Ephraim 2021 Racing Recap (Wildcard)

Crew: David Ames.

Finishing Place: 2nd out of 22 boats.  (Results here)

I sailed with David Ames for the first time this past weekend at Ephraim.  It was a great opportunity to get some different sailing perspective from the reigning North American Champion.  My goal for the regatta was to improve boat handling and boat speed so I can ultimately compete with the elite sailors in our class.  I feel I made some great strides this past weekend but still have a ways to go.  Sailing with David was fun and he overwhelmed me in a good way with vast amounts of knowledge and tips to the point where my head felt like it might explode at times.   It will take some time to fully digest all those nuggets of information and incorporate his driving program with mine, but this weekend was fun and I learned a lot of helpful stuff.  

Race 1  (3rd Place - Light Wind)

In race 1 we worked on some low speed boat handling at the start.  We parked on the line at the boat for 1.5 minutes  and accelerated from nothing and we had a good-but-not-great start.  I could have executed it a little better if we had a chance to do it again - I should have come up a little more quickly.  Sitting on the start line and accelerating quickly with 15-20 seconds to go in light wind is not something I previously had in my toolbox.  Mastering this technique at practice will be a priority before I head to Indy in September.  

The first leg of the race was not very good.  He was teaching me his steering technique and it didn't feel natural to me.  He had tightened up the rig and the boat just didn't feel right.   We weren't slow but we weren't fast either.  Sailing fast upwind is usually my competitive advantage but not so much on this first leg.  I finally started to get my driving dialed in on the second half of the leg but we would round in 12th place.  

The entire fleet jibed around the mark and went down the left in a long single-file line.  We did a regular set and sailed to the middle of the course and Ryan Malmgren followed.   We jibed back to the right of the fleet and slowly but surely passed the entire fleet and rounded the leeward gate in second place behind Michael and Jennifer Faugust with Ryan rounding just behind us in 3rd place.   That felt great!  

Ryan and Stacey would pass us on the third leg and we'd later regret not covering them.   Looking back after the race, Michael and Jennifer had a comfortable lead, but we trying to get everything we could and we were gaining ground.   We just lost Ryan and Stacey in the process but I was happy with P3.   

Race 2 (3rd Place - Light to Moderate Wind)

During the starting sequence of race 2,  the wind was big left with the pin big favored and we expected it would shift back.  With the pin favored and the wind looking to go right we wanted to start at the pin but make our way back to the right quickly.  We decided to start on port tack and duck boats if we had to so we would not get pushed to the left side.   Just before the start and just as expected, the wind had started to shift back right.  We ended up ducking 6-7 boats trying to get to the right side but when we got there, but we were looking really pretty.   If the wind had waited 30 seconds to shift we would have crossed everyone on port tack.  Still, we'd round the mark in second behind Frank and Marianne Gerry with Rick Wojnar and Chris Tesdal in a close third place and Ryan close behind him.   It was a fun Fleet 135 1-2-3 mark rounding.  Gotta love that!

Frank Gerry was in our sights and Ryan and Stacey worked their way up and would pass us again on the third upwind leg and compete with Frank and Marianne for the win.  Frank and Marianne would eke it out by about an inch while we came in a comfortable third.   What's interesting is that Michael and Jennifer Faugust (who won the first race) were nowhere to be seen.  Turns out they won the pin but went left and ended up with a 17 way back in the pack.  At this point in the regatta it was shaping up to be Ryan and Stacey vs. us.  Paying attention to the timing of the shifts and calculating "standard deviations" (David used that term a lot) played a huge role in our success and knowing to go right was critical.  

Race 3 (6th Place - light but building wind)

The pin end was favored but again we expected the wind to go right and we didn't think the pin was favored enough to start down there.   We enjoyed a very good start but those pin-end boats would lee bow us we just couldn't get away from them.  When we finally broke free and found a good lane up the course, but another boat tacked on our air and got us back out of sync with the wind.  Damn!  The language I actually used on the boat was much worse.  :-)   If we rounded the first windward mark in the top 10, it was just barely in the top 10.  

We had a solid downwind run on the second leg but generally held our own relative to the boats around us.   We'd have to try and make it up on the 3rd and final upwind leg as we rounded the leeward mark in 10th or 11th.   Our boat speed was good and my driving was improving and I was getting the hang of David's steering style.  The wind had shifted right and he thought we'd get a nice lift near the shore by going to the right layline at the finish and we passed 3-4 boats at the very end of the race to salvage a 6th place finish.   Michael and Jennifer won the race and they were just sailing great all weekend when they were pointed in the correct direction.  Bruce and Lynn Kitchen in 2nd place in the red boat which put them back in the regatta.  Ryan and Stacey scored a 4th so we'd end the day in 2nd place in the standings, just 4 points behind Ryan and Stacey and just 2 points ahead of Bruce and Lynn.  

Race 4 (3rd Place - Moderate Wind)

The racing was postponed due to weather and we'd only have a chance to get off one race on Sunday.  At the start of race 4, we decided we wanted to start near the boat that had set up at the boat perfectly for the start, except I pulled the trigger 3 seconds too early.  Again, with a little practice I'm going to perfect the stop and go start and get the timing down.   I usually come down the starting line on port tack and find a hole and then go but I didn't do that once this regatta.  I had to dip the line and didn't come up quickly enough and ended up getting burned by the leeward boat who just happened to be Michael and Jennifer Faugust.  We put the bow down and had to eat their dirty air for a good number of boat lengths until we got into clean air to the leeward of them.  Unfortunately, this allowed Ryan and Stacey to jump out in front with Michael and Jennifer.   The three us just sailed away from the fleet with Michael and Jennifer in the lead and Ryan and Stacey in 2nd.   Ryan and Stacey didn't need to take any risks to win the regatta and we didn't have enough boats in front us to bump Ryan and Stacey to second we didn't take any risks and just sailed fast to another 3rd place finish.   

Where we could have improved

I'm not used to the starting technique and I think if we turned those couple of good starts into great starts and then covered Ryan in the first two races we'd be right there fighting for the regatta victory.   Adjusting to a different steering technique was a challenge and upwind boat speed was not there until I got dialed in.   

Where we did very well

We had good starts and didn't take any big risks.  Our boat speed in the final race was very good upwind and our boat speed downwind was solid all regatta.  Just good and solid all around sailing with no big mistakes.  We showed poise and we were consistent.   

Eric Bussell
FS#6135 Wildcard