Hi,
this summer I'm trying Ilvy for her racing abilities. Two days ago the first wednesday regatta of the season took off. Starting at 1800, it is a fun afterwork regatta, divided in three yardstick groups (The winner of each group has to buy a box of beer for the next regatta!). Ilvy, a Maxi 77, sails at yardstick 116 with her original bermudan rigg. I registered with that yardstick for the races, to be able to evaluate a possible yardstick modification by the end of the summer. Of course my hopes are high that Ilvy's yardstick can be reduced with the junk rig! :-)
Let's see how my enthusiasm compares to reality... I am not an experienced regatta sailor, and sailed maybe 10 regattas in my life, some on Ilvy with her bm rigg. I have to admit that I needed to look up most of the applying regatta rules on tuesday night.
The first regatta was raced at northeasterly F4, which means a lot of choppy waves in the Kiel fjord to sail against. Typically, the prevailing winds are westerly, sometimes easterly. Northerly is rare. I sailed single-handed this time, with the boat pretty empty - all the travel stuff from last summer was already cleared out in winter.
I had a superior placement at the starting line, just by letting the sail feather in the wind and waiting to the signal. However, in lack of a good timekeeping - I only used my phone showing minutes, not seconds, to start signal - I missed accelerating in time, and was overtaken by my whole group right after the signal, which left me last.
The first leg was upwind, and I saw those folkeboats (almost the same yardstick) slowly sailing away from me. I don't really know what I did wrong, but my GPS track clearly shows that my pointing angle wasn't good. I expect that against the choppy sea, Ilvy's round belly didn't stand a good chance, while those S-shaped longkeel folkeboats simply cut through the waves. Also, I oftenly pinch too high with the junk rig, only sailing by feeling - but when she uprights herself, it is of course too late... Maybe I need to put some luff telltales onto that yellow canvas! Pinching in choppy seas doesn't make one win a race, I guess.
Also, I kept on the eastern side of the fjord as I hoped to catch some nozzle effect of the northerly wind, while most other boats used the whole width of the fjord. Looking back at it, my strategy probably wasn't the best - though tacking really wasn't an issue at all.
However, once round the northerly buoy, Ilvy's time had finally come! Dead running, I shook out the one reef I had put in upwind, and she blasted through the water. I rounded the buoy together with one other competitor (not folkeboat), but downwind that boat was pretty soon left on the horizon. However, the folkeboat fleet was way too far ahead to catch up. Anyways, doing 6.5 kn downwind, with the tiller between my knees, I opened myself a beer (non-alcoholic) and enjoyed the ride anyways.
Result of the day: I was second last through the finish line, but 12th out of 12 yachts according to calculated time. Not exactly what I hoped for, but with potential for improvements!
To Do's for next time:
- more weight on the windward edge -> friends are already invited!
- less pinching -> telltales are already fabricated!
- use of accurate clock for the start
I had hoped that the rare northerly wind would be advantagous for the junk rig, as it set on leg to straight downwind. However, I hadn't considered the upwind leg being so choppy.
Let's see how westerly winds would suit Ilvy in that regatta!
Cheers,
Paul