Roach Coach Racing Team

Hello all;


Well, looks like we have a week off before the PHRF Maine’s. We could use the rest and some time to put the boat back together! (Not really, just the spin pole which I actually fixed last night). The Harraseeket race had some good winds and a long downwind run, just the way RC likes it. We had a down wind start, but didn’t go as planned; we tried too hard to stay out of the way of the boat starting in front of us so we were sort of jibing, snake-waking just before the gun. Also, Reta reported that the spin halyard was wrapped with the jib halyard. All worked out though pretty quickly. The breeze was in the mid teens and some higher gusts, letting RC show her stuff with bursts of speed in the low to mid teens! We had a couple of roundups that could have been prevented though. I think next time we’ll have to discuss communication before we race in heavy air. RC is pretty tender and I need to let the spin trimmer know a little earlier when I feel too much pressure on the helm. It is definitely a team effort keeping RC upright. We didn’t do badly though, some boats didn’t fly the spin or couldn’t. Reta made a good call to get some weight in the back of the boat to keep the bow from burying into the water and it did make a difference. I also loved hearing Pam call the puffs and start giggling when a big one was coming, we all knew what that meant…surfing! At the leeward mark we had somewhat of a kite flying, next time we can do a couple things to prevent that. One, I could have helped by going a bit higher above the mark and then going low to the mark so we could blanket the spin behind the main, then we have to bring in on the spin sheet hard, while the guy is let go and someone to tend it to assure the guy runs free. Then the third action, once the spin is behind the main and the foot gathered, we release the halyard and it goes down the hatch. It worked out well though compared to what could have been. Our upwind leg was pretty good considering being overpowered. I’ll get the 85% sail out and have it on board to try out when we have a chance, not sure if it would have helped or not. Don’t worry Pete, I have it on my list to bring some of the older sails Thursday night as well. One other thing we can do in the future is to trim to the puffs when on a reach. Monica pointed this out and it has huge benefits. Rather than sailing the way the wind wants you too, you sail in the direction you need to go, just have to constantly adjust for it (sorry Pete, your going to work hard on those days!). I also want to let you all know something Gregg told me after the race. When we went in between the rocks at the end of Little Birch Island, remember Gregg said it was ok to keep our weight in? Well, he said that there was 3 feet at low tide, add the 1.6 foot tide (meaning at low tide we actually had 4.6 feet on this date) and the fact that the water was flooding for 45 minutes, and that RC was at about 10-15 degrees heeling angle, we should have plenty of room with our normal 5.2 foot draft! Oh ya, he also was being diligent by assuring we didn’t go in further than the lobster pots, as there was most assuredly no water there! I definitely admire his calculations and forethought, but did ask that we play it a little more conservative next time…….nice work Gregg!



Nice work to all!



Thursday Nights;



We’re still on!



PHRF Maine Championships July 7-8;





Who; (Crew)



Rich, Pete, Gregg, Rita, Monica;

Room for two more on Saturday, and three on Sunday depending on Pete’s ball game schedule.



Julia, are you in? You are invited.





What: (race preparation)



Gregg (I’ll get you the charged up GPS and cord on Thursday night prior to the race)

Gregg (skipper’s meeting?)

Rich (Lunch duty)



When;





Saturday; 10:00 at our new usual spot



Sunday; 10:30 at our new usual spot



Why;



Because we can!

Saturday was fun, but strategically a little frustrating. We split from the fleet right out of the box thinking the tide was slack and ended right in the middle of it heading out through the Hussey. It turns about 30 to 40 minutes after it turns in the bay and then its slack for about 15 minutes before it turns again. You’d think I’d know that by now! We saw the entire fleet get in front of us, but we sailed hard and picked our way back into fourth. RC is a fast boat despite the skipper going in the wrong direction! Gregg was reading numbers around 9.5 knots and it didn’t seem that windy. Good times. We had one snag with the spinnaker but crew work was pretty much on target and we got it together pushed on.



Sunday; we saw some really strange weather and we had only 4 people for crew. The first big decision was what to use for a headsail. The breeze was up and down and couldn’t decide on the 155, 150 or 125. We decided to go with the 150 and it worked out well. We waited to the last minute but it put us out of sync at the start so once again the fleet got a jump on us. Once we got to the Hussy though (tip of Cow Island) we sailed almost onto the beach, (making as much use of the tide and back eddy’s as we could) then sailed strait across the tide almost onto the Long Island beach and up by College Rock. A few boats had to duck us because there was no place for them to go except onto the beach. I’m sure some summer home owners were wondering why all these sailboats were sailing so close and dodging their boats still on moorings. We then had a hairy rounding at the windward mark in the Hussey with a couple of boats right on our hip, the wind blowing and current trying to keep us from rounding the mark…..all the sudden the jib sheet parted. Crew work was stellar and we still can’t believe we made the mark, I think we were all in silent reflection for several minutes after the spinnaker went up. We trucked downwind and caught some of the other boats which sailed into a wind hole. That’s when all started hearing the thunder and seeing lightning…the race committee’s calls were heard all over the dead-calm bay, shortening the races, some were headed for their moorings as the storm approached. We figured the storm would be on us before we could get off the boat, so decided that if we were going to get zapped, we would do it racing, not turning tail and running! Our fleet stuck it out as we watched a black carpet unfold across the water and couldn’t tell if it was wind or rain. The wind never came, but the rain (possibly hail, it was too hard to tell) did. The lighting was quite intimidating. I took the aluminum tiller extension off and crew got in the “triangle of safety” just in case we got hit by lighting. Amazingly, two other boats did get hit. Tom Hall’s “Five” was struck and his crew got a burn mark on her chest. Also Ed Roger’s “Revolution” was struck. A crew member was touching the mast and got a shock, and then the instruments went out. All I can say is Dam, good thing everyone was all right! We made a stellar move by being the first to get the chute up when the wind settled down and we squirted past the competition. It was a risk as the wind was very light and the rain was coming down in buckets, we thought the rain itself would collapse the chute. The crew work was once again just about as perfect as you can get and kept us going strait for the finish. We ended up in second for the day which put us in 3rd overall. Not bad considering the other possible outcomes!



P.S.



Special kudos’ go to Monica for the awesome lunches and spin handling, Gregg for being all over the boat when needed and still being on top of the tactical and navigational responsibilities (dude we got close to shore a couple of times…and loving it!). He also found a mistake in the scoring (due to the length of the course being calculated wrong by the race committee), at first costing us the 2nd place. The race committee corrected the error and we got our #2! Reta of course who got the chute up without a hitch when we needed it most. That move, and the entire team being engaged in the race got us to second!



Cheers!





Thursday night race…we’re on!





Harraseeket;



Who; (Crew)



Rich, Pete, Gregg, Rita, Pam, Monica;

Only room for one more! First come, first serve!



What: (race preparation)



Gregg (I’ll get you the charged up GPS and cord on Thursday)

Gregg (will be at the skipper’s meeting)

Pete (Pete has volunteered to be our caterer and chef for Harraseeket!)



When;



Gregg is driving up to Harraseeket Y.C. for the skippers meeting at 10:30, and then hitching a ride out to the course. We’ll look for your cell call and we’ll have the radio on channel 72 so we can be sure to hook up. The rest of us will meet at the Shaw’s parking lot at our new location (at the Goodwill store). Monica found a shortcut to Handy’s. We’ll meet at 9:45. It will take one hr to get from our mooring to the start line.



Why;



Because we can!

Surprise, surprise! We ended up on the podium at 3rd place (out of the 6 boats that ended up racing). Not so bad considering where we could have been. It was a tough (slow) race to say the least, we made a few mistakes (skipper included) on board but it also felt like the wind gods were playing tricks on us. The wind was so light that during the first part of the race, boats had different wind depending on where they were on the course. Congrats to the crew (Rita, Pete, Monica, Gregg, Rich) for sticking it out and keeping engaged for the entire time. Sometimes when it gets that slow and you end up in the gutter early, it’s hard to stay in race mode….but we did. We made some ground during the second half of the race and came across the line in a heap with Go Dog Go and Down Town as we tried for line honors. We corrected at third so we’ll get a trophy for our efforts! I promise not to run out of bear this time! After the results were read, a few dirty shanties with the band…..and well, after the keg ran out, we headed for Evelyn’s Tavern and enjoyed a few more refreshments with the Tango crew and the Band from the yacht club!



Pilot Race (June 16th and 17th);



Meeting time; We’ll meet at the Shaw’s parking lot at 10:00 on Saturday, 10:30 on Sunday.



Crew (so far) Saturday; Rich, Gregg, Rita, Monica, Pete



Crew (so far) Sunday; Rich, Gregg, Rita, Monica



This is crew so far so we need at least two more people Saturday and three for Sunday (Pete has a baseball game) to come out and play with us. Let’s get on this early rather than later if possible, first come first serve.



Talk to yall soon!

Hello all;



Roach Coach is in the water! I dropped it off on Monday and Bob K. asked me to back it up to the lift, bam, it was in! Not before he ran his fingers over the bottom and sarcastically (in a good way) said “wow, that’s rough”. He noticed!



Saturday;



I will be at RC around 10:00 am on Saturday putting her together (boom, rig tuning) and getting some gear on board (sails, running rigging…..bucket!). Maybe a fun sail in the afternoon.



Sunday;



Practice/ fun sail at 1:30 pm.



All those attending, let me know, I’ll be at Handy’s, hopefully right at the dock.



Next Thursday;



The Thursday night bear can races begin….hmm any interest as practice races?



Rich

Found this little tid-bit regarding Jeff Smith and “Second Chance” onhttp://www.cascobaysailing.com/. Your skipper raced with Jeff in the neighborhood of 6 years on a J-29 and the J-24 “Second Chance”. Glad to see he’s doing so well.

Arriving at the committee boat at 1750 in the warm westerly that had been blowing since Tuesday, we pulled the sails in to go upwind and found ourselves barely laying the pin. We turned around to offer friendly suggestion to PRO Dan Holt and he suggested that we be patient. Sure enough, without moving either the boat or the pin, the boat was a few degrees favored at the 1805 start. Summary: it was a tricky night.

How does he do it?? Jeff Smith hauled in two bullets and has all but put the first Wednesday Series out of reach for anyone else. Despite the tricky conditions, he was in just the right place at the right time in both races. Picking the far right corner, over standing by a couple hundred yards and then struggling through the dead zone header at the windward mark was the winning strategy in both races. The middle of the course was a bad place to be, especially in the second race as boats from both the left and right passed those who found themselves there.

Bruce Morse in Bad Apple finished second for the evening and Pit Party with both Steve Fernald and Rich Ketchum on board turned in an impressive third. Flying Circus was fourth and there was a five-way points tie for fifths.

Two more weeks left in the first Wednesday Series and the battle continues . . . for second and third anyway, where Flying Circus, Bad Apple and Mr. Hanky all remain in contention.

Roach Coach had an exiting day during the Harraseeket. For starters, we had world famous Bruce Schwab on board! He is a fan of the Olson 30’s and is familiar with roach coach. He gave us some pointers on some more upgrades we can make to our deck and was also great as he coached us along giving us some pointers. I’ll be practicing a few things I’ve forgotten about, but I can’t tell you what they are as they are now our trade secrets! We also had our seasoned crew Scott Thomas (cockpit) and Reta Nappi (foredeck) aboard. We were still short on crew until Thursday night before the race. Andrea Rand and her friend Ted joined the crew as Painkiller (a Mumm 36) had plenty of crew and Andrea was looking for a change of pace for the weekend. We gladly invited she and Ted aboard. This was a pursuit race, so we felt really slow at first (I also think my driving was a little off or we carried some seaweed on the rudder….at least it is a great excuse (#@*&!), but with some good strategies and paying attention to boat speed/handling we passed a few boats here and there and wound up in 4th place. Not bad. The scores are not posted on the PHRF web site yet, but we should be scored as second place for class C for the race. This will definitely help us in the season standings.