Twice the Fun

Race Report from 201 as 21 is still out with a busted stick Note to Richard Sugarman; If you need a hand assembling a new mast let me know; I'll bet we could put it together in and evening or two - Andy

Two races a night are lots more fun, in my opinion. We get one chance to go the wrong way then another to correct our mistakes.
Last Wednesday was no exception; we got out early on Raven and had a good look around the course and tried to guess where Robin Wallace would send us. We quickly found that there seemed to be a righty on the right side of the course and that the flood was much less than on the left. We decided we really wanted the right so went for a boat start with plans to tack immediately after we cleared the boat. A nice gap opened up as a few people arrived early and we nailed the start at the boat and tacked. Reed Baer on 107 tacked on our hip and we began a long port-tack board out towards Jamestown. We crossed ahead of a tug and barge that was shifting from pushing mode to pulling and tacked a liitle early so they wouldn’t block us when we wanted to come back. Reed kept going and was able to come down on top of us with eased sheets and rounded overlapped outside us; well ahead of the rest of the fleet except for our fleet measurer, Kim Roberts, we had a spinnaker wrap and held on just too long as 107 gybed and slipped by.
In the photos you can see the difference in the way the two boats fly the kites. I think 107’s way may be faster and they’ve really perfected the technique. I also think it should be illegal, but that’s beside the point. 107 went on to win the race and deserved to. They didn’t make any mistakes and capitalized on the two we made. Well done guys! Wasn’t there another fellow who sailed with you at one time, too? Perhaps he got the flick for missing too many races.
For the second race we decided—surprise—that we wanted the right again, even though the current was easing. The line was pin-favored, as the photos show, with Nicole Alio and Bill Shore on 74 crossing the fleet on port. But we were afraid of getting stuck over there; especially with so little runway to the war college there was a good possibility of getting pinged back and forth and going slow. So we planned to start late at boat again and bang right. We were about 6 seconds late with a lane to tack so we did. This time we had a bit more company but were able to get to the corner in good shape with Peter Clark on 224 ahead and well to leeward being a nice starboard blocker for us all the way in. We rounded third behind them and 74 and gybed immediately. We gained all the way down but not enough to get an overlap. The inside didn’t pay for Alio/Shore and we rounded second. We covered Chris Whithers on 138 as 224 put a loose cover on us to the finish.
Chris’s third place was enough to clinch the spring series for him on a three-way tie with us and Baer/Burnham who finished fifth in the race to take third for the series.
It’s interesting to look at the scores and see three boats with 13 points, two with 15, and two with 20 all in the top ten. That’s pretty close racing! It’s interesting, too, that if we include the throwouts, 138 and 201 are still tied and 138 still wins the tiebreaker. Cool! Well done, Chris and crew.

Andy Burton #201 Raven

Spring 2007 Overall Results

Overall Score: Last Race Date:06/27/07

	Sail	Spring 1	Spring 2	Spring 3	Spring 4	Spring 5	Spring 6	Total
1	138	2	1	15*	13*	7	3	13
2	201	19*RAF	9*	5	1	5	2	13
3	107	3	6*	2	3	29*DNF	5	13
4	74	5.0 ARB	4	7*	5	1	8*	15
5	202	14.0*ARB	2	3	12*	6	4	15
6	224	36*DNC	12*	1	7	11	1	20
7	145	7	3	10*	4	12*	6	20
8	217	6	8*	13*	8	2	5.0 ARB	21
9	101	10*	5	9*	6	4	7	22
10	76	4	15*	4	6.0 ARB	10	36*DNC	24
11	245	1	7	8	10*	14*	9	25
12	166	36*DNC	18	19*	2	8	17	45
13	21	9	10	11	25	29*DNF	36*DNC	55
14	59	36*DNC	20	16	18	3	36*DNC	57
15	232	19*RAF	13	17*	17	15	12	57
16	71	36*DNC	17	6	21	15.0 ARB	24*	59
17	33	13	14	21	16	29*DNF	36*DNC	64
18	15	8	21*	20	30*RAF	17	21	66
19	163	11	19*	18	19	21*	18	66
20	127	36*DNC	11	25 DNF	26.0*ARB	19	13	68
21	36	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	9	16	10	71
22	143	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	11	13	15	75
23	29	12	23	23	26*	20	36*DNC	78
24	164	19 RAF	16	14	29.0*ARB	29 DNF	36*DNC	78
25	222	36*DNC	36*DSQ	12	20	29 DNF	19	80
26	1	19 RAF	22*	22	23*	22	22	85
27	108	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	9	11	92
28	14	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	27	18	14	95
29	226	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	15	29 DNF	20	100
30	188	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	14	36 DNC	36 DNC	122
31	17	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	16	124
32	181	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	23	131
33	53	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	26 DNS	134
34=	39	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	144
34=	165	36*DNC	36*DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	36 DNC	144

Allowed Drops 2. Shown by '*'

June 27, summer, then spring...

or is it spring, then summer. Either way here are the results from Wednesday's races. Spring 6: Wind Speed 12: Direction SSW Start Time Wednesday, June 27, 2007 19:00:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	224	1
2	2	201	2
3	3	138	3
4	4	202	4
5	5	107	5
DNC	26	217	5 ARB
7	6	145	6
8	7	101	7
9	8	74	8
10	9	245	9
11	10	36	10
12	11	108	11
13	12	232	12
14	13	127	13
15	14	14	14
16	15	143	15
17	16	17	16
18	17	166	17
19	18	163	18
20	19	222	19
21	20	226	20
22	21	15	21
23	22	1	22
24	23	181	23
25	24	71	24
DNS	25	53	26
DNC		21	----
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		59	----
DNC		76	----
DNC		164	----
DNC		165	----
DNC		188	----

Summer 2: Wind Speed 14: Direction SSW Start Time Wednesday, June 27, 2007 17:45:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	107	1
2	2	201	2
3	3	143	3
4	4	245	4
5	5	138	5
6	6	101	6
7	7	232	7
8	8	224	8
9	9	74	9
10	10	163	10
11	11	145	11
12	12	226	12
13	13	202	13
14	14	127	14
15	15	181	15
16	16	108	16
17	17	36	17
18	18	71	18
19	19	222	19
20	20	1	20
21	21	14	21
22	22	17	22
23	23	166	23
24	24	15	24
DNF	25	53	26
DNC	26	21	36
DNC	27	217	99 ARB
DNC		29	----
DNC		33	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		59	----
DNC		76	----
DNC		164	----
DNC		165	----
DNC		188	----

Tanker traffic and Sailing

a recent post on the sailing world blog tells of last Tuesday's canceled racing due to High Interest Vessels passing through the bay. http://forums.sailingworld.com/blogs/?q=node/60

June 20, 2007, Summer Series begins

Summer 1: Wind Speed 6: Direction NW Start Time Wednesday, June 20, 2007 17:45:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	74	1
2	2	107	2
3	3	201	3
4	4	101	4
5	5	202	5
6	6	224	6
7	7	217	7
8	8	108	8
9	9	226	9
10	10	36	10
11	11	245	11
12	12	59	12
13	13	232	13
14	14	145	14
15	15	138	15
16	16	222	16
17	17	33	17
18	18	53	18
19	19	127	19
20	20	71	20
21	21	165	21
22	22	15	22
23	23	14	23
24	24	1	24
25	25	29	25
DNC	26	163	99 ARB
DNC		21	----
DNC		39	----
DNC		76	----
DNC		143	----
DNC		164	----
DNC		166	----
DNC		188	----

June 17, Father's Day

Weekend race results from Sunday Race 1

1. 232
2. 224
3. 160
4. 201
5. 245
6. 138
7. 15 p
8. 203 not registered
9. 107
10. 29
11. 164
12. 217
13. 101 DNF p Seeking redress

Race 2

1. 224
2. 245
3. 138
4. 101
5. 232
6. 160
7. 201
8. 107
9. 15
10. 29
11. 203 DNF
12. 217 DNF
13. 164 DNS

Race 3

1. 201
2. 101
3. 224
4. 138
5. 107
6. 232
7. 160
8. 15
9. 245
10. 29

Racing was excellent last Sunday (June 17) with 13 boats showing up to sail three no-spinnaker races in 10 - 15 knots of breeze. It was Father's Day so there were several boats with fathers sailing with their kids; Jay Gowell on 232 was one, John Burnham on 107 showed up with his entire family and so did Platt Johnson on 101 (of course Rachel Burnham and Nancy Johnson are Wednesday night regulars, too). The crew on 224 thought it was part of the Aloha Series and got style points for showing up in aloha shirts and with a bikini-clad crewmember soaking up the rays on the back porch on the runs. Bob Hunte ran the races on a good windward-leeward course between marks Q and 6. And contrary to everyone's expectations, with a swift ebb it wasn't a dash for the right hand corner, so the races were interesting with lots of lead changes. The last race was the most frustrating for Robin Monk on 160 who was launched at the weather mark only to sail into a hole downwind as the rest of us brought the breeze to him. A great time was had by all in the Corinthian atmosphere that prevailed. It made a nice change from the intense competitiveness of Wednesday nights.

Introducing the Summer Partners Series

Starting with the summer series, we're introducing an informal, unofficial, experimental and for-the-moment completely secondary scoring scheme for the Wednesday Night series. Partner teams are pairs of boats determined by pairing high + low scoring spring series boats. Since the spring series isn't technically over until the first of (hopefully) 2 races is held on June 20th, partners were scored based on their points through June 13th, with average points (for RC duty) applied to date. After the top and bottom scoring boats were paired, the next pair is the 2nd highest/2nd lowest scoring boats, and so on. Any boat that had more than one DNC didn't qualify to race in this series, but can easily qualify for the fall series by competing regularly in the summer. Here are the summer series partnerships and their spring series points.

• 1 & 74: 85+13 = 98
• 164 & 107: 78+14 = 92
• 29 & 202: 78+15 = 93
• 127 & 201: 73+20 = 93
• 163 & 138: 67+23 = 90
• 15 & 217: 66+24 = 90
• 33 & 145: 64+24 = 90
• 232 & 76: 62+24 = 86
• 71 & 245: 59 + 26 = 85
• 59 & 224: 57 + 31 = 88
• 21 & 53: 55 + 37 = 92
• 36 & 222: 53 + 42 = 94
• 166 & 143: 47 + 43 = 90

Winners: The top teams are determined during the summer series by combining individual scores and calculating which team's partner points improve the most relative to the spring series. After the summer series, we'll assign new partners and add boats that didn't qualify earlier. If you're looking for prizes, don't. This is for bragging rights, but you never know... For anyone who is confused by this, don't worry about it. Just call your partner on Mondays and make sure he or she has a full crew. Help them fix something or do some pre-race tuning. Share a few laughs. Any complaints should be addressed to the Czar of the Partners Series, whose email address will be made available sometime in November. All his decisions are final unless he changes his mind.

The Irish Are Coming-- boats needed

Dear Shields Fleet Nine Shields Owners, On July 7th and 8th 2007 a team of sailors from Kinsale Yacht Club in Ireland will be traveling to Newport to team race Ida Lewis Yacht Club (ILYC) in Shields. We are looking for 6 Shields owners to volunteer to lend their boats for these 2 days. As an incentive for these Shields owners, they will be invited to not only sail (or an appointed owners representative) but also attend the social party @ILYC on Saturday evening free of charge. ILYC member participants, boats owners, and volunteers in this event may also have the opportunity to travel abroad to Ireland and other countries in future team racing events. Interested Shields owners should contact Dan Faria at 401-225-1357 or dfaria@cox.net ASAP.

Sunday Racing

Racing was excellent last Sunday (June 17) with 13 boats showing up to sail three no-spinnaker races in 10 - 15 knots of breeze. It was Father's Day so there were several boats with fathers sailing with their kids; Jay Gowell on 232 was one, John Burnham on 107 showed up with his entire family and so did Platt Johnson on 101 (of course Rachel Burnham and Nancy Johnson are Wednesday night regulars, too). The crew on 224 thought it was part of the Aloha Series and got style points for showing up in aloha shirts and with a bikini-clad crewmember soaking up the rays on the back porch on the runs. Bob Hunte ran the races on a good windward-leeward course between marks Q and 6. And contrary to everyone's expectations, with a swift ebb it wasn't a dash for the right hand corner, so the races were interesting with lots of lead changes. The last race was the most frustrating for Robin Monk on 160 who was launched at the weather mark only to sail into a hole downwind as the rest of us brought the breeze to him. A great time was had by all in the Corinthian atmosphere that prevailed. It made a nice change from the intense competitiveness of Wednesday nights. Well get the results out later.

After last week's blow the grins in the bar were the widest I've seen and the decibel level was double the usual as excited crews told war stories. So I was disappointed to cancel this week for less breeze. In Europe or Australia there would be question of not sailing; are we getting to be wimps in the US? So questions for the fleet-- owners and crews; Should we have sailed last Wednesday? Should we have a "No Spinnakers" flag?

Crew Available

If you are looking, or are willing, please post comments to this notice and there can be a standing crew list available online. ---- Here's a fellow from the Pacific Northwest who's looking for a boat to sail. He's living here so he's a potential regular. He's done a fair bit of small-boat sailing and a little shields sailing among other things. He e-mails: I'm planning to be down at Ida Lewis again tomorrow looking for a position to crew on a Shields. Please keep me in mind should you or one of your colleagues express a need for an extra hand. My phone is 401-699-2906 Andrew Walker

Quick Notes

Lost Gear:
Please check your foul weather gear- I am missing my NYYC Race Committee jacket (Helly-Hansen with NYYC/ RC Logo)- I think it disappeared from outside the Race Committee locker after racing a couple weeks ago.
Thanks,
Robin Wallace

__ Winslow Regatta: the NOR for the Winslow regatta is available here http://www.shieldsfleet9.org/CHNYC Winslow Cup NOR (2007).pdf
____
The Nominating Committee is looking for Officers of the Shields Class Sailing Association, including a President and National Measurer. Anyone wanting to be considered for a post, please contact Kim at kimroberts04@aol.com, cell 401-864-2531. We need help, energy and direction.

June 6 Race Report, and two more accounts

The first thoughts on arriving at the harbor were - Gee I hope they get a race off tonight, it looks awfully light. I have only been a part of Shields fleet 9 for 3 seasons and this is the most breeze I have ever sailed in on our Wednesday nights. I think that everyone on the water will have a story to tell about what went wrong and hopefully right. Certainly mother nature gave us a few challenges and showed once again who the boss is. I have included a few other folks thoughts so open a brew and relax.

Raja-101 got out about 30 minutes before the start and sailed most of the course. The boat felt good with the fifth crew member we had decided to enroll. Ben Quatromoni was our fordeck, Russel Miller trimmed the chute, Sam Howell did main and tactics and Andy Segal, the owner of Raja, trimmed jib and ran the pit. We felt good with five and thought we had better stiffness although it is a "lot" harder to see with that many onboard.

The start looked favored at the pin but a quick dial up at 2 minutes showed a favor to the windward end. We opted for a safe middle of the line start and managed to live just above John Dory-217's hip for a long tack out towards the dumplings. Most boats looked better on the right but by tucking up inside Dumplings gong we seemed to enjoy a bit of current relief. John Dory-217 who had tacked earlier with Chuck Allen on 202 and Bill Shore on 74 played it perfectly and extended their leads. We rounded 4th and had a good bit of separation on the rest of the fleet so we set our sights on catching 74 and 202. 202 slid to the right and played the leg well while we tried to get inside of Bill Shore at the end of the leg. Unfortunately the extra distance sailed plus Bill's experience still left us in 4th. Our rounding was not one of our best with the jib not all the way up, the main not tuned and the port jib car slipping. In addition we decided that the left was the way to go and forgot about playing the shifts. Result was we lost another 4 boats as 59, 138, 107 and 76 all beat us to the windward mark by playing the right side shifts and the cone of current relief from Rose Island. We rounded the windward mark and set our course to the right courtesy of a slow jybe. Once we were settled into the run we moved to the inside of 201 and then started dealing with the monster gusts. Russel did a great job of tuning the kite and Sam called the puffs so we could soak in the lulls with the kite rotated to windward and then ease the guy and trim the spinn sheet and main sheet to survive the gusts with a higher angle. It was an interesting leg as one kite after another blew up. We watched 107 execute a perfect 10 wipeout although we missed seeing their impromptu bottom scrubbing efforts. John elaborates on them further below. 202 also had kite issues although I am not sure exactly what they were as they tried to fly something for a while before giving up. We caught a few of these boats before our own spinnaker halyard parted at the head which was probably a good thing. We got to the leeward mark in 6th and rounded just behind 201 but with a narrow lane just to windward of his line again proving that Shields like a nice slow turn. Up the last leg we held 201 to the starboard layline by keeping just above them so that they couldn't tack. When we finally tacked for the RC boat, which was favored by quite a bit, we ended up catching 202 as well. After the race I debriefed a few folks who trounced us on the second leg. Andy MacKechnie on 138 said it was mostly good fortune that they played it correctly as they were really trying to free their air. When they tacked to starboard to make it around the red buoy off Rose Island Light they were on the layline with a nice righty. Sailing in clear air really does pay off although I suspect that the crafty Chris Withers meant to go that way all along. Bill Shore who stayed cool and collected just stayed perfectly in phase the entire 2nd leg while playing the right side. He credits a new deck mounted Plastimo Compass (just the parts with no plastic fittings) with making the shifts easy to read. His crew Curtis takes the credit for actually watching it and paying attention to it's rotations. Congrats to them on a well earned victory.

I want to thank Peter Gerard, who stepped in for Robin Wallace, and his excellent race committee team for a wonderful and memorable evening of sailing without whom we would just be the pretty boat cruising society.

Submitted by Platt Johnson helm 101-Raja

-- Platt:

I heard you were doing the writeup for last night's adventures. I thought I'd give you the inside scoop on how you passed us on the last run:
I tipped the boat over last night in a big gust of wind, and I went swimming. Our boat (107) was riding about 5th, most of the way down the second run, and smugly gaining on other boats that had blown out their chutes. The boat laid over to leeward quickly in the puff and, with the vang on, the boom self-trimmed as it hit the water and the boat laid over on its side. Perched to windward but trying to pull the tiller in my direction, I got pitched to leeward and stepped for the seat, but it was too vertical to hold me. Judging from the gash in my shin, I hit the coaming and the rest of me kept on going.
As I hit the water I remember thinking two things: 1) I'm glad I have my PFD on and 2) I'm not letting go of the tiller extension. I held on tight even as my body tacked violently under water from leftside forward to right; judging from how sore my right hand is today, I had a death grip on the extension and fortunately the universal joint held up, perhaps better than the joint in my right shoulder, which is a little sore this morning.
The boat slowed down dramatically (taking a big drink of the Bay in the process) and with my free left hand and forearm, I grabbed the toe rail as evidenced by the new bruise on my forearm. I was half back in the boat by the time the rest of our crew realized I'd been displaced; they were busy releasing the vang and trying to figure out how to drop the chute, which had blown through the foretriangle and was flagging to leeward at 25 or 30 knots. Pete, on the foredeck, got banged in the head by the pole as we got the chute down and the process took us several minutes, so when all was said and done, we elected to head for the mooring and lick our wounds, happy to all still be aboard with nothing more seriously damaged except our egos.

John B, 107

-- The view from the front of 101-Raja by Ben Quatromoni

To start out with I would like to point out how important it is to make sure you are properly equipped for anything while on the water. I think the front of the boat learned the importance of carrying spray gear at all times even when the weather looks like a drifter!! Another big lesson was to keep your head out of the boat no matter what. Up the 2nd beat, I think we had our heads too in the boat dealing with equipment malfunctions and failed to notice the advantage going up the right. This let most of the fleet get leveraged out to the right but were still able to round in 9th. The last downwind run made it perfectly clear just how hard it is to sail a shields downwind in big breeze. Some well timed equipment failures on some of the leaders, we were able to pass boats until our own spin halyard broke. Cool heads prevailed and we controlled the situation and managed to round in around 6th. The last beat was short as usual and by slightly overstanding the boat layline we were able to pick off 2 boats at the finish and finish a solid 4th. A great race with some thrilling and exciting moments made for an excellent evening. This race really demonstrated to me the importance of communication and keeping your head out of the boat and on the course. Overall a great race sailed!!

Sincerely, Ben Quatromoni - Foredeck 101 Raja

June 6, Overall results to date

Fleet 9
File: 2007 Spring Scores
Class: Shields. One design (Finish position)
Overall Score: Last Race Date:06/06/07

	Sail	Spring 1	Spring 2	Spring 3	Spring 4	Spring 5	Total
1	107	3	6	2	3	29*DNF	14
2	74	99.9*ARB	4	7	5	1	17
3	201	19*RAF	9	5	1	5	20
4	138	2	1	15*	13	7	23
5	202	14.0*ARB	2	3	12	6	23
6	217	6	8	13*	8	2	24
7	145	7	3	10	4	12*	24
8	101	10*	5	9	6	4	24
9	245	1	7	8	10	14*	26
10	224	34*DNC	12	1	7	11	31
11	76	4	15	4	99.0*ARB	10	33
12	166	34*DNC	18	19	2	8	47
13	21	9	10	11	25	29*DNF	55
14	59	34*DNC	20	16	18	3	57
15	232	19*RAF	13	17	17	15	62
16	33	13	14	21	16	29*DNF	64
17	15	8	21	20	30*RAF	17	66
18	163	11	19	18	19	21*	67
19	71	34 DNC	17	6	21	99.0*ARB	78
20	29	12	23	23	26*	20	78
21	164	19 RAF	16	14	29.0*ARB	29 DNF	78
22	127	34*DNC	11	25 DNF	26.0 ARB	19	81
23	1	19 RAF	22	22	23*	22	85
24	143	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	11	13	92
25	36	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	9	16	93
26	222	34*DNC	34 DSQ	12	20	29 DNF	95
27	108	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	9	111
28	226	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	15	29 DNF	112
29	14	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	27	18	113
30	188	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	14	34 DNC	116
31=	39	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	136
31=	53	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	136
31=	165	34*DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	34 DNC	136

Allowed Drops 1. Shown by '*'

---

June 6, 2007

Spring 5: Wind Speed 15 (i'm not sure about this see chart below), Direction W Start Time Wednesday, June 06, 2007 17:45:00

Pos	Order	Sail	Score
1	1	74	1
2	2	217	2
3	3	59	3
4	4	101	4
5	5	201	5
6	6	202	6
7	7	138	7
8	8	166	8
9	9	108	9
10	10	76	10
11	11	224	11
12	12	145	12
13	13	143	13
14	14	245	14
15	15	232	15
16	16	36	16
17	17	15	17
18	18	14	18
19	19	127	19
20	20	29	20
21	21	163	21
22	22	1	22
DNF	28	107	29
DNF	25	164	29
DNF	26	33	29
DNF	24	222	29
DNF	27	21	29
DNF	23	226	29
DNC	29	71	99 ARB
DNC		39	----
DNC		53	----
DNC		165	----
DNC		188	----

and this picture more accurately describes the night,

Boat 76, William Crisp, has offered his brand new spinnaker (all blue) to any boat that may need one after last night. The sail is on the shelf and has never been used. He'll wait for another to be built. Best, Chuck Allen North Sails One Design

Race Report, May 30

Shields report from 145

Race 4, 5/30/07 In Race 4 of the Spring Series we on 145 followed Andy Burton … and this time it paid off.

Before the race we were thinking that we had to get into Fort Adams and engage in the inevitable tacking duel that would ensue up the shoreline. The tide was flooding and the wind seemed solid on the shore. So we started in the pin end half of the line. To leeward was 107, 202, 226 and a bunch of others while 217 and 224 were to windward. We approached the harbor in good shape but then fell into a little hole and lost a lot of height, which meant we couldn’t tack and cross 217. Worse, it gave the group to leeward some leverage so that when they tacked they’d all cross us. So we bailed outta there early.

Now we were mixed up in the tacking duel up the beach. We called for water once or twice and had others call it on us once or twice. We felt we were going well and making gains but, in hindsight, we made the best gains offshore, outside of everyone. We should’ve been more aware.

We kept the tacking game going but it didn’t pay well for us and we rounded the windward mark somewhere around 15th-17th. Not good. On the first run we headed offshore and made some nice gains riding the current downwind. There also was clean pressure. We moved up to around 10-12 at the leeward gate and then banged the right side. Hard. It worked for 201, 166 and 188 on the first leg, who led the fleet of nearly 30 around the first mark. So we reasoned it could work for us on the second uphill. And it did. Nicely.

We rode port until 107, who we were following about 6-8 lengths behind, tacked to starboard. We followed suit and rode that tack all the way back to the shoreline where we met up with 217, who promptly tacked on us. Again. We rounded the 2nd windward mark in fifth, just behind 217, and then jibed offshore after setting.

Once again, we were in slightly more current out there and clean pressure and we got to the gate in fourth, ahead of 74 and 217. Up the final, short beat there wasn’t much going on and we held our position for a very satisfying comeback. Sure, it was a flier, but they’re deeply satisfying when they work. And there was no sense in following the clump up the shoreline.

But why does that strategy work? It seemed last week that there was better pressure over there, and it was slightly right of the starting line and left shoreline, which seems to negate the adverse current that was running. That certainly was the case for us on the second upwind. Also, you’re not tacking as much. As we all know, Shields hate to be maneuvered. But keep ‘em in a straight line and they move along nicely. So the combo of better pressure, better angle and fewer maneuvers helped move us up. And special thanks to Andy for leading the right way.

Respectfully submitted,

145

Overall Results to date

Two races remaining in the Spring Series
2007 Spring Scores
Class: Shields. One design (Finish position)
Overall Score: Last Race Date:05/30/07

	Sail	Spring 1	Spring 2	Spring 3	Spring 4	Total
1	107	3	6*	2	3	8
2	145	7	3	10*	4	14
3	201	19*RAF	9	5	1	15
4	138	2	1	15*	13	16
5	245	1	7	8	10*	16
6	74	99.9*ARB	4	7	5	16
7	202	14.0*ARB	2	3	12	17
8	224	33*DNC	12	1	7	20
9	101	10*	5	9	6	20
10	217	6	8	13*	8	22
11	76	4	15	4	99.0*ARB	23
12	21	9	10	11	25*	30
13	166	33*DNC	18	19	2	39
14	33	13	14	21*	16	43
15	71	33*DNC	17	6	21	44
16	232	19*RAF	13	17	17	47
17	163	11	19*	18	19	48
18	15	8	21	20	27*	49
19	164	19 RAF	16	14	29.0*ARB	49
20	59	33*DNC	20	16	18	54
21	29	12	23	23	26*	58
22	127	33*DNC	11	25 DNF	26.0 ARB	62
23	1	19 RAF	22	22	23*	63
24	222	33*DNC	33 DSQ	12	20	65
25	36	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	9	75
26	143	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	11	77
27	188	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	14	80
28	226	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	15	81
29=	14	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	99
29=	39	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	99
29=	53	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	99
29=	165	33*DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	33 DNC	99

Allowed Drops 1. Shown by '*'