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Solo News 4 Dec 2011

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  •  Sun 4 Dec

    Pursuit in the morning – another good turnout with 32 boats turning out for the Pursuit including 8 Solos.  Extracting the Solo results we have:

     

    1. Gareth (3)

    2. Paul (6)

    3. Tony (7)

    4. Peter H (13)

    5. Mike L (16)

    6. Roy (18)

    7. Chris (19)

    8. Dave C (30)

     

     

     

    With the pursuit start effectively giving us a fleet start finding clear wind off the line wasn’t too bad. Gareth started nearest the committee boat, with Paul a few lengths down the line. The wind was solid hiking but not seriously overpowered. I concentrated on boat-speed making sure I was up to speed off the line and working to sail fast rather than pointing as I was already the windward boat.  I was set of fairly windy settings, mast heel forward (windy setting) and one hole off on the forestay, but I wasn’t needing to depower much with Cunningham. I seemed to be able to creep over Paul to establish a small lead upwind. By the first mark I had I think about 20 yards over Paul with Tony and Peter H not far behind. Downwind Paul closed so that we had a slight gybing duel on the run neither wanting to cost too much time overall but Paul trying to blanket me and me trying to keep clear wind without losing much time. By mark 1 Paul was right on my tail. I seem to be marginally quicker upwind but Paul is marginally quicker on the reaches (about the same on the run).  I made sure I rounded close on the mark to try and blanket Paul. He tacked off – I was thinking that’s strange since we can (just) lay F but maybe a short tack to clear his wind could work – but apparently he had forgotten F. That let Tony slip past Paul and let me get away so that for the rest of the race I was able to gradually pull away from the tight dual between Tony and Paul.  Apart from the Phantoms who went past rather too quickly the Pursuit ended with very close positions showing how well the handicaps tend to work out.  I ended up third – two phantoms well away, but behind me very close with the X1, RS200s etc all very close.

     

    I was only able to sail one of the B2B because I had to dash home to catch a cab to the airport (now in Boston), but the wind had picked up for the start – the beat had been re-aligned and the course changed to 7,5,4,3,2.  Off the start with a larger fleet I concentrated on keeping clear air and sailing fast working my way to the windward mark well up with the RS200’s. Downwind my goal was to ride the stern waves of the faster boats as much as possible – sit well forward, be prepared to almost nose dive to ride the wave generated by an RS200 down the reach. They will be faster with the kite up, but sitting on the stern wave we can almost stay with them.  I thought I had pulled out a decent lead on Paul but on the last downwind leg he was quite close.  We ended up second and third on corrected time. The B2B are becoming quite a challenge with lots of boats on the line and us relatively slow – getting a clear start and keeping clear air up the first beat can make a huge difference.

     

    I wrote most of this on Sunday eveing, but thought that by not sending ttill later in the week I’d be able to say what the forecast for Sunday looks like, but every time I look the forecast is different – my best suggestion – come down and sailJ

     

    Gareth

    5215

     

     

    A fairly simple course, start at F, beat to 7, reach to 5, run to X, fine reach to 1 and fetch (almost beat) back to F.

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