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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.
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