Racing?

User avatar
Michel
Posts: 546
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:48 am
Location: Zaanstad, the Netherlands, EU

Re: Racing?

Post by Michel »

As I always say: A wise skipper has a following wind. I need to make a bronze plaque with this text and screw it on the sliding hatch trim.
Michel Capel, Freedom 44 #4 1981 'Alabama Queen', NED8188, cat ketch with wishbones, home port Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, 52*42.238'N 005*18.154'E.

User avatar
numbknots
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:38 pm
Location: Sunny Florida

Re: Racing?

Post by numbknots »

Michel,

After having a similar experience racing I was licking my wounds at the dock when another skipper told me "You should never point higher than your age." Numbknots
... currently experiencing performance anxiety..,

User avatar
GeoffSchultz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:39 am
Location: BlueJacket: Guatemala
Contact:

Re: Racing?

Post by GeoffSchultz »

Michel wrote:As I always say: A wise skipper has a following wind. I need to make a bronze plaque with this text and screw it on the sliding hatch trim.
My Admiral would completely agree!

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

User avatar
Michel
Posts: 546
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:48 am
Location: Zaanstad, the Netherlands, EU

Re: Racing?

Post by Michel »

numbknots wrote:Michel,

"You should never point higher than your age." Numbknots
Hahahahaha....that's a great one I really need to remember! I started sailing at the age of 11 but now I know why I'm still no good at sailing upwind, I was either too young or too old for that!
Michel Capel, Freedom 44 #4 1981 'Alabama Queen', NED8188, cat ketch with wishbones, home port Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, 52*42.238'N 005*18.154'E.

User avatar
numbknots
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:38 pm
Location: Sunny Florida

Re: Racing?

Post by numbknots »

Getting the F28 ck ready for the Bone Island Regatta (Sarasota to Key West). Hoping for
some favorable winds all the way there. Getting staysails in order, sheets and halyard
rigged while boat is having bottom job. Its about 180 miles as crow flys from here, with good winds I figure 30-35hrs hitting it straight thru. May 18th is going to be a bit tight but should be a great run. Looking at about 50 boats to enter. Will keep you guys informed with results.
Numbknots
... currently experiencing performance anxiety..,

Capitan Sardina
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:14 pm

Re: Racing?

Post by Capitan Sardina »

Hi Y'all

We just concluded the Barefoot sailing club Open Regatta in lovely Lake Lanier a couple of weeks ago (http://www.barefootsailing.org). For once we had wind, specially Saturday.

I am pleased to announce that the good'ol F-40 did Great. We came first in class (2 bullets!) and seccond overall in the cruising fleet (13 boats). The boat did great in the breeze. Sat. we had winds 15-20 kts (true wind) all day with gusts to 25. Tucked a reef upwind, shoock it on the reaching legs. Spend both days ducking it out with a Catalina 27 set up for racing (light clean ship, etc). On Sat., after 12 miles Came to the line neck and neck with the C-27 the rest of the fleet were miles behind! (really!).

This time I had a great crew and the boat did MUCH better upwind than in prior occasions. I turns out I have been undertrimming the main. With the main cracked about ~1.5 ft off the centerline (tighter than I usually fly it) she hung upwind with the best of them. Good times!


Good fun. Maybe I'll try this again.

Anyways, just though I would share.

cheers

User avatar
moosemcclintock
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:09 am

Re: Racing?

Post by moosemcclintock »

I just bought an F25 after sailing an F21 the last couple years (rescued from a chainsaw). I really like the Freedom idea, having watched them evolve in Newport over the years. The F21 was fun but too small for my wife which is why we moved up to the F25, hopefully that will all be good. I primarily raced the F21, I made a couple fat head mains and a .6 oz. kite specifically for racing, unfortunately most of the races turned into windy dead beats, not the strong point for the F21. However, I was able to do well in a couple (and really badly in a couple others), below is a write up of the last two races i did before I gave the F21 away to a co-worker of my wife.

Well, with Labor Day past my F21 season has come to an end. I did two more
races, both distance races, with mixed results.

The first race was a navigators race where boats start in different locations
and sail to as many designated marks as they can, never sailing the same leg or
it's reciprocal more than once, and all ending up at the same finish line (SI's
at http://www.twentyhundredclub.org/Prince_Henry_SI.pdf). This was the day
before Irene hit Narragansett Bay so there wasn't another boat out sailing other
than those in the race and only 2-3 powerboats on the water all day, quite an
anomoly for this area on a weekend in the summer.

I started in Bristol Harbor (mark 3 in the attached charts
http://www.twentyhundredclub.org/Prince_Henry_Chart.pdf) and basically drifted
in the current (it was running at almost 2 knots due to a moon tide and the low
pressure to the south of Irene) almost all the way to the Newport Bridge. There
was never more than 2 knots until I was almost at the bridge, then a nice
southerly filled in (and the tide turned the other way) and I sailed more than
twice the distance in half the time. In the long run, I sailed (or drifted)
20.23 miles in 6:20. According to the formula they have that takes your PHRF
rating into account, I won the race by more than 5 miles. Pretty hokey but the
weird thing was that I covered more distance than anyone else in the fleet,
including a J-105. So that was good.

What wasn't so good was our annual Labor Day race around Conanicut Island.
Getting to my boat for the typical 2 hour motor to the start, I started to untie
everything from the hurricane prep. As i was motoring into a stiff breeze
against the current, I noticed the boom moving fore and aft quite a bit.
Worried that I would miss the start, which I had left plenty of time for, I
figured if there was an issue I could fix it quickly at the starting line and
race. When I got near the start I picked up a mooring and looked at the
partners to find the spartite around the partners had lifted up and the mast was
totally free at the collar. I knocked it back in but short on time I didn't get
a good chance to lock it in.

There are about 100 boats in this and I was firmly planted in the bottom of the
rating band. Starting earlier in the sequence, we had a 4 mile beat in 18-22
knots and big seas, against the current, not such a good thing for my little
boat. I did get to see almost every boat in the fleet sail past me, always fun
when you're dipping boats twice as big but still a fun day. At the first mark I
set the kite and immediately took off at 7-9 knots. Unfotunately, I was so far
behind I wasn't going to catch anyone so I just enjoyed the downwind part of the
sail until I noticed the mast moving around again. The spartite had popped out
again and as I hit a large wave the bracket at the base of the mast that keeps
it from rotating blew off and the mast started pounding all over. I nursed the
boat to the leeward turning mark where I expected I could knock the collar back
in and keep sailing, but being by myself in a now building 25 knot breeze and
big seas, it wasn't going to happen. The mast was over rotated and the
gooseneck was getting ready to shear off so I nursed the boat back to my mooring
(which was fortunately downwind) and called it a season. I'm getting too old
for this.

User avatar
GeoffSchultz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:39 am
Location: BlueJacket: Guatemala
Contact:

Re: Racing?

Post by GeoffSchultz »

Moose,

Sorry to hear that you gave your F21 away, but it certainly sounds like you had quite the few final sails/races. Hopefully the new owner will enjoy her as much as you did. Send them to our forum!

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

peaceandfreedom
Posts: 258
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 8:51 pm
Location: F33 CK & F38 CK Milford ct

Re: Racing?

Post by peaceandfreedom »

Hello moosemcclintock,

Which sail loft made your flat head mains for your F21? I am in the market for a new set of sails for my F28Ck and would like to explore designing two flat head sails.
Jim D

Mike Holibar
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:41 am

Re: Racing?

Post by Mike Holibar »

Last summer we had an informal social race with a fleet of McGregor 26s on Akaroa harbour - there were no other cruising yachts available that day. Conditions were light and flukey, and we went to the wrong mark near the end which added a mile or so to our distance, but we still got line honours by a healthy margin. On Lyttelton harbour we try and sail in the company of other cruisers to get an idea of how we are doing and we seem to do quite well. There are few if any cruisers that can catch us up wind (which I must say was a great surprise as we thought the schooner would not do well up wind) and no one seems to be able to keep up off the wind without the aid of a spinnaker. I keep intending to join some of the cruising division races but always seem to be doing maintenance or am away cruising when the opportunity comes along. Maybe next year.
Best wishes,
Mike Holibar
S/V Fyne Spirit of Plymouth (Freedom 39PHS-1989)
Lyttelton
New Zealand

Post Reply