Report from Arcadian, Arcona 370,  Class 4

An interesting start to the JOG Inshore season with light winds forecast and strong tides it was always going to be a tactical challenge and memories of a similar run a couple years earlier with an hour on the run down and four plus back always at the back of the mind.

So a cautious start was in order from an uptide, inshore position, which would mean a port tack but close to Gurnard at the line to head out into the stronger tide.  Our view that this would be the right strategy was soon re-inforced as we watched a Class 5 boat practice the exact same run in and actual start, which also allowed us to time them and so save sailing up and down unnecessarily.

Well it was a good idea but when it came to our turn we found a wind hole, exaggerated by Class 3s coming up from the gate, and reached Gurnard exactly as planned but further behind the rest of the fleet than intended i.e. last.

The beat to the first mark was fairly uneventful and rounding to pick up the pre-race plotted bearing put us sailing higher than all of the near-by boats. Cries from the navigator at the chart plotter below that it was a good course were re-assuring, but did they know something we didn’t? As it turned out some of them lost speed to climb to round W Lepe and we made up a few more metres. By this time we had good sight of Arcsine our sister Arcona and went to shadow her on the beat to Lymington Bank, albeit from a distance. At the mark the tide again featured prominently in the thought process and the plan to stay high and wide allowed With Alacrity to slip inside for a near perfect, but very close, rounding before we made off in the company of her and Breakout all heading inshore to minimise the now foul tide.

Gybing up to Hampstead Ledge as close to the IOW as we dared with the shallower draft Class 5 boats inside us we nevertheless tested the skipper’s nerve on a couple of occasions as the depth melted away with the tide ebbing. On to the mark and more decisions: how long do we stay inshore? How long do we hold on to the kite? To the very last second was the answer in both cases and we squeezed round without getting pushed back on the tide.

Two more marks and then the slow downwind run to the finish again with decisions: inshore out of the tide or further out with better wind, dead run or sail the angles.

All things considered an excellent day out with some other boats testing the depth to the limit and it’s good to see that Only Just liked the colour of our spinnaker - great pic on flickr thanks.

 
Report from Cerulean, Farr 395, Class 3

What a great start to the sailing season. Four seasons in one day and we were not our usual 10 minutes late at the start!

We did more gybes in this one race than the whole of last season. Having ended up on our side off St Catherines Point in the Poole Race last year (with a wrap on the sheet and doing 5 kts sideways through the water heading for shore) we knew gybing was our Achilles Heal and was causing all of us a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Given we’re a downwind boat this was becoming very frustrating. We the much needed gybing workout so much we continued past the finish and did another dozen or so rotating the crew so we all had a chance to learn the process from each position on the boat. Whilst the conditions were relatively benign we’re all much the wiser having completed the race. Having so many J-Boats (who fly asym like us) in the fleet also gave us a good visual reference in how to gybe.

It was a treat to see so many quality boats in the fleet and my hat goes off to Jbellino who with only two up gave most of a us a lesson. Night Owl started particularly strongly and looked very professional on the rail. I’d like to say Floating Voter looked good (again) but they were so far away I could not see them clearly! The strong tide gave our navigator a solid workout and whilst I regularly questioned his course to steer as ridiculous he always proved himself correct. Had I listened a little more often we would have gone closer to shore earlier and taken some more time from our elapsed.

Next steps – google how to trim a mainsail upwind so it does not constantly backwind broadcasting to the fleet you’ve still got your “L plates” on.