The Team on Maine Squeeze Just returned from the Shock 35 Nationals in Marina Del Ray. The was our third time we have faced this Southern California One Design Fleet. This fleet of sailors is extremely competitive and very good at what they do.
Our host Club
The previous two times, we discovered that we needed a lot of work to keep up with this fleet. This time we were equipped with a brand new #1 head sail, and a lot of practice.
DAY ONE: The winds were light at 220 degrees. We had a great start! We decided to stay away from the crowd and come into the line on starboard at the committee boat. We hit the line perfectly and found ourselves in a great position.
Now, I have been racing sail boats consistently for seven years, but this was a weekend of firsts for me. We were about three quarters of the way out to the windward mark when we noticed the boats behind us turning around. At first we thought they had an equipment failure, but then we saw two more boats to the left of the course turn around. Then we saw the inflatable committee runabout coming out, flying the abandon race flag. Now we were really confused. A boat did cross the line early, so we were thinking general recall? but that didn’t make scene. We made our way back to the start line and talked to the race committee. They told us the wind had shifted 10 degrees. Are you kidding me! 10 degrees? If they were going to do this all weekend, it was going to be a long week end.
Our next start was not as good as the first, and we spent the race chasing the fleet. The next race went about the same way. Our crew work was very good, but we just couldn’t match the speed and point of the rest of the fleet. The last race of the day was about 3:30 pm and the wind was getting light. We figured they would bring out the course 1 flag to get us into the bar at a reasonable time, but no, two laps, just like the previous races.
The keepers of the Gold S. MAKO
We had an OK start and were doing our usual chasing up the course. We decided to take a flier out to the right side and bang the corner. As we were coming into the mark on starboard, we noticed the mark was becoming a parking lot. The wind has left the building! One boat, (MAKO) did manage to get around the mark and get a spinnaker up, but they were heading the wrong way! We got to the mark and encountered six other boats drifting around with the wind slowly doing a 120 degree shift! Lucky for us, we saw what was happening with the other boats and brought out our wind seeker and managed to get the boat around the mark pointing to the gate. We were now point to weather heading to the leeward mark.
That was the second first of this race. At the same time we had passed four boats! As we approached the gate we noticed the committee boat had moved up to the gate and was finishing the boats (a good call). That was our best finish of the weekend.
DAY TWO: This day we decided to try to cover MAKO all day, They are the class champions and is showed. Three bullets from the day before with nobody else really close. We had an OK start but we were holding to boats below us, one being MAKO. We should have held them down their all the way out to edge of the course, but we decided to go and the boat just below us come with us, but MAKO stayed on course and banged the left corner, just like they had the previous day (So much for staying with MAKO). This race turned out like the rest DFL!
The next race we port tacked the fleet and ended up on the line with four boat heading straight at us with starboard rights! This was going to get UGLY fast! We were able to tack just before the start and went over the line early, so we had to duck back below the line. After all that excitement we settled into chasing the fleet was going the same way except when we got to the windward mark. As we approached the windward mark one of the other boats looked like they were going hit the mark. They parked on top of the mark and got it caught on there keel! So now we were chasing
the mark! We yelled over to the committee boat looking for direction, but the other boat stopped and we got around them. We sailed of watching them struggling to free them selves from the mark. We got eighth in that race. The last race was the same as the others, decent start but chasing the fleet.
That night the club had a dinner for the teams. This is a fun group of people! The had a live microphone being passed around from team
to team talking about the race. Each team named a MVP team member. Mike named Curt! He has been their for every race, every delivery,
what ever was needed, Curt is their to help! The fleet also gave Maine Squeeze the perpetual Rookie of the year trophy. That was very cool!
Bruce, Bow Monkey Extraordinaire.
DAY THREE: The day before at the dock, the crew of MAKO (they were on the same end tie as us) were talking to Mike and saying his rig was
not tuned right. They decided to take a quick look at it this morning. Race time is 12:30, we started looking at the rig around 10:oo.
We discovered that the fore-stay was 3-4 inches short, we had very little pre-bend in the mast and the shrouds were way to tight.
Its now 10:30 and we are disconnecting the fore-stay and adding a shackle to lengthen it. We had no way to shorten the back stay, but we decided
we could move the back stay chain plate down on the transom three inches. Mike climbed into the settee and we removed the bolts holding
the back stay. We moved it down the transom and inserted reinserted the bolts. Only three of the six bolts would line up. Its now 11:30!
Mike was scrambling to try to find a drill so we could get at least two more bolts in for the race. The word spread about our dilemma, and to our
surprise, the race committee found one across the harbor and dispatched the runabout to retrieve it for use.
The Drill from the other side of the harbor!
While all this was going on I was attempting to move the base of the mask back about 15 mm. This was to no avail! Its going to take a lot more that we could do at the dock to move
the mask.
The drill showed up, we got the holes drilled, reattached the back stay and adjusted the shrouds and left the dock at 12:00 noon. The mast had nice pre-bend with the ability to put a hole lot more bend in with the back stay.
Drilling holes in the boat.
We made the line with time to spare!
This last day was going to be two three lap races. We reaffirmed the we would ONE: Stay with MAKO, and TWO: Stay out of the mix at the start.
WOW what a little rig tuning will do! We had good starts and were in the mix at every mark! On one Leeward mark we were behind two other boats and Mike tucked the boat inside the mark. We emerged in front of both the boats! What a rush!
On the last leg of the last race we were going toward the finish line running about 90 – 100 degrees. Another boat was coming in on our port side hot. It was going to be very close. We heated up the boat and dove for the pin at the last second. We beat them by just a few seconds! The crews on the finished boat were cheering us. How cool is that!
Our rigger freind from MAKO. Thanks for the help!
Our thanks to SMWYC and the race committee. They were perfect hosts and ran an excellent race. And a special thanks to the crew on MAKO for pointing out out rigging problems and helping us straighten them out. I’m sure we will look forward to racing this fleet for years to come.
Tags: Anacapa Yacht Club, AYC, maine sqeeze, mako, nationals, schock, shock, smwyc, Ventura Sailing Club
