Well, as usual, no time to write while in the middle of the regatta, but I will say the Midwest District has a pretty good representation here. We've got Ryan and Stacey Malmgren (who had a great day of racing yesterday), Frank and Marianne Gerry (who took delivery of their new boat at this event), Bill Vogler and Jill Rendleman and Ben and me.
Before I write about the sailing I want to mention that Rockport is gorgeous. It's a little fishing village kind of place and the club is on the end of a wharf (think Ephraim but tinier!). Every boat at the club is moored. They had to pull a few boats to make room for us. We got there at low tide and the drop to the water was eye watering. I know Diane Kampf took a photo of Ben in the boat at the bottom of the hoist, so I'll try to get it from her. They have a very talented and dedicated launch service every day from 8 am to 8 pm so you can get to your boat. The trick is there's no running back to the car if you forget something. Plus our car is parked at the house we're staying at, which is walking distance, but several blocks away. It's been an exercise in efficiency!
We inland lakes sailors don't sail on the ocean all too often and I was worried about the wind and the waves, but Saturday the wind was out of the south/southwest and the water was flat. We had a light wind day! It was so exciting and I was happy not to be on the rail and pulling on the vang the entire day! The wind was a bit squirrely, though I might note. The locals all started at the boat end even though the left side of the course looked like it had more wind. They sailed hard for the right shore and, although we thought we were pretty good, having started with speed at the pin, when we got to the top of the course, they were miles ahead. John and Sharon Wake from Fishing Bay, as it happens, (not locals) took the lead early (I think) and never gave it back. The fleet, as accomplished as they all were, really spread out and people said it was because of the spotty wind.
Ryan Malmgren and Stacey Rieu had a great day and were the subject of a really good point made by Brian Hayes (who'd come up from New Haven for the day to video boats and talk about them at the end of the day). Ryan was on the left side and just stuck with it, trying to get his boat to go as fast as he could with the wind he had. Because of that he was not too far behind at the first mark - maybe 7th? That was a good lesson: you should lie in the bed you've made. How often, when you are racing, do you look around the course and say to your skipper, "those boats over there have more wind"? Not that helpful! You've got to go as fast as you can where you are. That is not to say you can't look up the course, but it just doesn't help to envy other people's wind conditions. The other point that Brian made that really resonated with me is about spinnaker trim in light wind. He took video of people's spinnakers touching their forestay. That is very slow, he reminded us. It make the leeches (shoot, is it leaches? leeches? how do I not know?!) close in on one another which is terrible for air flow. You need the chute way out in front and fully expanded and in a situation like that the skipper needs to heat the boat up, and sail closer to the wind (and crew has to then let the pole move forward) to get some boat speed. Then once you have speed you should be able to slower steer downwind and keep the chute looking good.
I don't have photos from today, but a woman from the club whose name I've forgotten took incredible photos. She promises to get them to Diane Kampf at fssa.com and Diane will post them, and I'll steal a few to put up here later!
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