Thoughts on the RCYC Summer Regatta

Team Raven Racing took second place in PHRF-A in the RCYC Summer Regatta this past weekend.  During two days of sailing we had five races and took line honors in four of them.  That pesky Wy’East from Portland corrected out over us three times and won the regatta.

Rick started back to school this week and has been too busy to put his thoughts down, so I volunteered to capture what I could remember.  Team members – please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments!

Friday:

Conditions: It started fairly calm, but the wind built throughout the evening.  We had too much sail up for the second race but  no time to change headsails.

Crew:

• Rick
• Libby
• Rich
• Rebecca
• Herb
• Jim

The good:

• Rick’s start in the first race was a classic.  I don’t think the Portland boats knew what to make of him camped out on the starting line like that. 
• Sail trimming on the upwind leg was good enough to roll over Karma and beat everybody to the first mark. 
• Can we all take a moment and thank Wy’East for the showing us how to fly an hourglass?

The bad and/or ugly:

• We had a few slow tacks in the second race and enough sail trimming chaos to probably cost us the race.  Chalk that one up to having people in new positions.  Racing with a different crew from week to week certainly affects performance!

Saturday:

Conditions:  Varied.  We had everything from dead calm and sunny to gusty storm cells blowing through.  Thankfully the rain held off for the most part, at least until we were back to the dock.

Crew:

• Rick
• Libby
• Rich
• Jim
• Zach
• Brad

The good:

• Well, we’re all still alive and kicking, aren’t we?
• We had a couple of excellent legs where the boat lit up and showed what she can do.  Unfortunately those moments were fewer and farther between than usual.

The bad and/or ugly:

• Slow and poorly executed spinnaker sets and gybes.
• Poor upwind speed.
• No dedicated tactics person.

Things to do better next time:

• Practice?  Having new people in new positions is always fun, but slightly less fun in the chaos of Portland racing.  It would be better to put the most experienced crew in their usual spots or to hold training sessions with new crew.
• We need to put the shackles back on the spinnaker sheets and do more of the rigging for the spinnaker while we’re still at the dock. 
• Okapi II had their pole on the mast during the upwind leg – we should experiement with this approach on a non-race day.
• Someone on the crew needs to be appointed to do tactics for each race.  Rick needs to focus on the helm and may or may not have time to look around and make decisions.
• We need to try using the secondary winches for mainsheet trimming on the upwind leg.  If that doesn’t work then perhaps it’s time for a 6:1 system.