Recon – Thursday evening, June 6, 2013—Even though the boat isn’t in the water, wanted to observe a race and see what the competition will look like.  We took up our positions at a very nice restaurant on the water front at 6:00 pm.  Our plan was to have a drink, then an appetizer, then dinner, then dessert and maybe we could see more than one race.  Turned out we didn’t need the dessert.  The pork chop took forever; we saw two races.   

The first race starts at 1830, but by 6:15 only two sloop rigged dinghies were out.  There were about ten Lasers—but they race as a separate class.  Then an inflatable went right past our window seating with two International 420’s in tow—the kind I used to sail in college.  They hauled ass out to the committee boat, but they were about four minutes late to the start.  However, one of the 420's hit the line flying and caught up to the lead boat.  At the weather mark all four were spread out with the late starter a close second.  On the downwind leg two of the boats popped chutes.  One was the late 420 that eventually finished first. 

Observations:  The 420 with the chute will be the guy to beat.  He is fast and somehow managed the spinnaker single-handed--of course the winds were only about six knots.  Even with a late start, he finished first.  Nobody is much of a starter.  They all kind of sat on the line and sheeted in hard when it was time to go.  (Back in the day, I loved the start with all the boats in tight, trying to push the upwind guys over early, hitting the line full speed, sheets down tight, water over the rail--well, maybe with just four boats and light wind it's no big deal.)

Not so much on tactics—the leader never covered second who had a good shot at beating him.  On the final leg the second boat sailed away from the rhumb line and picked up some air that we could see even from the restaurant.  In that maneuver second picked up about 200 yards of distance and finished second by about 40 feet. Of course this is Portsmouth rules so who knows who corrected out at what time!

 We will need a chute eventually but we can have some fun the first year without it.  The C-Lark has a much bigger main than the four boats we saw last night.  Generally the South Sound winds are light on summer evenings and we should be able to gybe easily enough.  Not sure, but I suspect the C-Lark’s fastest point of sail on down wind legs will be a very broad reach.  The bottom flattens rapidly after the center board, and I think there will be too much wetted area straight downwind.  We'll see; the Clarks who built these boats were a lot smarter than I am. 

 

Conclusion:  Feeling like we will have to pay our dues, but we should be competitive eventually.  (PS the dinner was great, but too salty.)

The C-lark sails fast, has small air tanks, easy to turtle, tough to empty.



A 420.  Note the large tanks.  These boats are easy to right and drain quickly.
That particular kick-up rudder doesn't look too sturdy.