Catspaw Wednesday Series Results – July 29, 2020

Race Report by Jeff Brantley and Dave Burrows

All to Play!

The forecast was promising and Port Townsend Bay delivered a beautiful night of racing. The wind ranged from 8 -16 knots and a fairly constant direction and the sun was out!. After a quick pin location adjustment due to the settling breeze, the race course was set square to the Indian Point fixed buoy with the wind at 300 deg M. The 2020 July calendar provided a bonus 5^th night of Wednesday racing so with the 2 drops already calculated, there were 3 boats tied at the top of the July standings going into the evening’s races with DORADO sitting on top with the tie-breaker. 

Race 1:  With the square starting line and the course set at S-Ip-Lg-Ip-F, the T-bird fleet was more or less spread across the line for the start with a couple of 5o5s and the SC 27 sharing the fun. Of note was the tide/current line that was starting to develop near the pin end that ran perpendicular to the start line towards the windward mark. To the right of the tide line, the current was moving favorably towards the windward mark while to the left, it was slightly adverse. This was to affect racing conditions and strategies for all three races. Off the start line, the fleet fought hard to maintain their lanes on starboard tacks. One-by one, boats tacked over to port as lanes cleared. The Raven was early to tack and took advantage of sailing in clear air and a bit of favorable current on the right side of the course to get to the windward mark with a commanding lead. The 3 series leaders were focused on marking each other with OWL holding a slight advantage at the mark with CORVO directly behind.  OWL had a slow rounding allowing  CORVO to pass to windward. DORADO fought hard to work their way back to the front of the fleet. Most (if not all) boats chose the Pin end (right) of the Gate and the fleet headed back towards I. RAVEN sailed a dominant race to take the win! CORVO managed a 2d with OWL and DORADO in close pursuit leaving CORVO with a slight advantage in Series standings. Regardless, it appeared that the 2d race would be a “winner take all” scenario for the series.

Race 2: The wind direction was holding steady so the RC called for the same course and initiated the start sequence. The tide/current line was a bit more pronounced now and was at play in the vicinity of the Pin. Once again, the square line and differing starting strategies had the fleet spread across the line. Though I didn’t see it, DORADO managed to “own” the Pin and had to untangle herself before restarting and beginning her charge back towards the front of the fleet. With a slight advantage off the line and clear air, CORVO was able to establish a slight lead and a controlling position over OWL while DORADO fought back. The course conditions provided some challenging conditions as the pressure ranged from 8 13 knts and the tide line split the course almost in two. The other concern was whether or not the forecasted Westerly shift would materialize.  So, go right for the early current or left for the anticipated left shift? Well, the 3 series leaders focused on each other while the rest of the fleet battled to the windward mark. After some good battles and tight crosses and ducks, the fleet arrived at I with CORVO holding a couple boat length lead over OWL, FALCON , KUMA SAN, DORADO and the rest. The battle for 2d allowed CORVO to sail clear. At the gate, some aggressive sailing by DORADO allowed them to round the Pin end of the gate in 2d followed closely by OWL and KUMA SAN. The 2d lap was a bit of a repeat of the 1^st and CORVO took the win and the series! HOWEVER, the RC had other ideas and surprised the fleet with a third and final race of the evening is a building breeze. Some quick calculations on CORVO, OWL, and DORADO made it clear what each boat would have to do in order to take the series.

Race 3: Same course, same tide line, same breeze….almost! Into the start sequence a couple boats detected a slight left shift favoring the Pin end. RC recorded  the wind backing to 270-290 from the earlier 300 deg M.    CORVO tried to “slam the door closed” on DORADO but DORADO nailed the start on Port tack and crossed the fleet with speed  sailing on the favored tack AND being on the right (and correct!) side of the tide line. This was the race winning move so the rest of the fleet was left to battle for remaining places. One by one, the fleet peeled off to the right on Port tack in pursuit of DORADO. At this point, CORVO had to prevent any boats from finishing in between DOARADO and herself in order to preserve her series lead. Once again, the conditions on the course were excellent and provided some really competitive and entertaining racing. In the end, DORADO had done what she had to, but it wasn’t quite enough as CORVO took second to secure the series win. The final series standings are posted. 

Congratulations to all the boats that came out for during the month of July! A couple of highlights for the month: Number of different boats competing during the month (11 total races):  16 ; most boats for a race: 12  ; number of different race winners:  6! ; points separating the top 3  boats:  4 . Also congrats to those die-hard single-handers- Josh on KOLUS, Bill on BLEW BIRD, and any others….well done everyone.

TIP or TACTIC of the Day: Shift gears as necessary! When the wind range is up and down, you need to be very active is changing your settings to match. This includes but is not limited to:  Jib sheet and halyard tension to adjust power of jib; jib car location; main sheet in conjunction with traveller height, vang, outhaul and backstay tension to control power in the mainsail; crew weight fore and aft and side to side. If you are not actively adjusting these various controls on a night like last night when the wind is ranging from 8- 16 knots, then you are NOT maximizing your boat speed. In one-design fleet racing, every inch matters!

Final thought: if anyone in the fleet would like to add their perspective or observations from any night of racing, please forward it to me after the race. These write-ups are obviously from my perspective and I don’t always get to observe what is happening in other parts of the fleet. AND, I don’t always remember all the details correctly! If you have a specific “lesson learned” that you’d like to share, or a particular boat vs boat battle or event that might benefit the fleet, please share it with me and I’ll include it. I only ask that you provide it to me in a format and quality that is easily added to the report. 

One more final thought: BIG KUDOS to Dale Dunning on OWL. Not only is he always at the front of the fleet, but he is spending countless hours editing and producing his weekly video- and the videos are awesome. Not only are they entertaining, they are also quite informative and thought provoking offering insights into sail trim and boat handling as well as boat-on boat-tactics. I don’t always agree with his commentary, but I really appreciate his efforts in producing these videos and I anxiously await them each week. And, I always learn something from viewing them….thanks Dale! If you are not watching these vids at least once or twice to try to pickup something new, then you are probably not maximizing your results!