Simpsons Regatta on Current Affairs (ex-Discotheque)

As I await for Elise to come back, sorely missing her, I am spending quite a bit of time on other boats. It is a great school to get a new perspective. 

I did the Simpsons Regatta on Current Affairs. 

Seth bought the boat only a few months ago so this reminded me of my first months with Elise. Express 27s are fantastic boat but they need a little getting used to.

A lethal combination: bringing the pole forward and pulling hard on the sheet while going downwind in a breeze - usually results in a round up as the main and the spinnaker are both pushing the boat up into the wind. It depowers the boat if you release the sheet but makes you more likely to round up. When going very deep, you'd usually square the pole back. I now prefer to depower by twinging down and trying to get the chute to settle more to avoid wide movements of the boat, and depower the main primarily via the vang. Releasing the sheet too much increases the likelihood of rounding down. Like any other sail used within its wind range, the spinnaker just needs to be trimmed, and like any other sail, balancing the boat for the conditions should get you fast someplace stressfree.

There was a massive overwrap - and we had to lower the halyard of the jib to fix it. Note that there are way to many people attending to the problem. The boat could continue to sail where it is supposed to go with as many people on the rail as possible as you really need one person on the low side and the jib halyard can be released while on the rail. However, it is very natural for everyone to want to help, a human reflex. It is very hard to have the discipline to trust that the other team members will call for help if and when they need it.

In-between races, changing jib to the #3.

Rounding the leeward gate

Dropping the chute to windward

At the finish after some really nice surfing.

In-between races, sailing along the start line

Waiting for our start

Sailing on the boat was a ton of fun - everyone seems to be truly enjoying themselves. There was no shouting whatsoever.

Weight distribution....

I believe that this is strega?

Gybing?

The first two races, we had to short tack up the city front to access the early ebb.

Race committee

The winner of the race by 30 seconds! Motorcycle Irene. The fleet has some of the best sailors in the area.

Taking down the chute

Living dangerously.

Getting ready for a windward douse with a human pole

Peaches, Elise's neighbor on the dry

Crowded start

mark boat going to get their buoy

The top of the fleet

Our round up frame by frame

The other problem here is that the crew released both the guy and the sheet. In a round up, you just release the sheet which pretty much kills the power of your chute as it collapses the sail. If you release the guy too, the spinnaker can do what it did that day and knock  off your windex at the top of the mast!

It also makes it harder to recover as the chute is now way to leeward, and if you want to put the boat downwind again, you need some of that sail to windward.

Recovering slowly

looks like the downhaul was released too?

The spinnaker only had a small hole in it afterward!

as we were so close to the gate, we decided to douse and hoist the genoa.

Strega got t-boned by a boat in the other fleet.

Battling for first place

Will end up being a very tight race

Sailing to the nearest cove to get both current and wind relief in-between races

Going upwind

Dousing the spinnaker to windward

Unfortunately, halyard released before the foot of the spinnaker was inside the boat...

but nice recovery.

Dima on Libra

And the end of the last race.

Overall:

• The boat is pristine. Optimized deck layout for buoy racing, light and efficiently organized
• No shouting, a lot of mistakes mostly because of lack of practice but silent recovery and we just keep going is a good dynamic
• Very good foredeck work
• Slow tacks (Elise had this problem too at the beginning)
• Good boat speed downwind, pointing problems upwind.
• Main trim can be optimized (a lot of it is a matter of learning the boat) 
• The entire team seems to be scared of the spinnaker and gybes - there is nothing mysterious about them, and a lot of it is getting used to the sail and practice. So that's an issue that's easy to solve!!

On Elise we pick the area where the biggest improvement would be gained and we focus on that. In this case, I'd recommend  focusing on the tacks. This is an area where on Elise we made a lot of improvement and we wouldn't lose the ground preciously won and hard fought over.

I had a ton of fun!