PCC's

We participated in the Megles 24 PCC's this past weekend. It was by far the most fun I have had while sailing in a long time. The entire weekend we improved our crew work and continued to learn how to make this boat work. Unfortunately, our results don't really show that. Our first day we did a great job playing the shifts, but our starts were atrocious. The second day the wind really picked up, we had much better starts, but we were figuring out how to sail the boat downwind properly. We were spending so much time just working on boat speed we kind of let tactics slip to a secondary role and we lost a lot of boats upwind that were slower than us but played the shifts better.

Although we didn't place well, we are quickly learning the boat. With another solid week of practice in Santa Cruz we will hopefully be able to give a better performance at worlds. Photos of day 1 can be found here. Day 2 here.

This weekend has served to reinforce my feelings that the melges 24 class is the epitomy of one-design keel boat racing. Everyone is very friendly, quick to lend advice, and always provides encouragement. Here is a link to the photos of Karma on Day 2 that I sorted out.

Latitude mentions us

See!?! Even latitude 38 blames the other boat.

"Over at SFYC' s Resin Regatta, inconsistent sailing instructions led to some confusion in race two about how to round the leeward gate. Most fleets figured it out, but a confused Alerion Express and a Melges 24 literally crossed paths near the gate during the second race, resulting in damage to the Melges' starboard rail. With a temporary patch back at the dock that night, the Melges was back out on the race course the next day."

Sailing isn't supposed to be a contact sport (Pt 2)

This is what is looked like before Ashley Perrin hooked us up with the patch. You can see that the deck is pealed away aft of the hole. Also, we tried our best to keep it dry on the sail home, but the core was still slightly wet and had to be cut out around the damage and replaced. So while it wasn't a large hole, the fact that it went through the hull-deck joint makes it a major repair. Ashley was able to find a yard that is able to do the repair this week, so we will be back on the water next weekend.

Sailing isn't supposed to be a contact Sport

This last weekend was the Resin Regatta hosted by SFYC. Results are posted here.
Race 1
We were looking for a pin third of the line start, unfortunately, so where the other 11 boat out there. We ended up with good speed but too close to a boat to leeward, and they ended up pinching us off and we were forced to tack away to the right side of the course, which was not favored. By the time we had a clear lane to tack back to the left we were bounced back towards the middle of the course and unable to get to the pressure on the right side. We rounded in 8th at the first windward mark. We had a slow downwind which is basically due to me not keeping our momentum up. We recognized our errors, adjusted the rig a bit for the upwind, gained one boat back, and then had a great downwind going to the left side of the course and ended up sixth at the finish (about 7 seconds behing the next boat). The good thing is that the fleet had gotten pretty divided during this race, and we were with the lead pack. We were excited and ready for race 2.

Race 2
With a square line we opted for the boat end and had a good start with clean air. We were able to sail a clean upwind, go to the pressure on the right, and were sailing well. I don't recall were we rounded this race, but it doesn't really matter because it ended short. Coming into the leeward gate we were set up with 2 other melges 24 ahead of us. We saw two Alerion Express 28s going to the other gate. We assumed they were going to round the starboard gate and head off in the other direction. Unfortunately, they were a little confused and rounded from the outside the gate in and hardened up on the wind directly towards us. By the time we realize what was going on, I spun the boat as hard as I could, and since the Alerion is a heavy cruising boat that is double handed and much less maneuverable (especially when your main is still hard on) they plowed into our starboard bow. Race abandoned. I will post some more pics right after this post. When we got in the accident we were in 7th, but had been faster upwind than the two boats in front of us, so we figure we gave away a 6th, or maybe a 5th place.

MANY THANKS TO ASHLEY PERRIN WHO WAS ABLE TO MEET US AT THE DOCK AND PLACE A PATCH ON THE BOAT TO ALLOW US TO RACE SUNDAY. YOU ROCK ASHLEY!

Race 3
This was a rough race for us. We had the rig tuned a little too tight for the breeze and the chop, and I was trying to point too high, which in the end resulted in a poor finish of 9th place.

Race 4
This is the way you want to end your regatta. Although we new we had to abandon the race early in order to get the boat to the yard to be ready for next weekend's Pacific Coast Championships. We had the best start of our regatta. Crossed all but one boat, and although we were slow for a bit were set up to round the top mark in third. Unfortunately, I screwed up a duck of the SF fleet captain (I was still a little spooked by the fresh patch on the side of my boat) and we lost two boats right before layline. We ended up rounding in fifth and kept sailing upwind back to SFYC.

We are rounding the marks clean, we have the basic boat handling down. Unfortunately that is not all that is required to sail a melges well. The 24 is an extremely demanding boat that if you aren't giving it 100% you will not be going fast. That is why I love this boat. We are able to keep up with the top boats in the regatta, we just need to learn to shift gears more quickly and we will be moving up in the standings. We showed great promise, and great improvement during the regatta. Considering this is the first one design regatta we have sailed as a crew we are looking great.

Resin Regatta this weekend

We had two goals associated with bringing the boat to San Francisco. The first was to gain more heavy air experience in the boat. The second was to gain some more one-design experience vs. the two boat testing that we have been doing with Mark Surber on Derivative.

There is a fair bit of pre-regatta planning that goes into play before you can race. You want to start watching the weather a few days out. You also need to make sure you are figuring out the currents in the racing area. For Resin Regatta (and also PCC's) we will be racing in the Berkley Circle.

So what do we know so far? There is a chance of rain Saturday, but more importantly, it is looking like it is going to be very windy. This is very exciting, and everyone is looking forward to this. Boats like the melges are rockets off the wind. The acceleration is addictive, and some people have blamed the demise of the class in lighter venues due to the lack of this experience.

Besides the weather and conditions research, there is the movement of the boat. Nothing like using your family to help you out. Thank you Uncle John for helping with the move of the boat from Treasure Island to SFYC. Also David Mai, our SF based sailor is going to repair the "minor" keel damage that happened when we towed the boat north.

That is where we stand with 4 days left till we fly north and spend a great weekend on the water.

We will also try to update the blog after racing each day to keep you current with results.

Video Posted

I have posted two videos for your enjoyment. One is of us working the downwind run during the Winter Regatta in San Diego. The other video shows us working a practice session. You will see us working light air downwind into the bottom mark. Adam has a cool helmet cam that we mount to the stern pulpit to provide the footage.

The ability to record crew work has proven invaluable in synchronizing movement on the boat. For those that don't know, Karma is very light and sensitive to crew weight. Having the ability to quickly roll tack and roll gybe the boat makes manuevers much easier, and opens up many more options for the tactician.

Pictures

Just testing out Picassa. This should be a link to a photo album of us racing in the CRA Winter Regatta. The crew was Adam, Dave, Heather, Mike, and George. Everyone exept Heather will be racing worlds with us. Results.

Who we are

Our team is composed of five people for Melges worlds:

George Roland - helm
David Mai - tactician
Adam Storey - bow
Mike Casinelli - spin trim
Deborah Tamburri - jib trim

I am trying to figure out how to post photos, so standby. I will also start to include quick bios, this is a work in progress, so give me a break.

The start of something big

This blog is being created for people to follow along with the sailing team Karma whose is making a run at the Melges 24 world championships in Santa Cruz. Our primary support comes from Geoff Davis who is sponsoring us through his company Coronado Mobile Storage.
Our calendar is as follows:

April 14-15 Resin Regatta at San Francisco Yacht Club
April 21-22 Pacific Coast Championships at SFYC
April 29- May 2 Practice in Santa Cruz for Worlds
May 3- May 12 2007 Worlds.