Sailing Event Log: Fleet Racing

Event: 2009 Protest Trophy/Southern Series 5

Date: October 10-11

Skippers/Crews:

A:Meghan Pesch/Midori Tanaka (9th)

B: Henry Blanchette/ Steve Janick (3rd)

Course: W4 with windward offset and gate

Conditions: NW wind starting around 5-7 and building to 20 with about 1 ft chop.

Current was present going down the course (same direction as the wind)

Notes: Coast guard has 2 fleets of boats, and so for this event, we didn’t have any off-sets.

Thus, make sure to bring any changes of gear, food, or water out with you in your boat at the

beginning of the day.

Boat Handling / Speed

420’s: planing whenever possible in the

bigger breeze

FJ’s: adjusting the vang/Cunningham/

centerboard height to increase or decrease

stability downwind depending on the wind

we were in

Rolling hard and being aggressive with the

boat through transitions and mark roundings

Done well:
• Coming up with a plan and executing
• playing main and jib in unison in puffs to
keep the boat flat

Starts

There was a good amount of line sag because of

the current. Having a line sight was awesome and

gave us the ability to have a really good lane.

Upwind

As the day progressed, and the current got a bit

stronger. Going to the left (towards the boathouse)

and getting out of the current definitely paid.

Further, there were shifts coming off the land that

were nice lifts to the mark.

Downwind

looking for where the puffs were coming down

was really helpful. Since the windward mark was

positioned just to leeward of this huge barge, big

gusts would drop down and hit the water just

above the windward mark. Looking for where

these were going and getting to the extra pressure
Improvements:
• keeping head out of the boat to fleet. for
helped with passing people in the closewatch While
puffs so we aren’t caught off guard
many of the boats seemed to go into the middle
• staying in phase while getting where we
want to on the course(goes hand in able
of the river to catch the most current, I washand
with getting head out of the boat)
to keep up and have my own lane by staying in

the above mentioned puffs that were closer to the