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Highlights:
Really shiny new sails in a cool kevlar gold colour.
Downers:
Sail trim and sailing a bit too free. Appalling VMG
Result:
4th on PYR and 2nd on Personal.
Lessons Learnt:
Crank the sails in really tight. Forget all that rubbish about 'slot' and head straight up into the wind, or as neer as dammit, all the time.
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4th Winter Series - Long Inshore. Friday 18th February
Wind 8-13 knots, North to North westerly.
Still slightly jet-lagged from a trip to New Zealand I wake early and get down to the Club in time for breakfast before the 09:00 briefing. We're flying brand new sails today - headsail and main, in a sexy goldish kevlar-pentex mix. So following Ken's briefing we adjust and set the sails in the Marina before lowering / furling them to head out to the course.
It's a long one today, 19 miles with three visits to South Pole via Earth Station mark, so we should do well. The breeze is below 8 knots though, so we reckon to sail downwind angles and try to keep pressure in the spinnaker. Our start is right on, on port and we quickly tack to Starboard and head for the fleet, all on port, but reach them just a little late to stuff them up. Continuing on Starboard we head to the left side of the course and tack to lay East Bouy. We've pulled ahead and round the mark second by seconds to Kaos, reaching clear before setting the Bitch for a run to Earth Station. The wind shifts round to north rather than northwest, depriving us of a good reaching angle so we gybe our way down the course, not gaining on the others as much as we would like.
Jackal feels really alive on the beat though. The new sails give a fantastic shape and the boat seems far more responsive. But we can't shake off Kaos. She's moving around the course like a steam train. Another run. Another beat back and a final run sees us moving back to finish on the Pumphouse/West Pole transit on a time of 15:01:20 only 20 minutes ahead of Kaos. Four hours out on the water has proved reasonably uneventful. Bright, sunny but slightly cold - a very enjoyable day. Our performance? Reasonably dismal, placing 4th. Word from Mike (who usually critiques our performance around the bar) is that we were pointing '"way off", and I suspect that, just for once, he's right. The new sails look the part, but they feel completely different. On the final beat we cranked the sails in and pointed much higher as part of our fiddling and tweaking routine, so with hindsight, I'd say we actually were sailing too free. This is what happens when you try to sail just by using the force.
Perhaps I need one of those masthead gizmos that give you an electronic course to wind, and can be programmed to kick your arse when you don't follow its every instruction.
My crew has offered to do the latter, thus saving on electronics cost and installation. Now all they have to do is tell me how to steer as well.
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