2010 Thistle Carolina Districts

2010 Thistle Carolina Districts
April 24-25
Report by Scott Griffin #3997

Dieball Sailing powered Thistles finish 1,2,3!  

Having sailed against each other in both Thistles and J-24's for many years, Chip Till and I came up with a plan to team up for this event.  Our preparation included: one phone call to determine what time to meet Saturday morning, two e-mails to find a place to stay Saturday night (thank you Amy & Charlie Hitlin) and three text messages in route to get the sandwich order right (if you put holes in Provolone, does that make it Swiss cheese?).  All of this planning worked out perfectly as we rolled into the parking lot at the same time and had the boat rigged and ready to launch in short order.  We were joined by 11 other teams and despite a questionable forecast, there was decent breeze (5 - 7 knots) and the sun was out as we sailed to the race course.  Since this was our first time sailing together we spent most of our pre-race time working out our boat handling and communication.  We took a minute to line up next to a couple of other boats and quickly realized that our Dieball Sailing sails were setting up nicely and we felt very quick.  Before the start of race one, we came up with a game plan to be a little more aggressive in sailing to the puffs than usual tactics based two factors: (1) the wind was fairly consistent in direction, but very up and down in strength and (2) the forecast for Sunday was 20 - 35 mph winds with possible thunderstorms, meaning we may have a one day regatta. 
 
For the first race, we had great speed off the line and managed to get an early lead.  As we worked up the middle of the course, the fleet was mostly to our right.  The wind was dropping but as we looked up the course, we felt the top right looked to have the best pressure.  We tacked to port to cross over the top of the fleet in order to protect the right.  To our surprise, the wind filled back in from the left and we found ourselves on the outside of a 25 degree shift.  We rounded the weather mark about 8th, but the fleet was pretty tight.  By staying in good pressure, gybing on a couple of shifts and great spinnaker work by Chip, we managed to round 2nd at the leeward mark behind Tim Elfenbein and just ahead of Kevin Bradley in third.  The second beat was almost a mirror image of the first, with the wind shifting right 30 degrees late and this time we were caught too far left of several boats.  Tim stayed in the lead, with John Norton and Steve Cardoze moving into 2nd and 3rd.  Bradley rounded 4th with us in 5th.  That turned out to be the finishing order, except that we were able slip by Bradley on the run. 

In our post race debrief, Chip and I reviewed the good and the bad.  We had a good start; great speed (up and down); good decisions downwind; good boat handling; and we hit the first couple of shifts on each upwind leg.  However, we had missed the last and biggest shift of both upwind legs.  Our pre-race strategy of going after the breeze had backfired for a couple of reasons: (1) we were wrong about where the pressure was at the top of the course; and (2) we were too aggressive with respect to our fleet positioning.  Having learned the lesson, we decided to focus on using our speed and trying to stay in better position relative to the fleet in order to minimize the risk as much as possible.  However, we now needed to make up some points.
 
In the second and third race, we had good starts and were quick off the line.  Although it was not as shifty as the first race, there were a lot of position changes in the top 3 - 5 of both races.  We managed our fleet situation better than the first race, which kept us near the front throughout.  We managed to just edge out another Dieball Sailing customer, Kevin Sheehan, to win the second race.  We also won the third race after battling Lincoln Baxter and Kevin Bradley in the early legs.  As we headed for the dock we reflected on a difficult day and were thankful that we had learned our lesson in the first race.  We felt fortunate to be leading on a day where everyone had at least one tough race.
 
The thunderstorms held off Sunday morning and the wind was not quite as much as forecast.  Race four was sailed in 12-14 knots with a couple of bigger gusts while for race five it was 13-18 knots with some monster (22+) puffs.  Chip and I worked hard to keep the boat as flat and balanced as possible.  Sailing with Dieball Sailing sails, we used the "vang sheeting" method to depower upwind.  We usually had the jib eased an inch or two to keep the slot open.  However, we found that in the biggest puffs, Chip would have to ease the jib 8 - 10 inches as I let the main out to or even past the back corner of the boat.  By doing this, we were able to keep the main from ragging and also keep the boat in balance even in the biggest puffs.  This technique seemed to work as we had great speed.  Steve Cardoze, Kevin Sheehan and Sara Paisner, all sailing with sails from Dieball Sailing, were also very quick in the breeze.  Kevin took two seconds moving up to third overall.  Sara was third in race four and was in second in race five before capsizing on the crazy fast final run.  Steve Cardoze continued his consistent sailing and finished second overall and commented that he was very happy with his Dieball Sailing Thistle Sails!

Thanks to Thistle Fleet 155 for hosting a great event!