Öckerö Shorthanded Race is one of the most fun races in our local waters. It attracts many of the best sailors along the coast and it sells out within a few hours from opening registration in spring.
It consists of 2 distance races between 20 and 30 NM, taking place on separate days. The events include hot-dogs at harbour and a dinner between race days. The whole event nicely arranged by the sailing club “De tio Öarnas SS“.
Last but not least, it is the last regatta included in the local Fjällmans Shorthanded Cup.
Divided in 3 classes based on handicap rating (green, yellow and red), we ended up as one of the “biggest” boats in the slowest class. Forecasts indicated predominantly winds from the East in the medium register.
We expected a fast but boring race, reaching most of the time with little possibility to think strategically. However, the race committee introduced a new course on race day which was complex, interesting and varied. Thanks for that!
DAY 1
We planned to start in the middle to stay clear of other boats and quickly come away from land and find more wind. The plan was good, however we ended up a little closer to land than we wanted. Immediately after crossing the line we sailed off the wind and could finally implement our strategy. It paid off and we only had 3 boats ahead of us, which had started even further down the line.
After the first rounding, South of Grötö, we decided to head for a longer route, between Grötö and Kalven, rather than the shorter option between Kalven and Björkö. We hoped to have more pressure and quickly reach East side of Öckerö and continue North.
As it turned out, yachts which sailed the shortest way did neither gain nor lose against us.
From here to the next rounding, the wind was light and disturbed and we wished we had a code. We lost ground against Bannie (Banner 30), which is lighter and carried a code; gained against Piri Piri (Banner 28r), much lighter but with only a jib; neither lost nor gained against Flamman (Smaragd), similar deplacement with a small code. So far so good.
The next long close-hauled leg was our winning leg. In this air, our genoa is really fast. We chose to sail where there was more pressure, in spite of the stronger current aginst. Here we overtook Bannie, Piri Piri and we closed the gap to Elektra (Beason 36) which led the race.
It felt good!
From here on, we had a mix of downwind/upwind/reaching with no drama. We could have probably squeezed out more speed. All monouvres went smooth, strategy was good and tactically, we left the approaching faster boats sail by without entering any pointless battle.
Once again, the long reaching stretch to the finish line could have been faster with a code. However, I am still convinced that with our large genoa, the register for a code is too small (Upgraded sail inventory and our reasoning). It is clear that we need to work on the reaching trim though.
We finished in 6th place in our class and 12th total out of 44 starting boats.
Good, but not as good as we hoped.
Day 2
Day 2 at Öckerö Shorthanded Race was fun, but not really our day.
Once again, we tried to mitigate the risk by starting in the middle and finding a spot. Execution was good, but we crossed slightly late and struggled to get clear air.
The downwind leg to St. Pölsan was fun and fast. We went through a small straight with Latika (Dehler 29) to leeward and Bannie to windward. Not able to either accelerate, sail up or down, we got stuck there for the entire leg.
That was probably the biggest mistake. And an unrecoverable one.
We realised that there was more pressure than expected and we were beyond the genoa’s cross-over. Expecting lesser pressure towards land, where we were heading, we decided to keep the genoa up with a big twist, flat bottom and flat main, until the wind decreased.
It did decrease, but after longer than we expected. We sailed overpowered for too long. I would guess that a headsail change would have paid off in the long run. This was probably our other defining mistake.
At the next rounding, the spinnaker came up wrong… down with it, untwisted, up with it again. I don’t think that it costed us a lot. Nevertheless, evrything adds up.
From here, we broad reached all the way to the next and last rounding, and succeeded carrying the spinnaker higher than usual and with good speed, gaining on the only 3 boats ahead and distancing some in our group behind. The larger/faster boats started approaching from behind and once again we avoided battling and raced our race.
The last jibe messed up and we probably lost whatever we gained on the previous stretch.
We crossed the finish line amongst the first group, but it wasn’t enough and we arrived 9th in our class and 19th total.
Öckerö Shorthanded Race results are published here
All in all, it was one the most fun race of the season with the right mix of everything.
I feel that we still need to figure out how to exploit our inventory on a few points of sail in specific registers. But things are going in the right direction!