Faithful friends and crew of
Strategery,
Well, with only 4 hours sailing the
boat, the crew came through with a flawless performance to take our first (of
many, knock wood) bullet on Tuesday. Not only did we beat the entire 105 fleet,
but we were lucky enough to finish in front of the entire A fleet. As any racer
will tell you, it’s not the driver that wins the race, it is the crew…and the
crew of Strategery got it done.
We got to the course about an hour
early to practice starts (the thing we screwed up on last Tuesday). It was
gusting to over 25 knots, so we were over early a few times in practice, and
worked hard on slowing the boat (which paid of in spades
later).
At the start, the breeze had abated
to about 15 knots, and the course was set for a windward (upwind), leeward
(downwind) course, 2 times around.
At the start, we were pushed over
early by Uproar, who had rights and luffed us up. With 20 seconds to go, we
luffed up then slammed down behind the stern of Uproar, who had by that time
sailed by us. Accelerating, we hit the line at the gun and in clear air just
upwind of Uproar. After about 5 boatlengths, we were forced to tack from Uproars
bad air, and sailed to the center of the course. Upwind was pretty
straightforward, with Scott and Dewey teaming on the Jib, and the crew hiking
hard. Marlen, last week’s winner, had been pushed over early and had to restart,
so we were well ahead of them and Ubuntu.
At the top mark, we were able to
round inside Uproar and set the chute for the downwind leg. After a great set,
we gybed and sailed deep to the mark, while Uproar gybed and sailed a hotter
angle to set us up for the downwind mark, where they would be on starboard (have
rights on us) and would be performing a Mexican takedown (the easiest to do).
With Jim on the chute, we sailed fast and deep at the mark, sailing a bit higher
angle to take advantage of the current.
People talk about the moment they
won the race…I’ve never actually thought that way. That said, the first downwind
mark is where I thought we had a good shot at winning. We were overlapped with
Uproar, and gave them room at the mark, sailing a deep course and dousing our
chute to windward. Chris called an inside rounding, as Uproar sailed wide to
drop their chute. We dropped the sail and came up inside as if the crew was
professional. Was the best douse and rounding I’ve ever been a part of. From
then on we covered Uproar to the upwind mark.
At the upwind mark, we came into
close proximity of Trinity, a Concordia 47 that rates an 18 on PHRF. We had been
sailing pretty well, and were dead even with them despite our rating of 81
(truth is, they don’t matter to us in our 105 class even though we share the
same starting line). We rounded inside them and set the chute. Working our way
up to our optimum downwind sailing angle, they had to give us right of way since
we were to leeward. They didn’t give us enough room as we worked up, and their
chute touched our rigging…an instant foul. We sailed down and away from them
after letting them know they had to do a 720 degree turn, or suffer
disqualification. Really, we just wanted to get away from their bad air, and
having fouled us they sailed off to do their penalty
turn.
That was the last real bit of
excitement for us. We sailed a great downwind leg, Uproar got passed by Marlen
as they struggled with the set, we rounded inside of Trinity at the leeward mark
and took a clean first place.
I cannot say enough great things
about our bowman Shawn, jib trimmers Scott and Dewey, Spin trimmer Jim and
Looking forward to a great
season.
Stay tuned for
more.
Regards,
Cliff