New England Solo/Twin Race 2019

2019 New England Solo/Twin, 25-26 July, Newport Yacht Club

Olson 30, Kristianna, PHRF 104

Conditions 0-8 kts, SSE, S, E, NE, NW, N

Course:  Start off Goat Island with Folk Festival going on, what a hoot.  Then to the SW corner of Block Island, Buzzards Bay Tower, back to MOA -“NB”, then finish at 120 degree bearing to Castle Hill Lighthouse.  70 Miles is one of the shorter courses for this race, which made sense with the light winds forecast.  All weather models had it shutting off at 0200, which were spot on.

I had the opportunity to sail with my short-handed trekking buddy for the last nine years.  John Manderson owns the Olson 30 Kristianna, which is set up for the single-handed, and double handed with his wife Joyce.  The boat sails from NJ through the New England coast, and some of the time in tandem trekking with my last three Kincora’s.  We have had a lot of amazing miles chasing each other.  One of those is a top ten-day in my sailing life.  But that is a different story.

This is the sixth time I have sailed in the Solo/Twin and first time on someone else’s boat. It was a very different experience for me since I only had three hours of light air sailing on Kristianna.  So, John did most of the boat handling, the bonus for me was I drove 80% of the time. 

We had a game plan from the start, beating out the bay toward MOA area and decide on which way around BI.  I put us in a tough spot after start; log jammed behind Paul Grimes on his J35 and a J110.  With our #2 up we could have moved ahead but instead we had to go below them and foot out.  Tough to give away valuable height at this time, but it was not an Olson 30 angle to sail that high.  They were both going high and slow with small jibs.  Part of what you have to deal with being one of the higher rated boats in the class.

Just before Pt. Judith with flood going west and wind SSE 5-6 kts. We tacked onto STB to step up for rounding BI on the East side, to avoid bucking the flood on the dreaded SW corner of BI.  It looked like there were five boats in the fleet taking this route.  Going West of the island keeps you bucking it from Pt. Judith to you clear the SE lighthouse on BI.  That is the normal route and what most of the fleet took, this was a very rare time going around the East side with the current was the right decision.  More so for the faster boats in the class then us, but we still had a small gain.

We had to tack onto STB three times with the final a short tack to clear the South East corner of the island.  We stayed close to the island before the point for the nice push around the corner.  Both of us could see it on the water and I felt the current lift.  At this point breeze had backed off a bit (4-5 kts) and was lifting over the bluffs.  Once around John set the Code 0 and we slowly made our way to the SW corner.  Very surprised to see multiple boats go by us with empty decks, the same Farr 395 that cut us off on Port while we were checking in at RC on stb.  And sad to see a few teams not clipped in as the rules say.  Come on boys we all need to play by the same rules. 

The flood had mostly faded when we went around the SW corner mark and back to the #2.  At that point we were ok standings in our class position.  Then I had a chance to see my old boat Kincora (Archambault 31) setting code 0 on the way to SW mark, Go Rand!

Once past SE Lighthouse John set the A-Sail, the Olson 30 loves this point of sail.  There is a 10% sprit and MH A-Sail built by Kame Richards of Pineapple in Alameda, CA.  I have witnessed how well Kristianna sails with this combination many times on our Treks to Maine, so we felt good at this point feeling we could make big gains.

After only 3 miles and catching the fleet ahead quickly, we had to go back to the #2 since the wind went forward to 45 apparent, which put us off the pace.  John said the Code 0 did not work at 45-50 apparent.  Pressure held around 5-6 kts true for the leg with some pushes to 7-8, which was maximum we had for the race.

When we rounded Buzzards Bay Tower at 22:05, and set the symmetrical kite feeling this was the only powerful sail to get us back to the MOA.  Carrying at times up to 60 degrees apparent in 4-5 kts of wind was tough, but it seemed faster then the #2, and too high for the large a-sail.  A well-designed Doyle cable-less Code 0, for 40-90 apparent, would have done the trick on both legs.  But John has set his boat up for trekking, and only recently decided to start racing her.

As we approached the MOA breeze went left about 10 degrees and started slacking off.  We rounded approximately 0135; bore off and after about 100 yds jibed to grab the last bit of the SSE toward finish.  Then it really started shutting down.  From ¾ of a mile North of MOA to finish we did not see more then 2 kts of wind, often for an hour at a time less then .3 kts.  Once it went that light we set the #2, and headed NW knowing there would be some drainage left, and it worked getting us bearing 120 degrees to Castle Hill Light at 0514:30.  The last ½ mile took 90 minutes, and five jibes all with #2. Another cases of high rating boats loose out in this race.  Most of the low rating boats in our class finished by 0130.

I love this race, but their needs to be a few changes to have it grow.  To send us to a tide gate with our class rating range 66 – 108 is a bit silly.  It works out well for the fast rated boats, but the back of the fleet will never catch up due to the tide gate.  And knowing the detail forecast for it to die out completely at 0200, does not give a chance to the higher rated boats.  This has been a trend for this race, and I think another class break is needed to keep it fun.  Also there needs to be some major rating adjustments.  Being on the PHRF technical committee I bring it up often, but someone has to appeal a few ratings.  We all talk about participation and making it fun, these are just a few suggestions of how to make that happen.

Better yet, why don’t we solve it with a short-handed one-design class?  They don’t have to be big and expensive.  I have a few solid ideas, so if anyone else is interested in getting a short handed one design class going contact me, and lets take action.   Sure there are new boats that are great, but $250,000+ is not the budget for the most of this fleet.  We need a boat costing a fraction of that amount and there are options.  PHRF is fun for some racing but this type of racing is so much better one design, making it about the sailors not the ratings.

Once back in Dutch Harbor, we were both out for a good nap.  That evening we loaded John’s cruising gear as he is headed to his house in Maine. On the way John had a singlehanded race from Marblehead to Boothbay, YC.  News flash, John was second sailing singlehanded with eleven boats in his class, only the top US Class 40 Privateer beating him.  His race was five to fourteen knots on full run with MH kite, happy Olson conditions.  Congratulations John, and glad you performed well when you had fun conditions for your boat.

It was fun to finally race with John after racing each other for so long.  We both have a deep passion for single-handed sailing.  I hope the local fleet works towards a one-design concept, to remove the rating problems, and not just more spending that sailboat racing is turning into.

Thanks for taking time to read my post.  Let’s all headed out to enjoy the final weeks of summer, and our great fall sailing season. 

See you soon, Paul