S2 7.9 Meter Class Association

Last Sundays races were run in some great conditions: The first race was a double WL in about 12 - 22 mph of breeze and the second triple WL in a little more breeze with gusts to 28 mph and slightly higher. Garry Roberts and crew sailed very well. In our PHRF A fleet with 10 boats on the line, they took a 4th in the first race after having the wrong headsail up for most/all of that time (correct me Garry if I'm wrong) and then took a strong first in the second race using the jib! In this 6 mile race they crossed the line only 1.5+ minutes behind a custom 30 footer and 2 minutes 12 seconds in front of the leading J-24 which is helmed by a very good sailor and crewed the same way usually!!!!!!

I'm the RC chairman and after the fleets get going I cruise the course watching for mishaps and taking pictures. I got a sequence of Garry going into a death roll and don't know HOW the boom didn't come across, but the pics speak for themselves. "Giant" Vicki Tuthill (95 lbs) can be seen standing on the cabin top with her back to the boom........................................ I have since warned her of EVER doing that again in winds that are strong enough to keep the boom out without help. It would NOT have been a good day for her if that boom had come across. I dare say that she would have been thrown into the lake at least and possibly severely injured!!!!

These shots are in sequence and I'm upwind of them, so you can see how far by the lee they got!!!!!!!!! It's supremely ironic that the vang being too loose is what lead to the rolling to begin with and at the same time is probably WHY the boom stayed over: look at how loose the leech is!

I forgot to add that Garry's crew said that they hit 9+ knots this day!!!! Also, although the wind strength in the first race wasn't really too much for the boat with the Genoa, ESPECIALLY with 6 people, most of time only four of those were hiking and I'm still working on Garry about flattening the sails out more to upshift................................................................

Dave, great pics and a nice write up. Thanks for posting them. Thanks to Garry Roberts and crew as well.

I've got two questions.
(1) Just how much does Vicki Tuthill bench press anyhow? Like 350 lbs? More? Man that's impressive.
(2) How come you red kite guys hate your downwind spotters?
Cripes, there was this red kite guy at the Chicago NOODs a few years ago who flicked his foredecker off the boat....right in front of a whole pack of T10s. Sent him flying through the air like Raggedy Andy out of a potato gun. And the foredecker was a really nice guy. He even got back on the boat with 'Captain Flick'.
)

Thanks Tom, I'm still learning the new camera but it's sweet! As to Vicki: She could have been built like Arnold Schwarzenegger and it would have been for naught if either of the 2 things took place that I mentioned before!!! I have already talked to/mildiy chastised the bunch for ever letting her or anyone else be in this position in these conditions!!!! I can guarantee you that if that boom had flipped, she WOULD have been in the lake, and that is the best case scenario!!!! She could possibly have held on long enough to get pinned between the boom and rig before being knocked to the deck and THEN into the lake and possibly even unconscious!!!!! I was close and would have been on her like a cheap suite, but that won't always be the case! The water that day was had "warmed" to the mid 40s................................... now it's back to the 38 degree range!

Oh yeah....................... red means DANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the info for that race. It was exactly 1.01 statute miles from the leeward gate to the A fleet weather mark and the start finish line was about 70 yards to leeward of the gate. Even though this info didn't paste quite like it was copied as far as the columns go, you can see that Garry's elapsed time is 59:58 for a 3 x WL course + the distance from the line to the gate X 2. This means that the course length sailed was 6.0865
statute miles or 5.289 nautical miles, so their course VMG was just 2 seconds off of 5.289 knots!!!! They ARE improving!!!!

Race Results
24 Jan 10 Race 2

A FLEET Course:
WLWLWL
BOAT SCORE SHEET RESULTS
TIME AWARD Total Corrected Time Finish
Boat Type Sail H M S Code Place Seconds Seconds Place Place
11 Blair Hestir 30 1001 DNF 11 11
2 Daugherty/Claas J-24 4254 1 2 10 4030 3633 2 2
12 George Impulse 21 212 DNS 12
3 Hight J-24 3846 1 3 18 4098 3694 3 3
5 Jackson J-80 207 59 4 3844 3713 5 5
12 Kelley J-24 4297 DNS 12
11 Kittler J-80 131 DNF 11 11
4 Nigus J-24 4418 1 3 19 4099 3695 4 4
Parins/Bryant Meritt 25 2466
11 Redchief J-24 2224 DNF 11 11
1 Roberts S2 7.9 474 59 58 3898 3514 1 1
6 Schwarz K-30 971 58 21 3801 3934 6 6

Sailing that deep with the pole over extended in breeze like that will induce roll and a round down almost every time. They got lucky. Could have wrapped that pole backwards around the shrouds had it hit the water...

Should have flown your blooper, it would have smoothed out that roll.