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Royal Southern Summer Series - July 2008 ~ 31.7 Report Race 1 Windy 25 knots start to the race, so No3 up, but stayed with
full main (partly because we forgot to lace reefing lines)! Got a great start next to inner distance
marker and tacked off right. As it
turned out, not a great decision and met Manaru and
Papillon at the windward mark with only feet
between us. Manaru
rounded first, followed by a great hoist and they were off. We rounded next and had a problem first
with the Guy coming off the winch, followed by a big broach followed by
predictable "spinnaker with no sheet" carnage. Dropped the kite, sorted it out, took a big
deep breath and hoisted again. Manaru had made
quite a lead, but we were still in the game.
Made quite a catch up during the downwind leg and rounded after Manaru. Then good
upwind boat speed got us ahead. During
the broach we lost our big kite spinnaker bag so were relegated to our
smaller reaching kite (quite a relief to crew, but not quite as quick) so
fell behind Manauru again and was in chase mode
going upwind. Just managed to get
ahead on last couple of tacks to finish line. Race 2 Windy again, and started too early and had to stall the boat
to fall behind Papillon and get through the line
without being pushed over the inner distance marker, then used momentum to
drive up next to her. Managed to get ahead through the race mainly through
upwind speed as we still had no large kite. Race 3 Good start and managed to get good consistent boat speed to
stay with the lead pack. Some great
crew work helped us stay there finishing closely behind the X362 and J92
giving us first place on corrected, proving 31.7's can make it on IRC
handicap. Race 4 For some reason we all switched off completely before the
start and were 5 minutes late crossing the start line. Had it all to prove and chased Papillon all the way up the beat. Rounded the windward mark and chased her
downwind. Chased again upwind and
managed to get in front on the second downwind leg with a worryingly shaky Gybe, but some fab bowman work
got us out of trouble and screamed back down to the leeward mark chasing Manaru all the way, but realistically never looked as
though we were going to get in front.
Finishing 6th on the final race with no discards blew us out of the
chocolates for the regatta, but hopefully we learnt a few lessons on the way. Overall With so much breeze, the emphasis was
very much on depowering the rig as much as possible with block-to-block
backstay, lots of Genoa sheet tension with cars moved back and we found lots
of main sheet tension with traveler 3-4 inches down from centre to be the
best compromise dumping mainsheet on the gusts boat speed target ~6.4
knots. Boat handling was the key, with
lots of minutes lost there. Tactics
wise, crossing the big tide just upwind of the leeward marker just once,
looking forward for the beneficial windshifts and
staying out of trouble paid. Overall very very close racing with
only a few minutes between the 31's.
Hoping that Cowes week is a few knots less! 31.7 Results Class Extract
AUTHOR: Jon McGuire – Aviva
GBR 8938T |
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