4 days of intensive racing, We had 10 races, 10 different conditions at sea. We had big waves and a lot of breeze and we had no wind, trying to beat the current, and flat water. Very clear to all of us why we loved One Design Racing in the past. All the boats are the same, who handles the conditions and the boat the best, wins!
In Ratingclasses it is very clear that different conditions give different results. If you are used to sailing on Handicap, you will know that your boat is unbeatable in the heavy breeze or in the light stuff, one way or the other, every design has it's favorite condition. In my opinion, the First 35 loves flat water, no matter wat the breeze is. We found ourselfs to be very fast in light breeze but also in 20+... as long as we had a flat sea state. Maybe it's also a helmsman issue, but in the end...it's the combination of boat, handicap, crew and helmsman that bring a boat to the podium.
Notice that all the boats had good and bad races. The conditions made it very difficult to be consistent.
At Shark we had a combination of waves and bad choices dictating our overall result. Boatspeed was pretty normal, but we've had better days! I also think that a 40ft or a nearly 40ft has a big advantage against en 35ft in the big waves. They just power through, while we were smashing the boat into pieces.
Next race is the DELTA WEEK, again an inshore event which should bring some easier sailing on the F35. This race is sailed on ORC Handicap instead of IRC. Our new certificate is on his way.... Normally in ORC a 140% genua is not penalised, but you need a fractional spinnaker. Looking at the F35, which is optimalised for IRC, with a big masthead spinnaker and little jibs, I'm very curious what this will bring us!
You cant win the lottery if you dont buy a ticket.
And in sailing if butterflies fly upwind and pass you, you just know that you want to buy that ticket!
SATURDAY RACE 1
What are we going to do against this kind of competition? They have put IRC2 and ORC2 together, to create a bigger fleet. This results in a 25 boat fleet, all between 33 and 41 feet.
The day begins with no wind, and its way past Noon, before we get our first warning signal.
We decide to start at the boat, there is very little pressure, and the only breeze there is, is on the right. Thanks to a very busy start at the boat, we struggle to get away at speed, and after a few boatlengths, we see a few boats that started in the middle, tack to the right and cross in front of us. With such little breeze we keep going until we see a clear lane to tack in. We are now on the inside of the pack and closer to the new breeze that kicks in. The boats that headed to the right before us, get stuck in a dying breeze and struggle to keep momentum. They cannot tack without killing their speed completely. While we are still going, although very slow, we tack back and try to stay in the breeze. At the upwind mark we see that all our losses from the start are gone, and that we round in the top 3. Today seems to be one big lottery, and staying out of windholes is the only tacktick we will need!
We choose to go downwind with our A1,5, an asymmetrical spi, specially designed for these days, 3 to 5 knots of wind. In comparison to a Symmetrical spi, the leech of the sail is open this allows the sail to let go of the wind more easily and creates more speed than a conventional spinnaker in little breeze (up to 9 knots). Our expectations are high and we expect to sail away from the fleet.
The Dehler 36, with a small symmetrical spinnaker manages to stay ahead of us and the rest of the fleet stay in touch.
We have more speed upwind than the other First 35, but downwind Rebellion comes closer again. We loose faith in our secret weapon. We can keep our position until the downwind mark. Here the wind dies completely and everybody ends up together at the same mark. Its a new start all over again, but in tons of dirty air! We search for spots of wind and clear lanes and escape from the fleet. Again in the top 3, with only the dehler 36 and a Bashford 36 in front. The wind is still in the low 5s and we are going to try the asymmetric again. Its supposed to be a really good weapon in these situations, but it takes some time to get used to it, and to sail the correct angles. But again, we barely manage to keep our position, and dont gain distance on the rest of the fleet. At the downwind mark we get a big déjà-vu and everybody floats past the mark, the wind completely died. The committee shortens the course and we all get our finish signal.
In corrected time, we did very well and finish first in the first race of the day. One bullet for us!
SATURDAY RACE 2
Breeze is steady, 6 to 8 knots. We have a good start and jump in front of the fleet. Only the Bashford 36 stays between us and the upwind mark. This boat goes faster than the F35, he has too almost 3 minutes an hour. Luckily for us we manage to stay in the safe-zone and they dont succeed in stretching away far enough.
Our downwind leg is filled with breeze and we sail more confident now. We again choose the Asymmetric sail, and we are clearly getting the hang of it. We keep our distance with the rest of the fleet and even stretch away from them.
Upwind we sail in clear air, on opposite tacks of the Bashford and finish well ahead of the rest of the fleet. After corrected time, FIRST PLACE . Our second!
End of day 1, Shark has two bullets .
Time for some drinks and a good restaurant ;)
SUNDAY RACE 3
Very little wind 3 to 4 knots, constantly dying and building again => unsteady angle
First start was brilliant. At the Pin end, tacking at the gun and able to pass a head of the whole fleet. But thanks to the dying breeze, the race was immediately cancelled after the gun.
Second start, again at the pin end, but a general recall. Everybody back to the starting area, Black flag at the committee boat Nerve wrecking conditions. If you are over the line before the starting signal, its race over and maximum points.
Third start, A Prima 38 luffs us, we have too much speed and are almost over the line, still 20 seconds to go . STUPID! STUPID! How did we get here in this miserable situation, this can cost us the overall lead in the Regatta. Only one thing I could do, complete the tack, bear away, try to stay clear of other approaching boats, try to stay behind the line, try, try try .
We manage to keep clear, but are dead in the water at the gun and everybody is sailing away from us. We listen to the VHF and are very happy that they dont mention Shark.
Last boat over the line, very little wind, it takes us a few minutes to get up to speed.
We see windholes divided over the fleet, and decide to take it one step at a time. We pass 5 boats going to the upwind mark, still 20 boats to go.
The downwind part is filled with pressure and there is no change in positions. The first 10 boats are already half way up the beat and are too far away to get in touch with. We will have to be lucky if we finish in 10th place after corrected time. But anything can happen when butterflies are able to fly against the wind! At the upwind mark we see a stretch of boats, IRC 1 and IRC 2 already mixed together, spinnakers not flying everybody dead in the water. Like ducks in a row, everybody on the same tack, trying to keep momentum & unable to gybe away.
We approach the mark with a little more breeze and decide to do a gybe set, away from the pack and try to stay in that little patch of pressure. Together with a dehler 34 we sail away from the pack and begin our way to the downwind mark with a big detour. A case of lets see where this little puff brings us Guess what . At the downwind mark! Together with the Swan 45s who started 30 minutes before we did. We passed our complete class and the biggest part of IRC1. In the last upwind part the breeze kicked in at a steady 7 to 8 knots and we even made the hole bigger. We go faster than the dehler and finished 2 minutes in front of him. After corrected time, SHARK 1st place.
Thats 1,1,1 .. nice scoring for the FIRST 35
A typical case from zero to hero
SUNDAY RACE 4
A big lift 15 seconds before the gun completely killed our perfect pin end start. We were covered by the pack and had 2 options.
1)Tack, duck all the boats, and start again on the inside of the shift
2)Hang in there, keep our nose in front, bang the corner and wait for the next shift.
Option 2 it was! And it appeared to be the right choice. Again from zero to hero. We arrived at the topmark in second position. Soon to be followed by a huge wall of spinnakers. This forced us to sail high and into clean air. We were now on the right side of the pack, but in front. We kept focusing on boatspeed and wanted to be ahead of the rest at the downwind mark. There was a good steady breeze of around 15/17 knots and it seemed to us that the downwind mark was already on our final approach Some other boats gybed away to the left, we kept on going.
What a mistake we made! Our downwind mark was to the left, we couldnt even have made it if wed gybed. Jib up, spi down and we gybed to the mark.
At least 10 boats passed us and we were in dirty air at the mark. We couldnt get away and our direct competitors sailed a faultless race. Too bad for us, good for them! We managed to squeeze out a 4th place after corrected time.
No worries here The Van Uden Reco Cup is ours! A 1,1,1,4 was more than enough to be the overall winner. Next was A Boen, with 14 points!
Sailing the last winterseries was great. We had a very gusty day. Average breeze around 15 knots, sometimes less. But the gusts were up to 25 knots. And sunshine!!!
As I told you before, these winterseries are no regular up & downwind courses. Its around the cans and sometimes you dont even have a real upwind part. So no big need for tactics here, just raw boatspeed and some good handling.
IRC 2 and ORC2 start together. The boats are all around 36 foot, and match in boatspeed. This is good for us to see if we have the mast-setup right. Too bad, that also this time, there was no real upwind part.
We managed to get a clean downwind start and stretch away from the fleet together with a Bashford 36. It was a broad reach, but dangerous sailing in gusty conditions, from 15 to 25knots in 1 second
We had our tactician counting down to the gusts, and with a good twitch at the helm I pushed the nose down everytime the gust hit us. After every gust, we could come up again and point higher than the mark. This S sailing gave us a lot of boatspeed, we even managed to let the boat start to surf, everytime the gust hit. We experience that on flat water, above 8.8 knots of boatspeed, the boat starts to surf and the numbers go fast into the 2 digits. We had a strong fleet, as you can see in the list below, but managed to arrive at the downwind mark in first position.
In the upwind part, the Bashford 36 passed us, but we stayed in contact and within 5 boatlengths of him. It was after 1,5 hour that the wind picked up a little and became a steady 20+ knots, that was clearly the breaking point on the Bashford, he shifted gear and managed to finish almost 3 minutes ahead of us. This gap was only created in the last part of the race. So I think in heavy weather, at sea, that a well sailed Bashford can outsail his handicap against a F35. The Salona 42 must have made some mistakes in the beginning of the race, because he passed us at the last mark, and also finished 3 minutes ahead.
The rest of the fleet, the boats where we compare ourselves with, like a J109, Dehler 36, an X362 sport, etc finished at least 2 minutes behind us in real time.
After corrected time, SHARK finished 1st,34 seconds before the STERN 33
We are really satisfied with the boatspeed of Shark, and the way she handles on the water. I could have never imagined that a 35 footer which weighs 5500 kgs, could sail and behave so alive like the F35.
We are still searching for little extras in boatspeed, and trying to get more people in the rail on a reach (as you can see on the pictures) This will all improve the results!
We are already sailing with a lot of mast rake, but I feel that I can handle more pressure on the rudder going upwind, so I eased the forestay 4 complete turns. We are now almost at our maximum forestay length. Next weekend is VAN UDEN RECO CUP, the Opening Regatta of the season! So we will see if this is a good decision
Tomorrow we sail our second and last wintercup of the season. We hope to do some more fine tuning on the mast and sail set up, shake off the winterbleus from the crew and maybe practise some manouevres after we finish the race. At the end of April we have a big Regatta, the VAN UDEN RECO CUP, and we really want to bring our A-game to this event.
The winterseries are held under IRC and ORC regulations. Many boats in Holland are only ORC measured. In the IRC2/ORC2 group are 25 boats. Not bad for a winter race.
The start was a disaster. Tidal waters, current against us and basicly 0 knots of wind. This resulted in a big mess floating backwards. One hour after the gun, we managed to get away from the startline and were waiting for the breeze to fill in. A very well sailed dehler 36 and IMX 38 were a a head of us and got the first 10kn breeze. Then a Stern 33 got away, then Shark!
Its never an up&down course, so we were in for a pursuit race around the cans. We closed the gap between us and the Dehler 36 from 3 minutes behind at the first mark to 1 minute behind at the finish. These guys are sailing on home territory and are extremely fast.
The Stern 33 A Boen is a good benchmark in Holland. These guys seem to never have a bad day and are winning races for years now on a steady basis. With an IRC rating of 1,006 and the boatspeed of a fast 36 footer, this boat is your money in the bank!
We had trouble to stretch away from them and only in the few upwind parts of the race we gained some boatlengths.
We had no piano man on board and that resulted in a complete mess in boathandling. We really messed up every hoist and take down. Went downwind with the masthead spinnaker on the fractional halyard. Took no risks to hoist our A-sail which we would have needed in the conditions, we could barely manage the handling of a normal symmetric spi. TWO HANDS SHORT AND THE TOWER COLLAPSES. Luckily for us it was a race around the cans, and we got plenty of time to clean our mess. Nevertheless, concentration on steering the boat was far gone!
But as a team, we regained our focus and sailed pretty well boatspeed-wise.
We finished behind the Dehler 36 and the IMX 38. But they have an ORC certificate.
In IRC, after corrected time we share first place with the Stern 33. Not bad for a first race
Shark had a Winter-stop from November until February. We had a lot to do on the new boat to make her more crew-friendly and cruise-ready.
All the preparations on Shark are finished and the boat is already in the water.
We have the opportunity to sail the last 2 winter-races before our Race-season 2011 begins at the end of April. There is a pretty high level in this winter-competition, so we will get the chance to do some proper fine-tuning on the rig.
Shark will be sailing in the following IRC races :
