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| Gringo at the Vineyard Race start |
Friday, September 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
North East Lighthouse Trophy!
Gringo won this trophy as the best PHRF boat performing for cumulative results in this year's offshore races: http://vineyardrace.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/perpetual-trophy-winners-announced/ This is quite an achievement that we earned with three 2nd places this year in the ALIR, Block Island Race, and finally the Vineyard Race!
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| That trophy has GRINGO etched in there now! |
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Finished! Race recap:
We had a great race with quite some nailbiting, eventually finishing 2nd in our class and winning the New England Lighthouse Trophy! Overall great crew work and even though we got behind in the beginning we stuck it out and bit our way forward during the nights and out on the ocean.
RECAP: I think we made a big mistake at the start by tacking out into the current towards the central Long Island Sound. Tacktile went instead for the pin and stayed close to shore, getting a 2mls lead on the rest of us by staying out of the current. At that time it looked as if there was more wind in the center and very often the wind fills in from the south, especially since the forecast was exactly like that. Instead it veered back from W to NW, giving boats on the left side of the course a huge lift. Eventually the wind turned and we were able to get back on track but somehow lacked boat speed against everybody else.
Going through Plum Gut was a wise decision that gained us 2 mls on Tacktile and left FinII behind us. Once we were in the BI sound it became a waterline race that Tacktile dominated with 42ft vs our 37ft. We rounded the Buzzard light as #4 at 8:44a Saturday just behind Tacita. While rounding we realized that both Letting Go and Tacktile didn't tack after the rounding and that way opening up a huge split opportunity for us. Running into choppy seas Gringo was clearly favored against anybody in sight, pointing higher and having more speed. Maybe it helped that we let our relatively solid #3 up where everybody else opted for some ancient #4 from the bottom of the sail locker :-)
We passed Letting Go within a couple of hours, thereby eliminating their 3mls advantage and putting 2mls on them (all within 25mls of distance from Buzz #1 to Block Island SE)! That was fantastic to see and probably they did some other mistakes besides the obvious tactical ones. From that point on we left the rest of our division at distance, but weren't able to catch up to Tacktile who did a very fast race at every angle, very amazing.
I'm sure we had our share of mishaps like anybody else and overall did not too bad in that respect. Once again, a great experience and quite a lucky ending!
RECAP: I think we made a big mistake at the start by tacking out into the current towards the central Long Island Sound. Tacktile went instead for the pin and stayed close to shore, getting a 2mls lead on the rest of us by staying out of the current. At that time it looked as if there was more wind in the center and very often the wind fills in from the south, especially since the forecast was exactly like that. Instead it veered back from W to NW, giving boats on the left side of the course a huge lift. Eventually the wind turned and we were able to get back on track but somehow lacked boat speed against everybody else.
Going through Plum Gut was a wise decision that gained us 2 mls on Tacktile and left FinII behind us. Once we were in the BI sound it became a waterline race that Tacktile dominated with 42ft vs our 37ft. We rounded the Buzzard light as #4 at 8:44a Saturday just behind Tacita. While rounding we realized that both Letting Go and Tacktile didn't tack after the rounding and that way opening up a huge split opportunity for us. Running into choppy seas Gringo was clearly favored against anybody in sight, pointing higher and having more speed. Maybe it helped that we let our relatively solid #3 up where everybody else opted for some ancient #4 from the bottom of the sail locker :-)
We passed Letting Go within a couple of hours, thereby eliminating their 3mls advantage and putting 2mls on them (all within 25mls of distance from Buzz #1 to Block Island SE)! That was fantastic to see and probably they did some other mistakes besides the obvious tactical ones. From that point on we left the rest of our division at distance, but weren't able to catch up to Tacktile who did a very fast race at every angle, very amazing.
I'm sure we had our share of mishaps like anybody else and overall did not too bad in that respect. Once again, a great experience and quite a lucky ending!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
50mls to go!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
On the way back!
Rounded Buzzard Bay #1 at 9:43a.
Now hard on the wind against a rough chop. Main sail in 2 nd reef and #3 jib. Next station is the southern tip of Block Island. Tacita went around the mark ahead of us but we passed them again.
Now hard on the wind against a rough chop. Main sail in 2 nd reef and #3 jib. Next station is the southern tip of Block Island. Tacita went around the mark ahead of us but we passed them again.
Morning report
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Vineyard Race 2011
Starts on Friday 09/02 noon and Gringo is at the start!
Follow us live here: http://kws.kattack.com/kattacklive/Offshore.aspx?FeedID=527 and check for updates on this blog. Weather forecast is calling for Easterlies on Friday switching to W/SW on Saturday. The trick will be to figure out the tides (go through the Race or not?) and keep the speed up in low winds.
Follow us live here: http://kws.kattack.com/kattacklive/Offshore.aspx?FeedID=527 and check for updates on this blog. Weather forecast is calling for Easterlies on Friday switching to W/SW on Saturday. The trick will be to figure out the tides (go through the Race or not?) and keep the speed up in low winds.
Monday, August 22, 2011
SYC Overnight regatta
Gringo finishing 3rd in her division at the Stamford overnight!
More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vineyardrace/sets/72157627485380826/with/6065703569/
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| After the finish |
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Final results ALIR 2011
Posted here: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_Number=1&eID=437
We got 2nd place in Div5 behind the Jeanneau44. Congrats to them for pulling away during the first night! I was sure we had them covered with the rest of the fleet that was further offshore than us and sliding steadily back, but somehow they managed to escape.. They must have been one of 4 boats that we saw ahead of us on the way to Plum Gut. Since they managed to get earlier through the Gut they had less current through there and also less current at the finish, which gave them 45min corrected time ahead of us.
Also, only 5 boats of the whole race were ahead of us on corrected time, so that's pretty good too. Among others we were able to hold ourselves pretty good against a First 36.7 that had a lot of trouble catching us and only barely passed us after Montauk finishing 2nd in their division, just ahead of us.
Good race, everybody, and as usual I enjoyed this very much!!
We got 2nd place in Div5 behind the Jeanneau44. Congrats to them for pulling away during the first night! I was sure we had them covered with the rest of the fleet that was further offshore than us and sliding steadily back, but somehow they managed to escape.. They must have been one of 4 boats that we saw ahead of us on the way to Plum Gut. Since they managed to get earlier through the Gut they had less current through there and also less current at the finish, which gave them 45min corrected time ahead of us.
Also, only 5 boats of the whole race were ahead of us on corrected time, so that's pretty good too. Among others we were able to hold ourselves pretty good against a First 36.7 that had a lot of trouble catching us and only barely passed us after Montauk finishing 2nd in their division, just ahead of us.
Good race, everybody, and as usual I enjoyed this very much!!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunrise!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Into the sunset
Around Long Island 2011!
Gringo crew is setting out for the around Long Island race, starting 07/28 5p!
Website is here: www.alir.org. Updates during the race as usual...
Website is here: www.alir.org. Updates during the race as usual...
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Marion Bermuda Race
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Final score
We got 2nd place on the final score! Congratulations to Patience who made it in 4hrs (!) before us, catching the rest of the breeze that finally died in the early morning hours. I think we did really well given that we had some bad luck on the first afternoon running in those wind holes. Video from the race is coming up, stay tuned for updates!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Finished!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Made it through!
Rounded Block Island!
Morning report
Friday, May 27, 2011
Sunset
Caught the shore breeze
After some painful minutes caught in the doldrums between the north easterly breeze watching the guys in the middle of the sound pass. But now we're flying under spinnaker at 8+ kn! Guys in the middle are way behind now, ha. Skipper's comments: being back in the game woohoo!
First signal @ 1400 hrs
Forecast is kind of light with 5-10kn from the south. Will be tricky to pick the right passage into the Block Island Sound tonight. Plum Gut or The Race? The tide turns about 1hr later at the Race..
Friday, May 6, 2011
Block Island Race 2011
is coming up! Gringo is on the start with most of the usual crew.
http://www.stormtrysail.org/Pages/2011-BI-Race/2011-BI-Race.html
Start date is Friday May 27th. Lets see if we can repeat last year's 2nd place or do even better this time!
http://www.stormtrysail.org/Pages/2011-BI-Race/2011-BI-Race.html
Start date is Friday May 27th. Lets see if we can repeat last year's 2nd place or do even better this time!
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