The TRYC kicked off its IOM Points series on Saturday, January 4th, in a real White Rock howler; winds consistently over 20mph, and clocking up to 30 on a few occasions. Heavy waves and rollers added to the challenging environment, but 10 races were run and some good racing ensued.
Some encouraging signs from a club perspective; ten races saw five different skippers notch first place finishes, and the racing and points were very close; the spread from second place to seventh was only six points. I finished third with one first, one second, and two thirds. I had one collision related breakdown which required a winch respoooling and DNS'd me two races, but was over all happy with my sailing.
Buying the
Juno has probably been the best move I've made in the last five years of sailing, she's fast and controllable in heavy weather, and still quick enough in light air. Also, thankfully, she's proving to be mechanically reliable, which may be a first for me (knock on wood). In today's weather I sailed every race but one in C-rig, it was a touch slower going downwind, but faster going up, and much easier to tack. After sailing well with the B-rig last time, I've lost some tune on it, so I'll need to get it dialed back in. Haven't used the A-rig in a while, but she went fast when I did.
With the Blowout coming up, I enjoyed the heavy weather practice. One thing I tried was staying more in the center of the course, while the extra tacks can be slower (and risky in these winds) they invariably paid off as I was able to cut boats off and consolidate gains...After re-reading Dennis Conner's "Sail like a Champion" again, I'm much happier with this technique and feel like I'm hitting the lay line in the right place for a change (usually I'm too far out). Starts went well too.
Here's some pictures from the day, I used the video to make a quickie Blow-Out trailer which I'll post up shortly. Once again, I used my iPhone 5 with telephoto lens:
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| Juno (#36) runs up the line during the pre-start, as Chuck's Lintel heads downwind. |
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| Mauricio's Skiff Eater (#19) on the far right, looks like Chuck is close to coming down on Chandler's Pikanto (#68) to leeward, but there's still a touch of room...no collision ensued. |
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| Chuck a bit early on the line, but a nice study of his Lintel in B-rig. |
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| Room is always more expansive in C-rig conditions, when it's not collisions ensue; Rich's Yankee Clipper failed a port clearing and took quite a whack...no hull damage but its thick paint came off in chunks from the stresses. |
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| Eric heading uphill with his Lintel (#41) in B-rig, Rich trailing in his C... |
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| Powerful gust flattens Rich in C-rig as Eric starts a tack...he didn't make that one! |
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| A nice study of Juno off to a good start in her C-rig. Note how close this start is! |
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| Juno goes airborne in a roller up to leeward, Eric and Chandler touch behind her... |
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| A nice study of Chandler's Pikanto at speed with her B-rig, Rich just behind. |
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| Eric catches up with me at the windward mark, note the difference in the sail settings between his B and my C. He went wide, and I cut inside... |
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| ...but with the wind dropping the B-rig on his boat powered him passed me. |
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| Another tight start, showing the wind and water to good effect! Mauricio (#19) was early, so Eric and I had a VERY narrow lead at start...I won this race by catching Eric near the leeward mark on the second beat. |
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| Concluding with a nice photo of Juno powered-up shortly after a start! |
