Layin the smack down at Charleston Harbor Challenge
Posted on 21. Sep, 2009 by admin in recents
Charleston is always a fun event especially when your on a freakin conveyor belt. We kicked the regatta off super strong with a 2nd in the first race and then a near bullet in the second race, just got poked out by David Dabney and crew but we were happy with our 2nd. The next two races brought us a little bit of a challenge as winds started to crank up a bit, we lost some of our game and decided to go shrimping instead of sailing apparently. Somehow the good old faithful Cre843 kite hung in there and got us some good mid fleet finishes despite the bad sets. We were still happy with the day as we had really good pace on all the boats, and rounded almost every mark top 3. Going into day 2 we were 2 points out of second with our larger drop. So we all knew it was very possible to do what we needed to do.
After a little debriefing over taco boy that evening, we decided we need to come out day 2 with dual guns shooting like we just robbed a freakin bank and shut the door on anyone remotely close to us. That we did, we busted out 2,3,2 and called it a regatta.
Unfortunately there was a little drama on the course with a few of the competitors not playing by the rules and ultimately being faced with the raft of having to withdraw from the event, which bumped a few of our scores even higher. We were very happy with the 2nd place overall finish, and congratulations to John Lucus and Steve Kopf for also placing top 3. Steve and Chris Hamilton put on a hell of a regatta and really made it a point for fair game, which is what it’s all about right?
We pulled a all nighter and just got back to the port at about 10am this morning. Thanks to Cameron, Jeff, Seth, and of course wonderful wife Beth for kicking some ass out there and out hiking every one on the course. From here, we are on Hiatus, a little waterline systems keel repairs and then Rocksteady is off to worlds without us..=( Good luck to her, and the great team that has the privilege of using her.
Here are the final results.
http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=2369
Dear Cary,
I am the bowman aboard Big Sky. Really enjoy racing against your team. I’ve noticed that when the kite goes up that you do not roll up the jib. I was wondering if this is something that you do all the time or maybe just when the breeze was up. Just would like to know what your thoughts are on this…..Richard
Hey RIchard, great seeing you guys. Looks like you have that new boat moving! The JIb out this is new to the american fleet, it started over in Europe. Dave Ullman talks a little bit about it here at the end of his interview at europeans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4YH_Y6V6f4&feature=player_embedded#t=186
Seems to be the thing to do in anything but light air. You will notice it’s a little harder for the trimmer on the kite to keep it full but it really seems to do the trick. We had one of the oldest kites on the course by far in this last regatta and we were blazingly fast downwind with this new technique, seems to make sense.