Anybody make it to Juana's?
I am curious to hear how things are going from someone other than Curry...

Want a long report or short one?

Short version, Tshan and I didn't do to well, the long version, I'll have to post something later. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

However, it was a fun time. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Mike

Want the long story!!!!
How many boats, how many F16s.
Heard there wasn't much wind.
Hopefully someone is reporting numbers to the DPN committee too <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

DPN doesn't use distance race data and this data needs to be excluded from the results.

Send in Sunday's results to Darlene, her information is located at the link below.

http://www.ussailing.org/portsmouth/

Yeah, I suppose that none of the data fits the intent of the rule. I think the Sunday races are triangles. Don't they need to be results from straight windward-leeward races?

Ok, here comes the long version...

Saturday was a nice breeze, I would say about 10-12 knots. Tshan and I got a pretty good start; however, as soon as we started, we noticed everyone was trapeezing(mainly just crew) while we were not. As a matter of fact, I was on the leeward hull. We were in bad air, so we tacked over. We eventually got some clear air and I could trapeze, but we were still footing very low to keep up speed. After realizing that the rest of the spinnaker fleet was way ahead of us and we were behind the "fun" fleet(non-spinnaker boats), we decided to call it a day and head in. So, we took a DFL or a DSQ, I'm not really sure. Ater we got on the beach, we watched the first N20 come in, Andy Humphries and John Mcdonald. It was then Bob Curry, and then Chris Amador(CAB is his handle on the board I believe) with his wife. I do believe that was the order in the top three boat for boat. After the correction, it was Bob, Chris, and then Andy. I actually didn't look at the results, but that's what I remember hearing. So, please correct me if I'm wrong.

After we got to the beach, we discussed some things and realized that we just didn't have any power in the rig at all. We also bent the spreader bar extension while trying to shove the end cap back on. So we straightened that out and pushed it in the sleeve. We also made some changes on the boat. We raked the mast a little more forward and took some pre-bend out of the mast. Basically, we set our boat up closer to Chris's boat to hopefully power the boat up. We felt bound up and couldn't point at all the whole day. So, we had to try something different. I'm sure some of it was us, but it just didn't make sense that the boat just didn't "feel" right.

After working on the boat we went back to the pagoda and ate some BBQ and drank a couple of beers and called it a day. Tshan is an early night person, which I thought was funny, I don't know very many people like me that call it a late night at 9o'clock.

Sunday.....

We got started about 11:30 or so. There was a seabreez building, but a few minutes after the start it stopped. There was a thundershower that took it all away. At this point, we couldn't tell if our changes did anything, but it did seem better and we stayed up with Chris and his wife this time. Saturday, we never saw him after the start. I think we were last in this first race, but we felt better about ourselves because we were steady with Chris. The second race was better. The breeze built back up, but still light, ~7knots or less. We got a good start and we pretty much stayed with Chris and his wife on this race. It was pretty competitive. We were pointing right with Chris and keeping almost the same boat speed. He eventually eked out in front of us and beat us on this race too. Even though we came in last, we felt much better about the second day of racing. They of course were lighter than us, but we still kept up with them, a lot better than Saturday. Saturday, they and everyone else blew us out of the water.

I would say it was a success with us(Tom and I racing togeter) and me. I got to get a ride on an F16 and meet some of the F16 fleet. Tshan and Cab are great people along with the other people that I hung out with(Phillip Mumm, Ken(can't remember your last name), and Damon Linkous. I'm going to put this race on my calender for next year. I'm hoping to have my F16 by then. The venue is great too. The hosts are very accommodating and the races were ran very nicely. I do believe the same guy is going to run the NAF18 championship in October. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this one too. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I have a feeling that the portsmouth ratings won't be turned in, just because of the nice laid back venue.

Triangles and/or windward leeward courses are valid. If it's on the USSailing course sticker you're good.

? Really ?

Not what I recall a couple of years back at Gulfport! Of course I got NO pictures so maybe it didn't really happen <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Forgot to say...

2 F16's
1 F17
~4 N20's
quite a few H16's
a couple of H20's
Prindle 19
~4 TheMightyHobie18's

About 30 boats total.

Good job Chris!! Sorry I missed it!

That is easy to understand after your's and Tom's ride on the N20 on Friday. Should have seen the smile on Tom's face when driving the 20. It was priceless . . . wait, I've got video! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Nah, not a early night person, Tom had fallen and couldn't get up! . . . even crashing in the wrong condo. Let's just say that he got too much sun on Friday. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

We had 8 N20's on Saturday and 7 N20's on Sunday.

It's Ken Haaga who was crewing for Phillip. Also, there was a real decent turnout of N20's. Eight boats which was just five less than the 20 Nationals this year in Michigan. Let's see there were also two N6.0's a N5.0, a couple of Prindles, a Nacra 17r, a Hobie 20 and a good number of Hobie 16's. Not to mention those two damn fast Blades! I really enjoy watching you guys keep up with us big boats.

Let the good times roll. Fun racing.

Ken Altman
"Kani Basami"
N20

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….

Thanks for the reports!
One of these days I will make it down for Juanas. I can't imagine anything else could come up next year. Last year it was my brother's wedding, this year my wife is 36wk pregnant...
Nice that chris was beating the N17 upwind. What was happening on the downwind?

Note the settings in a little booklet so the next time you switch setup you can quickly tune the rig to reflect it.

Personally, I get from the reports that your trim setting were completely off. In 17-20 knots you should really be tracking with the US I-20's (sailed by comparable crews) if not slowly overtaking them. They have to shed too much power in those winds. Again, in those conditions your competition should be the F18's upwind. Seems Chris and Nicole were on the mark there.

Tom, what suit of sails do you have, brandname ?

With the Glasers your 335 lbs should be very near to optimial 2-up weight. If you still got Ullman then (lots) less will be better !

Wouter