Sailing Blog
Audi Melges 20 Winter Event #2 – Recap »
February 14, 2011
There were no daily reports from the latest Audi Melges 20 Winter Series event, but it wasn’t because of a lack of great racing on Biscayne Bay. It mainly had to with…well, as I have been told, there is no difference between an excuse and a reason, so the bottom line is I just didn’t get them done, and I will have to be better about sticking to a routine when it comes to reporting from events.
Saturday arrived with a bottom edge of a cold front sweeping over South Florida, leaving rain showers, and temps in the 50s. With solid breeze in the 12-16 range, the RC was planning on 4 races which would test the competitors as to who could remain mentally tough towards the end of a long, cold, wet day. En route to the starting line from Coconut Grove Yacht Club, on M and M racing we talked about our plan for the day; start conservatively and get off the line clean, find clear areas to let our speed do the work, minimize boathandling mistakes, and make sure to stay warm, hydrated and fed (my favorite part of the day) in between races. With a nice NW breeze, there would be plenty of shifts, lead changes, and tacticians wondering if sailing is still the sport of choice after being left clueless a few times.
We got off cleanly at a crowded pin end at the start of race 1, and stepped into a few left shifts that helped us to round the top mark in 1st. A challenge when racing boats with asym sails downwind is quickly identifying where the best pressure is headed, your current angle to the mark, and deciding to extend on starboard, or gybe onto port. Shortly after we set and did a quick analysis, it appeared we were well lifted and with nice breeze filling behind us, the call was made to gybe. This would turn out to be a theme throughout the weekend; following your checklist, and relying on several reliable factors is not always the best answer.
Things looked ok for us on the left side of the course going downwind as we were able to get across the boats in the middle, but a few boats who rounded 5th and 6th extended on starboard all the way to the corner of the course and made huge gains. Once we got near the leeward gate, we managed to just sneak ahead of the boats flying in from the right side to maintain a very slim lead. One problem that often presents itself in sailing is when things get tight, is it better to push boathandling to the extreme to stay ahead of a boat, or do you take your foot off the gas, give up some distance to the boats around you in order to get around the mark cleanly? In this instance, we decided to push it to the 3 boat length circle on full plane, call “no room” on a boat only a few feet behind us. We tried to pull off a late whether spinnaker drop, ended up wiping out, had a less than stellar rounding, and with the kite looking like a total yard-sale on our rig, when it did finally get down, it got stuffed on the wrong side of the jib sheets, and as a result, every time we did a tack on the next upwind, the whether sheet would not ease which would take 10-15 seconds to clear. We rounded the leeward mark in first, but lost 6 boats on the next upwind after having our heads in the boat and having poor tacks up the beat. When serving as tactician, I need to be better about realizing the limits of our boathandling, and be more aware of putting our boat in tight spots…and putting the kite on the correct side of the jib sheets! We won the battle of getting to the mark in first place, but lost sight of the big picture.
After a frustrating first race, we did our best to regroup but the cold wind and rain made it difficult to see the silver lining. Getting a 7th was not a bad result to start the event, but it is always hard when you are winning, and end up 7th resulting from unforced errors. The rest of the day was filled with tight racing, and a few boats would establish themselves in the front of the fleet. Our tuning partners on Paul Reilly’s Red Sky (Andy Burdick, Mike Kutschner) would steal the show with a 1, 2, 1, 2. Another boat that sailed impressively on the first day was Melges 32 owner Jason Carroll who chartered a 20 for his first event. With Cameron Appleton and Anthony Kotoun, there was no shortage of sailing intelligence and it was amazing to see these guys turn their downwind legs into gold by extending to the right corner almost every time, and make huge gains. It is hard to write about something you don’t understand, and I have a few theories as to why this worked…maybe I can get Jason, Anthony or Cameron to do a guest blog and explain their thinking.
2 races were scheduled for the final day and while the morning temps hovered in the 50s, the sun was shining which at least gave the impression of warmth. The breeze was a little less than day 1, and our team on M and M did a good job of regrouping from a mediocre first 4 races to jump out of the gates and lead around the first mark in race 5. Just like race 1, we gybed out early, looked good, then as we squinted across the course, a spinnaker with a horizontal grey stripe was seen making gains on the opposite side of the course…not again…here came Jason and his team…unreal. We managed to gybe just in front of them at the bottom mark, and after imploring them to reveal what was so special about their “honey-hole”, we rounded separate gates and made our way upwind. The breeze had been slowly clocking right and it was a battle as to who could get to the right of each other. As we swapped tacks with only boat lengths of separation, Mark Hollerbach and his team on FU (Mike Buckley, Nathan Hollerbach) joined the mix and we now had a 3 boat race for first.
It didn’t take long to figure out that we were sparring with 2 very qualified match racers in Cameron Appleton and Mike Buckley. There is no bigger feeling of insecurity than when you have to defend against sailors with match race experience; everything you do, you get the feeling they are setting you up for the kill. “Why are they letting us go this way?” “Are they leading us over here for a reason?”, “Did we just lose the race?”, “What is happening???!” Despite the sharks circling, we focused on playing the shifts, taking the smallest left shift to get back to the right side of the course, and sailing the boat fast. We stayed ahead of Jason and his team, but Hollerbach got around both of us and we all rounded the last weather mark, gybed over and made our way downwind. With Mary Anne driving well, and her husband Bill staying on the trim of the kite, we found a nice vein of pressure and snuck back into the lead. Once at the bottom half of the course, the action would start as both boats crossed behind us, 5-6 gybes ensued with us forcing one of the boats, and they in turn forcing the other one. We seemed to be making small gains with a little more pressure on the left side, and with a few hundred yards left to the finish, we gybed onto starboard, crossed both boats, and headed to the committee boat layline. As we continued on starboard, our pressure that got us into the lead began to drop, and on our final approach to the finish, both boats that had just crossed behind, gybed back across our bow and carried new pressure into the finish. This was one the of the hardest fought 3rd places I can remember, but we were left with the realization that if we had dug left one more time, we would have likely held them off. Overall, this was one of the best races we have sailed as a team on M and M, and one of the most fun races I have been a part of.
The final race of the day was a tight battle with the entire fleet and whoever could work right would make gains as the breeze continued to clock all day, 50 degrees total. The Red Sky team would shake off their 9th place in the first race of the day, and take another race win to seal the regatta. Our other tuning partner, Kent Haeger (Jim Gluek, Mike Greeson) sailed their best regatta to date and took a hard fought 3rd place overall. Our team on M and M took an 8th place, and were once again left with the feeling of sailing well, but needing to execute in all facets to reach our goal of getting into the top 3. We know we can sail with the best, but we just need to be sharp and hungry to improve our consistency.
The Melges 20 fleet gets back together in just over a month for the Winter Series finale, and the 3 day Bacardi Cup. With the overall series champ only separated by a few pts with several boats, the final event will be seriously fun to be a part of.
Full results here.
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