Stone Cup

Team Scorpio practiced for the Stone Cup late Friday afternoon.  This was our first time on the boat since the 2008 Big Boat Series.  Our objectives were to checkout the new .85 poly spinnaker, introduce a new crewmember to the program, and to figure out what needs to be changed on the boat.  We also got rid of some rust associated with our absence from the boat.

Doug had the boat in pretty good shape.  He made a number of changes over the winter - several new halyards, spinnaker guys, a new jib halyard winch, a new laptop, and lots of small improvements.  Scorpio seemed anxious to "get back at it" and so was the crew. 

Marcy and husband, Bo, flew in from Hawaii, and Bo quickly acclimated to the boat.  We were without Bren for the practice, but quickly figured out how to sail the boat again.  The new .85 spinnaker needs a recut, but everything else seemed good.  We had very good breeze (~ 20 knots) for our practice session.  We sailed without Bren on Sunday, so we moved George Wheeler into the tactician position and replace him with Matt's friend, Henry Nieuwstad, a young man and former Laser sailor from Santa Cruz.  Henry fit in well and we look forward to having him back on the boat.

After 13 years of racing Scorpio, you'd think we'd have things pretty well figured out.  The odd and challenging thing about sailboat racing is that you never truly do.  You're always learning.  In the late 1990s, when I complained to Tom Wylie about Scorpio's poor light air performance, he told me I had to focus on sail development.  I had no idea what that meant, but I quickly learned it was about writing checks for more sails, and experimenting with different combinations.

Sitting at the windless, hot dock Saturday morning, waiting for wind and lamenting the prospect of racing in very light airs, Bren finally said, "how about we make some substantial rig changes for this race?"  My response was that we had nothing to lose and possibly something to gain by it.  So, Bren and Doug grabbed the mast jack, removed a mast step spacer, and rearranged the deck partners.  Over the winter Doug had already added a headstay link, adding 3/4" to our forestay length.  The one hour project worked miracles.  Scorpio is a new boat.  She feels much more lively and can point with speed in lower wind ranges.  After Saturday's racing, I felt like a little kid on Christmas.

While we only managed a fifth and a third on Saturday, this was much better than expected given the light winds.  We had a confrontation with a freighter in race 2 which forced us to the wrong side of the course and cost us, we believe, one or two places.  Sunday's racing went better as the breeze filled and the courses were shorter.  We ended up with a one, two finish which allowed us to leapfrog Criminal Mischief into third place for the regatta.

The fact that we were able to beat TNT and beat Soozal in two races, was very gratifying.

Next stop – Friday for the Spinnaker Cup.

Race Results