From our Etchells USA 740 Team in Chicago at the North
Americans
Dave Powlison, John Harris and Geoff Hurwitch
6/27/05.....Since I
have already gotten a couple of emails asking "what happened to you guys?", I
thought I would zip off a somewhat belated brief synopsis of the balance of the
regatta. Actually it is good, having had a couple of days to reflect and put
things in perspective before writing this. To be honest, at the end of Day 3 we
were all a bit frustrated (and very tired) and I was just not in the right frame
of mind to write my news report. In retrospect, Day 3 was a great day of
sailing. SW 15-20 knots, with occasionally higher gusts. The first downwind
leg in race 5 was an incredible sleigh ride...the gusts were so strong I had to
turn over the spinnaker trimming to Geoff given his slightly higher weight and
strength. And, given that Chicago set a record temp for the day of 98 degrees,
it really was a great day to be sailing (where it was about 10 degrees cooler).
Our results on the race course, unfortunately, were not quite as good as the
sailing. The conditions were quite challenging, especially since the windward
mark was set only about a mile offshore and with the incredible thermals coming
off downtown Chicago, the winds were very shifty and unpredictable. It was one
of those days where one minute you felt like a hero and the next minute were
dangerously close to DFL, and where playing it conservative (Mama always said
don't bang the corners) did not pay off...and it didn't really seem to matter
which side you banged, as long as you banged one and stuck with it.
Particularly in the 2nd race where the winds were not quite as strong (more in
the 15 range), it was really tough. At one point I remember we were playing
the right side pretty hard and feeling pretty good as we were on a huge
starboard lift headed back toward the middle to consolidate and saw most of the
fleet well below us....15 minutes later, here they came charging back from the
left side of the course...on a huge lift....and suddenly things didn't look so
good. In the end we had a 26th and a 31st, which was slightly better than Day
2. The racing however, as it was all week, was incredibly close....the
difference between where we finished and about 10 places better in each race was
probably only 100-150 yds (of a 10 mile WLWLW race). Day 4, Saturday, found
the brisk winds of the previous day long gone and Lake Michigan looking like
Shelburne Bay on most Wed nights...at noon, long after much of the fleet had
positioned themselves near the hoists for early pullout, the cannon was fired 3
times, the abandonment flag went up and the 2005 NA's were over....Jud beat out
DC for first, with Gary Jobson finishing third. In the end, while we didn't
finish quite as well as we hoped...especially after our Day 1 results, but we
had some great sailing, were very competitive in terms of boat speed and boat
handling in all different wind conditions and learned a ton about sailing in a
big fleet and how to tune and sail the boat better. The ability to compare
notes and get advice from the top dogs like Jud and Vince Brun (crewing for DC)
was invaluable. I should also note that Rick Stevens and crew on 1304 had a
solid Day 2 and 3 and ended up edging us out for 24th place. All in all, it
was a great experience and am really grateful to Dave for inviting me to crew
with him and to Geoff Hurwitch for being such a great crew member and coach (and
for not harassing me too much about certain idiosyncrasies).
P.S.
6/24/05.....Day 2:
Reality check time. Today, unfortunately, we
learned the pain of sailing deep in the fleet, with finishes of 28th and 33rd,
dropping us to 21st overall after 4 races. Today we had nicer breeze,
generally in the 10-12 range, with highs around 15 out of the south which made
for much more pleasant downwind sailing and moderate to full hike position
upwind. It was a real cooker in Chicago today with high temps in the low 90's,
but fortunately, out on the water, it was about 10 degrees cooler and quite
pleasant. After having superb upwind speed yesterday, we struggled all day
with upwind speed. After discussions with Jud and a few others after the race,
it looks like it all came down to about 1/4 to 1/2" of mast butt position.
Today, with the breeze up a bit from yesterday, we moved the mast butt forward
1/4"....MISTAKE. A tough lesson in just how sensitive these boats are to
subtle changes in setup. I won't bore you with the details of how our day went
other than to say that with 25-30 boats ahead of you, your tactical options are
much more limited than when you are in the top 15. The owner of the boat Rick
Stevens is sailing on had to leave last night due to a family emergency, so Rick
petitioned the Jury for change of crew and skipper (which was approved) and will
be skippering the the boat (#1304) for the balance of the regatta. Jud had a
great day today with a bullet in Race 3 and 3rd in Race 4. He is now in first
with Dennis Conner and Gary Jobson not far behind in 2nd and 3rd. Tomorrow the
forecast is for stronger winds...building to 20-25 kts out of the SW and temps
in the mid 90's. Tomorrow is another day....day one of the second half of the
regatta.
6/22/05.....Day 1
report: Well, we're
feeling pretty good. Some pretty challenging sailing conditions
today...especially downwind (spoken from the spinnaker trimmer's
perspective)....6-10 kts and about a 1-2 ft chop. Conditions that we rarely
see on Lake Champlain. Nonetheless Team Pied Piper had a pretty darn good day.
In race one we were in 5th at the first windward mark....a half boat length
off Dennis Conner's transom at the offset mark and ahead of Jud (among others).
At the end of a 3+ hour 10 mile WLWLW we ended up 10th (Jud was 7th, DC was
3rd, Jobson 2nd). We had upwind speed comparable to the top boats and were
able to hold our own downwind as well. Tactically we didn't make any big
mistakes and we had very smooth crew work. Geoff is doing a great job with
tactics, keeping Dave focused on driving and me focused on sail trim (especially
off the wind). Race 2 didn't get going until about 3PM and was pretty much
the same conditions...maybe a tad lighter at times. We got a good start and
were around 12th to 15th around the first windward mark (ahead of Jud). Jud
gibed after the mark and ended passing the entire leader pack and moving into
1st place by the leeward mark (I guess that is why he is Jud). We held our
own again on the downwind leg. It was pretty shifty the whole day, and on the
2nd upwind leg we went left since the wind had been backing (which seemed like
the thing to do at the time...doesn't it always??) which ended up not paying off
and we lost several
boats
on that leg. We had a solid downwind leg and ended up in 19th. So, at the
end of day 1 we are sitting in a tie for 12th (out of 44 boats), only 5 pts out
of 9th. A solid start to say the least, especially considering that amongst
the 11 boats in front of us are Jud Smith, Dennis Conner, Gary Jobson and Tito
Gonzales (Lightning World Champion). It was a long day...we left the dock at
930 and got off the boat at around 1815...and only did 2 races!!! The wind
forecast for the next several days seems to be moderating...this AM they were
forecasting S 10-20 for tomorrow, but now they are talking only 5-15. Given
our weight, it is probably to our advantage that it stays under 15 kts, but
something a bit more than the 6-8 we saw for most of today would be nice.
Hopefully we can have as a good a today tomorrow as today. Here's some more
pics including one of the CYC RC Boat...now, Ernie, that's an RC boat (and whole
lot more RC boat than LCYC needs) and a profile shot of DC himself.
6/21/05....here's
a couple more pics....I was all set to get a great shot of the RC boat yesterday
before the practice race and the battery on my camera died. This is a really
nice city. The last time I was here was around 1970. We had a bit of a
misadventure hotel wise the first night, but now, thanks to the IBM corporate
rate, are settled in a really nice Holiday Inn downtown. A little bit of a
drive to CYC, but not bad. BTW, apparently Dirk got cut off by a mini-van and
rolled his SUV and boat 2 times on the way here. Fortunately Dirk is OK, but I
doubt his (brand new) Etchells is much more than a mangled mess of fiberglass.
The party last night felt somewhat like an NFL lineman convention....there are
some big boys here. We weighed in at 567 ( vs. 628 limit). We are not the
lightest, but there are several who had to lose weight to make the limit.
There are probably a half dozen or so boats lighter than us. Ironically, we
got drawn for the random weigh in today. Gary Jobson's boat actually came in a
few pounds lighter than us, but a bit heavier with talent (he has 2004 Laser
olympian Mark Mendelbatt crewing for him). DC gets the award for the top
individual crew weight....let's just say he is a bit stout. We'll see how it
goes as the forecast for the balance of the week is looking like we might see
some 15 to 25 knot breezes. Which should be interesting for us too, as the 3 of
us have never sailed together in more than about 12-15 kts. Oh well, we are
working well together, so I am sure we will figure it out.
P.S. catch the dual crane set up
here....pretty nice.
6/21/05......Today was
practice race day. We got the boat waxed (again...this time with Teflon),
launched, had lunch and then headed out at around 1230 for a 1400 scheduled
start. The winds were fairly light...6-8, occasionally up to around 10...and
very shifty. 50 degree shifts were fairly routine. The wind finally filled in
a bit more consistently from the east and stayed a bit more in the 8-10 range.
By the first start, we had about 15 boats (out of 40+) on the line, with
another 10-12 still trying to fight through the light winds close to shore to
get to the start line, which was set about 2 miles offshore. The first 2
starts were general recalls which, as we found out afterwards, were planned
regardless of whether really required or not. By the third start we had about
25 boats on the line. Things were starting to get a bit more interesting (and a
lot different from the typical LCYC Etchells race). Unfortunately our third
start was our worst (we were 99% sure we were OCS....and we were right), but
since it was a practice race we just stuck it out and kept going. The first
beat was pretty ugly as we had to work hard to extricate ourselves from traffic,
but by the time we got to the first windward mark we had worked ourselves back
close to the middle of the fleet. We took it high and wide at the mark,
sailing around a fairly sizable jam up at the mark. We had a solid downwind
leg, even though we (along with Dennis Conner and a few others) took the right
(in this case wrong) side. By the leeward gate we were moving up but still
below mid-fleet. We turned in a strong final beat, sticking to the left side as
the breeze piped up to a solid 12-15. At the end, we finished pretty much dead
middle...11 boats ahead, 11 behind (as best we could count). We had good
boatspeed and did not let our poor start get us derailed. Tomorrow is showtime.
Focus will be on getting a solid start, which should be challenging with
another 20 boats on the line, and then sailing fast and smart.
The attached photo is a picture of the boat on which Rick Stevens is sailing.
That's Rick standing up amidships as we were heading out to the racecourse.
And yes, Toto, the skyline is solid evidence that we are not in Vermont anymore.
6/20/05....... We all made it here today.
Geoff and Dave arrived about 930AM after driving from BTV to South Bend IN
yesterday. I flew out and arrived at CYC at around 130PM, by which time Geoff
and Dave had the boat all put together. The balance of the afternoon was
consumed by cleaning and waxing the boat, wetsanding the bottom and generally
just checking everything over. As expected, we are the only boat here with
bottom paint. While Dave and
Geoff
were working on the boat this morning, Vince Brun came by and made some comment
about the fancy polymer bottom finish we had. It looks like there are going
to be about 44 boats when the dust settles. Tomorrow morning the boat goes in
the water and we will get out sailing and get a look at the new mainsail that
Jud brought out for us. Tomorrow afternoon is the practice race, so we'll get
our first look at what 40+ Etchells look like on the start line. Here's a pic
of the boat in the parking lot at CYC...(we're the one with the black bottom).
More news to follow....
P.S. I need to take a pic of the CYC RC Boat
and send to you.