May 30, 2007, Race 4

Race report to follow Spring 4: Wind Speed 13: Direction SW Start Time Wednesday, May 30, 2007 18:00:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	201	1
2	2	166	2
3	3	107	3
4	4	145	4
5	5	74	5
6	6	101	6
7	7	224	7
8	8	217	8
9	9	36	9
10	10	245	10
11	11	143	11
12	12	202	12
13	13	138	13
14	14	188	14
15	15	226	15
16	16	33	16
17	17	232	17
18	18	59	18
19	19	163	19
20	20	222	20
21	21	71	21
22	23	1	23
23	25	21	25
24	26	29	26
ZFP	22	127	26 ARB
26	27	15	27	Protest Pending
ZFP	24	164	29 ARB
DNC	28	165	33
DNC		14	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		53	----
DNC		76	----

For more pictures from May 30, go to http://www.shieldsfleet9.org/photo-gallery.html

May 23 Race Report

Wednesday’s night Shields racing By: Dave Doucett This being my second time out Shields racing, I am not sure of the format of this race write up. Last night was also my first time trimming main on Jay Gowell’s Fox (232) so I spent more time looking at the main then at what the winning boats were up to--but I will give this my best shot. Night summary: The best time to be in Newport in my opinion is right after the Salve Regina students go home and before all of the summer residence from New Jersey start collating like an infectious disease. There is a small window that you can truly think, Damn it… I spent the whole winter here; this is my time to enjoy Newport, and it is. This past Wednesday we saw classic SSW 13 -16 kts current was starting to switch from ebb to flood and with 28 boats out. What a great time to be out on the water! On Fox it was definitely a learning experience. For example how to retrieve your spinnaker after it was speared by the end of the boom or how to sail a great first beat only to have it all go to hell at the mark rounding. For us, it was a frustrating night because we think we have good boat speed and a good crew; we just need to put it all together. Race One- Top 5 boats Pos Sail # 1 226 2 138 3 202 4 145 5 101 First start we were very late to the line (too deep in the box) and were very lucky to have a general recall. Second start the game plan was to do a Midline start, hold our lane all the way to the Fort Adam’s header, and tack. This did not happen. We lost our lane and worked out to the right side of the course, which seemed to work well for us at the time but it looked like all of the leverage was on the left shoreline. The error made was trying to get back over to the left. We had committed to the right and should have stayed (I think the winning boats stayed right?). By the time we got over to the left side four things went wrong: we were out of phase, we ended up having a bad tack, we had a really bad duck, and we concluded with a penalty turn. Boy I wish we stayed right! Downwind we hugged the shore and brought a good new puff with us catching some boats but we saw the boats that were sailing in the current lee of Rose Island looked like they were making out. A fairly uneventful mark rounding and a good last leg, but a pretty mediocre finish. Race Two- Top 5 boats Pos Sail # 1 224 2 107 3 202 4 76 5 201 Many thanks to Robin for getting the second race off so fast, and his team for the best-run race committee I have seen for weekday racing. We had a good midline start and a good lane to windward but ended up getting into a fight with the boat directly below us which ended with us both getting spit out the back. We did have a good lane and pressure to work with on the right and where able to stay decently in phase up the right side. It all came tumbling down when we got stuck on Starboard in a right phase puff, which was good, but we were not making the mark and did not have a lane to work back to the right. This fleet is very close and consolidates at each mark rounding. We need to think ahead more. We ended up getting a big wind shadow off the lead boats coming into the mark and a header. Somehow we “stuck it in there” and got around the mark thanks to the ebb tide but let 10 + boats pass us.
Downwind the game plan was to work over to the current lee of Rose Island. It looked like boats made out there on the last race. What ended up happening is we let one boat on our port hip screw the whole thing up. We sailed more than half the leg on the unfavored jibe, eventually we won the small tactical fight with the boat on our hip when we jibed on to the favored Starboard jibe but we lost the war by sailing down whole leg in unfavored current watching as boats on the shore side and Rose Island side make out. The mark rounding was a “doctor crash moment.” We let a boat on port push us too much to the left layline when we should have jibed on to Starboard and not let ourselves get pushed around so much. At the mark, we had a crew mix up with the pole and the human guy, which ended with about 3 feet of the end of our boom spearing the kite. I will be looking in the back page of Sailing World next month to see if anyone had a camera on the water on Wednesday. We maybe caught a boat or two on the last leg.
A very frustrating day because we felt like we had the speed and overall right game plan. We just did not put it all together and execute. The boat of the day had to be Tom and Chuck on 202 with two third place finishes nice job! This only being my second time out, I sure have tons to learn and am looking forward to see you all on the water next week.

Registrations

Here are the registrations I have in hand. A reminder: it's supposed to come to me at the address below and it's your responsibility to get it to me at that address, not at the Club before racing, no later than noon on the Tuesday before the race. If your name isn't on the list you won't be scored. If it should be because you've sent your registration in then you'll have to file for redress.

A reminder; I need both signed sail cards and proof of insurance from everyone

Registered Shields as of: 5/23/07

1. 1

2. 14

3. 15

4. 21

5. 29

6. 33

7. 59

8. 74

9. 76

10. 101

11. 107

12. 127

13. 138

14. 145

15. 160

16. 163

17. 164

18. 201

19. 202

20. 217

21. 222

22. 224

23. 232

24. 245

Andrew Burton Trident Studio / The Half Model Co 61 W Narragansett Ave Newport, RI USA 02840 Phone +401 846 9505

Race 2 and 3, May 23, 2007

Race report and photos coming later, I know everyone wants to see the results right away.

Spring Race 2: Wind Speed 13: Direction SSW Start Time Wednesday, May 23, 2007 17:48:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	2	138	1
2	3	202	2
3	4	145	3
4	5	74	4
5	6	101	5
6	8	107	6
7	9	245	7
8	10	217	8
9	12	201	9
10	13	222	10
11	14	21	11
12	15	127	12
13	16	224	13
14	17	232	14
15	18	33	15
16	19	76	16
17	20	164	17
18	21	71	18
19	23	163	19
20	25	59	20	Protest Pending
21	26	15	21
22	27	1	22	Protest Pending
23	28	29	23
DNC	24	188	31
DNC	22	166	31
DNC	7	36	31
DNC	1	226	31	Protest Pending
DNC	11	143	31
DNC		14	----
DNC		39	----

Spring Race 3: Wind Speed 11: Direction SSW Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	224	1
2	2	107	2
3	3	202	3
4	4	76	4
5	5	201	5
6	7	74	6
7	8	245	7
8	9	101	8
9	11	145	9
10	12	21	10
11	13	222	11
12	15	217	12
13	17	164	13
14	18	138	14	Protest Pending
15	19	59	15
16	20	232	16
17	21	163	17
18	23	15	18
19	24	33	19
20	26	1	20
21	27	29	21
DNF	28	127	23
DNC	25	188	31
DNC	22	166	31
DNC	16	36	31
DNC	14	143	31
DNC	6	71	31
DNC	10	226	31	Protest Pending
DNC		14	----
DNC		39	----

May 16

No Race. Thanks Reed Baer for a few sots.

Wed Night Spring -- Week 1, revised

UPDATED RESULTS

“After protests hearings on May 16, here are the revised results from May 9: 202 accepted a 40% penalty and 74 received redress after being knocked out of the race in a collision; others who sailed the course incorrectly withdrew.”

Fleet 9 File: 2007 Spring Scores Class: Shields. One design (Finish position)Race 1: Wind Speed 13: Direction 220 Start Time Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	245	1
2	2	138	2
3	3	166	3
4	4	107	4
5	5	76	5
6	7	217	7
7	8	145	8
8	10	15	9
9	11	21	10
10	12	101	11
11	13	163	12
12	14	29	13
13	17	33	14
14	6	202	14 ARB
RAF	16	1	21
RAF	15	164	21
RAF	18	201	21
RAF	9	226	21
RAF	19	232	21
20	20	74	99.9 ARB

Fleet 9 File: 2007 Spring Scores Class: Shields. One design (Finish position) Race 1: Wind Speed 13: Direction 220 Start Time Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:00:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score	Note
1	1	245	1
2	2	138	2
3	3	166	3	Protest Pending
4	4	107	4
5	5	76	5	Protest Pending
6	6	202	6	Protest Pending
7	7	217	7
8	8	145	8
9	9	226	9	Protest Pending
10	10	15	10
11	11	21	11
12	12	101	12
13	13	163	13
14	14	29	14
15	15	164	15	Protest Pending
16	16	1	16	Protest Pending
17	17	33	17	Protest Pending
DNF	20	74	21	Protest Pending
DNF	18	201	21
DNF	19	232	21

---

Created on 05/11/07 16:05:53 Scoring program: RaceSail (1.2.38) RACE REPORT From #163:

It was a “Tale of Two Courses” or as one of my crew said RTRFC (Next time read the right *** chart.) None the less, it was definitely a great night to be on the water. SSW wind at 15+, pretty steady, ebb tide for a little chop to enliven the starting area, and an expected course (#65) down to mark 4 off Hammersmith. What could be better!

We (163) thought the pin was slightly favored and it seemed like most of the Fleet agreed. Since it was the first race of the season, we opted to try for a middle of the line safe start and intended to favor the right side of the course. Well the rust of the long winter layoff showed and the Fleet got the mandatory General Recall out of the way quickly. With India up, most put their adrenalin in check and we got a good start the next time around. This time we were actually closer to the boat, but got away reasonably clean. With most of the Fleet headed left, we were getting gassed and took a clearing tack to the right. What we found was clear air and great pressure. We also found a few friends, 201, 232, 138, and 101, among others. We thought we were a little up on the boats to the left, so we stayed right for a good stretch. True to form Andy Burton went to the far right corner, and then some. We went about half way and decided to rejoin the Fleet who were all coming out from Fort Adams. We managed to cross everyone to our left and crossed again coming back out on port. On to the lay line and we set up for a STARBOARD rounding, just like the 201 and 101, who were getting to the mark just ahead of us. (Did he say STARBOARD?) Andy, who went to the moon, still managed to get to the mark first and confirmed the right side advantage. We got rolled by 101, reaching in, and had to let two boats (74?? And 76??) round ahead of us. We all rounded to STARBOARD, as did lots of the boats behind us. (Did he say STARBOARD?) We then headed for Romeo, following 201, 232, and 101.

And that’s when the real fun began! Why was the rest of the Fleet going the wrong way! Now it’s not unusual to stay close to shore in an ebb, but the current wasn’t that bad, there was plenty of pressure across the course, no one likes to move the spin gear around, and they seemed to be going a lot farther than necessary. It was at this sublime moment that one of the crew reiterated an earlier comment made before the start. “That sure seems like a strange course and not usual for Robin; particularly for the first race.” That was quickly followed by a check the chart. Well this time a chose to look at a NEW chart and saw that course #65 was actually start-4p-8p-finish, which obviously made more sense. Not total sense, but more sense. As we calmly took down the chute and headed back to mark 4, we tried to figure out why most of the Fleet rounded to STARBOARD rather than port. (Did he say STARBOARD?) Baaah, Baaah, Baaah, Baaah! When we finally got back to mark 4, we joined the parade of rerounders. We unwound, rerounded, popped the chute and joined the parade, and essentially sailed down wind all the way to mark 8. The last leg was equally uneventful with good pressure across the course and minimal current.

So as I see it, there were four groups:

Those who properly sailed the wrong course (#65 from the outdated race chart of start-4s-Rs-6s-finish). The top finishers of this race were 201 and 232.

Those who properly sailed the correct course (#65 from the new race chart of start-4p-8p-finish). The top finishers here were 245, 138, and 166. There were also a number of boats in this group who sailed a longer race of start-4s-???-4p-4p-8p-finish.

Those who sailed a longer race of some of both courses; start-4s-???-4p-4p-8p-finish. We were in this group and there were no winners.

Finally there was one boat who sailed their own race of start-4_?-6p-finish.

And the winner is (I think) Dr. Shu. Congratulations Charlie and congratulations also to the other wily fox, Chris Withers, for his second (but he won’t read this because he doesn’t do email). See you all next week for more fun. The old chart has been permanently retired. Unfortunately, one race too late.

Bernie Patterson

PHOTOS May 9, 2007