Day 1, June 14
Our flight from Dallas to Boston was delayed, but we finally arrived at Peter Gerard's house in Newport around midnight on Thursday (6/12). We chartered a boat and met our boat owner the next morning in Barrington at 7:00 am, so not much sleep. After a couple of hours of boat prep we got on the water around 11:00 am on Friday, the thirteenth. Not long after that Bill received a wake-up call when the mainsail halyard lock came loose. The mainsail went crashing to the deck and Bill went splashing in the bay. Bill's drysuit was still wide open so gallons of cool salt water ruined any chance of him staying dry or warm for the next five hours. The practice sail went well otherwise. We were able to go up against some good guys and were provided some pointers from the Olympic 470 coach.
This morning (Saturday, 6/14) twenty-two boats were on the line and the fleet was stronger than we anticipated. Olympic silver medalist, Morgan Reeser, some college All-Americans, and the good Canadians made for tough racing.
Race one started with strong northwest winds. About 15-25 knots. But it was very shifty. Everyone started on port and we worked a little too far right because the big shifts and puffs kept coming from the left. We seemed to have this problem all day. We rounded the weather mark about 10th in a very large puff. It was the most exciting part of the day: Morgan tipped over right in front of us to put his spin up so we had to weave around him then the Canadians were trying to put their spin up and we blasted through their lee. We were off and running! But that was the most wind of the day. It died to 10 knots at the jibe mark. We ended up finishing 6th, and Morgan came back to win that race.
The second race was basically like the first but with a lot less wind. We tried the right side again but got hammered. Had a good first reach going low and managed to pass 10 boats. We kept working and finished 5th.
The last race got very shifty. 0-15 knots. We decided to go left and started at the pin, but had a general recall. The next start we decided to show our stupidity and played the right. We rounded the weather mark dead 2nd to last, but caught up some on the reach and rounded the bottom mark around 17th. The wind had really gotten strange then and most people were working the right. But we had already toured that area so we went left. Well, what do you know but a 30-degree left shift and an 18-knot blast had us planing over most of the fleet, and we rounded 4th. It got very light for the run and we were able to pass Peter Katcha on some good puffs and actually gained on Morgan and the leader. We almost got to 2nd but ran out of race course and took third.
So we are in 2nd with a 6-5-3, and five boats just a point or two back. Morgan is in 1st with straight bullets. It doesn't look like much wind tomorrow. Bill and I are getting better but it's going to take a lot of training to get comfortable, especially in big wind and waves.
Day 2 RIISA
We still don't know what that means (Rhode Island International Sailing Ass ociation ?)
Forecast is northwest winds of 5-15 but the locals say this won't last long and the seabreeze will fight it. The first race of the day was scheduled for 11am. But we went out early to do some practice and to get our money's worth on the charter boat. The good Canadians came out too so we got to do some practice racing for about one and a half hours in good breeze: 8-12 knots.
By the time the real race started the wind was getting spotty and it had dropped to 6 knots. We had a good start at the pin in the real race going left. The wind was all over the place and we ended up having to overstand the first mark. and rounded about 8th.The good Canadians were winning by a long way. We immediately passed one boat by reaching over them while they were setting. The next beat Bill called some good tactics and we caught up to 3rd just behind Morgan Reeser. By that time the wind had comleteley died and we were drifting down the run. The wind finally filled in and the 12th place boat rounded the leward mark second and we lost another boat to round 5th with the Canadians winning and Morgan in 3rd. With a short beat to the finish that's the way it ended. We sat around waiting for another race, so Bill and I decided to try and fix our upper batten. It was too stiff for the light wind so Bill cut little notches in it to try and make it bend more. when we put it back in and raised the main they abandoned racing for the day.
So the final finishes were:
1st Morgan Reeser and Bob Merrick
2nd Paul and Bill
3rd James Sauter and Pierre Olivier
This was a good regatta for us. We were suprised we did as well as we did given the competition and the fact we didn't sail very smart. We need a lot more practice.
A special thanks to Stephanie and Kurt Read for their help in flyng us up to RI. Also thanks to Jim Anderson and Mike Hardick (Olympic 470 Emergency Boat service) for helping fix up our practice boat (we thought we were going to have to take it RI, but at the last second found a charter boat. We need more help from guys like this.
Also thanks to Carrie for organizing everything.