Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Pacific Cup - Guess at the First Day

Elise's home port is conveniently close to the start line (basically around the breakwater) and you could see her trailer spot about 75 yds from the start line if there weren't a building in the way.

We'll probably leave the dock between one and two hours before the start (between 1120 and 1220). We'll want to do a basic systems check (rigging, electrical, etc.) and make sure the final repack of all gear is stable, plus maybe a little tuning.

The last thing we need on the start of a cold three day upwind is to be wet, sweaty, or tired, which is what intense practice would get us.

The wild-estimate Pac Cup formula is 3 days on the wind (not necessarily hard on the wind, but a brisk upwind leg) and then a combination of cracking off plus the wind swinging aft gives us the spinnaker leg that most people find more enjoyable (being totally acclimated to the boat motions also has a lot to do with the enjoyment at that point- even barring outright queasiness, being established on the watch schedule and off-watch noises/movement counts for a lot).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nathan & Nat,
If I don't see you before the start have a great race!!Doing the race D/H is a fantastic undertaking and in a lot of way getting to the start line is the hardest. Remember Fast, Safe, Fun. I’ll see you in Hawaii.

Cheers,

T W