June 23

Getting the Racing Bug

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As a sailing couple, Alice and I have toyed with racing but never been hooked. I race on others boats and enjoy it but have never made the commitment to race my own boat. That changed last night.

Raritan Yacht Club, like many clubs does a weekly "Round The Cans" on Wednesday nights. Wharf Rat, the J 24 I crew on, was not racing so with two of the WR crew, a couple of other friends, Alice and I entered Cadence in the non-spinnaker race.This was our third race on Cadence. In our first race, a 25 mile Lighthouse race we finished in the bottom-half but then had to withdraw as we had crossed into a forbidden zone and would have been DSQ'd. In our second race on Father's day we came last.

The conditions last night were frisky – 15-18 kts, gusty and a lot of chop. There were 11 boats in our division. A couple of the crew had never raced before and had limited sailing experience but were very willing. The WR guys were critical in helping us figure out how to race Cadence.

Alice and I do a non-traditional thing where Alice helms and I act as tactician and general supervisor. It works for us. Firstly, I don't get why you have a Y chromosome to steer. Alice is as good at helming as I am and as we had inexperienced people on-board it worked best for me to focus on the boat-handling.

I am damn proud of the missus. Out of 29 boats racing last night she was the only woman helming (I think?) and the conditions were a little more than exciting.

We had a great start and we were up with the best of them for a lot of the race. The biggest issue we had was main-trim. As they say, racing is where you figure things out. We have sailed in conditions like this but never made much effort to point as high as we should have. Racing forced us to point much higher and in these conditions we struggled to find the right balance between over-trimming the main resulting in too much weather helm and letting the main get excessively backwwinded. We played around with the traveler and mainsheet but never quite found a satisfactory set-up.

By the time we rounded the weather mark and headed towards the reaching mark, we were in the middle of the pack but still in with a shout. We rounded the reaching mark to head downwind. Again this became a time of experimentation. We ran wing-on-wing with the pole out. It took us a long time to set this up and the boat was too slow. Boats that sailed on on a broad reach sailed much faster and extended their leads significantly. I knew this was the wrong thing to do but my instinct was to sail the shortest course. Not doing that again.

We crossed the line and then dodged a boat from a spinnaker division, rounding up around the pin that was also their leeward mark. The obvious thing to get out of their way was to tack back across the line but we were pinned by another boat in our fleet above us that was struggling to take down their pole.

Overall we placed 9th out of 11th. Progress from last place but a long way from perfection. Best of all, Alice and I just got the racing bug!

 


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  1. Oh dear. Sorry you caught the bug. There is no cure as far as I know. I caught it 30 years ago and just can’t seem to get rid of it.

  2. It’s a great way to put spice back into a marriage.
    In no time, you’ll be calling each other names you haven’t used in years.

  3. When the winds pick up work some twist in the main. Lower the traveler and sheet in hard. But you knew that.
    You also know that the boat with the newest sails wins. It’s like a law of the universe.

  4. Tman: I can imagine that crashing the boat will cure us.
    ODock: So far we have managed to avoid the name calling
    Doryman: Tried that but actually think I need to do the opposite and open up the leech by easing the mainsheet and bring the traveler up. It’s counter-intuitive but it seemed to work

  5. I am racking my brains to remember where I read about the idea that it’s much better to let the wife steer if there are only the two of you on the boat. I think the argument was that women are just as good, if not better, than men at steering but sometimes there are other tasks on the other boat (like hauling the anchor) that need more muscle power. Was it on somebody’s blog?

  6. Tillerman, were you thinking of this brilliant man:
    http://tinyurl.com/5t87ax6
    I recall the folk theory that women are calmer and fidget with things on a boat less than men, so tend not to overadjust and readust the helm, which is how helms like to be treated.

  7. Tman: “…open up the leech by easing the mainsheet and bring the traveler up. It’s counter-intuitive but it seemed to work…”
    This works on my 38-ft Laser in all conditions. In light conditions, intellect is important on the helm, so Trophy Wife takes the wheel and I apply my beer muscle to the leeward rail.
    You’re right: Age doesn’t cure the racing bug. I think only crashing the boat or hurting someone could cure me.

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