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Click on the links directly below to see the results for:
2006 Races
Sayer Series September 17th, 2006 - download Results: Race 1 Race 2 Final
The weekend went well in that we finished better than we started. Saturday we did the EBYRA Fall Series and we needed to finish first in the second race to come in first or beat Choucas to come in second. We finished third and came in third. We had a guest crew for tactics and pit, Chris Hubbard.
We did well but got foiled by light winds as we finished both races.
Unfortunately we did not have enough wind to close in on our targets. Richie did the main, Danika and Anthony did jib, Anthony on spin and Lourdes and Natalie on foredeck. The boat was quiet and worked well. We had good boat speed most of the time and by the end of the day our jibes and tacks were getting very good.
We did straighten out the jenny hoist issue by lubricating the luff of the sail. It is working much better now. Although we are not using the roller furler until we can solve the problem of chewing up the halyard.
VICTORY in the Sayer Series -- Light Winds, two races but not around Hart Island.
Eagle took on the CIYC racers and except for Chaika and Whirlwind it was the same CIYC group from Wednesday nights, except we were in with part of division 5--Excalibur, Mustang Sally and Wild Child.
We had Tom on helm, Danika on jib and I did tactics, main and foredeck, yes foredeck. Danika was not feeling well, Tom had a bad shoulder and I also was suffering (I think from tainted spinach). It was exciting although another day of light winds made it possible to do well with a shorthanded crew.
Our start in the first race was on the money. We stayed right and eventually passed the entire fleet crossing first overall. Fortunately we were on an angle that allowed us to pole out the jib; it helped a lot to stabilize the boat in the light air and enabled us to power up when others did not. The race was shortened but we had gained a good lead on our division by then.
In the second race our start was not as good and we were behind Exhilaration. We were able to stay right again and got into a duel with Excalibur. Eventually we played the same tactics we deployed in the Distance Race when we went past Exhilaration. At the first mark we got into a gaggle of about six boats and both Mustang Sally and Excalibur gained and past us. Cold Duck pushed us down, but we fought back and got to the line just behind Mustang Sally. She was pinching hard and we were on a good line with good speed. We corrected on her by 15 seconds and that gave us the second bullet of the day. Excalibur finished behind us. I am sure that we would have powered past her and would have won easily without corrected time if the race had not been shortened.
Congratulations to all.
Ernie
CIYC Distance race August 12/13 -download results
Eagle takes first, besting Exhilaration by over ten minutes!
This was one of the most exciting races I have ever been in. We were in a duel with Exhilaration for twenty miles to Cable and Anchor. At the start we were on the line, but not the favored end, so we were the last boat in the chain of boats with Exhilaration leading the parade.
By the time we got to Manhasset Bay we were right behind Exhilaration, the lead boat. 18 miles and numerous lead changes and tacking duels later we were at the mark only seconds in front of Exhilaration. During the last several miles we achieved enough separation to take enough of a lead where he could not get in front of us again. That whole downwind leg was a fight were we were often only a few boat lengths separating us. The crew’s trim skills were what kept us going—Anthony was on the spinnaker then the main helping Roger who had only been on the boat once before. At times, the wind strength needed two of them to keep the main trimmed. Natalie jumped into the pit to help Volker and Anthony on the spin. Lourdes was doing a lot of jib trimming spelling Volker when he was on the spin. It was a lot of fun as both boats were so close as to talk to each other—we were enjoying the competition.
By the time we got to the mark, Cable and Anchor, we thought we were on the correct side of the mark (we still think we are correct), we were ahead of Exhilaration by seconds and clearing five other boats in a separate race. Chris yelled over that we were going around the mark the wrong way. We exchanged a few words and since he is the Regatta chair, I decided to tack over and go around in the other direction. At that point we are behind them and the adrenaline is pumping even more to catch up.
We kept looking for wind as the wind started to go soft. We crossed tacks with Exhilaration and were catching up when a couple of hours later we were more towards the middle of the LIS with the tide against us and no wind (more than an hour of frustration). The lobster pots began to make time on us (Exhilaration dropped her anchor to keep from going further east). We saw Forza in lots of wind along the Connecticut shore. They were miles behind us and now catching up! We finally crawled our way north enough to the Connecticut shore to pick up some wind. The rest is history as we crossed the line almost 12 hours into the race and in front of everyone else in our division. We were the highest PHRF so no one owed us time.
We partied on Eagle with Exhilaration joining us as we served pasta with Volker’s homemade great pasta sauce.
This race proved that we have good boat speed, a great crew (They were fantastic—I was extremely happy and proud of their/your efforts. Everyone did a great job—some of which they did for the first time!!) and the capability of beating Exhilaration on a boat for boat duel. I have to really thank Anthony, Natalie, Lourdes, Roger and Volker as their work was great. Anthony on main with Roger, spin trim, pit and navigation; Natalie on foredeck, pit and helm; Lourdes on foredeck and jib trim; Roger on main and navigation; Volker on foredeck, spin trim; jib trim; helm and tactics. To say one was better than the other would be unfair as everyone contributed immensely to our success. We hope Roger is able to come out again. The boat was quiet and effective; the race was not only exciting and exhilarating, but fun. THANKS in making me proud for the second weekend in a row. Now on to more successes!!
EBYRA Race # 10 July 26th-Download results (pdf) - click here.
Last night we did well and except for the spin coming out of its bag early at the first downwind mark and a late start we did well. As for the spin coming out, my guess is that it was an aberration and not human error. The same can be said of the start. Tom did very well driving and the confusion was that we either did not hear the initial warning before the five minute sequence or we did not notice the prep flag going down at the 1 minute mark or the RC not take the prep flag down. In any event we started on port tack and behind everyone. We slowly made time on the fleet and passed three boats. We did not have enough time to catch Chaika once again. Everyone did better this time; our spinnaker sets were slower and a bit more confusing this time but not disastrous. The rest of the activity—communication and trim were a bit better than last week. The take downs were much better than last week. We did have a problem with the roller furler when a messenger line fouled it at the top. I am going to move the messenger line completely off the mast so that won’t happen again and to make Natalie happy. Must keep the foredeck happy. Speaking of being happy—the head is fully functional with new parts. Richie and I managed to get it going.
We finished 7 out of 10 and are 10 out of 13 for the season. We still have work to do.
Thanks to everyone that came out. We actually had eleven and were good sports by lending Wild Child Lourdes and Ron. Thanks to them for accepting the challenge. Next week please confirm by Monday. If not, we will end up with eleven and having it a bit crowded. However, we still need to get people fully trained in their positions so having a few more won’t hurt.
EBYRA Race # 7 Wed June 28th-Download results (pdf) - click here.
Race results for June 28th were pretty good considering that we had a failed spinnaker halyard at the beginning of the second downwind mark.
The race started out very well with a start that put us right on the start line, windward to everyone else and close to the RC boat. It is nice to have a good start. Upwind we were in the thick of it and I thought for a moment we were going to be the first ones to the mark, but we were not. So our tactics and sail trim were serving us well. The tacks were getting better as we went up the course. We still need to be mindful that the lazy jib sheet needs to have very little slack. When it had a lot of slack, trimming was slow and sloppy because it took too long to make up for the slack. The releasing jib trimmer should ensure the lazy sheet is snug, not tight, and on the winch ready for the next tack before jumping to hike out.
The first mark rounding went fairly well with our trusty foredeck of Natalie and Volker. Anthony trimmed and everyone else played their part. The jibes were ok, still a little slow, so we need to work on it. But despite all that, we were still in the thick of it. Remember Chaika and us are the slowest boats in the division.
The first upwind mark rounding hurt us big time as we went a number of boat lengths beyond the mark. We need to work on why the spinnaker douse is our weakest point. Once we know where the disconnect is we can work on getting the douse right. It appeared that the pole downhaul was not secured and the guy and sheets may have been too tight.
The second spin set was pretty good, but of all the things to go wrong, the halyard let go of the shackle shortly after the launch. It was not a pretty sight seeing the spinnaker trailing us in the water. However, the crew jumped to secure the sail and once again the trusty foredeck managed to get the second halyard set up and launch the other spinnaker. They have never done that before so hands off to them and to all for rescuing the spinnaker. The back of the boat kept us going while the front with Anthony worked—congrats to them—Steve, Richie, and Tony, when we finally got the second spin up, we were making time on Chaika. Once again, we lost to them because we ran out of time. (I focus on Chaika, Exhilaration and Whirlwind because they are good and if we beat them we will be in top rung.)
Unfortunately, either the spinnaker or the halyard was twisted very badly and instead of taking it down, we sailed with the spinnaker working at 70 %. One suggestion to clear it up is to let the halyard out and see if the sail untwists. The halyard is a bit heavier than a normal spin halyard and it does not have a swivel shackle so I am not sure if that would have worked. Hopefully I can re-reeve the halyard Saturday and put on the spin halyard a swivel shackle so untwisting a spinnaker will be easier. That is the good news.
Obviously we are getting better—start was good, upwind and downwind leg trim was strong (Exhilaration was watching us climb on them downwind), sets were good, problem solving second downwind spin loss was good. The douse needs to be better as well as cleaning up the jibes and tacks. I am not worried about the jibes and tacks as I think we will be very strong next Wednesday. Our tactics are also improving. We are still in the bottom third of the fleet, but I think we can move to the middle next week and be in the top third in a couple of weeks. We are better than last year and now people know it
EBYRA Race # 5 Wed June 14th-Download results (pdf) - click here.
We had a full crew last night, but most were in new positions. Tom lead the crew and worked on course on tactics, Richie was on main, Natalie on bow, Volker on mast, Steve in pit and Emily and Ron were on jibs.
Our sailing was pretty good last night and except for the one problem on a jibe, we executed well. The main trim was interesting--because the main needs to be centerlined, Richie ended up holding to windward the mainsheet between the blocks rather than sheeting in. Using the sheet to trim in the main with the traveler all of the way up appeared to not work as well. His solution seemed to work, but there must be a better way since that is not normally how you would trim the main. We need to work on that. There is a fine tuning system in the locker that I was waiting to install when we changed the traveler. But maybe we will use it next week.
Other solutions were popping up all night as crew input was used to make us go faster. The results were coming in 6th out of 9 boats. We still have a ways to go, but as we become more experienced, our efficiency and fleet placement should increase. Right now we are 10 out of 13 in the division, but we need to move up.
I spoke to Chris and Ed Austin about what Chris did to his forestay. He installed a turnbuckle at the top of the forestay. He was faster than we were. I know his spinnaker looks bigger, but supposedly, we have the same size so aside from tuning tricks and a bigger genoa, it is crew work. We sailed most of the same course as they did and were off the starting line pretty close to them. The two other hot boats we need to be mindful are Whirlwind and Chaika.
Since Chris is going to be at Block Island Race Week next Wednesday, I invited Ed Austin and his wife Carrie to sail with us to see if we can get some “mojoe” going. We have a full crew, but Natalie and Anthony will be out. Tony said he will be back. That will give us ten if they come along with the normal Wednesday night crew, so I need to know who is coming and who is not.
City Island Race - June 10-11
Eagle takes second in the non-spinnaker division!!!! We sailed in heavy air both days, so crew ballast was critical. We had a couple of no shows that put pressure on us to go into the non-spinnaker division.
Strong crew work from Natalie, Volker Koch, Craig Posen and Barbara kept us in the race. The perennial winner, Snow Goose was too much for us. Saturday, we did not race, but again Natalie and Volker came out with, Rich Palmer, Danika Motova and Maria Herman. Saturday’s racing was called because of too much wind but Natalie, Volker, Danika and I went out any way and under a reefed main and a number 3, we were doing over 8 on a broad reach! We kept the speed up throughout the sail until we saw a rip in the top batten area of the jib. Fortunately UK got it fixed in time for Sunday’s races.
Sunday was exciting and great racing. The first race we sailed the wrong course so we won that division!!! We were wondering why we were the only one going to the mark. Unfortunately, we were the only one in that division and they would not score us. We picked up the pace in the subsequent races. Our crew coordination improved throughout the day.
The second exciting thing that happened that could have been a disaster was a crossing with Crossbow, a Benateau 36. No one on Eagle saw them and only at the last minute did I hear a yell from them calling for starboard rights. We crashed tack, narrowly missing Crossbow and losing a winch handle in the process.
We picked up two more crew members in Danika and Volker. Volker will be able to join us on Wednesday nights. Both of them come with racing and good sailing experience. Volker is job hunting in the fashion industry in NYC--good that there is a big fashion industry n NYC, bad because his schedule may not be his own. We wish him well in the job search. He is flexible and can help on the foredeck as well as the back of the boat.
Because of picking up three people who are new to us, but not new to sailing, we should be in good shape on Wednesday nights and weekends.
2005 Races
EBYRA RACE #1 - Wed May 18th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
We broke new ground for three crew as it was their first time in a race or on a sailboat. The night started a little shaky as the patch for main was not correct and the expected patch material was not available. Tony and I put on a temporary patch. I will get another tonight. The two other items were the calibration of the wind instrument. It is still not right. I need to study it as we are still not getting wind speed info. And we never got to finishing the topsides.
Onto the race. With the help of Excalibur captain and two crew, George on main and Christine with Charlie at the bow, we were able to beat our sister boat and miss the position in front of us by only 8 seconds—now you know how close racing can be. Congratulations to the crew as we were able to perform some tasks that were new to everyone with a degree of effectiveness. We ought to pat ourselves on the back.
Every race will be an opportunity to hone our skills. I am sure the next race will be even smoother. For this race we had Tom on the helm, George on the main, Tony and Sjana on the jib, Johan in the pit and Alison and Cindy training at the bow with Charlie and Christine.
Our start was ok as we ended up at what we thought was the place to be, but in reality, the RC Boat would have been better in that we got a lot of bad air being downwind from the fleet. We always have good upwind speed and caught up to the fleet at the first mark when a wind shift caught everyone with the spinnaker up when we needed to just keep going with the Genoa. Good foredeck work, kept the damage to a minimum. We got going and by the time we got to the second mark we caught up to several boats. The downwind finish allowed us to catch at least one more boat. We almost made up the 8 seconds on Choucas.
Next Wednesday, Phoenix and Chaika should be out. They are the two top boats in our division. We are in the most competitive division in Western Long Island Sound racing so we know the racing will not be easy. We will be still able to avail ourselves of the Excalibur crew, so I am sure we will gain from their input.
EBYRA RACE #2 - Wed May 25th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
We did not finish well; we came in last. However, the bright spots are that we did repair the Dutchman fittings in the main and the main held up to gusts of 28 mph or kph. I do not know which as our wind instrument still needs to be calibrated.
On board we had the Excalibur contingent for the last time; Tom on the main, Tony on jib trim and Tom’s friend, Dan on the other side for jib trim. We had an exciting start. By the time we got off the mooring (still trying to get the main repaired as we could not sail without the washers in place), we were coming up fast on our start. Thanks to everyone pitching in, we got rigged and ready to go. Up went the main (oops—the Genoa sheet was fouled with the Dutchman lines), got that untangled, so then the main goes up, next the Genoa, now the tack and clew were not properly secured so it came down and Charlie and Christine went to work. The jenny went up using the #2 Genoa. We still managed to get off the line with the rest of our division. We were only a few seconds behind.
The winds were strong and everyone was hiking out while Tom and I worked the boat upwind. Leeward to us was Crossbow. Charlie was concerned about not having the #3 up but we worked as best we could. Unfortunately, I forgot we have a roller furling and could have rolled in the jenny a bit to ease the pressure on the boat and act as if we were sailing with a #3 (having sailed with no roller furler for years, I keep forgetting its advantages). At time we were doing between high 5 and low 7s. Fast but we started a bit late and we are the slowest boat in the division.
Now comes the crossing with Crossbow. They tacked over and we were on a collision course. No big deal as we had plenty of time to keep clear. We tacked just before they got to us and the sheet on the jib flew off! Not good. Sailing under main alone is not fast and we got overtaken by Crossbow. However, a gust came as they passed us and in combination with their wind shadow, it made for an interesting meeting. I called for the main to go down and despite Tom putting it down (we need only to drop the traveler), we still rounded up and crossed Crossbow’s stern fairly closely. It made their night.
By the time we got the jenny secured for the second time, we were really out of contention. After crossing the next mark, at Charlie’s suggestion we put a block on the rail and he kept the jenny out during the two down wind legs. At one point we hit 9 knots on the knot meter; however most of the time it was in the 6-7 range with bursts into the 8 and to 9 once. It was fast but not as fast if we had the spinnaker up.
While not finishing in the money, we had fun and only broke the deck cover to the manual bilge pump. The crew had fun, the boat and rig held up well and it appears Tom’s friend Dan will be joining us again. We sailed so fast that even with a long course we got in for burgers and beer by 9:00. All in all a good evening.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #3 - Wed June 1st - Download results (pdf) - click here.
EBYRA RACE #4 - Wed June 8th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
Well, we did beat Material Girl. Tacking away from Crossbow was likely the biggest reason we lost contact with the fleet. We were in their bad air for a number of minutes, but still in the thick of it and ahead of Exhilaration. We almost caught Exhilaration at the end, but then our wind died.
On a good note, we did improve our spinnaker work and our general crew work was pretty good. The bow will be in the hands of Cindy and Alison with my support next Wednesday unless we come up with an experienced foredeck crew. I think as we go into the season our crew work will continue to improve. The lessons we learned last night is that the spinnaker needs to be fully deployed before furling the jib. The spin halyard got caught up in the furler twice despite unfurling the jib and refurling it. The second big lesson is that the foredeck needs to keep an eye on the up course weather. The helm is watching the sails and cannot be always looking up the course.
Once again thanks to Excalibur for their support with Charlie, George and Matt.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #5 - Wed June 15th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
Congratulations.
We beat Starship Wednesday night. How will they sail the new one??
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #6 - Wed June 22nd - Download results (pdf) - click here.
Last nights race went fairly well despite the long delay waiting for wind. Thanks to Christine who I recruited at the last minute (she was at the bus stop waiting to go home) giving us six good sailors who are improving with every race.
Aside from the Race Committee foul-ups starting the race one minute early catching us more off guard than the others and not signaling our finish for a number of seconds after we crossed the line (it would not have changed our position), it was a great night. We had to wait for wind until well past 7:30.
We were up at the front at the first mark and had a good spinnaker set, kept up with the second and third boats until a spinnaker gybe went wrong. We lost a little time there and rounding the windward mark, we again had a problem with the roller furler. Now that we know what causes the problems, we are in a better shape to deal with them. However, we lost some ground. We got back into the thick of it closing in on the downwind mark, but again after the turn, the jib gave us a problem and we took it down rather than trying to furl it.
Anthony and Sjana did the spin work as well as main and jib respectively; Christine continued to train Natalie on the foredeck and she is doing very well there. Johan remained in the pit where he is improving, but most importantly, he is our spin fireman. He jumped to the foredeck to deal with the tangled spin when it got caught on the forestay. He has been doing that a lot lately.
While we finish 5th out of 6, we were in the fight all the way, thus I know we are improving. The light winds helped enabled the crew to continue learning under ideal circumstances.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #7 - Wed June 29th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
EBYRA RACE #8 - Wed July 7th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
We had a successful sail last night after we manage to fix the few things that needed fixing and calibration of the wind instrument. We picked up Dave Z, a stellar foredeck, who was helpful in developing the foredeck skills of Natalie and Anthony. One of the things a good foredeck person has to do is assist in tactics to include the start. Dave was showing them those items as well.
We also had a new crew, Lars, Sjana friend. He worked the main. He comes with some sailing experience, but light racing experience. Very helpful.
We had good boat speed throughout most of the race except we were not as fast downwind as we needed to be. That continues to be our problem. My guess is new sails will help, but we are not there yet. Speaking of being there. Last night was very fruitful in that we seemed to be gelling as a crew. Everyone is getting the hang of it and there were really no problems other than a loose jib sheet. We are improving. Now we need to concentrate on boat speed and then tactics. We did beat Enterprise.
We got a surprise visit from Mommy Resa and baby. They (Tom, Resa and Jeanne) were all glowing.
Remember to be there next Wednesday by 6:00. We need to be off the mooring at 6:30 and onto the course to practice and check the wind angles. If you cannot be there, call me. The only time I will wait is if we have too few crew to race. But you should still call—time and tide waits for no one.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #12 - Wed Aug 3rd - Download results (pdf) - click here.
These are the results for last night. I checked our finish time against Chinook so we were correctly noted. I think we did well considering we had a new spin trimmer and main trimmer. Our start was a bit shaky in trim, position and timing, but we were not very far off. I will look the rules up on Saturday when we have time during the race to see how we did against Starship situation. It is Edd’s belief that he can luff us up and it is my belief that he has to sail his proper course once we establish the overlap. Since we were windward, he MAY BE right, but I want to check it.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #13 - Wed Aug 10th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
We had an interesting night. We ripped the leach on the jenny at the one minute gun. Needless to say, we were not in a position to change sails. We managed to stay neck and neck with Chaika only a few feet windward of us until the close to the mark. With the ripped leach and a five person crew, I wanted to go wide to give us time to put up the spinnaker. Christine had the bow to herself, Tony was having fun in the pit and Tom was doing double duty on the main and trimming the spinnaker. Steve joined us again and with Sjana did jib trim.
We had to gybe shortly after rounding the mark, but we did it smartly. We were ahead of Exhilaration but behind Chaika and Starship. We managed to climb on Chaika and Starship going down wind (I was hoping the jib would hold when we tacked at the mark). By the time we got to the mark we stood on their air enough to keep them close, Chris caught up to us, but we still rounded in front of him.
We got the spinnaker down—good crew work—and got the jib out. However, when we tacked the next three times going upwind, the jib kept getting caught on the spin pole ring at the mask and continue to rip the leach. We kept doing half tacks, clear the sail, and then complete the tack. Needless to say, we were not tacking quickly. We still managed to beat Starship (and everyone else in the division behind us) but not Exhilaration. They caught up to us and would not have beaten us if the sail had not ripped and kept getting caught at the mast.
In summary, it is telling me that even with a short handed crew we are competitive and able to beat other boats. We are coming together better each race. I think next Wednesday will be important to see how much we have furthered our progress.
Ernie Bivona
EBYRA RACE #15 - Wed Sep 15th - Download results (pdf) - click here.
We did very well considering our prior performance. Despite a one minute confusion at the start, we were close enough to the RC boat to harden up just after the first cluster crossed the line and stay in clean air at the start on the favored side as virtually the entire fleet was leeward of us. Good tactics from Tom kept us close throughout the race. The crew work was very good; we got the mark roundings down with no screwups with either the hoists or takedowns. While they were not picture perfect, they were pretty good and without major flaws, thus we stayed with everyone. We crossed tacks with Exhilaration throughout the race so we know we were doing well. While they did not have Chris, they still had an experienced crew of five. We had to be creative with the spin trim in that I did not want to take Sjana off the pole as she is developing very well there; that left Natalie who was at the mast to take the spin sheet the first downwind leg—that was interesting when we had to gibe and it left Christine a bit short—but she managed to do it. Tom had to do double duty on the main and spin sheet until Natalie was able to get ready to trim. On the second downwind leg, Steve took trim duties and Tom took in the jib. Steve had never done spin trim before, but with the rest of the crew helping out, he did very well. Tony is getting the pit down as he proudly proclaimed that he did not drop the pole on anyone’s head!
It got a bit interesting at the end when we were able to catch and then pass Exhilaration on the windward side close enough to the finish so that they could not recover. It meant coming hard up on the wind on a beam reach to the finish with Steve holding on to the spin sheet. All in all a great last leg.
We ended up with a respectable finish and demonstrated that our crew work has come together. The bad part is that we have only one more Wednesday night race. A lot of that performance is from the continued presence of a solid core. Only Tom and Sjana (who is much improved) were from last year on Wednesday nights. But with the continued presence of Christine, Anthony, Tony and Natalie, we have done well. Steve has performed well in the few times he has come out. I am pleased and hope in 2006 we can field this crew along with the others who have tried but got caught up in business situations. It will be more of an incentive to buy new sails knowing we have a crew who can make it happen.
Thanks to Sean Gallagher who sailed with us in the LI Championships. His insights on main trim, helm insights, mark roundings and tacks were most helpful. I am more sensitive to how the helm should work upwind and how it can help with the spin launch and takedowns. We also worked the main better last night and kept our boat speed up.
Ernie Bivona