Monday, March 13, 2006
Mardi Gras Regatta summary
(copied and pasted from Jackson and Rene various emails)
"Riess, we need a huge favor. Do you think you could go back to the loft (North Sails) and cut us some spinnaker sheets and jib sheets? We don?t have any." Riess managed to get back to the sail loft and make us some sheets so we could sail the regatta, we all owe him a big thank you. That was the first of our obstacles Friday night that David Blouin and I had to overcome in order to sail the next day. Next we spent almost three hours on the phone trying to secure a third person to crew with us on Saturday. Finally we managed to talk Forrest Richards from Southern Yacht Club into filling in the empty spot after convincing her to rush to the club (or what?s left of SYC) after taking her senior pictures Saturday morning.
The next day I arrived at the club only to find that David had woken up at 6:30 that morning to go step the mast and rig the boat almost completely before I got there (thanks David!). Now, if we could only find a watch. Forrest magically appeared with one on her wrist all ready to go and we were set and ready to sail.
The wind was blowing out of the North East close to around 13 knots and slowly diminishing. On the way out to the course David volunteered to skipper the first race. We knew there would be three races that day, and due to the new capdeville format (five races instead of only three), two of the three skippers could skipper two races each. We decided that whoever finished better in their race would skipper the third and final race of the day.
David approached the starting line on port tack towards the heavily favored pin end and tacked under Benz Faget of New Orleans Yacht Club, strategically stealing his "hole" on the starting line. We accelerated and were the only boat on the line. From there we played the shifts upwind on the left side of the first leg and covered our competition almost never to look back (much like the Mike Chapoton philosophy to racing). We held on to the number one position all the way around the course only to have a mild scare towards the end of second, and last downwind leg by Pontchartrain Yacht Club. We finished first by about four boat lengths.
Now I was up to skipper the second race. The start of the second race was a little more eventful with many other boats crowding the pin end of the line. Again we approached the line on port tacking under Southern Yacht Club. After a close encounter with SYC, we pushed the over the line so they had to re-start the race and NOYC was the only boat between us and the pin at the start. We managed to roll over the top of NOYC and in their attempt to tack out from under our bad air they misjudged their tack and slammed into the stern quarter of our boat (Don?t worry Bernie, the boat is fine. I swear.) They took their penalty and did a 720 degree turn. From there we played the shifts up the left side of the course again rounding the top mark first, followed next by PYC again. Once again we held on to the lead all the way around the course and finished first.
Now we had a dilemma. David and I tied. So who was to skipper the third and final race of the day was still up in the air. After both of us not having a solid argument for why either of us should steer the next race, I won a quick game of "rock, paper, scissors" to keep the tiller in my hand (sorry David).
By the start of the next race the breeze had almost completely shut off. Typical Lake Pontchartrain. The start of this race was a complete mess. SYC was the only boat on the line and also directly at the pin. We failed to lay the pin end and tacked over to port only to take two massive ducks behind PYC and Jackson Yacht Club. Luckily neither PYC or JYC managed to lay the pin either and they tacked off of our hip. From there we began slowly drifting in the general direction of the weather mark. The new and light breeze managed to find its way to us first, the PYC right behind us. SYC had tacked a few times and went too far left to get the most out of the new breeze. After those first few puffs, we were both considerably ahead of the rest of the fleet. Once again we rounded the windward mark in first place. The next downwind leg the race committee shortened the course so that we would be finishing down wind, instead of going around the course once more like we had in the previous races. Once again the wind gods decided to hit the off switch for a little bit and we sat there, barely with the spinnaker full. The next puff filled in from behind and PYC slowly started making their way towards us. Once the wind arrived to where we were, PYC was riding the front edge of the puff and managed to squeeze over the top of us carried by the momentum that we didn?t have yet because they got the puff first. They unfortunately pulled ahead far enough so that we couldn?t try and pin them out pass the layline of the finish. We gybed for the finish, shortly followed by PYC and we finished second by a few boat lengths.
After a scare from the race committee by almost attempting a fourth race in the oh-so-great, light and lumpy conditions on Lake Pontchartrain, they finally decided to send us in. Thank God. After the three races we had a total of four points (1-1-2). PYC had finished the races with a 2-2-1 which gave them five points. We had a one point lead, and it was up to Zak Fanberg, his wife Sarah, and Rene Dupaquier to finish out the regatta on Sunday.
Zak with Beau and I finished 3rd in the fourth race causing a tie with Pont.YC going into the last race. Zak finished 2nd, and Pont.YC 4th or 5th in the Fifth race, winning the series for BWYC.
**The next regatta is teh Pat Gilland at Jackson Yacht Club; if you are interested in sailing this regatta please email me at marcus@eaganins.com
"Riess, we need a huge favor. Do you think you could go back to the loft (North Sails) and cut us some spinnaker sheets and jib sheets? We don?t have any." Riess managed to get back to the sail loft and make us some sheets so we could sail the regatta, we all owe him a big thank you. That was the first of our obstacles Friday night that David Blouin and I had to overcome in order to sail the next day. Next we spent almost three hours on the phone trying to secure a third person to crew with us on Saturday. Finally we managed to talk Forrest Richards from Southern Yacht Club into filling in the empty spot after convincing her to rush to the club (or what?s left of SYC) after taking her senior pictures Saturday morning.
The next day I arrived at the club only to find that David had woken up at 6:30 that morning to go step the mast and rig the boat almost completely before I got there (thanks David!). Now, if we could only find a watch. Forrest magically appeared with one on her wrist all ready to go and we were set and ready to sail.
The wind was blowing out of the North East close to around 13 knots and slowly diminishing. On the way out to the course David volunteered to skipper the first race. We knew there would be three races that day, and due to the new capdeville format (five races instead of only three), two of the three skippers could skipper two races each. We decided that whoever finished better in their race would skipper the third and final race of the day.
David approached the starting line on port tack towards the heavily favored pin end and tacked under Benz Faget of New Orleans Yacht Club, strategically stealing his "hole" on the starting line. We accelerated and were the only boat on the line. From there we played the shifts upwind on the left side of the first leg and covered our competition almost never to look back (much like the Mike Chapoton philosophy to racing). We held on to the number one position all the way around the course only to have a mild scare towards the end of second, and last downwind leg by Pontchartrain Yacht Club. We finished first by about four boat lengths.
Now I was up to skipper the second race. The start of the second race was a little more eventful with many other boats crowding the pin end of the line. Again we approached the line on port tacking under Southern Yacht Club. After a close encounter with SYC, we pushed the over the line so they had to re-start the race and NOYC was the only boat between us and the pin at the start. We managed to roll over the top of NOYC and in their attempt to tack out from under our bad air they misjudged their tack and slammed into the stern quarter of our boat (Don?t worry Bernie, the boat is fine. I swear.) They took their penalty and did a 720 degree turn. From there we played the shifts up the left side of the course again rounding the top mark first, followed next by PYC again. Once again we held on to the lead all the way around the course and finished first.
Now we had a dilemma. David and I tied. So who was to skipper the third and final race of the day was still up in the air. After both of us not having a solid argument for why either of us should steer the next race, I won a quick game of "rock, paper, scissors" to keep the tiller in my hand (sorry David).
By the start of the next race the breeze had almost completely shut off. Typical Lake Pontchartrain. The start of this race was a complete mess. SYC was the only boat on the line and also directly at the pin. We failed to lay the pin end and tacked over to port only to take two massive ducks behind PYC and Jackson Yacht Club. Luckily neither PYC or JYC managed to lay the pin either and they tacked off of our hip. From there we began slowly drifting in the general direction of the weather mark. The new and light breeze managed to find its way to us first, the PYC right behind us. SYC had tacked a few times and went too far left to get the most out of the new breeze. After those first few puffs, we were both considerably ahead of the rest of the fleet. Once again we rounded the windward mark in first place. The next downwind leg the race committee shortened the course so that we would be finishing down wind, instead of going around the course once more like we had in the previous races. Once again the wind gods decided to hit the off switch for a little bit and we sat there, barely with the spinnaker full. The next puff filled in from behind and PYC slowly started making their way towards us. Once the wind arrived to where we were, PYC was riding the front edge of the puff and managed to squeeze over the top of us carried by the momentum that we didn?t have yet because they got the puff first. They unfortunately pulled ahead far enough so that we couldn?t try and pin them out pass the layline of the finish. We gybed for the finish, shortly followed by PYC and we finished second by a few boat lengths.
After a scare from the race committee by almost attempting a fourth race in the oh-so-great, light and lumpy conditions on Lake Pontchartrain, they finally decided to send us in. Thank God. After the three races we had a total of four points (1-1-2). PYC had finished the races with a 2-2-1 which gave them five points. We had a one point lead, and it was up to Zak Fanberg, his wife Sarah, and Rene Dupaquier to finish out the regatta on Sunday.
Zak with Beau and I finished 3rd in the fourth race causing a tie with Pont.YC going into the last race. Zak finished 2nd, and Pont.YC 4th or 5th in the Fifth race, winning the series for BWYC.
**The next regatta is teh Pat Gilland at Jackson Yacht Club; if you are interested in sailing this regatta please email me at marcus@eaganins.com
// posted by BWYC member @ 6:40 AM 
