We got up at 7:00 and drove about fifteen minutes to Barrington. There wasn't much time to rig the boat, so we did a quick job eyeballing everything and borrowing parts, then got out onto the water in time for the first race. We finished rigging on the way out and made it to the course area with a little time to go upwind and make some adjustments. It was raining so hard and was so windy that the rain hurt our faces when we tried to look upwind. These conditions continued most of the day.
As we awaited the start, we noticed that there wasn't much movement going on with the race committee. After a while, coach Skip found us and told us that the committee was thinking about cancelling the race. Sure enough, about five minutes later they called us in.
A lot of young kids out on the water were getting ready for Youth Champs, and some of them were having a little trouble. We actually had a little trouble, too: we flipped over reaching out to the start, doing Mach 2. The winds were very puffy, and I lost control. We almost made it, but finally the boom hit the water and we slowly tipped. No problem, though, as we got the boat right back up. Once we got ourselves back into the boat, I noticed that our tool bag and drinking water were floating off behind us. Miraculously, the tool bag didn't sink and we got it back; but we lost the water bottle and my hat. Someone behind us actually picked up the hat and gave it back on the way in.
Unfortunately (it still was raining), we needed to spend some time in the parking lot to get our boat working a little more smoothly, so we started some work. As we were derigging, a fire engine and an ambulance showed up. Apparently, some of the young kids had flipped over, and the Coast Guard had picked them up. I don't think they ever found the boat, but the kids turned out to be fine.
After finishing our boat work, we went shopping for tools to replace the ones we had taken to Europe. We ate dinner at the club and had a quick 470 class meeting afterward to get all our schedules in line, particularly with regard to shipping equipment to Europe and Australia.
We'll probably get to bed early tonight and, hopefully, conditions will be better for sailing tomorrow.
See ya,
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Sorry this report is so late. My laptop ran out of battery power last night on the flight home, so I couldn't send the report.
Barrington, Rhode Island
Sunday 15 June 1998
Well, we actually got to race today. After rain all night, Sunday morning brought light air with fog and drizzle. We did a little boat work, then left the boat ramp at 9:30 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. start.
To get to the race course, we had to sail out of a river then into the bay that we race in. There are many inlets and bays in this area that eventually lead out to the ocean (it's probably a 20 mile sail). The tide here is probably three feet, so the current can get up to two knots in the rivers.
On the way out to the race course today, the current was against us (but the sun did come out, and it sure was nice to see). The wind was light, so we had to stay along the shore (out of the current) to make any progress. One other 470 had left before us, so Bob and I were trying to pass him.
There are about 20 boats here, some even from Canada, Jamaica and Bermuda.
Race #1
We were sailing outer loop trapezoids with windward finishes.
The race committee postponed for a little bit, and by the time the warning signal went up, the wind had built to 10 - 20 knots, and the fog and drizzle had returned.
We had a good start 1/4 up from the favored pin and tacked and were looking good. Our speed was okay, and we rounded the weather mark in first by 50 yards. We set right away and took off while the guys behind us were taking each other high. We doubled our lead the first reach. The run was even.
On the next beat, the wind had gone way left, and we were almost laying the weather mark. The boat in second tacked out, but we did not cover, thinking the wind would shift back right. It did, and we doubled our lead again. The wind picked up, and we had some good downwind rides and a short beat to the finish to win.
Race #2
The wind had picked up for this race, so we tightened our shrouds and raked
back. We
had an okay start, but were not going too great. We were leading halfway up the beat, but
a left shift came through, and one boat rounded ahead of us.
It was too tight and windy to set on the first beat, so everyone jib reached. Unfortunately for us, we pulled the spinnaker a little out of the bag in case we had to set. Well, it decided to come all the way out and go for a swim! We slowly came to a halt. The only way I could see to get it back quickly was to set the chute, so up it went. Bob put the pole on, and we spin reached for a little bit. We were not making the mark, so we left the pole up and I let the spin halyard go. Then we jib reached to the reach mark. We lost a couple of boats, and at the end of the run we were in fourth. The boat in front of us had a bad douse, and we shot through to leeward of them, then we sped past their boat and we're in second. We were going better with less vang in this puffy stuff.
We left the third and fourth place teams behind but could not quite catch the first place boat, so we finished second.
Race #3
We had a lunch break and then took off on our last race. The current was going upwind,
so some boats were over early. Bob and I noticed this and luffed our sails
at the boat for
the last 30 seconds and still were going forward (we then had to back the main).
Well, it turned out that the pin was favored, but the guy that won the pin (same guy that won the last race) flipped over when he tried to tack. We boat speeded (a Foersterism) everyone and rounded the weather mark in first.
Our spinnaker again decided to go for a swim, and we did the same thing as last time but didn't lose any boats (see--practice, practice, practice).
We had a fun, fast race, and no one got close to us; we won by 200 yards.
The race committee sent us in for the day, and we had a screaming, 30 minute jib reach in.
We arranged for a boat shop up in Rhode Island (Guck, Inc.) to fix some things
on the
boat:
1) fix two holes in port side from a port tacker last January;
2) install two main halyard locks;
3) weld stiffeners to our spreaders;
4) weld a stop for our rudder pin;
5) install a jib Cunningham cleat;
6) fix a broken bailer;
7) straighten spin and Cunningham lines in new mast; and
8) look for any broken stringers.
Bob took me to the airport in Boston, and I got home around midnight last night. We leave for Kiel, Germany, on Friday.
Thank you - Tom and Dana Jacobs - for air miles for Paul.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000