A long awaited race. Stora Oset Race opened our racing season.
In spite of a low attendance, at merely 10 boats, Stora Oset offered beautiful conditions and an interesting race.
Light air, forecasted to die out later during the day. And yet, the racing committee decided to go for the long course, in hope that the sunny day would bring a sea breeze in the afternoon. Which it fortunately did.
The first leg oscillated between reaching and broad reaching, with the wind progressively backing until it brought us on a close reach.
We decided to sail our tightest angle at 110TWA and carry the heavier gennaker from the start. Even if it meant sailing lower than the mark. On this point of sail, Veloce is really fast and we quickly left the fleet behind.
From here, the fight began in earnest. Closed hauled and against the current, we struggled to squeeze out all speed for a while and a lot of the fleet, especially the larger boats, caught up. Fast in light air, once we found the right trim, we held our position until the next rounding at Grötö.
A beautiful downwind, with good pressure. We could not plane and went in soaking mode, trying to sail as low as possible. Way beyond our target angles, often at angles wider than 165degrees TWA. It paid off and we gained considerably on the fleet.
At Stora Oset lighthousr. we saw a few boats in front of us struggling to fly their spinnakers and decided to take down in good time. Once again on a broad reach, most competitors kept South of the rumbline to compensate for a current which wasn’t there. We decided to sail the shortest course, which allowed us to sail a deeper angle and fly the asymmetric all the way.
After rounding Stora Pölsan, the most Western mark, most of the fleet were caught in a windless hole. At 1kt boat speed, we decided to change spinnaker and go for the super-light one.
What a weapon!
While the rest of the competitors struggled to hold steering ability, we glided along at 3.5kt. Sometimes life is really good.
With the wind veering to the SW, we could keep the asym flying all the way to the finish line swishing at almost 7kts.
We came 2nd total, with good margin from the 3rd place, just behind Farrgo (a Farr 30) won big time. They sailed wonderfully well, as usual. Looking back, they sailed very well the second leg, when we struggled to get the boat rolling fast, and therefore, Farrgo has likely suffered less of the wind hole. In other words, we just need to be faster!
A good result!
Results:
