Crew:
Nathan: helm
Nat: tactics/pit (ended up doing foredeck on the downwind)
Mark/Suzanne: trim
Michiel; foredeckFrom Nathan, the skipper:
"Being 4 minutes behind the other E27 is a little disappointing. The two boats we beat owed us 66 and 54 seconds a mile, respectively and we beat them over the line as well as on corrected time. Good trim and boatspeed. Two obvious problems 1) the start- not much we could do once a faster boat barges in and then sits on our air. The wind and current were such that we didn't really have any options at that point. (Note from Nat: this boat had no right, it came in, pushed us down to make space for herself on the line, ignoring rights, we did not forcefully asked for a penalty turn after that. And a second boat barged in doing the same exact thing as they didn't want to have to tack and start again which is really what they should have done, so not only were we pushed down, we had a huge boat sitting on our air that shouldn't have been there in the first place) 2) getting the GPS's working properly. Since it's still new, perhaps one is still set for true instead of magnetic. (Most boats with analog compasses set all of their electronics to display in magnetic so that if you tell the driver to steer 250 you're not doing mental math all the time)." Additional notes from Nat:We headed North tactically. The forecast was indicating South, veering South West, so breeze moving west. Since the wind started West in the morning and was veering North West without the usual noon drop, our assumption was that the forecast was wrong and that the wind would continue to clock North favoring us. It did not, it shifted south and west thus putting us at a disadvantage, lengthening our course and forcing tacks on us, and favoring the majority of the boats windward of us. So I think that this is what lost us the race - We also went in a little too far inshore on the way down, past Mile Rock and stayed in too light winds for a few min too long, allowing Magic to take off - maybe 5 min or so. not sure we would have caught up with them, but we could have closed the gap some more. Another tactical call. Boat speed and trim were very good on both the upwind and the downwind. The first couple of tacks were very slow but all the other ones went it really smoothly, despite the fact that we were flying a #1, eg. Elise's biggest headsail for upwind so crew work was awesome there. A little bit of a miscommunication on the spinnaker hoist as having learn the hard way, Elise launches the spinnaker in one of two ways from the bow: either the bag and the entire sail is forward of the forestay, or the sail is led up under the jib or genoa and behind the forestay. Otherwise, we have learned that the spinnaker can get caught on the hanks of the forestay and 1) get ripped which cost time and money and 2) the halyard can open, just like it did a few weeks ago, the sail drops in the water and Nat has to go up the mast to retrieve the halyard. Neither one of these situations are desirable. So Nat can fix her GPS and learn to react to wind shift much earlier probably...the min a decision doesn't look too good anymore? Or hedge her bets?
Nathan: helm
Nat: tactics/pit (ended up doing foredeck on the downwind)
Mark/Suzanne: trim
Michiel; foredeckFrom Nathan, the skipper:
"Being 4 minutes behind the other E27 is a little disappointing. The two boats we beat owed us 66 and 54 seconds a mile, respectively and we beat them over the line as well as on corrected time. Good trim and boatspeed. Two obvious problems 1) the start- not much we could do once a faster boat barges in and then sits on our air. The wind and current were such that we didn't really have any options at that point. (Note from Nat: this boat had no right, it came in, pushed us down to make space for herself on the line, ignoring rights, we did not forcefully asked for a penalty turn after that. And a second boat barged in doing the same exact thing as they didn't want to have to tack and start again which is really what they should have done, so not only were we pushed down, we had a huge boat sitting on our air that shouldn't have been there in the first place) 2) getting the GPS's working properly. Since it's still new, perhaps one is still set for true instead of magnetic. (Most boats with analog compasses set all of their electronics to display in magnetic so that if you tell the driver to steer 250 you're not doing mental math all the time)." Additional notes from Nat:We headed North tactically. The forecast was indicating South, veering South West, so breeze moving west. Since the wind started West in the morning and was veering North West without the usual noon drop, our assumption was that the forecast was wrong and that the wind would continue to clock North favoring us. It did not, it shifted south and west thus putting us at a disadvantage, lengthening our course and forcing tacks on us, and favoring the majority of the boats windward of us. So I think that this is what lost us the race - We also went in a little too far inshore on the way down, past Mile Rock and stayed in too light winds for a few min too long, allowing Magic to take off - maybe 5 min or so. not sure we would have caught up with them, but we could have closed the gap some more. Another tactical call. Boat speed and trim were very good on both the upwind and the downwind. The first couple of tacks were very slow but all the other ones went it really smoothly, despite the fact that we were flying a #1, eg. Elise's biggest headsail for upwind so crew work was awesome there. A little bit of a miscommunication on the spinnaker hoist as having learn the hard way, Elise launches the spinnaker in one of two ways from the bow: either the bag and the entire sail is forward of the forestay, or the sail is led up under the jib or genoa and behind the forestay. Otherwise, we have learned that the spinnaker can get caught on the hanks of the forestay and 1) get ripped which cost time and money and 2) the halyard can open, just like it did a few weeks ago, the sail drops in the water and Nat has to go up the mast to retrieve the halyard. Neither one of these situations are desirable. So Nat can fix her GPS and learn to react to wind shift much earlier probably...the min a decision doesn't look too good anymore? Or hedge her bets?
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