Dags att bänka sig för årets TV-högtid. Viasat sport den 3/12 kl 20:15.

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När man tror att allt fixat sig till det bästa…… Tydligen fick inte arrangörerna ihop arrangemanget för SM till den tänkta helgen så 2-Krona SM flyttades tillbaka till 14-15/8. Trist att det blir krock med 606-SM men det blir ju lite billigare nu när vi “slipper” åka till Karlshamn.

Jag satt häromdagen och räknade på vad resorna till alla tävlingar under 2010 skulle kosta och siffran som ramlade ut längst ner på excellarket var 16000:-. Bara för bensinen.

Round White Island Race is a  race offshore New Zealand coast. We started the virtual race November the 27th 23.0 utc. We are sailing in Beneteau First 40.7 and there will be some tactical opportunities along the way. Starting downwind and we will head back in mostly upwind conditions according to the weather forecast so far.

The race course with a lot of boats training.

The winds were supposed to turn right after the start so SWE54 decided to head out to the right hand side to try to make use of the shift and get a nice angle up to the first mark at Channel Island.

A split around the islands makes the next meeting interesting.

Speeding up towards Channel Island and making small course adjustments to keep the VMC as high as possible and as we get closer the turnrate is less and longer breaks from the PC is possible.

SWE54 rounded mark 1 at Channel Island in a good position

Time for mistake #1. Getting a bit tired and are only looking for a break from the pc SWE54 headed due east on a CC and totally forgot the small changes in the winds to keep in touch with the top boats. We should have sailed NE to get the small shift and then have a good angle down towards mark 2 but instead it was a straight CC due east and sleeping time. The last stretch to the mark at Cuvier Island got a bit bad. Sailed into a header and had to gybe eventually. As I was checking angles and measured distances I made the good old rookie mistake, wrong sign in the TWA box. That’s mistake #2. SWE54 made 3 gybes the last hrs before the mark.

The long leg down to White Island

Around White Island we go

SWE54 rounded White Island as #8 and now we were heading back north. The plan was to head up north and keep a little to the right in the right hand shift end then tack out west.

The plan for heading north to the mark at Cuvier Island

The long leg north was made mostly on CC and the tack out west on a TWA. Now we just have to figure out when to tack back north. There is not only the angles itself to consider but also the island north of us.

Hopefully the best route from the current position

SWE54 found a way through the islands and will reach the mark, in this weather window anyway. Some boats are a little more west and have sailed a little too far. Maybe we can reach the mark ahead of them and still be able to fend off the ones on our right side. The rounding will be interesting.

It turned out that it was faster to go a little more west and then be able to sail a more straight course up north to the mark. Lesson learned I hope.

After rounding Cuvier Island we were supposed to tack down SW to be on the right side in the left hand shift.

Heading in to the shift to get the nice lift and angle on the next tack.

When we reached the coast we had to tack back NW and cash in our investment but then the weather update came in and suddenly the windshift turned the other way. We were now on a loose-loose situation, the boats to our right were gaining. We made it around the last mark on Channel Island adn SWE54 rounded as #7.

The last stretch in towards the finishline.

Two ways to do this, just sail straight in or try to make use of the shift and perhaps gain a place or two. The winds were turningleft and SWE54 head out to the left hand side. Being the second night and we were getting a bit tired more mistakes were made. The desicion to go left was ok but I forgot to check VMC along the way.

Still very close after some 300 nm.

Ended up onVMG a bit too early.

Setting a compass course as far to the left as possible was not optimum of course, ended up on VMG too soon. Also forgot to sail VMC after passing the point so TENERIFE and WINSTON passed with ease.

Finally were done.

And then came the old sign error. After measuring distances and diceded to sail on VMG to the line, tack back down to cross it I had the wrong sign in the TWA box! A double tack is not what you want now. Getting back on course and pinching like a madman to reach the line SWE54 crossed as the 7th boat.

Another close finish, this time 2 s between Salmon and djolive.

The top 20 in Round White Island Race

In November Sailonline had a transatlantic open speed record race in the Orange II Cat. SWE54 missed the first window of opportunity and didn’t do very well on that run. Sailed another one in mid November but that was even worse. The last chance came 2oth to 24th and SWE54 made a nice run. Had the lead for a short while, about 30 min, and ended up with the 7th best run so far. Looking at the weather the last days of  the month and this was probably it. The fastest runs are done for this time.

The leaderboard so far…

The Orange II Cat

Nov 21st at 09.00 utc the Saturday Almost Around Texada Island started. Due to the discussions on how to round the Island the name changed and as long as the wpt gets marked “rounded” it’s free to sail either side of the island. Now that we had sorted out a couple of issues in the Excel sheet it was a little easier to figure out a basic route. It turned out to be almost identical to the last Texada race.

The start and first part, already a 3 way split…

Heading into a shift and trying to keep the VMC as high as possible.

I have in the passed used autocad to help with distances and angles and I use it sometimes to get the VMC angle fast and reasonable accurate. I just paste the polar in the cad, scale it so the cad and polar scales agree and then measure speed and angles. Easy and fast. Good for me who easily mess things up. It seemed to work just fine bending up under the small island until I moved the reference point for trying to get out west faster. Maybe I lost some on that but I wasn’t much.

Almost there…

Really close after 9 hrs of racing.

Then came the wpt and the choice of which way to head back. SWE54 already decided to go back on the same side we came since the winds are turning in favor of that side. Now we are going to beat all the way back.

Late in the evening and the head getting tired results in a lot of tacking.

Not only did we have to worry about the boat close but also the ones a bit behind were catching up. The brain already was asleep so SWE54 just kept on sailing in the same way… Longer tacks might have been a bit more efficient. I had to get some sleep and started on 30 min tacks and it seemed a little better until I didn’t wake up in time…

Lost some being on the wrong side in the left hand shift…

Two shorter tacks and then I could reach the rounding point. Last turn and then a nice reach to the finishline. I just want to go to sleep…

The finish was just as close as the race was on the course.

The difference between Salmon and FR_flouflou was not much. Salmon 8.22.31,96806 and FR_flouflou 8.22.31,74326. That’s a photofinish…

Det perfekta komplementet till en Farr 30 måste vara en 505. Nu en film från Finland där Jari Hamström och Tuomas Laurila var ute och brände i FIN 8632 i oktober i år. NAJS! Skall det vara så här måste vi ju skaffa en, eller hur Fredrik?

Tuesday Nov 17th we started the Round Texada Island. The Expedition trial has expired and the race is also to short and to close to land to run on a router.

Looked worse than it was, no bigger nav problems among all the island.

Treating this like a tuneup race I was taking notes on some things. First we should have gone the other way around from the start. Now when we meet the boats that did, the small group coming from east of the island,  it’s quite obvious, they are going fast and are reaching the point ahead of us. Another thing is I discovered a mathematical error in my Excel sheet! No wonder I sailed a bit odd sometimes…. That was 2 mistakes already.

A lot of boats getting through and another split is forming.

The long leg up was going well. I made up some of the distance on the way. We where heading north and riding the slow left shift that will turn us weat of the the big island.

Timed the turn to pass as close to the big island as possible.

Now I was setting myself up for mistake #3. Due to the calc error I was overdoing it a bit and headed a bit too far out west. Still have made up some distance but it could have been much better.

Now there were an issue with the rounding rules. Or to be exact, there were no rules. Either way was ok and even to return on the same side of the island. Had I been a little more awake I should have returned on the same side we came up. The winds were slowly turning left and of course the left side should be the favored one. Instead I passed the rounding mark and headed down south on the east side. Mistake #4. Making the best of it and trying to stay as far west as possible we made good speed. Being in the middle of the night and there is always the risk of not waking up for a tack, I set a DC and the alarm clock. Luckily I woke up to see the DC had not been executed! The boat was grounded. Could not find anything wrong with the DC and I wasn’t grounded for more than a minute or so.

Preparing for a long tack down and head to the west side before the larger shift is coming in approx. 2 hrs.

Then there was the last stretch to the last rounding, we sailed into a header and we had to tack to reach it, around the mark and then a reach to the finish line.

The first 20 boats, SWE54 on a 15th.

Jag och de andra som vill kombinera segling i 606 med segling i 2-Krona fick en tidig julklapp i dag när det meddelades att SM för 2-Krona flyttas till 7-8/8. Fullt möjligt att dubbla med andra ord. YES!!!!

NSK gratulerar Classe Boman som i helgen tog hem en andraplats i ICE cup 2009.

Mer information finns på skota.se. De gjorde även en film som visas nedan.