Chalk Talk – August 28, 2018

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• Wind: 10-12 kts from SW
• 2 Races: W1 and W2
• 14 boats.

Vixen had her regular crew, John in the middle, and Bob on the bow. A key to success this evening was spending some time before the first race adjusting Vixen’s rig to get the helm balanced out and the lower mast straight athwartships. While we sailed up the course before the race to assess if there was a favored side, all that went out the window after the start of the 1st race, as we were forced to tack over to port for clear air. We saw that Red Stripe and Schadenfreude were also going over to the right, so we felt okay continuing that way. We went nearly to the starboard layline where there seemed to be a header and the wind coming more off the Falmouth shore. We tacked over and were nearly on the layline with a lead over the boats on the left side. I decided to put the boat in point mode for a while to try to make the mark without doing 2 more tacks, and I think that let Schadenfreude scoot out a little on us. We did not make the mark and had to take the 2 tacks to get up to the layine. We did not call the layline as well as we should have and overstood probably a boat length, or more. So those two mistakes combined to let Schadenfreude round the weather mark a boat length, or so, ahead of us. We jibed to port first shortly after rounding the offset mark figuring that side might be better, and Schadenfreude followed suit. We were able to nose ahead of them on the first part of the run, but not far enough to be able to jibe and find a path to clear air on the other board, so Schadenfreude regained their lead after we each jibed back to starboard and we then needed to defend against Black Sheep, who was closing fast from astern, to hold on to 2nd.

The second race saw us with a better start than in the 1st race, hitting the line this time with good speed and with a clear lane to sail in. We executed our pre-race strategy of sailing the shifts/puffs and staying more-or-less in the middle of the course. While we came in to the 1st mark from the right, White Hawk came in close behind from the left, so I doubt there was a favored side, as much as finding a couple shifts probably made the difference. After we rounded first, we basically just kept our wind clear and covered the fleet the rest of the way, as the boats behind jockeyed with each other.

As with last week, I think this is another rare occasion where I have seen the right side pay off, or at least not be disadvantaged. The current was flooding, so maybe a little less adverse current on the right?

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