top half of the runs. A few of the races I rounded 5th or so but made large and fast gains by taking the relative low road and milking the puffs for all they were worth. When I would feel a puff I would lean back a bit, adjust my course to dead down wind and pick the board almost all the way up. I was trying to jump on a plane by moving back (this never actually happened at my wind angle though), make gains low so I could later come back up in the lulls, and reduce friction with the water by pulling the board up. Pulling the board up works especially well when the waves are small since you are not constantly steering up and down. I was just really trying to blast off with the puff on the “slowest” angle down wind.

I am PRO in 2 weeks and will be sure to give you all some long races!

Andrew Scrivan