2017 Prep

Lots of upgrades this spring for Wampum. Most notably, we re-painted the decks with kiwi grip and installed a new suite of sensors, a digital display and a new chart plotter from B&G. We also got a new code-0 / A5 from Hood Sails which made its debut at the figawi race. We also made a new main sail cover and new sheet bags from purple sunbrella.

I was scheduled to launch May 15th, but delayed to the end of that week due to the timing of tides and needing a high tide for my deep keel to fit under the travel lift. On the night before I was supposed to launch the boat I got a message from Kingman Yacht Center that they'd had a problem putting my rigging back together and that I shouldn't bring my boat in. As it turned out, they'd galled the threads on my lowest spreader cup where the V1 shroud meets the V2 and the D2 shrouds. They were trying to convince me that my only option to make it in the water in time for figawi (which i was already significantly invested in attending) was to weld the cup solid, cut the tip off the spreader put the cup in place and re-weld the spreader back together. I was a more than little skeptical, especially once I visited their shop and saw my rigging sitting on the dirty metal chip laden floor. AND, they wanted me to pay the welder and rigger for extra time, even though they were the ones that had caused the issue in the first place. I was furious at the thought of losing my entry fees, and the fact that Kingman refused to accept any responsibility. But I had to play it cool, and not freak out in front of them because they were still my only hope of getting the boat off the trailer and into the water, IF we could get the rigging repaired professionally in time.

So, rather than have the parts welded, I picked them up from Kingman and brought them to R&W Rigging in New Bedford on a Saturday afternoon. Less than 1 week before figawi! By some small miracle they were able to find a single replacement cup (they have long since stopped making these parts) in a spare bin at another rigging shop in Fall River! They did the assembly, re-flared the rod rigging V1 and V2, and got the parts back to me on Wednesday so the mast could be reassembled. The boat launched the next day Thusday in a cold driving rain. I rigged the lifelines, boom, mainsheet, backstay etc. that day and on the high tide around 6PM we motored around Bassats island and out into buzzards bay in the fog. We put up the red spinnaker and had a nice downwind run in a light NE as it slowly got darker and colder. We sailed into woods hole under main alone, in the pitch dark and thick fog. The very next day was our first race... Realllllly down to the wire. Pun intended. 

Nantucket Race Week

Shortly after crossing the finish line (last, again) wednesday August 14th, we were greeted by Michael Moore aboard The Boss who volunteered to shuttle most of the crew ashore from the vicinity of bird island. Three of us remained onboard to deliver wampum to woods hole that night under a full moon. The A1 was still rigged from that night's race, so we put it right back up and went surfing at 12kt downwind, across buzzards bay in a warm steady thermal Sou'wester. We doused it in outer Hadley's Harbor and sailed the main alone and favorable current straight down the main channel of Woods Hole.

Wampum spent the night in a slip at the WHOI dock for the night and on Thursday morning we continued another 32 miles to Nantucket on one loooooong starboard tack. My mom was onboard and it was her birthday. She enjoyed driving the boat, drinking a bud light before noon, and napping in the sun.

Once on Nantucket we dined on some fine fungus and picked up the skippers bag at the Nantucket Yacht Club. Panerai watches was a big sponsor, and had a pop up euro lounge out on the dock with Peroni, Prosseco and  everything else Italian. From there we hopped on the Cisco shuttle and had ourselves some F'yeahs and Blueberry lemonades at the 888 Distillery.

Friday began the racing with Windward/Leeward courses, twice around with 2-3 mile legs. We had a stellar crew with 5 catamounts and one secret Stork weapon. Steve Widdis trimming headsails, Laura Einchorn in the pit, Trudy on bow, Will Streloh trimming the main, and Ian Stork calling tactics/squirreling. The location of the race circle was about half way between the entrance of Nantucket harbor and Great Point. This meant for relatively flat seas both days, and since we were racing in the lee of Coatue there were several interesting persistent shifts around the course. We took two bullets on Day 1, which was virtually unheard of for Wampum. Prima, a J105 crewed by Nantucket Community Sailing kids and instructors was close behind with two 2's.

https://karenryan.smugmug.com/Sports/Sail-Nantucket-2016/i-3sc47rk

Saturday's wind was a little lighter and we were happy to be fully powered up with the 155% genoa on the upwind legs. We botched the first leeward mark rounding of the day, and a late douse turned into a big mess. It caused us to sail several boat lengths downwind unnecessarily before we could start going back upwind. Clio, another J105 crewed by NCS kids was able to pass us and defend their lead for the rest of race 3. On race 4 we had the opposite problem, when (against Ian's advice) I called for an early douse and we wallowed slow and deep for several boat lengths before rounding the leeward mark. Luckily the wind was getting even lighter and the J105s were not able to keep up.

https://karenryan.smugmug.com/Sports/Sail-Nantucket-2016/i-F2XBnNn

At the last windward mark rounding of the day we were neck and neck with two 12 meter yachts and Wild Horses (a W76 that Trudy and I have both crewed on). We rounded ahead of them but I could feel them breathing down my back on the offset leg. Since they were not using spinnakers, they rounded the mark and went dead down-wind while we were able to reach away to the right. Despite the massive boats on the same course, we sailed the leg in mostly clean air and were able to extend away from them. We nailed our last gybe perfectly and came back at them on port but quite a few boat lengths to leeward as we approached the finish line. We also managed to converge with the Dorade, the famous 52 foot S&S yawl from 1929. Since we were several minutes ahead of our competition I considered taking the spinnaker down and finishing behind these legends, but Ian insisted "We got it!".

https://karenryan.smugmug.com/Sports/Sail-Nantucket-2016/i-4mdCtZ3/A

And so we crossed the finish line just two boat lengths ahead of Weatherly, Colombia, Wild Horses and Dorade all of whom were overlapped crossing the line. As we sailed into their MASSIVE collective wind shadow we basically stopped dead in our tracks, and took the kite down. The mega beasts behind us were having a shouting match over a right-of-way issue which resulted in colombia being DSQ. As they all sailed past us wing-on-wing (and Dorade with a spinnaker still flying) their booms and whisker poles sitting perpendicular to their long skinny hulls the boats making them each effectively 70 feet long, and 70 feet wide. I was stunned! This was the highlight of the season. Winning the final race, winning the regatta, and being among some true classics. In the photo at the above link (taken from Weatherly?) you can see our red kite and the other boats around us.

We were also given 2nd place in the Dick Gifford memorial trophy for best performance at the regatta. Second only to the W46 Mustang who put up a straight picket fence score line and a fully pro crew. This award has extra significance for me, since Dick Gifford was my brother in law's grandfather.

On Sunday was the Opera House Cup which is only for wooden boats. It is an impressive parade of boats like The Blue Peter, Santana, Merilee, Tilley XV and too many others to list. Since the party that night was sold out, we opted to deliver home to Woods Hole that day, sailing downwind to tuckernuck shoals as the entire 100+ boat fleet was close reaching back to their finish. We even managed to get a photo of W76 Wild Horses, W46 Mustang, and W37 race horse all sailing side by side. It was a jaw dropping parade of bright work and status symbols.

Buzzards Bay Regatta

After 5 days of sailing to/at/from Edgartown, Wampum rested for a day in Woods Hole before the delivery across buzzards bay to Marion on Tuesday August 2nd. It was a beautiful sunny day and Wampum heavy man Manolo aka Greg Dik had a cousin with some friends visiting the cape who had never sailed.

The following day started the August Wednesday Twilight PHRF series at Beverly Yacht Club. We got a solid 6th out of 6 finishers (Crazy Horse retired before finish) with 10 whole minutes between us and the next boat. We even shrimped and tore the A1 a few boat lengths before the 1st windward mark. With only 2 days before the next regatta on our home turf we were lucky to have a sailmaker onboard who could fix the sail the next day. I fought the urge to freak out. By sunset the smiles on the crews faces were as if we'd just won.

BBR

Friday August 5th 2016 started the Buzzards Bay Regatta hosted by Beverly Yacht Club in Marion. On even years the event is hosted by New Bedford Yacht Club. A few years ago in an attempt to increase participation the first day of the regatta became a distance race with a 1300 start. The race counts towards the points of the regatta but also has the standalone Dick Fontaine Memorial Trophy. It was meant to seem like a less intense format than 3 straight days of windward/leewards.

We had a good crew including Sam and Oliver Moore, my dad Tom Sr., Chris Land, and Andrew Kirk. The course sent us from Bird Island upwind to quicks hole, then to G13 off Woods Hole, and back to Bird Island. We opted for the right side ducking into mattapoisett harbor and behind west island seeking flat water before taking our long starboard tack across the bay.

The next leg was spinnaker reach on a hot angle with a freshening breeze. We had a couple small trips but mostly managed to keep the boat flat by playing the vang. A fairly clean gybe at G13 had us screaming back across the bay towards bird island. Without the finish line in sight I was a little greedy and kept the boat speed up rather than soaking low. This meant we that once we could see the line it was too late to keep soaking without sacrificing too much boat speed. We were forced to do another gybe half a mile before the finish. By now the breeze had gone from fresh to frightening and I oversteered through the maneuver causing the kite to load up on the new side and round us up. I recall tremendous pressure on the helm and using both hands to push it up with my feet firmly planted on the leeward side of the cockpit. It was no use, we were stalling out, pinned on our ear. All of the tension was spontaneously and suddenly released when the old chaffed spinnaker halyard parted. With the head of the sail no longer attached, the boat began to right itself as the spinnaker laid down over the water. Sam and Oliver were immediately on the rail grabbing the sail by its foot and collecting it inside the lifelines so fast that it appeared to shimmer as it skimmed across the surface of the water. I figured we would just nurse our way downwind to the finish under mainsail alone, but the crew had other ideas. They took a quick inventory of heads, and promptly re-hoisted the spinnaker on the jib halyard! Still it wasn't enough. We got last place on corrected time by 1 minute and 5 seconds.

Saturday morning began with a hangover. We had a replacement halyard to install, so I went up the rigging and dangled a messenger line. After what seemed like an eternity hanging in the harness we were able to snake it into the right place so Sam could grab it from deck level. Time was ticking, and we missed the first start. We could only dredge up 5 crew with variable experience. The wind was already 20 knots, gusting higher. We put in a reef, sailed the 3 miles out to the course, and decided we had little to gain by racing but a lot to break. We spectated some of the inshore fleets for a bit, and went in for the day.

Sunday morning was sunny and calm in the morning. The wind was so light that all of the boats were completely adrift and several were having swim calls. After an hour or so a light SW filed in. With the flatter seas and our big 155% genoa we had a big advantage to the J105's who had ruled the day before. But the big sail means we're a lot less maneuverable and it takes much longer to do tacks. A couple of tactical errors and one stubborn cruiser from another class prevented us from walking away from the J105's on the first two legs, and the breeze started to fill in stronger which made our only advantage disappear quickly. We managed to get a 9th out of 10, beating Ed Lobo in Waterwolf. By the second race the wind seemed like it would continue to build so we switched both headsails opting for the #3 jib and the A2 spinnaker. We got around the course, but were DFL by over a minute. It was a tough regatta. This year it's  New Bedford Yacht club's turn to host and they've decided to add a kiteboarding class! More on racing kites later....

Edgartown Round the Buoys and Round the Island Races

Looking up at the A2 spinnaker on Day 1

Now that football season is finally over, but its still pitch dark out after work I thought it was time to catch up on the Wampum Racing blog before our transition into 2017. We left off on Wednesday July 27th when I made the delivery from Woods Hole to Edgartown for the Big Boat Buoy Racing series and the Round the Island race. Thursday we began with windward leeward racing and thanks to 4 boats registering but not showing up, Classes 4 and 5 were combined. This meant our starting line consisted of a brand new Goetz Dunning 42 "Baby Bella", a C&C 30 "Just a Friend" with Charley Enright and Mark Towhill aboard, "Next" a 36' Rodger Martin concept built by NEB, a Navy 44 and a Farr 40 sailed by naval academy cadets, and our good friends/arch enemies "Dark n Stormy" a J/105 from buzzards bay.

Wes Bright trimming the spinnaker on Day 1

It was obvious we were a little out of our league but the racing was free and our first real taste of windward/leeward courses. Plus, it was a sunny day on a beautiful flat water venue by the Cape Poge elbow, and we had a happy crew of 7 racers including Wes Bright borrowed from Hardtack. The other boats were so much faster, that the first boat typically finished 15-20 minutes ahead of us. So immediately after we finished one race and doused the spinnaker, the race committee would blow the horn signaling another starting sequence. After two of these we realized we needed to have food and water on the last leg of the race because there was simply no time between races for it. After 4 races on day 1 we were pretty toasted. A few crew members did not return for day 2, but we found a couple fresh islanders willing to join us. 

Last windward mark rounding of the Big Boat Buoy Racing

Friday, Day 2 was much of the same only with absolutely down pouring rain and very limited visibility. After a brief becalming and a postponement the wind returned and they started some races. The rain was coming down in sheets so thick you couldn't see both ends of the starting line. We got a bad start behind the two navy boats partially due to the muffled starting signals and the main sail gathering so much rain that the runoff at its foot was like a waterfall. Since it was impossible to see the weather mark, we tried to keep a timer going to remember how long we were on port vs stbd tack so we could know if we were on the right or left side of the course. A few minutes after one of our starts the TP52 who had started before us were already charging back downwind to the leeward mark. Spookie's white hull and white spinnaker came out of the gray fog first and we knew that Phoenix and Vesper must be close behind. But those sleds were so damn fast that they were around the mark and going back upwind long before there was an avoidance issue. We completed 3 races that day and by the end the weather got better. Luckily Dark n Stormy was too hungover to brave the weather that day, which meant we got 2nd place (out of 2). Later that afternoon at the edgartown yacht club, they gave us two trophies for 7 consecutive DFL's. Pretty sweet little cheese platters too.

Trudy receiving our daily awards for Thursday and Friday

Tough competition 

Saturday's GPS tracks off Cape Poge Elbow

Saturday July 30th was the big day of the annual 56 nautical mile Round the Island race. 70 boats started the basically rectangular course sailed in a clockwise direction, with marks at Cape Poge, the Hooter, Squibnoquet, Devil's Bridge, and Middle Ground. It was very light wind the entire day with an average of ~5 kt and a max of 10. The direction started NNE, but clocked to SE through the day. This should have favored us with relatively light displacement and large sail plan, but our lack of waterline on the long reaching legs was crippling.

Light air and flat seas

 Racing down Muskeget Channel

Trying not to watch the swarm of TP52's astern

A steady and favorable current through Muskeget channel kept us moving over ground, and along the south side of the island many boats made plays to head offshore in hopes of  a thermal southerly wind overpowering the dying NE which it never really happened. We were in a close battle for 4th place with a few J105s until we made a costly tactical mistake at Devils Bridge, about 30 miles into the race. From there it turned into a  broad reach with the A1 up vineyard sound. At the end of middle ground we doused the kite and used the #1 genoa to sail close hauled to the finish. 

Maybe we should have gybed sooner? Aquinnah and the rest of the fleet in the distance. 

After baking in the sun all day a fog bank moved in, and we had <100 ft of visibility coming back into the harbor. For a little extra fun, we re-launched the A1 and flew it all the way up the channel, dousing right in front of the Chappy ferry. Our elapsed time was 10:35:12, an average VMG of only 5.2 kt. We corrected out in 8th place out of 11 finishers in our class, and a whopping 01:02:22 behind the winner of our class J109 Hafa Adai. It misted all night and sunday the delivery back to woods hole was hot and humid. All in all it was a spectacular regatta. 

Our GPS track lines for 3 days of racing

Mid Season Campaign Update

I’m happy to report that the “Make Wampum Great Again” campaign is off to a good start. We are learning heaps and slowly getting the boat dialed in. In the 52 days since the last post, I’ve sailed 36 of them so there was simply no time for constant blog updates. Not only have I been racing wampum like crazy but I’ve also been kiting a lot, crewing on J80’s Thursday nights, Sonars on Saturday afternoons, and most recently doing the New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport on the J109 URSA (also the J109 North American Championships) which just ended yesterday. Today I’m on the fast ferry from Portland ME to Yarmouth NS with work equipment and there is no internet connection so I’ll take this chance to finally make a post. 

Distractions keeping me from blogging: learning how to hydrofoil and survive wipeouts at 20+kts

After a few shakedown sails, Wampum kicked off the 2016 season on May 25th for the first Wednesday night PHRF race at Beverly Yacht Club in Marion MA. Since the Figawi was coming up just a few days later we decided to sail round trip from Woods Hole to Marion (~25 miles) all on the same night. Departing Eel Pond around 4:00, we rounded Penzance Point and popped the spinnaker in a nice sunny southerly breeze for a deep reach down to Centerboard Shoals off Bird Island. We carried the kite past the starting area and downwind into outer Sippican Harbor. By the time we hoisted the jib and doused the spinnaker it was getting close to 6PM when the first race signals are made. I think we made it back up to the line but sailed off to one side far too long in the pre-start and we were far from the line when the gun went off. We over stood our first lay line by several boat lengths. It began to sink in just how steep this learning curve might be. 

Friday May 28th we started off the Figawi Feeder Race from Falmouth Harbor to Hyannis with better luck thanks to the Rocknozzle our secret weapon tactician. We had a great start, and seemed to find the puffs in the fickle light air. About halfway down the course we rolled over the top of Lyric a J/105. It felt like we were able to hold better speed at lower angles but they were probably just out partying us. This race is pursuit format (staggered starts by handicap with theoretically even finish) so at the end is when boats start to converge and things get interesting. Dark n Stormy and Waterwolf, two other J105s were duking it out at the front, Wampum was close to catching Sparkle Pony and Pressure Drop who has the most waterline in the fleet was going high and fast towards an area of more pressure farther to the East . It looked like all down wind and down current to the finish, but Rocky was wearing too many hats this day. We accidentally sailed inside Hodges Rock, one of the marks of the course and although were only 1/4” mile away when we figured it out, the time it took to hoist the big genoa and  douse the spinnaker was extremely costly. Upwind and up current in >5kt of breeze made for less than 1 knot of speed over ground. We made it around the mark, re-hoisted the spinnaker and I went down below to pass up beers and roll a “victory” cigarette. We were DFL by almost an hour.

The big Figawi race was a blast. With a party of 10 onboard things were honestly quite cramped. At the start it was blowing into the low 20’s and we opted for a reef and the blade jib. Due to all of the chaos in the starting area we waited to hoist sails until about 10 minutes before our start. We had 1 practice tack, and were suddenly in sequence. Rocky called a good start, and we were screaming down the first leg passing 40-50 foot cruisers to leeward, out pointing all of them. We put in 1 quick tack to clear our lane, and were suddenly on starboard lay line and out pointing everyone around us. Rounding the first mark we shook the reef in the main sail, hoisted the red A2 spinnaker and settled in for a 10+ mile broad reach on stbd tack. After about 20 minutes the wind died and we were forced to sail hotter angles just to keep the boat moving before eventually becoming becalmed. With no steerage we drifted up to a big full keeled boat and had to use our body weight to heel the boat away from another boat to avoid our masts tangling. We took the spinnaker down and eventually got moving with the 155% genoa and a light westerly wind. As the wind built we put up the A1 spinnaker only to have the wind angle go forward requiring the genoa to come back out. By the time we neared the turning mark at Great Point the breeze had come back to the high teens but rather than do another headsail change we decided to try to keep the big genoa to power through the 5’ chop and hoped we could keep it flat with 10 people on the rail. 

Wampum appearing on the cover of the Boston Globe online Figawi story getting squeezed out by two bigger boats on a long reaching leg

As the wind built to 25 its we experienced a heavy heeling angle, and a constantly flogging main sail forced us into take a reef but this produced an unbalanced sail plan and a lot of weather helm. It was hard to tell if it was the sea state or poor sail choice but the result was a SOG >6 knots. Not acceptable for a 6 mile tight reaching leg. We finished 7th out of 8 in our class and 119th out of 159 finishing boats. At least nothing broke! We had a fun day sunday on the island surfing at Cisco Beach and drinking at the Mt. Gay Rum tent party along side NE Patriots players Julian Edleman and Rob Gronkowski. Monday’s delivery back to woods hole had 25kts on the nose and rain. We dipped Downey Flake Donuts in Goslings black seal when we cast off at 0630. 

Wampum's slip at the Nantucket Boat Basin

Tuesday we nursed hangovers and Wednesday night we were back at it with more PHRF racing in marion. Again late to the course we had minimal time to get dialed in and were 1 minute late to out start. This blurred into a string of DFL’s in mostly stormy conditions over 15kts. One of the most notable being the Mattapoisett Spring Round the Bay Race where Wampum finished 20 minutes behind the fleet in pouring rain after a race that featured almost exclusively reaching on a rectangular course. 

Start of the Mattapoisett Round the Bay Race (thanks to Barbara Venuti)

Finally on the last race of the June series we had wind >10 kts and combined it with a great start thanks to Greg Packard. We found a high-point mode where we pinched off 2 J105s and rounded the weather mark within spitting distance of a J120 and a J109. The wind dropped significantly on the way downwind and we were able to sail to the right side of the course to catch a new wind line. We ended up in 3rd place on corrected time and brought home a little hardware for the first time. A big sushi dinner at Turks Seafood ensued.

Finding jib control settings that work and are worth repeating

Deep draft forward and a nice open slot gave us speed in light air

Finishing 3rd at the last BYC June Twilight PHRF race

Once July rolled around we were quickly banished by the Marion harbormaster for rafting up on Hardtack’s mooring. We spent a few days squatting on Hardtacks other mooring in Hospital Cove and raced a Wednesday night with the Old Sigh Race Series. With a slightly less competitive fleet, we managed to grab a 2nd place 30 seconds behind Lyric. 

Delivery Mode

Wearing out our welcome in Hospital Cove, Wampum sought refuge on a mooring in Woods Hole. Again we did a 12 mile spinnaker run down to the starting area a wednesday night race at OSR and this time the downwind leg of the race actually involved a gybe!  Wampum got line honors and placed 2nd behind Lyric by only 7 seconds corrected time. We could almost taste that bullet, but we washed that taste away with ample libations while savoring an extra long and colorful sunset on our 12 mile beat back upwind to Woods Hole. 

Trying to dial in our rig tension. We have more head-stay sag than a pair of Jnco's

Draft stripes on the blade jib

Two days later it was time for the Vineyard Cup in Vineyard Haven. This 3 day regatta features 1 distance race per day with a 70 boat fleet ranging from singlehanded Solings, to J70’s, to 1930’s wooden classics owned by celebrities. 

Friday’s start isn’t until the afternoon so Wampum was able to leave woods hole at the 11:30 drawbridge and have plenty of time to do the delivery and tune up before the race. Friday saw wind in the high teens, the course took us up to Green Harbor in Falmouth and back to VH. We had a green crew and decided not to fly the spinnaker on the broad reaching legs. A brave J70 managed to hold theirs at hot angles and plane their way to line honors among a much bigger 12 boat fleet. 

Saturday’s course took us 16 miles directly across 3 of the choppiest shoals on Nantucket Sound. Pounding through large square waves with very deep troughs do not favor Wampum’s relatively light hull and high aspect ratio keel/rig. We were fooled by the protection of East Chop lulling us into thinking the wind was lighter than it was up the course, so we picked the genoa when we would have been faster with the blade. Sunday’s course was a similar shape, and about 10 miles. We finished around 13:30, and sailed back to woods hole quick enough to catch the 15:00 bridge into eel pond. Again wearing out our welcome on a mooring in Woods Hole, we delivered Wampum to Mattapoisett Harbor another 10 miles away the same afternoon. 

Delivery Mode after The Vineyard Cup

Stay tuned for more updates as we slowly get Wampum dialed in. Next up will be another 3 day regatta, the Edgartown Round the Island Race. This race will have a bunch of TP52’s, Farr 40’s and other high end grand prix racing yachts. There are Windward/Leeward drop mark buoy racing for free on Thursday and Friday followed by a 55 mile course around Marthas Vineyard on Saturday. 

After that we’ll begin doing Wednesday night racing back at Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, the Buzzards Bay Regatta also in Marion this year, and hopefully Nantucket Race Week! 

Test Sail #2

Wampum went out for another test sail on Saturday 5/7. The weather was about 50 degrees with intermittent rain but we were all itching to sail so we went out anyways. We motored out into Vineyard Sound, but between the lack of wind and the foul current we struggled to even hold our ground. So we fired up the tin topsail and motored through woods hole passage and out into Buzzards Bay. Once clearing Penzance Point we found a light and puffy NNE wind in the 5-10 kt range, with gusts into the low teens according to the on-board wind sensor which I don't  really trust.

With the big #1 jib we had plenty of power, and it was great to finally play around with different settings on the in-hauler and car location. If you look closely in the picture the controls are much different than any boat I've ever sailed on. There are 2 tracks that run athwart-ships with low friction eyes, so you can adjust the clew height and its sheeting angle. Its going to take a lot of time on task to really get these dialed in for optimum boat speed in various conditions. The 30 degree shifts in the wind and huge velocity swings didnt allow us to really run a controlled experiment but it was fun to just tweak.

Enough about tweaking the techy bits... Time to talk about the downwind run! 

With a building breeze and only 4 sets of hands (Ronnie Whims, Sarah Fuller, Trudy Crowley and myself), we were a little hesitant to hoist the big spinnaker but went for it anyways.

 The Y bridle sheets and snap shackles on all 3 connection points made the rigging very straight forward. Rather than launch out of the forward hatch, we clipped the spinnaker bag to the leeward lifelines tucked nicely behind the big jib. We beared away around a make believe mark, and the A2 was hoisted totally under control. The jib came down, got secured to the deck and we gybed right away so we didn't end up down by West Island. We soaked some nice deep angles for a while and before we knew it we over-stood the rhum line and had to heat it up to 120+ TWA to make it back into woods hole. The boat felt very responsive and well balanced and we saw over 8kt on the GPS fun meter.

Once in outer Hadleys Harbor we hoisted the jib and the girls performed a nearly flawless windward overhaul douse into the hatch. We hardened up and sailed upwind through woods hole passage with a fair current pushing behind us. Of course the engine was running just in case, but we never had to put it in gear. It took 6 or 7 tacks and luckily there was no other boat traffic. 

On mothers day the local laser fleet had our 4th sunday race of the spring frost biting series. I really felt like I was getting the hang of the boat handling on the laser and could approach tactical situations with some confidence. It was blowing ~20 kts and I managed to avoid capsizing for the entire day. The last two days have been spent kite surfing, and this afternoon we're headed out with a full crew to sail Wampum again making this my 5th day in a row of sailing. 

Spring Maintenance -> Launching -> Rigging -> Shakedown

After 4 months in my driveway, Wampum got back in the water on Friday April 29th. It was a hectic week leading up to the launch. After work, many hours were spent wet sanding her bottom, and doing annual maintenance on the Yanmar 2gm20F diesel.

                                     

That night we stepped the mast and installed the bow pulpit with some help from a local construction crane. On Saturday April 30th, we brought the boat from Great Harbor into Eel Pond. We rigged the lifelines and boom with the help of Fred Denton, Sam Moore, Sarah Fuller and Trudy Crowley.

Once she was mostly rigged, it was time for a shakedown sail. The forecast of 8-10 turned into 18kts (8+10), A fully hoisted main sail, suddenly made us feel over powered. We took a reef, set the small #3 jib and felt the boat balance out.

Wampum sailed downwind into the bottom of Great Harbor and back upwind into Vineyard Sound where the easterly wind was blowing straight against a strong flooding current causing 3-4 foot stacked seas. Immediately after tacking to head in we heard a distinct TWANG! as the lashings on the starboard check stay let go. We dropped sails immediately and motored in past Nobska Light with big smiles on our faces.

We caught the last bridge into eel pond at 4 PM to conclude an excellent sunny first day of sailing. With only 3 weeks until the Wednesday Night Twilight series in Marion begins there is still a lot to learn!