• Wind 7-9 kts SSE. Flood current .3 kts at the start, slack water at top of second beat. Upwind mark 160˚ 1 nm
    • First lap Red Arrows on track recording map below
      • Starboard tack start at the boat end of the line was one of our best starts
      • Daydream barged. We might have slammed the door on him if we were more aggressive.
      • Our clearing tack after the start turned into a gift as we were on the inside of a starboard tack lift further up the beat.
      • Port tack and inhauler setting seemed faster and closer-winded
      • Starboard tack inhauler setting seemed slower.
      • Upwind rounding was OK. Last 6 feet of the spinnaker hoist took too long to winch up.
      • Good downwind angles closed distance on leaders.
    • Second lap Green Arrows on track recording map below
      • Tight group approaching leeward mark, we were late taking down the spinnaker and setting the jib, in the scrum we fell off to leeward of Sea Star and Archangel at the bottom of second beat.
      • We regained speed and some distance on the second beat. At the top of the beat we tacked to starboard onto what seemed to be the layline only to be headed, gassed by Sea Star and rolled by Archangel. We barely made the mark without tacking by shooting up and coasting around.
      • Good spinnaker set. Gained back some ground with aggressive gybing on VMC changes. Tight finish at pin end.

See crew comments and Yachtscoring link below this illustration


Rory: A couple of comments:
1. On the first set, the spinnaker filled with about 8 feet of halyard still to go. To avoid that should we hoist a few seconds earlier? Not fully sheet in until the spin halyard is made?

North Tuning Guide suggests: There are two rules to remember on J/109 spinnaker sets: First, the boat’s bow must be at the windward mark before the bow person extends the sprit. Second, to set the spinnaker successfully, keep it out of the water by not pulling the tack line out too soon.
The bow person begins the set by freeing the chute from the forward hatch. Wait to start the hoist until the boat makes its turn. When it’s windy, as the mast person hoists, both the bow person and jib trimmer pull the tack line out to its mark. Then the bow person rolls up the jib.
If a jibe-set is needed, there are two approaches: one is to re-rig the chute on the correct side of the boat and hoist as the boat jibes. The other option is for the bow person to walk the clew around the headstay during the hoist, or even before you hoist.
2. During the first downwind leg we had the feeling that we stayed on the starboard gybe too long and the VMG was terrible. In hindsight do we still think that's true?

Yup.

Bill: Some comments:
We were slow in trying to lay the windward mark on the second time around.
We need to look at downwind targets since these are presumably optimum speed and heading. We had been doing better sailing higher down wind. It’s longer, but it’s faster too. I believe Tenacity often does this.
Tuning guides give Loos tension readings which are all over the map. Last year, Habanero was tuned to an earlier North Sails tuning guide and the rig was way too loose. North Sails just came out with a new tuning guide that gives settings that are much tighter. I will look at shroud tension this weekend and compare port to starboard as well as magnitude compared to the latest tuning guide.