Ok - I've dug out from being out of town for a few days.... here are my thoughts of one of the most “have to do regattas on the Panhandle”:

Friday was awesome: a fairly good breeze, Mike and I sailed the boat just like I last sailed it last (except we raised the jib). The last time I sailed it was March at the Midwinters. It was blowing 17-20 and I was 1-up (160 pounds crew weight). Mike and I just added the jib (combined crew weight 335 – I’ve gained a few pounds since then – Mike is a good , in shape 170). We sailed Friday and had a good time. We didn’t pace with the I20, but I felt it was the middling winds – we did have a lot of weather helm. I attributed that to not deploying the rudders all the way down because the boat felt balanced last time I sailed it. As PMUMM states, I crashed in the wrong place because PMUMM didn't give me a key to crash in the right place. I forgive him, b/c the ride on the I20 was loads of fun. We were double wired and had power to burn. That is riot to sail if you’ve got two knowledgeable sailors on board.

Saturday: Mike and I raked the mast a little more forward, to rid us of the weather helm but did not power up the rig. The race winds were lighter than Friday and we knew 15 seconds after the start we had problems. Some boats were single trapping and Mike was on the leeward hull <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />. We adjusted downhaul, we adjusted mast rotator, jib traveler in, jib traveler out... We just couldn't get her to go to weather. We bailed out maybe 2/3 to the weather turning mark (the turning mark was maybe 13 miles if you could go straight there - which you couldn't; it was a long port tack, starboard tack back across the sound and another long tack on port again and again....). We had a nice sail back to the beach as all the boats in our fleet were gone. Chris/Nicole did well and rounded the Weather mark in front of a lot of boats (some I20s and the F17). They struggled a bit back down wind, but still corrected out to 2nd for the long distance race. Curry (F17) first, Chris/Nicole second, JMac/AndyH (I20) third on corrected time. JMac and AndyH sailed a fantastic downwind and passed 2 other I20s to take line honors.

Back on the beach we noticed something odd with the mast spreader arm (which we hung a trap line on Friday and “yanked“ to loosen). We turned the boat over and tried to get the spreader arm cap back on straight. I bent the extender arm of the spreader and it looked like the end of our regatta. Mike came up with a good idea of just relieving diamond tension, straightening the extender arm, pushing it back into the spreader casing - just so we could sail on Sunday. We did that on the beach Sat afternoon and were ready for Sunday. The shortening of the spreaders effectively reduced diamond tension and gave us a more powerful rig (less prebend). We also raked the mast one more hole forward. Our rig tension and mast rake were more in line with Chris/Nicole at that point.

Sunday: Winds were very light. Our new rig settings were very effective. We were pointing with the fleet and duking it out with the tail end of the I20 fleet and Chris/Nicole. We’d be in front of Chris/Nicole at the weather mark, they’d beat us to the leeward mark and back and forth. We were actually competitive at 335 pounds – probably not optimum but ok. Mike said we finished LAST each race – which we did boat-for-boat – but I’d bet were more like mid-fleet after corrections, as we were not far behind Chris/Nicole both races. Race 1 of Sunday was a complete fluke as the winds went to 0ish.. At one point we were sailing to the leeward mark with spin and other boats were sailing back upwind with spin.

Anyway, it was fun and Mike is a good guy. He will be a good addition to fleet when he goes F16.

I know I am a dumb-butt for not changing the rig beforehand (but what would I have changed it to???), but I liked the way the boat felt last time. The moral of the story is that these rigs do generate power, but be mindful of the weight/settings – just spend a little time getting it right. We should have re-rigged the boat Friday, instead of me sailing the I20……

Anywho, sorry for the long post….