Great sunshine, all types of wind velocities in excess of + 25 knots and all the way down to under five. And did I mention wind direction ….. starting from the north on Friday and finishing from the south on Sunday and everything in between during the races. Nine Eights were on the startline this weekend! (Where are all of the crew coming from when this increases to 15 by 2010???, right Will).
What did this mean to the mighty Sev? Starting with Friday, Severn experienced our own annus horribilis on Friday. We started the race with our number three genoa and after having a very near run in with Venture on the line, we got underway in not too bad a position. The shifts played a part as they did all weekend, but our position at the windward mark was within striking distance of the leaders. We overtook Venture down wind taking her air and passing ahead at the leeward gate. The maneuver was a busy one, but we managed to get the spinnaker down and jibe up in the nick of time to round the port mark. And then things started to happen ….. we lost an entire set of sheets & guys over the side without anyone noticing from bow to stern during the maneuver with Venture. Undeterred, we re-fed our spare set. However, we couldn’t get back to the left side where the competition was to cover, and the boats nearer to the port lay line did better than those who did not, including us. Despite this Severn was still in the hunt, and then the mainsheet block exploded at the traveller like a shot gun. The main ragged uncontrollably while we tried to get the jib in to maintain way; (despite being over-canvassed with our number one at this point by the way). In the end we jury rigged a snatch block on the traveller to get things under control before the mast whipped itself out of the boat. As someone said it was bending like a live noodle! All of this caused us to loose most of the competition by this time, but we decided to stay in the race and finish.
In the next race, we went to a number four jib. Though under-canvassed at times, we lost some ground having to take a tack to the unfavoured side after tacking away for clear air. None-the-less, we were still enough in the game to strike back with those who had stayed in the race; (four withdrew). But then an altercation with Passion III took place at the windward mark. After getting our buoy room, she hit Severn when coming down too soon to go to the dog leg. Passion protested us and we protested them. Down the leg we went with the wind increasing and using the 1.5 oz spinnaker we had broad gybe from hell with winds up to the near high for the day. I don’t how we did it but we appeared to have wrapped the main in several different ways around spreaders and mast. We finally go it out but in doing so broke the backstay preventers, with part of the bungee elastic getting into the backstay block when we went to windward, which prevented us from tacking for too long on the wrong side of the course. Also this did cause a problem with the final gybe for the day which we decided to deal with by hardening up before the gybe to get the backstay out from behind the spreaders. Well we did that and but then rounded up uncontrollably before getting the boat back under control but not before jamming Dave’s leg into the clam cleat for a nasty limping bruise. All of us were a black and blue and exhausted when we finally got back to the Club and in need of a drink or two while we did the repairs and dried the sails. Almost forgot, the Protest. The long and short of it was that Passion got tossed for not giving us buoy room and Severn was disqualified because we did not avoid a collision! Apparently avoiding a collision is paramount which even would allow hitting or going around the mark on the other side to avoid the collision. Still don’t think it was right when it appeared he came down and hit us!
The next two days were in some ways almost anti-climatic but more frustrating with not being able to figure out the headers and lifters in the light winds. For instance on the final day, in the first race we lost to three boats going for the finish in succession courtesy of a velocity shift on the final beat in a shorten course. In the final race of the series, we regained a little something with a well sailed race both tactically and some good sail handling; this despite ripping our .06 oz spinnaker on the first downwind in this race. Even gave Iskareen a scare near the end of the final leg (we were faster & deeper with our .05 oz runner all the way down the leg), but not enough course left to overtake her. We settled for a third.
And I should mention that the RCYC Saturday night fare, both the free pour and the steak dinner were the best of the season!
We now have a little time off to re-group and make repairs, until the next series and the start of the Mackenzie Series this Wednesday.
See you then, Ced
From: the NOOD Staff
| Sperry Top-Sider Toronto NOOD Final Results |
| Final results for the 2007 Sperry-Top Sider NOOD Regatta in Toronto. |
| Jun 24, 2007 |
|
|
Course A
| Place |
# |
Boat Name |
Owner |
R 1 |
R 2 |
R 3 |
R 4 |
R 5 |
R 6 |
R 7 |
R 8 |
R 9 |
R 10 |
Total |
| 2 |
29 |
Venture II |
Diane V. Palm |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
10 |
| 4 |
S7 |
Ranja |
Guy Jones |
4 |
4 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
29 |
| 6 |
9 |
Thisbe |
John Mitchele |
5 |
10 dnc |
4 |
7 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
37 |
| 8 |
1 |
QUEST |
Robert Graham |
7 |
10 dnc |
8 |
6 |
9 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
44 |
|
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