Sunday, July 6, 2003

MBYC Firecracker Triangles Regatta

Team FreeBee reporting

The tortoise and the Hares, or "How to get last place in every race and win a regatta"

As usual, Team Freebee was there early overseeing the hustle and bustle on 505 row, playing our mind games and telling everyone our boat is in the water ready to go and our stomachs full of breakfast. All the new kids born to our fleet members have helped to reduce the need for our sabotage techniques. The fact that Michael Jue was able to get a boat on the  water at all is amazing. He should have received some bonus points for his efforts.

Here's tip #1: The 505'susualy start first! Again the start  of race 1 saw several boats in various stages of rigging. We left plenty of time for the "tortoise" to get to the start line. Kitty used the "Hare" technique to sprint to the start at the last minute and was able to start behind Dave Chatham and us. Since we broke our CB in the South Bay race, we have not shown the same speed we had before. I don't know if its the new CB  Roger made or the fact our Kevlar Main is completely blown out (which I think occurred during the same race).  We plodded just ahead of the lightnings (behind Chatham and Kitty) for 3rd  (last) place. The air was very shifty with some good puffs but also some big holes. Between the races we snapped our jib halyard. Luckily it was down in the boat and I was able to  tie it off to an extra cleat on the mast.

Race 2 saw a larger fleet start. As the Hares thought they could drop  one race with  no problem. I am a bit unclear what happened to Kitty on their race as she got a dnc. However we were able to actually beat a very tentative "spinnakerless" team Tortuga. We want to thank them though for entering the race and adding dnc deductions to the rest of the fleet.  A valuable aid we were later to find out. We took 4th behind Phlegm, Chatham and Kaos.

During the lunch break we stayed out and did some tuning runs with Dave Chatham. Our blown out Main made this rather useless but we appreciated the help.

Tip #2: The 505's usually start first after the lunch break.

The start sequence for race 3 saw the Hares trying to sprint out for the start. Some made it but not before the R/C changed the course # for the next fleet and they subsequently sailed the wrong course. This race found us finish 3rd (last) behind Chatham and Kaos. Our "Main" problem continued as we ripped a 1 foot hole in it as the pole was launched during a jibe at the reaching mark.

Before the start of race 4 we broke the bungie system on the CB. A lot of kelp in the bay  made constant CB attention stress the system. I was just able to tie this off before the start. Dave Chatham took his two firsts and 1 second and went home. This left Phlegm, Kitty  and Kaos and Freebee at the start. We showed pretty good speed as we were staying a bit  closer to the 50's and ahead of the Lightnings  but still in 4th. On the last  full leg, team Kaos must have spilled a lot of beer in their boat. they were bailing like mad. I would have just tried to drink it. They were riding pretty low in the water when they abandoned. We took 3rd (last) again.

Just before the start of race  5, the CB bungie system broke again in a different spot. I was not able to tie this off in time and had to use my feet to adjust and keep the CB  down through out the race. The R/C showed utter contempt for the 505 fleet by giving Phlegm, Kitty and FreeBee a long, full, triangle, W/L course late in the day in diminishing breeze. While the other fleets got shorter courses. At some points of the race the boats were standing still. We caught  one good puff on a down wind leg and were able to gain some on Kitty before they got the puff and were off while we lost it.

We were finally able to finish 3rd (last) again. In fact, due to the longer course, we were the last boat of any fleet to cross the finish line for the day. As we passed the Barca, I asked if they got all the DNC's figured out. I guess they did as they added up to a win for team Freebee.

The tortoise was the only boat that started every race and finished every race, oh by the way, that's tip #3.

Mike Barry

EXCUSE LIST

Chris Stromberg: "Bob"? "Bob's not here"

Chris Shand: "You know, its that kid thing".

Mark Kursava: Sailing his 505 to Hawaii.

Team Taz: Does not want to be in the tortoise class.

Rick Denney: 505's break alot, don't they?

Dave Eberhardt: I thought we were doing  RC again.

Steve Shnelker: I don't want to get beat by a tortoise.

Geoff Nelson: Geoff, you don't want to know what Roger and I did to your boat.