MBYC Fall Triangles

24 October 2004

The fleet sailed 5 races in typical Mission Bay conditions. We had six boats out last weekend (TGIF (me and Karl), TAZ (Gary and ?), Phlegm (Dan and Bill oh I mean Mark), Free Bee (Roger and ?), Kitty (old John and ?), Geoff and Mark's new boat sailed by Geoff and his brother in law). Bill was also sighted at the dock with a pitcher of beer, and as a result, the fleet decided to break after race 2 for some refreshments, tuning discussions and smack talk. White Trash and Don't Pitch were both spotted as well but they decided it might be more fun to spend time with women than race ... hmmmm.

Lets see ---

First time I sailed with Karl so we decided to leave early and get some practice in. We sailed out to the course in 4 knots gusting to 6 and practiced some tacks, hoists, gybes, douses, etc.... and tried to figure out how to get the top tell tale on the several season old main to fly (Ram at 3 and a little cunningham on seemed to work). Needless to say, there was not much discussion about the trap wires, trap harness, hiking, keeping the boat flat, etc....Karl is a great crew by the way and actually knew more about the boat than I did. Any success I had is largely his doing.

Race 1 was W-L twice around. The fleet had a uniformly poor start as we were all somewhat late and slow at the line and we got to the weather mark with TAZ, Phlegm, Kitty and TGIF all in the hunt. I seem to remember trading tacks with TAZ and Phlegm on the weather legs and going really slow in the light breeze downwind. Race 1 was completed with TGIF in the lead, TAZ in second and Bill in Third.

Race 2 was the same course. The fleet had a better start this time and we had some great close racing and mark roundings. After two laps around the course we finished with three boats overlapped .... Phlegm, TAZ and then TGIF. Karl and I then had the opportunity to discuss an interesting tactical blunder made aboard TGIF that may have made a difference. .... I think the three of us were on port tack about two lengths apart and pretty even at the finish with TGIF in between Phlegm to windward and TAZ to leeward -- with all boats needing to tack to Starboard to cross the line. My tactical option at this point seemed to be to wait for Gary to tack and then tack and see where Phlegm came out. Gary and I tacked simultaneously and then Phlegm tacked onto starboard directly in front of us. I was faced with an interesting split second decision -- do I hit Phelgm from behind and push them over the line, do I go to windward of them in severe pinch mode and get sandwiched between TAZ and Phlegm with a small chance passing Phlegm and possibly beating TAZ or do I sail to leeward of Phlegm into bad air and seal my fate in third place (for some reason this seemed to be the best decision at the time). If that situation happens again I'll try the windward approach.

Sighting Bill at the dock with beer, the fleet capitalized on the lunch break with three boats tied for first place. Since I had been struggling to get the top tell-tale on the main to fly and spending a lot of time adjusting vang and mainsheet tension, I asked Dan (the all knower of 505 tuning and trim questions) how he was trimming the main. Turns out that in these conditions that's not as important as the tell tales in the 5"O"5 on the sail. I'll install those in the 505 -- it will give me yet another thing to think about while sailing. Its been an interesting transition from laser sailing where the only thing to think about is hiking and how bad those wrinkles from the mast joint to the clew of the sail look. The 5o5 has a few more lines and things to think about ....

Races 3-5 were more of the same. I think we had a building breeze in the afternoon and we saw 10 knots occasionally. The first sign was that kitty's light weigh crew (85 pounds soaking wet) crew was out on the wire. The windward legs were pretty tactical with big gains made from finding better pressure and sailing on lifted tacks. Covering does not seem to work so well on Mission Bay. Its painful to watch a boat to leeward get a lift and a puff and sail away. It seems that you really have to focus on finding pressure and lifts. Anyway, it seemed like we had a lot of close racing, close mark roundings and some good luffing matches on the reaches and runs -- I had to do some circles for fouling Kitty, Dan did some circles for fouling us and not sure who else in senseless luffing match. Oh, that reminds me of another brainless tactical move on my part. With three boats sailing downwind, if two get into a luffing match and screw with each other (TGIF and Phlegm caused by me) the third boat (TAZ) will sail away. Sorry Dan.

We had some contact at one mark rounding and an ensuing discussion about overlaps and room, etc. I am still not exactly sure what happened because its tough for me to look around while dousing the chute, especially with the main sheet wrapped around the tiller extension and the dousing line wrapped around the mainsheet. I think I was ahead at the 2-length zone but not sure. No damage was done and I did eventually untangle the dousing line and the main sheet.

Since Dan decided to skip the final race, I think Gary or I won the day, but I would need see the actual results to know who won for sure. I know we won another race and so did he.

We finished the day in typical 505 style with some beer, burgers and chips, etc....

I packed the boat up to take it home. I am sure I left MBYC with two dolly wheels and arrived home with one. I'll be at home depot in the 505 section looking at wheel barrow wheels to see if I can find a cheaper solution that Seitech.

Thanks to Bill, Fiddlers Green, the White Trash team, and anyone else who stayed home to give me a chance of winning a race or possibly a regatta.

Channing Hamlet

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taz managed a 2-2-2-3-1 series. (Not too shabby for an old boat). The racing was very exciting with big shifts, lots of lead changes and a bit of "bumper boats" going on here and there. It was refreshing to see that most people (Dan Merino for one) did their circles when called for. This showed very good sportsmanship in the fleet.

Race 3 was particularly exciting with the first three boats (Merino, Lee and Channing) finishing the race overlapped at the line.

Gary

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think (and this is a very rough approx) that Team Bollocks! got a 7 6 5 4 4

I don't know if there were any throw outs.

For a report:

For not being on the calendar, the MBYC Triangles event was a huge success for Fleet 3. 6 boats made the line (except the first and last race) of the 5 race series. Team Bollocks! started the series divided with regular Crew Mark sailing with the Phlegmster and being replaced with Bo "No Show" Smith... also known in the fleet for chasing 5o5s from Bay to Bay in his large motor yacht. Bo had never actually been in a sailboat while under sail before and being not a small man, I figured what better place to teach him to sail than during a 5 race series in light air in a 5o5. As much as I hate to admit it... he did do very well- even got on the wire for 10 seconds during a blast. We missed the first start but picked up the fleet mid-race and tried to get in the Lightnings way as much as possible. The second and third races (I don't remember very many triangle courses come to think of it) showed continued improvement and further made a dent in the 12-pack we brought on board for moral support. The lunch break consisted of the majority of Fleet 3 standing on the dock, drinking more bar beers and telling many more lies. Race 4 started with Bollocks! OCS but clawing back into 4th beating the clearly under weight Kitty and as usual well weighted FreeBee. By race 5 Team Bollocks! was out of beer and well lubricated. We used that to our advantage and took last place in the race and were suitably happy about it (Phlegmishness did not race).

The post race festivities were better than usual with Fleet Capt. Mark making his typical unilateral decision and forcing us to have a BBQ on the deck at MBYC. I was surprised he didn't make his mom cook and his gf clean as well. Anyway, we all stayed too long and drank too much. We also saw Trash and Pinch out training/tuning which brought the total boats out to 8 for the day... not a bad day at all for mid Oct in blustery San Diego!

Cheers,

Geoff - USA 7095 Team Bollocks!