Not every worked as planned, but it was a fun (last) day at the spring Cup 2005.

The 4th sunday and therefore the last race day of this race series. 11 Races were held over these 4 days with the last 2 today. The 3 F16's all missed the first race. All for different reasons. Geert broke his spi pole twee week ago when his boat blow over and his new glassfibre surfmast was not up to the loads of the day and was doing the salsa as soon as the spi powered up. They came back to stabilize the pole with two additional lines. Bard was solo sailing as was I, But his girlfriend and friend demasted their Dart 18 and he accompanied them back. I got out but found that I ran the retrieval in frong of my luff. I tried to fix it on the water but this very dicy with 10-14 knots of winds and being solo. I returned to the beach as well to fix the problem there. So we all found eachother on the beach when race 1 went underway. We ran around and get Lonneke a new mast shackle and together sorted the mess and rigged the boat again in time for race 2. On our way out to the startline Bart got a little **** and pull a spinnaker. It was quite a high course for a spinnaker. I think he was unlucky that his mainsheet came undo. Whatever it was ; he went for a swim. Raymond (geerts crew) got out and helped Bard getting his boat right side up. Bard frantically rerigged his mainsheet. I hope he had memorized the right way of doing this. I never did and always need a couple of hours to get it right. The wind was nice and strong for singlehanding and there medium chop. Of course we had another general recall at the first start of the second race,a s is costumary. Second start we go off alright, although the black flag may have helped here. I tacked away to clean air first, Bard followed me. Geert and Raymond stayed on their course and followed the leaders. Bard and I got a decent first upwind leg in. At the A-mark we both sort of chickened out a refrained from pulling a spi. Although I got my boat working downwind and felt actually quite fast at times. Bard tacked inside and looked to make up ground on me so I tacked inward as well. Actually Bard and I switched lead several times in this race. Each time one of us would walk away by a leg and then sail himself into a hole or windshift allowing the other to tack away and win back the seperation. This happened several times and eventually pride won our fear and I pulled the spi first. In order to make the gate and not bard gain on me. bard followed. At that time we both because true F16 singlehanders. I mistook the wrong bouy for the gate and decided to not risk a DSQ and sail back to right bouy to make a proper rounding. That was what Bard needed adn he walked away for about halve a leg. Than the wind clocked 50-90 degrees in the time span of 15 minutes and both the upwind and downwind legs became reaches. I could not gain back the halve a leg lead that Bard had won in the final lap. That after leading by the same margin myself several times earlier in the race. At one time I sailed myself into a hole and saw Bard take notice and tack away immediately, keeping himself powered up. Bard quickly gained a lead of the same size I had only 10 minutes before. That was a bit unlucky, I struggled out of the hole. 15 minutes later the role were complete reversed again.

It was a weird ride but very much fun. The sailing was on a inland lake and I'm not as used to those shifty and variable winds. But after 10 races of it (I missed 1 remember) I feel that I'm much more looking ahead and other boats to spot the windlanes and holes. Never learned that on the sea where winds are pretty dependable.

Bard apparently trimmed flat for control and low drag. I trimmed for mild power. Two completely different approaches and still we fought for three laps.

The was my first race as 1-up F16. I must really do more racing. I was glad I got out of bed after only 4 hours of sleep and a late party the evening before. Sailing these boats is fun and I'm getting closed to having my rig dialed in now. I also pulled a 4 inch tear in my spi so I got some repairing to do there.

Maybe a more structured and longer report later.

How have you guys are Barnegat been doing ? Phill, gary ?

Wouter


P.S. those capricorns F18 are bloody nice boats and they move so well through the water.

Legs on the right are upwind legs. Those on the left are downwind courses. Conditions 7-14 knots winds. Starting with about 14 knots and slowly decreasing in magnitude with a large shift right before the last lap and during the last lap.

Speeds are averaged over 20 seconds. Highest speed attained was 25 km/h = 13.5 knots = 7 mtr/sec on the second downwind leg (2nd lap) without a kite up. Race lasted for just over an hour 1.05 min in my case and distance covered during race 15.8 km (=8.5 nm). Of course I missed the first race of the day as explained in my other post. There was no 3rd race as we all had to break up our boats and get them on the trailer. With 60 boats participating (all classes) the beach and driveway are very crowded and so they start early with that.

More race report in a couple of days.

Wouter