2004 Fleet 3 Championship Series

Regatta #3, Saturday, September 11, 2004

SCRA Back-to-School Regatta

On Saturday, September 11th the San Diego 505 fleet enjoyed another beautiful day of moderate breeze and sunshine on Mission Bay for our 3rd fleet championship event, the SCRA sponsored 2004 Back to School Regatta. Starting at noon six races were run for the 505 and Laser fleets. Three courses were used - single triangle plus a windward leeward, double triangle plus a windward leeward, and double windward leeward. Breeze was just enough to keep the crew wired up (although crouching at times) while sailing upwind, but not high enough to plane off wind.

Variations in wind velocity and direction were typical for Mission Bay, favoring those who managed to thread their way through the puffs on the lifted tack. This generally led us to the left side of the course which seemed to have slightly better breeze, but occasionally tactical considerations, the sequence of puffs, or Laser traffic led us a little right of center, particularly on the second or third beat. It also seemed beneficial to be left of center on the weather mark approach due to a fairly reliable left shift and generally better pressure. Having said that I should point out that others, particularly Gary Lee aboard Taz and Tony Beale / Mark McCafferty aboard White Trash, had some strong weather legs set up a bit further right.

Now I'll try and give a race by race review, but it's been a couple of days so I might get some of it wrong. Anyway, here it goes:

Race 1 - First course was a triangle plus windward leeward. The fleet got off the line smoothly. At the finish it was Jenkins/Merino with Harris/Wood in second and Hamlet third.

Race 2 - The race committee, using a not-very-loud whistle, launched into a sequence immediately after the last boat finished, so Jenkins/Merino and others were caught off guard, mistaking the starting whistle for the 1 minute signal. Several boats got off the line cleanly however and Lee/Portenous (I think) were first to the weather mark. Harris/Wood were able to squeeze by on the top reach and led the rest of the race. Jenkins/Merino managed to pass Lee/Portenous at some point to finish second.

Race 3 - Everybody got off the line cleanly this time and by the leeward mark Harris/Wood were in the lead. On the second (or third - I forget which) beat Lee/Porteous and Jenkins/Merino (who had broken their hiking stick) withdrew to the clubhouse. Hamlet finished second while McCafferty/Beale were in third.

Race 4 - This time it was Harris/Wood's turn for trouble. With about 1:30 to the start an ill-advised maneuver half filled the cockpit with water. In addition, the hiking stick separated from the tiller (fortunately in a way which could be quickly fixed) with about 30 seconds to go. As a consequence we were late for the start and didn't get the boat dry until we rounded the first weather mark. Fortunately the course was quite long, being a twice around triangle plus windward leeward, so we were able to crawl back to second with Jenkins/Merino winning. McCafferty/Beale again finished third.

Race 5 - Another long double triangle plus windward leeward. Jenkins/Merino won with Harris/Wood in second and McCafferty/Beale in third.

Race 6 - The course for the final race was a two lap windward-leeward. Jenkins/Merino led at the first mark with Harris/Wood a boat length or two behind. Harris/Wood were able to establish an overlap to leeward of Jenkins/Merino on the run and drive them a bit past the layline, shut off their air a bit after the jibe, and take the lead by the leeward mark. On the second beat Harris/Wood kept a loose cover on Jenkins/Merino and managed to increase their lead a bit by the second weather mark, thanks in part to some Lasers which made it difficult for Jenkins/Merino to find a decent lane. The second run was uneventful, with Harris/Wood in the lead and Jenkins/Merino not too far back in second. On the final beat Jenkins/Wood began a furious tacking duel, which Harris/Wood unwisely tried to match, managing to almost grind Harris/Wood down by the finish. Unfortunately they ran out of course as Harris/Wood survived the assault and won the race by a few feet and the regatta on a tie-break. McCafferty/Beale were again in third and took third overall.

Final results with one discard were:

1. Harris/Wood (7201) 2,1,1,2,[2],1  -  7

2. Jenkins/Merino (8411) 1,2,[7],1,1,2  -  7

3. McCafferty/Beale (6991) 5,[5],3,3,3,3  -  17

4. Hamlet/O'Toole (8024) 3,4,2,5,5,[7]  -  19

5. Lee/Porteous (5687) 4,3,7,6,4,[7]  -  24

6. Bill McKinney/Pollard (7733) 7,[7],4,4,6,4  -  25

After sailing the fleet relaxed on the MBYC deck with cold drinks, and fleet supplied hamburgers and hot dogs. A wonderful end to a delightful day.

Regarding setup, we had our rig raked to the standard 25' 8" position with no ram and the leeward shroud just a little loose while sailing upwind. In retrospect the rig was just a bit tighter than we have used in the past. The main cunningham and outhaul were quite loose. Upwind I was paying equal attention to sheet and vang tension, adjusting both frequently. Ben and I also worked hard on our weight placement and movements, giving particular emphasis to smooth, bumpless weight transfers in the ever changing conditions. We also worked very hard on coordinating helm and spinnaker trim off wind with Ben doing a fantastic job tending the kite.

Many thanks to Harry for loaning me the boat, SCRA for running the races, and to Ben for agreeing to sail with me. For those who don't know, Ben Wood is a rock star. Saturday was the first time Ben and I had sailed together and, except for TNT, only the third time I have ever helmed a 505 in a regatta. As a result I'm a bit of a klutz in the back end, but Ben kept us from disintegrating in maneuvers with tremendous skill and athleticism. He was also on top of things tactically, always keeping us in the pressure and on the lifted tack, managing traffic well, and preventing me from acting on my numerous stupid ideas.

Rick Harris

Regatta #2, Sunday, June 13, 2004

MBYC Summer Series

Eight boats competed for points in this year’s second fleet championship regatta yesterday. Looking back through the records, this is the best turn out we’ve had for a non-Invitational FC regatta. Seems like this is mostly due to the participation of the new boat owners in our midst – Gary Lee on Taz and Channing Hamlet on TGIF were out for their first events, while the boys from Reichel-Pugh on White Trash sailed their second. And they performed quite respectably with Gary and Mark/Mike finishing consistently in the middle of the pack. That included a very close finish in the second race between the two of them that unfortunately resulted in White Trash withdrawing after hitting the end of the finish line. In fact newcomer Gary has leapfrogged to the top of the Classics.

Mission Bay YC ran 3 races in sunny, medium wind conditions. Since the Naples Sabot Senior Nationals was going on at the south end of the bay, the rest of the dinghies were relegated to the north end and sailed triangle courses rather than the advertised tour-de-bay courses. That’s usually a simpler set-up, unless the RC forgets which end of the race course the finish line is on. But all in all they did a good job, keeping the lines square and the course aligned with the wind. Dan has sent out the results in a previous email, and they will be posted on the website along with some photos of the racing.

The fist race was fairly typical. On board Phlegm we concentrated on keeping the boat flat and staying in phase with the many shifts and puffs. The fleet strung out behind us on the first reach, but 7201 (now known as Punchy, not Fist, by the way) surged forward on the second reach and gave us a good race on the second beat. Taz and White Trash showed early on that they were both going to be players. They beat fleet regulars Team Tortuga (sailing Don’t Pinch, and having some problems working the wrinkles out) and Dave Eberhardt (who decided to go with the light-air/no-spinnaker approach).

As the wind peaked for the day and the RC sent everyone in for a lunch break, most of the 505s stayed out for several rabbit starts and WL practice races. There was just enough wind for wire running and wire-wire gybes. Not quite the same as 25kts with 6ft waves, but good fun nonetheless. We gave the Lasers, who also stayed out and raced, a pretty good show. The Billings developed some spinnaker issues and headed in for a replacement. Some quick work in the sail locker and they were back out in time for the second race after the break.

Race two was similar to race 1. The highlight for us was watching the close action between Punchy, Taz, and White Trash. It came down to the wire for all three boats. Trash pushed it a little too hard right at the end. They tried to leebow Taz and squeeze over the line in front of them, but instead tacked too close and hit the finish line pin to boot. They did the honorable thing though and retired from the race. Very exciting to watch.

In the third and final race, Punchy worked the shifts perfectly up the first beat. They lead at the first weather mark and sailed all the way around the triangle in the lead. We Phlegmsters were close behind though. Dan commented as we rounded the leeward mark that they would cover us the whole way up the next beat. But they didn’t. Instead, they let us go off to the right side by ourselves. Now, the right had typically been slow all day, but that time there was a big puff and a shift to the right that, once we tacked on it, put us well ahead. We planted a nasty covering tack on them the next time we crossed to make sure our point was understoodJ, and the rest of the race went pretty much as planned.

And that was it. A pretty short day of sailing. But once the boats were unrigged and the gang assembled on the club deck, Beloved Fleet Captain Mark appeared with burgers and fixings and proceeded to bbq up a great evening meal. At the brief fleet meeting, all agreed that this was an excellent way to end the day and voted to repeat after every regatta. Some deserving person was selected to be in charge of this. After the meeting the party continued on as various support personnel joined in. Ben finally was able to show off 12 week old Cody. Lisa, Denise, Kyle, Tammy, Lillian, and (fashionably late as usual) Maria appeared as well. In honor of the occasion, Harry presented Lillian with a tray of birthday cupcakes which she shared all around. These were no ordinary cupcakes either – lots of rich, fruity goodness.

Bill

Eight boats lined up for the second fleet championship race yesterday. 
Racers were treated to 8 to 12 knot breezes and warm water which 
made for an awesome day of sailing. The surprises of the day came 
from the classic fleet with Gary Lee showing impressive speed on 
USA 5687 as well as White Trash always being in the hunt. One note...

Bill McKinney will be awarded negative 
points* for saying he would show up, but didn't. 
Here are results from yesterday.

USA 8411 (Jenkins/Merino)   1   1   1   3
USA 7201 (Dunning/Harris)   2   2   2   6
USA 5687 (Lee/Porteous)     5   4   4   13
USA 6991 (Wood/Nelson)      6   3   5   14
USA 6571 (McCafferty/Roberts)   4   9   3   16
USA 7773 (Billings/Billings)    3   5   9   17
USA 6570 (Eberhardt/Matt)   8   6   6   20
USA 8024 (Hamlet/Porter)    7   9   7   23

*Negative points equate to how many beer pitchers one must buy for 
the rest of the fleet.

Dan

Regatta #1, Sunday, February 29, 2004

MBYC Leap Year Triangles

It turns out that rigging a 505 by yourself isn't that hard. A little over an hour after getting down to business, and with some timely help from generous passersby, Phlegm was in the water and I was on my way to pick Dan up from the airport. Dan was trying out his rock star persona, and earlier in the week had demanded that the boat be ready for him to step into once he arrived in town. Back at the yacht club, all was acceptable, of course, earning yours truly the honor, not to mention the privilege, or the convenience, of parking in the Vice Commodore space at MBYC for the day.

Once out on the water, things immediately became very weird. While the recent storm had passed and the sky was clear, the wind was very unstable with big oscillations and puffs. We began the day right, though, by port-tacking the fleet on the first start. Dan is such a rock star these days that such things don't impress him much anymore, but I thought it was pretty amazing. We spent most of the first beat chasing shifts and worrying about where everyone was, the result being that we were hard pressed to hang onto the lead by the first mark. To make matters worse, a previously undetected rigging error delayed our deployment of the spinnaker pole for most of the first reach. Fortunately the Kitty was in second place and took advantage of the opportunity to luff up the rest of the fleet, stalling them all just long enough for us to get going again. I like to give the credit to my one-handed pole-less spinnaker flying technique, but objective observers have tended to discount that spin.

Inter-race debate among the gathered boats centered on whether to set up for the puffs or the lulls in these tricky conditions. Ben recalled the discussion at the midwinters where the guideline seemed to be… set up for the level of power you are looking for. According to Mike Martin, that means that if your crew is more on the trap than not, then go for more power to keep him out. If he's mostly sitting on the deck, then set up for a low drag configuration.

The second race was more of the same unstable conditions. Team Phlegm won the left end of the start again, this time without having to tack away from the RC boat at the last minute. We tried to pay more attention to the wind velocity, and less attention to shifts and other boats. The RC had called another triangle-WL course and it was clear that, while the windward and leeward legs provided more tactical challenge, the close reaches were testing the technical abilities of the crews.

We tried running a tuning session during the lunch break, but the weird conditions made it impossible to compare performance unless the boats were close enough to interfere with each other. Instead, after a short bathroom break, we practiced tacking and gybing.

The second half of the day featured, among other things, a little less variation in the wind. Or maybe we just got more used to it. In any case, there were plenty of highlights. Team 7201 entertained us all in race three by sailing past the finish line on their way to an imaginary second weather mark. Based on my perusal of the results that evening, they did manage to return to the finish line in time to salvage a fifth place. But I digress… at the start of that same race, Team Phlegm crossed the line ever so slightly too early and, in front of the entire MBYC dinghy fleet, had to turn around and restart. Will the shame never end???

And speaking of highlights, the entire MBYC dinghy fleet was also given the opportunity to appreciate the hard work and diligence expended by our beloved Fleet Captain in painting the bottom of his boat. During race 1, while the sun was still high in the sky, Mark proudly displayed the brilliant candy apple red color of Moxie's hull by dipping his mast into the murky depths of Mission Bay. Yes, dear reader, I do speak here of Mark Kurzava and his fine steed Moxie. Flabbergasted though you may be to read these words, the classic fleet's most reluctant member did in fact sail in two whole races on this fine day.

But in spite of those heroics, Roger Lovett and new crew Jim in FreeBee cleaned up in the classic fleet. Congratulations guys! No word yet on the whereabouts of Mike Barry.

Kudos also go to our new Classic Fleet Grand Pooh-bah. Thanks to his tireless efforts there were three classic 505s on the racecourse. Mark (not Kurzava) and Mike, new owners of the yacht formerly known as White Trash, enjoyed their new toy all afternoon and competed in at least one of the races. No doubt, as the year progresses, the Pooh-bah will corral even more of the classic boats to participate.

Final positions -

1. Phlegm, Dan Merino/Bill Jenkins, 8411

2. Fist, Harry Dunning/Rick Harris, 7201

3. Tortuga, Ben Wood/Geoff Nelson, 6991

4. Kitty, Bill McKinney/John Billings, 7773

5. FreeBee, Jim ???/Roger Lovett, 5507

6. Moxie, Super crew/Mark Kurzava, 5848

7. *&^%$, Mike Roberts/Mark McCafferty and a massive support staff, 6571

Lame Excuses -

Denny - Nursing his lead habit.

Eberhardt - Training for two solid weekends of work party duty.

Jue - Practicing his avalanche survival skills.

Schnelker - Training for father/son entry in the Tour de France.

Shand - Forgot she owns a boat.

See ya on the water!

Bill Jenkins

Fleet Captain Mark's Rejoinder

Many before have scoffed that observing a sailboat race from ashore is about as exciting as vacuuming your sofa, or perhaps watching slugs fonicate. I'm here to say that what these unenlightened souls lack is proper position. Location, location, location! Because I had a killer perspective of yesterday's first race from the middle of the racecourse, standing atop my centerboard patiently as my mast head dug itself out of the murky bottom of Mission Bay. The view was epic! I invite you all to try it. And yes perhaps I delayed righting my boat for a few minutes so I could show off it's my prized candy red finish to all the other fleets. Heck, I almost saluted them from my lofty height as they sailed by.

While we had something of a rough start, let me premise this report with the Modus operandi of the team-currently-known-as-Moxie on that fine Leap Day. Race One was my first race at the helm of my boat,(and my 3rd ever in as many years), and the first sailboat race ever for my aspiring, brave crewman Harold. Experience was not on our side. That known, we went into Sunday's regatta with two objectives: 1) Don't hit anybody. 2) Finish. And I'll admit outright that the context of Objective #2 was deliberately undefined.

Overzealous, and excited at the intensity of the moment, we managed to dump the boat about a minute and half into the 1st race. Hey, it's really hard to hit anybody when you're turtled in the middle of the bay. We managed to right the boat, but not without stowing about 30 gallons of Mission Bay within the forward bulkhead. I think I may have a leak up there.

Perhaps the impact to my craft was in some way subconciously tied to my current submariner kick. Lately I've spent way too much free time immersed in entirely unintellectual Tom Clancy novels of navel warfare, candy for the male brain. And just the night before Sunday's race I was up at odd hours, totally amped up on caffine, my eyes glued to HBO, watching some mediocre Gene Hackman submarine flick. It's really no wonder I inadvertenly added 250 lbs of dead weight to her, driving the bow to Hades. Heck, I just about dredged up half the bay on our sail back to the club (the other half already being on the tip of the mast). We all live in Mark's Red Submarine, Red Submarine...

There were upsides to our escapades. Harold and I did make it around the course a couple of times, trapping, setting, gybing, and doing all that other 505 sailing-type stuff. Heck we even managed well against FreeBee on the weather legs. There's hope for us yet.

We finished 2 races without hitting anything. Mission accomplished. Many thanks to Rick Denney and FD Doug who helped us drain my boat at the dock so it wouldn't unseat the hoist from it's foundation.

In other news, upper managment of Team Moxie is having qualms about the current title of the organization, having never really much settling into the moniker anyway. And especially since a Lightening parked at the club has the same name actually painted on it's hull. How rude. Negotiations for corporate naming rights aren't going as well as expected. Of course, even if they were, with my luck we'd end up "Team Red Slurpee". So I'm on a spiritual journey in search of a more inspiring name for #5848. "Mudslinger" has something of a ring to it, don't ya think?

Amidst it all, I can't help but think I'm going about this all wrong. Perhaps my "Helming Dreams" are misguided. Is it really too much work? I must say Dan Merino has his scenario very well dialed in. His "expert staff" rigs his boat and drives him around the racecourse to victory. I swear I saw Bill serving up tea and crumpets aboard Phlegm between races. But then again my viewpoint from my boat was skewed about 10 degrees more below the horizon than customary.

Mark Kurzava

Captain - Fleet 3