District 1  Regatta Report

Sat Jun 30th, 2012

Regatta Base

2012 Marshall Brown

 

Report by Tomas Hornos:

The Marshall Brown regatta which has replaced the old Secretary’s Cup was sailed in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts on Saturday 6/30/12. Due to Coast Guard restrictions for the “Tall Ships” gathering, the regatta was turned into a one day winner takes all event.

8-9 boats showed up to race, however with the wind gusting to over 20 knots, some of the new fleet boats decided to stay ashore. In the end, 6 BH veterans made it out to the course which was set between Deer Isle and the airport pier. 3 races were held in a puffy and shifty 10-20 knot Southwesterly. Tomas Hornos sailing with Ted Engel (3rd generation Star sailor from Rockport) won all three races but was followed closely by Ron Sandstrom and Charlie Hagedorn. Lots of close mark roundings and luckily no wipeouts or breakdowns. Thanks to Peter Costa and John Siljander for helping out on the RC who ran 3 perfect length courses in time for everyone to make it for the Cottage Park Yacht Club’s “Blessing of the Fleet”. It was great to see old friends and especially new fleet members Blaise G who bought 7469 and Mark DeShong who bought 7408.

PS. After thinking for a bit it became apparent that although it was smart for our new guys not to go out and break something on one of their first times out, they should at least know the technique for probably one of the hardest maneuvers in a star, which is gybing in heavy air. Its funny because people say you shouldn’t go out in a star in breeze unless you know what you’re doing, however how do you learn techniques without first going out or someone telling you how its done. For new star owners, gybing in breeze is not easy and is definitely the riskiest thing on a star but there are techniques that make it a lot easier. In general it is harder to gybe in a puff than a lull and it is harder to gybe in flat water than waves. In breezy flat water conditions it is just smarter to plan your gybes ahead of time so that you are not forced to gybe in a puff. In waves, it is easiest to gybe while surfing so that the rig has less load on it. Things that make gybing easier are: trimming in main, easing vang, making sure ram is on, bringing the mast back any amount. Before the gybe, the main should be trimmed in to almost halfway to be safe and vang should be set for that mainsheet trim. Vang should not be too tight that the boom could hit the water after gybing and not too loose that the boat would be very unstable after boom crosses. There are two theories for the pole, either before main crosses or after. The safe bet is to do before and have it set for the new side, however some people say that keeping it up and doing the main first allows the boat to keep speed up and not load up right before the main crosses. One of the most effective techniques is actually driving through the gybe (S gybing), you want to bear off just enough for the main to start coming over and then as soon as its fully committed to crossing you point the bow down to release the pressure on the main. Most importantly, doing these maneuvers with lots of anticipation is critical and remember that you have to trust your crew!


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: 1 2 3 Total
1 8187   Tomas Hornos   Ted Engel   8187   1.0 1.0 1.0 3
2 7468   Ron Sandstrom   Charlie Hagerdorn   7468   2.0 2.0 2.0 6
3 7629   Ken Woods   Bill Patton   7629   3.0 3.0 3.0 9
4 8052   Stephen Braverman   Johannes   8052   5.0 4.0 4.0 13
5 8067   Luis Hornos   Scott Shaffer   8067   4.0 5.0 5.0 14
6 7732   Gary Macdonald   Ted Lavery   7732   6.0 6.0 6.0 18
7 7408   Mark DeShong   Patrick McDonough   7408   9.0 [DNS] 9.0 [DNS] 9.0 [DNS] 27
7 7469   Blaise G   Jiim   7469   9.0 [DNS] 9.0 [DNS] 9.0 [DNS] 27

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