Sailing Vessel Still Time: C22 Fall Singlehanded Race 4

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

C22 Fall Singlehanded Race 4

Last week race 3 was scrubbed because we had 25+ knots of wind.

This week we had 11-15 knots from the east, and we had 5 boats out (4 Sharks).

I spent some time working on the mainsail reefing system on the 22.

I was never able to reef the racing main because the cheek block was too far forward on the boom and would not pull the clew of the sail aft for a proper reef (worked fine with the 24 year old original main).

I had installed an adjustable T track on the boom, but never used it this year.

This afternoon I installed a reefing hook on the gooseneck:

This is the first time I had reefed that racing main. It is a fairly shallow single reef, but I was pleased how nice the sail shape was.

The wrinkle on the foot is because I didn't tighten the halyard enough

Went out singlehanded with this reefed main and #3 jib. Was the perfect amount of sail. Got the boat going hull speed (6 knots) upwind no trouble, and manageable heel.

The course was set to 6 short, but the waves were coming from a little more south as it had been blowing from the SSE all day.

On the upwind leg, I didn't want to over stand the mark, my VMG was negative, and I was getting knocked, so I tacked over the starboard towards the mark. On the next tack on port to round the mark, the bow was directly into the waves, and speed dropped from almost 6 knots to under 3. Foxtrot and Cheeky Monkey passed me here.

I am trying an online race analysis website called RaceQs. Still Time and Foxtrot had their phones below with the app tracking us, and the 3D results are kewl:

http://raceqs.com/tv-beta/tv.htm#userId=1044014&divisionId=44195&updatedAt=2016-10-04T23:13:45Z&dt=2016-10-04T17:19:29-04:00..2016-10-04T19:12:44-04:00&boat=Still%20Time&model=J22

Bump the speed up and take a look. It clearly showed that I lost TONS of ground in the extra tacks I took before the windward mark.

The next two reaching legs, I fell further behind because I didn't have as much sail area as the Sharks.

Finished 4 minutes behind the Sharks, not enough to catch them!