Raced sluff for the first time last night. It was the last race of the spring series. Yarrow offered to help me as Dad’s “stuck” delivering avalanche right now. We haven’t gotten our real rating yet from PHRF (they’re having a meeting for us this week) so they gave us a provisional rating of 108… It’s funny because that’s way too low IMHO (the open rates 130~156 in other regions). I’m sure they’re just being cautious for now. Regardless it looked to be a perfect night, but the wind dropped from 10~15 before the race to 5~8 for the race. Light air isn’t fun for me ever, but our boat will not sail to it’s eventual rating, never mind 108 in light air. We still had a great night and a ton of fun. Going sailing, getting around a course, and NOT breaking anything are always good things. It’s also the first time I’ve moved the boat with my car which felt great.
We normally sail Tuesday nights, but I couldn’t last night so I went tonight. I also didn’t manage to track down crew in time (part of the reason we wanted a smaller boat) so I decided to sail alone. I ended up ramp launching the boat alone (first time ramp launching, and first time sailing alone in the open) and it was quite easy. Honestly the only concern at all was the water depth which was just enough. Once I was set, I took off out of Newport and sailed down to where the NYC RC was near Rose and gybed right in front of them (in case I didn’t something stupid). Then back over to goat, then I took the chute down and went back up towards clingstone. From there is was one more chute run back towards Rose/Goat and back to the dock.
It was blowing anywhere from 12~18kt I’d say. It was basically our usual Tuesday winds, but with a few stronger puffs. The boat sails very well with just one person. You can hike all you want, or sit there and enjoy it w/o working if you like. The tide was coming in and I was hitting 5~5.5 upwind (into the current) and 8~9.5 downwind with the tide easily. It was a great night. My max speed for the night was 11.4kts and my best 10 second average was 11.1kts. Not bad I’d say… I managed to get 2 videos on the way out of the harbor while I was still in the lee of the fort:
Well we decided to get the open. The test sail confirmed everything we thought looked good on paper. Layline happened to have a white hull in stock and honored the new American pricing even though it’s a French built boat. They also happened to be coming north to Annapolis for a regatta so the dragged the boat up with them. My parents took a drive down to Annapolis on Thursday to pick it up. They had horrible weather down there so my parents decided to stay through Saturday morning. We rigged the boat Saturday night in around 2 hours (not bad for a brand new boat). Unfortunately mothers day kept us off the water Sunday. Continue reading ‘We bought an Open!’
It’s funny because that’s way too low IMHO (the open rates 130~156 in other regions). I’m sure they’re just being cautious for now. Regardless it looked to be a perfect night, but the wind dropped from 10~15 before the race to 5~8 for the race. Light air isn’t fun for me ever, but our boat will not sail to it’s eventual rating, never mind 108 in light air. We still had a great night and a ton of fun. Going sailing, getting around a course, and NOT breaking anything are always good things. It’s also the first time I’ve moved the boat with my car which felt great.