Thank you Jeff Progelhoff for funding our accommodations for this regatta. Thank you CompuCom for the airmiles for Bob's airline ticket to Texas. Thank you Mary Medina for storing our fast 470 in your garage before this event. Thank you Terry and Denise Brown for lending us your JY15 trailer to tow our boat here.
Carrie and Paul drove and pulled the boat down here Wednesday from Dallas. Bob flew in Thursday, but his flight was delayed and did not get in 'til 1:00 am Friday. We got to bed at 2:00 am. Good thing first race was not scheduled 'til 2:00 p.m. today.
A bunch of boats from the local fleet are out on the race course bringing the fleet up to thirty-two boats. The wind was about five to ten knots out of the southeast today, puffy and shifty.
Race 1
The first race started at 2:00 p.m.
We had a good start near the middle of the line, but closest to the boat end. The wind shifted left immediately after the start so we tacked and crossed the boats to the right of us. There was a little more wind on the right, so we kept going until we got into the breeze. The wind was shifting left, so a few boats on the far left were looking good. We worked our way out of the right and rounded the weather mark in second behind the farthest left boat, Steve Hunt & Mike Miller, USA 1697.
The course was a partial trapezoid. We had a beat followed by a tight reach, a run and then another beat to the reach mark where we finished.
Things stayed the same on the reach. On the run, we were able to sail lower than the first place boat, Hunt and Miller, and as a result we were able to catch up and round the leeward mark just in front of them.
We thought there was more wind on the right so we continued on that side, but the 2nd place boat went hard left. The rest of the fleet was going right with us so it was a conservative move for us to carry on. As it turned out, the wind went left so Hunt and Miller should have gained, but we must have had better wind as we crossed just in front of them at the end of the leg to win the race.
Race 2
We had a good start in the middle again and started to
work towards the right side of the course. We were
working the shifts well on the right side of the course,
but the left was starting to look good again. We missed
a shift and then made a few too many tacks at the top
of the beat and rounded in seventh. We passed three
boats on the run just in front of the Japanese sail #3700.
There are actually two teams from Japan here. We lost the
Japanese on the next beat but passed another boat to finish fourth.
The boat that finished 2nd in the first race won this one (Hunt &
Miller).
Race 3
After a couple of general recalls, we started near the pin.
We tacked pretty quickly to port and were lifted. We crossed the first pack and then a couple of starboard boats waved us across. We headed right, and this time the wind shifted that way.
We rounded 1st, Jake Scott of Rush Creek Yacht Club (Jake borrowed our Dallas practice boat and is practicing for the Junior Olympics) rounded 2nd and in third was the Japanese team.
We gained on the run and just covered the rest of the race.
Lots of racing left so we need to keep it going. Nine total races are scheduled.
More tomorrow
Paul and Bob
USA 1722
Hello folks,
Long day today.
I ran to the boat park this morning from our hotel. It was a little further than I thought, especially after I got dehydrated yesterday. It's hot and humid here in Texas (compared to Europe).
There were two boat work tasks I planned to do. Check the tune of the boat and replace the spinnaker halyard. Bob made us a new set of spin sheets.
Well, I got into our tuning and discovered that our tension gauge (used for measuring jib halyard tension) was too old and was reading 100 lbs. off. I borrowed someone's new tension gauge (ours in Europe is new) and re-tuned. Finally got that done, but did not have time to replace the spin halyard.
We got out on the water for the first race that was to start at 1:00 p.m. The wind was shifting right pretty hard as the sea breeze was coming in.
Race 1
6-11 knots
We started near the boat, but a big left shift came in right after the start. We tacked right hoping the wind would shift back, but it did not. We got sat on a couple times near the windward mark, but were able to catch one boat at the mark and rounded in 4th, with the 2nd place overall boat right in front of us.
There was a Canadian boat right behind us.
We went for our spin set for the first reach, but it got caught on the spreader on the way up. Bob went to fix it and I tried to pull it up the rest of the way but the cover peeled off of it, and it stopped a foot short of all the way up.
By this time the Canadians were rolling us and the 2nd place over all boat was getting away. We tried to sail a little low to keep from getting rolled, and just when it looked like we were doomed, the Canadians spin halyard came down. After that, we actually caught up a little.
We went down the run hoping our spin would come down when we needed it to, and caught up some more and rounded in 4th right behind the 2nd place overall boat.
We immediately tacked left of the spinnakers, and everyone else went to the right of them.
We got a good left shift and puff and moved into 2nd with Whitney Connor and Elizabeth Kratzig leading the race. We set our spin and it actually went up again with just a couple strands holding it. We went down the last run to finish 2nd with Steve Hunt and Mike Miller (2nd place overall yesterday) finishing 4th.
We had some quick boat work to do. We got an extra spin halyard from our gear boat and tried to tape it to the old halyard and run it through, but our tape job was too fat and it would not go through the sheave. So we tipped the boat over on our coach's borrowed motor boat and tried to shove it into the sheave. We shoved it in as far as it would go then put the boat back upright and tried to pull it through.
We did this a couple times and finally the tape slipped and the halyard pulled all the way out of the mast. Just then, the 5 minute gun went off, and we still did not have a spin halyard. We could not get any more help from the support boat (per racing rules). We tipped the boat over (this time without the coach boat) and Bob swam up the mast, tied an external block on and ran a line through it. We got the boat back up and just got to the starting line in time. Bob was still trying to get the spin halyard line untangled, and we still had water in the boat from tipping over.
Finally, we just ignored the halyard, started and tacked right. We were going pretty slow at first but finally got going. Halfway up the beat we got a right shift, tacked over and just managed to squeeze around in 3rd. Wow!
The spin halyard was still screwed up, so the plan was for Bob to pull the halyard up and tie it off. I told Bob to put the pole up first, but when he went in to do this we found out we had left the pole on the support boat (woops). We had taken everything off our boat when we tipped it over to fix the halyard and forgot to get the pole back.
Plan B.
Steve and Mike (2nd place over all) were behind us, so we decided to just slow them down by luffing them up and sitting on them. We did this, but they finally got by us. However, we had allowed a few boats to pass them.
Eventually, we decided to retire from this race and spend the time fixing the spin halyard (there is 1 throw-out after 6 races). We got the halyard fixed and Steve and Mike finished 9th that race.
Race 6
Wind picked up to 10-15.
We had a good start at the boat and went okay to round first at the weather mark. We had a great spin set on to the first reach (yeah halyard) and took off to win the race. Steve and Mike finished 8th.
Race 7
We had a bad start at the boat, tacked and ducked.
We were going okay again, but had a bad tack up near
the weather mark (the tiller got caught in the board
up-down line) and we went down wind for a little bit.
We got going again and rounded the weather mark in 4th. We went down the reach (another great spin set - yeah halyard), gained on the Jamaican boat behind us and caught up a little on the lead pack.
We passed one boat going down the run to move into 3rd.
Up the next beat, we just passed the next boat and moved into 2nd at the weather mark. We went down the run to finish 2nd with Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham winning.
That was the last race of the day.
We are in 1st with 11 points (dropping a 33 (DNF). Morgan is in 2nd with 26 points dropping a 9. Japan 3700 is tied with Morgan, and Steve and Mike have 27 points dropping a 9.
2 races left.
See you tomorrow.
Paul and Bob.
Special thanks to Ken James and Jeff Lamm for their contributions to Team CompuCom/Kitty Hawk: all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and spinnaker halyards for the rest of the campaign.
We also had quite the cheering crowd at this regatta: Holli, Brianna, and Alex Windham, Jeff Lamm, Carrie, Barbara, and Leroy Foerster, Ken James, Liza Cleveland, Cliff Black, and Craig White (hope I got 'em all). Not to mention all you guys cheering us on through the E-mail.
Thanks to Coal and Brooks and Bridgie for distributing the race reports and to Carrie and Beanard for editing them so they are readable.
Well, here goes--Final Day of the 470 U. S. Nationals--
Race 8
We had a 9:00 a.m. start, so we were at the boat at 7:00 a.m.;
the sun was just coming up as we drove to the club. We
did an hour's worth of boat work, then headed out to tune up.
We were pretty far ahead on points, but with a throw out
of DNF (33 points), we had to play it safe and not make
any mistakes (over early, foul, breakdown). The wind was
pretty strong for this early in the morning, 8-12 knots out
of the southeast, so we had some good chop.
On the first start, we just did a conservative start at the boat, but it was a general recall start.
On the second start, Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham (in second place) pinned us outside the pin end, but it also was a general recall start.
On the third start, we circled the committee boat, with Morgan chasing us for four minutes, then split off and started in the middle of the line, but it was another general recall start.
On the fourth start, we did the same as the first, but this time it was a good start, and we were off.
A left puff came through, and the left paid off on the first beat. We rounded fourth, with the Japanese leading. We gained on the pack behind on the reach, then worked low on the run to just sneak into first place at the leeward mark.
We gained a little ‘til the finish and won, with the Japanese in second. This moved the Japanese out of the second place tie with Morgan, into a solid second.
The U.S. women's team of Tracy Haley and Louise Vanvoorhis finished third, moving them into the lead in the women's division, one point ahead of Whitney Conner and Elizabeth Kratzig.
Graeme Woodworth and Andrew Gainer finished fourth, moving them into a tie with Morgan and Kevin for third.
Race 9
We started at the boat, just above the Jamaicans.
We got a little lift, but the left still had an advantage--more
wind, I think. We got to the weather mark in second,
two boat lengths behind Graeme and Andrew, with Morgan
right behind us in third.
We stayed even on the reach, then caught a good puff on the run to move ahead of Graeme and Andrew. We rounded the leeward mark just ahead of them.
We went right up the next beat, waiting for a little header. We finally got one and tacked over. We gained a few boat lengths, led at the weather mark by four boat lengths and went on to win.
We are now the 1999 U.S. National Champions, and this qualifies us to go to the Pre-Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, in September of 1999.
Yea, TEAM!!!!!
The Japanese team finished second overall, with Graeme and Andrew third overall and Morgan and Kevin fourth overall.
The women had a tight last race, with Tracy and Louise passing Whitney and Elizabeth to take the regatta win.
Wow, lots of fun!
Thanks for everyone's support.
We now travel to the French Nationals on Tuesday, with the regatta starting on Thursday.
See you guys later.
Paul and Bob
Team CompuCom/Kitty Hawk