We had a fleet race this past weekend and the weather was close to ideal but certainly hot. Eleven boats hit the water for a 2pm start in a nice westerly breeze of 8 to 10 knots. Sweet!
Mark and Tom Taylor and I handled RC duty and we had it pretty easy. We ran 5 races without ever having to re-set the course, a near impossibility for Davis Island racing. We did adjust our anchor line a couple times to keep a slight pin end favor and that was it.
Amy and Jeff Linton were untouchable scoring 5 bullets followed by Dave Clement who was sailing Mark Taylor's boat. Here are the results:
1- Jeff Linton 5
2- Dave Clement 11
3- Andy Hayward 26
4- Al Thompson 30
5- Matt Dalton 31
6- Mike Douglas 32
7- Ray Laguna 34t
8- Dean Bell 34t
9- David Bell 34t
10- Cal Reid 45
11- Bill Adikes 48
For a slight change of pace and better photo opportunities we set a windward /leeward course with 4 legs and a leeward gate. Many photos were taken along with some video, we will try to get the photos up soon.
Here we have a short video of a leeward gate rounding, shot from the RC boat. The first boat to round is Jeff and Amy Linton who make a habit of good mark roundings.
Points to note are;
1- The approach angle is good
2- The board is down and pole dropped early
3- The drop is not delayed too long
4- Amy gathers the chute swiftly
5- Amy gets the jib sheet in time for trimming
6- Jeff has a good view and is smoothly trimming the mainsheet.
From my vantage point on the RC boat I paid attention to how well the Lintons handle their boat. With each mark rounding, tack or jibe they make a small gain on the fleet. There is rarely any wasted motion or effort, they always look smooth. This is something we all could work at and improve. In the future, I will try to get more (and better) video to help illustrate some of these points.
3 comments:
dave, i didn't know you played guitar too! what a versitale rc. it must be very soothing for the competitors, to have have calming melodies serenading them during a tense mark rounding. you the man!
I was undecided on what to play...almost went with "Welcome to the Jungle" from Guns and Roses but the soothing melodies won out. Getting old I guess!
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