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Team Scorpio
Yacht Racing Program
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2007 Rolex Big Boat Series Race Notes
It's now September. The Big Boat Series is behind us. The mast is out of the boat and Scorpio is resting on her cradle at KKMI. It's time to reflect on the 2007 regatta which was great fun and exhausting, not to mention challenging.
This was a big year for the series with 112 boats entered. Although most were local, entries from Southern California, Annapolis, Fort Lauderdale, and the Northwest rounded out the fleets. 38 boats entered the IRC handicap divisions. The StFYC had its hands full properly dividing them into reasonable divisions where ratings were similar and racing would be close. In the end, four IRC divisions were established with five in A, 10 in B, 13 in C and 10 in D. Scorpio was assigned to division C which consisted of the following entries in rating order:
Before racing started, we had speculated that White Dove was probably the boat to beat. We were also wary of TKO, with local pro Norman Davant calling tactics. We knew little about Finale except that we'd heard that they'd be very well sailed. As the days progressed, our speculation proved valid. With occasional strong showings by Recidivist, Encore, Inspired Environments and Aleta, TKO and White Dove were clearly the strongest programs. Nevertheless, we felt Scorpio was also a contender.
While the competition was tough this year, the real story was the weather with extremely light winds and sunshine throughout the event. It was by far the tamest BBS I'd ever competed in with winds averaging between 10 and 15 knots. We saw a brief 20 knot gust come through Friday afternoon, but that was about it. For most, this would represent ideal sailing conditions, but for Scorpio is was anything but. The flood current somewhat helped us since we're so strong upwind, but the lack of any real velocity doomed us.
Despite the lack of breeze, sailing was close and fun. Crew work and tactics were good as usual, but we made several mistakes and need to work on some maneuvers. Our practice on Saturday and Sunday before the event helped, but we showed some weaknesses in spite of that. After launching Scorpio on Friday, Sep 7, we practiced Saturday and Sunday working on asymmetrical handling, spinnaker peels, and lining up with TKO. Malcolm was unable to make the Saturday practice so Doug moved to the bow and Bren trimmed the main. Thanks to Ellen Bucci for filling in for Erik on Sunday.
Racing began on Thursday on the TI course where we started off the Berkeley Pier. We were given course 25, a 10.4 nm double sausage course around inflatable marks, with an upwind finish. This was probably the lightest race in the regatta with winds between six and 12. TKO easily won the race with a 53 second corrected advantage over White Dove. Finale corrected five second later followed by Encore. Scorpio was a distant fifth which was a moral victory given the windspeed. Were it not for good tactics and crew work we could have been much deeper.
Thursday afternoon we started on the City Front course off Treasure Island. We were given course 9, a 12.66 nm course double sausage with a finish off the StFYC race deck. We saw winds from 10-16 during the race. White Dove won this race easily with TKO correcting 1:16 back in second and Scorpio 1:33 in fourth. Finale beat us by eight seconds, but we protested them on a flagrant port-starboard crossing while short tacking up the City Front. During jury arbitration, they reluctantly accepted a 30% penalty. We'd sailed two good races, but were a distant third with nine point, six behind both TKO and White Dove. It was clear we had our work cut out for us.
On Friday morning we were given course 3, a 14.8 nm course around fixed marks: 16s, 18s, 16s, downwind finish off TI. We struggled again in the light air finishing fifth behind TKO, Finale, White Dove and Aleta. We dropped further behind the leaders and into fourth place overall behind of Finale. As we moved over to the TI course for the afternoon race, we noticed the wind was building. We were fouled by Jeannette at the start (they accepted a 20% on the water penalty), but Bren had us going the right way as usual. This turned out to be our best race of the series and our only bullet. We beat White Dove by 26 seconds and felt a little better about our prospects. We'd gotten ourselves back into third overall, but trailed TKO and White Dove by eight and seven points respectively. We were hoping the winds be stronger over the weekend .
Saturday's morning race we sailed course 2, a 12.9 nm course around fixed marks and finishing again off TI. We had a great first leg leading TKO around the Blackhaller mark which we rounded to starboard. We set our asymmetrical spinnaker and held them off to mark 17. They passed us on the gybe to mark 18 and never looked back. We corrected 2nd but nearly six minutes behind TKO. They were flexing their muscles and obviously liked the reaching legs. However, we gained three places on White Dove as they had a fifth in race five. TKO looked invincible at this point, but corrected 7th in race six after returning to retrieve an overboard crew member at the start. Keith Brown's Aleta won the race followed by White Dove and Scorpio 19 seconds out of first. We thought we had won the second race which would have given us a "longshot" chance going into Sunday's final race. Instead, we were five points behind TKO and White Dove who were tied. We were not mathematically eliminated, but our chances seemed remote.
We retreated to Terzo restaurant for our annual crew/spouse dinner. We had a great time, but the consumed case of Musar Cuvee Rouge may have been too much for us and our performance on Sunday showed it.
After a two hour postponement due to lack of wind, Sunday's bay tour started off TI where we were given course 14, a 15.44 nm course around fixed marks and finishing off the race deck. Recidivist got a jump at the start and led for most of the race. TKO cam from behind and got the gun. Encore, was the winner on corrected time as they finally got it together. Scorpio had its worst race of the series. We made several mistakes and were either very tired and/or very "hung over". We ended up a disappointing seventh, but held on to third overall in the regatta, five points ahead of Finale. We were buried at the start and couldn't get free. Our sets were awful which gives us something to look at carefully next year. The asymmetrical seems to work well on reaches (16-17 and 3-X) once we get it flying. We had a fluke problem with the lazy sheet being jammed in the spinnaker pole jaws at mark 3. This cost us at least five minutes as it eventually got sorted out.
Our third place finish put us on the podium at the awards ceremony, and we really didn't deserve any better. While we've learned to respectably coax the boat in light air, it remains our nemesis. We sailed decently in the regatta except for poor starts and horrible spinnaker sets. This gives us a couple of things to work on for 2008. After reflection, I believe the hoists are the results of sailing too deep at the sets and the sheet and guy being strapped at the same time (see comments below). These should be easy to work on and resolve. Dropping jibs earlier should also aid the hoists. We also need to do a better job getting sails up all the way. Perhaps more aggressive halyard jumping will help.
Erik Menzel was our only crew addition this year, and he did a great job with jib trim. His grinding took some pressure off John Buchanan's bad back as he was able to "float" during the series. The crew remains solid. Special thanks to Marcy Fleming for flying in for the Stone Cup, Aldo, Big Boat, and practices. She must be depleting her collection of frequent flyer miles. Many thanks also to Gary and Mindy Evans for coming from Tucson to drive the Protector during the event.
All in all it was a very good year. No victories, but good showings in all 2007 events.
The boat is in good shape and the bottom is nearly perfect. Changing the mast butt location during RBBS, seemed to help our light air speed. Doug will be working on the mast over the winter and will replace all the cabin top sheet stoppers, but we're otherwise ready to go in 2008. We need to replace some sails for next year. The .75 (actually Airex 7000) runner (red stripe) is dead (116.75 hours - expected life 115) and will be replaced. The mainsail (104 hours - expected life 140) should be good for next year's Stone Cup and Aldo, but probably needs to be replaced for Big Boat. Finally, the C3 jib (62.75 hours - expected life 80) is due for replacement next year.
Now if we could only figure out the Moore 24!
JAS
Comments from Gary Evans: All week I have been thinking about all the spinnaker wraps you guys had during the BBS. It has been driving me crazy because it's the same boat, same sails and same people as in the past and you didn't have this many wraps. I think maybe I may have a reason. It may be that you were driving the boat too deep during the sets. This would cause the spinnaker to get behind the jib and main and wind itself up in the turbulence behind the sails. It's my opinion you needed to be more on a reach (slightly). Think about it, how many times have you set a spinnaker and it filled and maybe the jib didn't come down for 2-3 minutes. Perhaps another fix would be to band (tie) all the spinnakers, about two feet between ties. Not necessarily the legs, just the horizontal part from the head down. Then you could get it all the way up before breaking the ties. Use the pole back to break the ties so enough spinnaker gets exposed to the wind to fill it. I can tell you (from off-the-boat observation) that the packing of the spinnakers had nothing to do with the wraps. The spinnaker came out fine but was slow getting to full hoist. The spinnaker ended up behind the jib and main and got twisted from the turbulence behind the sails. I truly don't understand all of this as it is the same people as last year and it worked fine then. If none of this is correct, then I give up!!! Gary Comments from John in response to Gary's Comments: I'm convinced the wrap problem is the result of the guy and sheet being over trimmed during the hoists. The foot was completely strapped against the headstay preventing the sail from filling from the bottom up. When the kite finally did fill during BBS, the sheet had to be eased significantly (10 feet or more). If we simply ease the sheet and guy to approximately 45 degrees (off the headstay) the kite with be further from the jib and it should fill. When discussing this with sailmaker Pete McCormick, he believes the pole should be at the headstay until the halyard is completely up. While it sometimes (depending on traffic) doesn't hurt to sail a little hotter during the hoist, I don't believe this is the real solution.
Comments from Toby Cooper: Just one "improvement" thought has been turning over in my mind since Sunday. Next time we have a full practice, presumably next year, we should take some time for 2 things we do not normally practice: starts, and unusual sail evolutions that happen in Bay Tour races (primarily sets on reaching legs and peels). This year the competition closed upon us enough so that starts became much more critical. The races we did best in were the ones we got a good start and went the right direction with clear air. This is how it should be. So, the message is, starts have to be flawless. We used to practice starts in 505's by just anchoring a single crab pot float or life jacket in the water, and then doing repeat 3 or 4 minute sequences. The objective is to have the bow of the boat right at the mark and going max speed at the gun. Even without the complication of other boats around, it is harder than it sounds. And very beneficial. In a practice session, we should repeat this drill until we are totally sick of it, like 10 times. As to Bay Tour races, my recollection is that even in years with easy victories, we often have trouble with this kind of race. We need work on the unique boat handling demands of Bay Tour races. We should practice not just peels, but peels around a reach mark. Probably the best thing to do is go out and just sail the whole Bay Tour course as an exercise.
Toby Comments from Bren Meyer: For some reason we had problems sailing in a crowd this year. It seems that in the past we would be able to live wherever we started and work out into clear air. This year we would either fade into the pack or just hold our own and be stuck. The issue may be improved competition in the class or a loss of boat speed on our part. I think the generally light wind this year took away our clear advantage of the past. (Last Wednesday on the Folkboats it blew 30 to 40kts). In either case, we need to improve our light to moderate wind boat speed. I think being more active with the mast tune in important. John Stewart told me they were adjusting the rig on White Dove for every race. Some items that should help: I would like to see the mast block system modified so that we can move blocking with ease. Perhaps we can hold the blocks in from the bottom so they are more assessable and the mast boot can stay in place. The mast butt should move another 3/4" to 1" forward so that we are in the middle range of the blocks. Perhaps we can simplify the mast jack system and be able to carry the jack and adjust the rig tension out on the water. Some new sails may certainly help. I was glad to see more attention paid to boat performance numbers this year, especially the VMG function and the Apparent Wind Angle when going upwind. I think the instruments could use some calibrating. I seem to recall the Apparent Wind Angle was 10 to 20 degrees different from one tack to the other. This calls into question the calibration of the whole system. This is why I like to rely on the Heading number for wind shifts which is simply the electronic compass readout rather than the True Wind Direction which is some sort of calculated number. It seems we had more than our share of spinnaker problems this year. The A-kite is still a challenge. One though is to leave the lazy sheet off the sail until after we hoist so we avoid the problem we had on the reach to the X buoy. If we know the leg has no jibe then simplifying the rigging would reduce the risk of problems. One last thing to consider is there seemed to be many cases where a few seconds one way or another would effect the results. This speaks to the tightness of the class, the need to sail hard every second of the race and to focus on long range tactics that save time on the course not on short range tactics that may feel good in the moment but take us out of our game plan. I think we were up against three very well prepared and sailed programs this year. With another 5-knots of wind on average I believe the results would have been very different. Bren Comments from Larry Peterson: I have been thinking about the spin hoists and the after guy. The only thing different than last year is that John B is helping with getting the guy back. Great help, but it wasn't there last year, and thus, we must have been getting it back faster than in the past. So, your theory makes sense. The pole was getting back faster and when hoisted almost always over sheeted. Something to work on next year. Off to Mazatlan for October on the 2nd. A little baseball and Pacifico.
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