The Bloody Mary

[PaulJ]

We were planning to do the Bloody Mary but unfortunately Ronin isn't going to be ready in time. Still looking to do it if anyone wants a helm or crew, otherwise it's the boat show for Peter and I. Weather looking a bit gusty according to windguru so maybe we should get the RS200 on the trailer instead.

[phil_kirk]

Well we had fun sailing the bloody mary a great spectacle with over 300 boats on the water.

The results show us in 187th place which we would have passed through at the top of the second beat on the club side.  We didn't notice that this was a finish and hurtled down the run in some strong gusts. We went through a second finish line (which we thought was our first) just behind a graduate who finished 126th. I didn't notice anyone bailing out after the first finish possibly because they couldn't hear a sound signal from the committee boat which would have been upwind of the mark.  So we effectively passed 60 boats between the two finishes. It was one hell of a run!

So although we capsized 5 times during the race even one or too less capsizes may have helped us get through the first finish a bit earlier.

The conditions were about 12-15 knots with strong gusts of upto double that. The wind was shifting up to 20 degrees in the gusts which was evident when sarah played back the video footage she had taken. From this we could see that either nick or i or both of us had to come off the wire to avoid a windward capsize three times within about 100yards due to the shifts and turbulent air. We struggled to find any decent speed on the beats once we started catching boats because of the air turbulance.
I think the tight reaches played into our hands and enabled us to pass boats by going lower than them and taking the straight line course. They were all protecting their wind and sailing a big arc to windward between the marks. There was a short broad reach after the first beat which we sailed on starboard gybe. In the gusts we couldn't even make the mark and had to drop early and reach in to the mark. So when we started that leg in a gust we once delayed putting the kite up because we were already pointing in the right direction.

The big gains were made on the main run which was 2 legs one biassed to starboard and one biassed to port.  In steady winds we would have gybed 4-5  times. on our last run which was mostly in a big gust I think we only gybed 3 times. 

The scarry bit is appraching the transom of a slower boat trying to decide which side to pass them on.  Often a gust piled in and we were able to go low with no loss of speed.  Sailing against a lot of symmetrical boats meant that it payed hansomly if you could go low and sail their course without sacrificing speed.

Our final position was  mostly due to not having sailed the cherub for 2-3 months especially in these conditions.  Our manouvers weren't quite as clean as they were at the inlands although nick worked hard and was a real assett. If we had sailed the race after the inlands we would have capsized less and would have had better confidence and boat speed.  We could have made the top 100 which given the experience of others on the water would have been a reasonable result. Therefore the handicap probably isn't that far off.

[phil_kirk]

http://www.surf2turf.com/Sailing/2012/BloodyMary/default5.htm

A picture of us upright and looking good!

[Andrew Whapshott]

It was great fun; Just pipped you at 165th, probably due to the fact that Tom and I managed to keep the Laser 2 upright the whole way round! We also found it very shifty, with numerous crew dunkings.. 
 
There were some super quick kite runs, and really hoped the Rib's got some photo's, but of the >700 photo's, we only managed to get in the background of one, blurred!

[daryl_wilkinson]

[phil_kirk]

Thanks for sequence of photos Daryl.

We made lots of places sailing in to that mark on every attempt.  Always ended up going round the outside because we stayed low on the reach and there was never enough space to take the inside berth.  (Because the flags were quite big of course. Not because we were chicken).

[Andrew Whapshott]

Nice Shots, I don't suppose you got any of a cheeky Laser 2 shooting through a few minutes ahead?

[daryl_wilkinson]

Sorry... no offense, but I wasn't really concentrating on Laser 2's. I was looking out for my Farr 3.7... Cherubs and Moths. Sorry.

[Andrew Whapshott]

Ah well... The 3.7 looked nice.

[daryl_wilkinson]

Thanks, maybe I'll bring it to a 'Cherub blast' and you can have a play. Might be a good link up... a test sail event for Farr, more exposure / foot fall for the Cherub... Cherub trainer?