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Highlights:
Stingrays everywhere cruising around just under the surface. An uneventful race insofar as crew chatter is concerned, ie they managed to shut up and concentrate for the most part. Blue Chip beat the Seal.
Downers:
Boatspeed issues. Sunburn. (Only Andy was organised enough to apply sunscreen before leaving home in the morning. But he forgot his gloves, so burnt his hands!)
Result:
5th on PYR and Personal.
Lessons Learnt:
Mike can sail after all. Our rig is way too tight. The Seal is NOT invincible.
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Race 1 Spring Series. Long Inshore. Friday 2nd April
Wind 7-12 North East.
Seems that the chaps at the Met Office are really certain about the wind today, with none of the "it might go to the South and blow a bit harder or softer" indecision. It's about time we had a decent steady breeze. An 09:30 briefing with all the usual crowd, and off for a 10:30 start on the transit from Pumphouse through West Pole. The wind is good, so we run the standard jib. Our start is on port, reaching down the transit, panicking big time in case we're early. With Andy keeping a good eye on the transit we gain good position to starboard of the fleet and cross pretty much on the nail. Yella Belly is early and has to do a 'go-around'. Blue Chip's hovering on the line as usual, with her usual match-race tactics, but we're clear and ahead up-wind following a tack onto starboard and then approach East Bouy after tacking onto Port on the layline. Boat speed seems good, but we're still suffering from the jittery, stomach-cramping nervousness of the actual start, so it's too early to tell....
We round the mark and set the bitch for a run down to Earth Station, while the wind drops. What is it about Fridays? It blows like hell all week and then nothing much.... So we sail angles, trying to maintain boatspeed. Around the mark for a beat back to East Bouy we slow: The wind has died off and our small jib is underpowered. We fiddle and fret with the sails, losing the ground we made. Blue Chip seems far too close - and bloody hard to shake.
Around the top mark again and a very broad spinnaker reach to Pumphouse Port bouy sees us gain again. Gybing around this mark we have an excellent run down to Earth Station. And this time we're prepared. Under orders, Bob and Hamish grumble around the foredeck, changing the jib to the big one - ready for light air again - and eventually get the job done. Around Earth Station we finally start to move properly on our close reach to Shoal Spar, flying along quite nicely, and with another spinnaker-set return to Earth Station.
Our Bitch-handling is definately improving, and our TeamJackal gear really does look smart.
Around again, we beat back to East Bouy - this time moving better, but Jackal just doesn't want to go more than 4 knots (we should be doing more). Despite the distraction of Andy's hot sausage buns, we're totally in the groove, sails trimmed, telltales all doing their stuff, but we still havn't really got boatspeed. Up at the mark we round again, set the bitch and cruise down to the finish on a time of 14:02:20. Nothing like good enough! But we've finally figured it out - our rig is too tight, depowering our sails. At least we think so....
Pandora, by all acounts, was doing five knots upwind, while we had trouble getting to four. It seems we're gaining on downhills and losing it all upwind again. Time to re-rig the boat properly. And there was us, thinking it was just the helmsman losing his touch.
Back on shore, Mike gives us a bit more (far more) lip than usual. He's in a good mood having sailed well, although modestly attributing his boatspeed to a continuous intake of beer and cigars. Caroline doesn't back him up, but despite this, the verbal torrent continues unabated. You have to hand it to the guy: What he lacks in accuracy is more than made up for with a mix of good humour and really genuine concern about our sailing skill, or lack thereof.
The result? We came 5th from 6. But Mike came first, and beat that Seal. So he's now TeamJackal's official mascot! We must have him stuffed.
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