Express 27 sailor Nathalie Criou of Elise reports on the Spring Keel Invitational Regatta, a two-day spring season kickoff hosted by the St. Francis YC:

“Conditions were mostly northwesterly winds, although on Saturday, the wind had shifted from a southwest direction, so there was a risk of the wind dying before starting again from another direction - quite typical on the Bay. Therefore the race was postponed by one hour. Wind remained light most of Saturday, but enough for us to change down to a #3 jib for our second upwind leg. We only had one race on Saturday (as opposed to two) which meant three races on Sunday (exhausting!). Sunday had stronger winds, but they got mild toward the second half of the afternoon, then picked up again early in the evening. Both days were sunny.

“Instead of doing starts one right after the other (the start gun signal for one fleet is also the first warning for the next fleet up), each fleet had some five minutes in between sequences. The order in which fleets would start wasn't communicated to us until that time. The race committee seemed to have rushed things a bit, as apparently they were still in the process of anchoring the windward mark when the first fleet (Melges 24) started. We could hear on the VHF, “Guys, I know that you are still working on this mark, but the Melges have started and will be there in no time. No pressure,” or something along those lines.

“Overall, a great day. There were a couple of new Express 27s I hadn't seen before: Thumper, and the new owner of Great White were out there. Unfortunately Great White got T-boned and suffered some light pulpit and hull damage. The new owner of Great White is also a woman [Rachel Fogel] and bought the boat to do the Pacific Cup in 2010. Exactly like me back in 2006 for the Pac Cup in 2008! Small world...”

“The Elise race program last year was dedicated to doublehanded ocean racing, with some fully crewed races in between, so we had no regular crew. We are rebuilding the program and training new people, and some do not sail on a regular basis. Round the buoys, boat maneuvering skills and starting skills are what you need to be at the top of the fleet. (No one boat needs to be #1 at every race in order to win the season: it's a point system, so some boats decide strategically to be in the top three each time and sail a bit more conservatively. This works if the #1 and #2 boats are not always the same.)

“So we didn't do so well in the race results-wise. Our crew asked, “Are you sure that you want to keep me on board?” We responded that our intent was to build a long-term regular program. So we were not going for short-term wins but maximum learning. And we are looking for people who have the same intention.

“Race 1: Lack of boat speed in the first upwind leg (we had only four people, which also hurt us). We had our #1 up, but it didn't really give us an advantage as the puffs were becoming more and more violent and reducing our ability to power up using the main. That's why we changed down to a #3. We had great boat speed on the first downwind leg but were slow to set the kite at the mark. A killer in such a competitive fleet! Our second tactical error was not getting back into the current relief of the cone fast enough compared to the other boats. We were tagging along pretty well but ended up behind, not by much, because of adverse current.

“The ebb current was SUPER strong.

“There was a lot of confusion at the windward mark, even though the course was clearly described in the Sailing Instructions. Despite the presence of a committee boat by the offset, whistling their lungs out to attract people's attention, four boats didn't round the offset in the first race and were scored DNF (Did Not Finish).

“Race 2: First race on Sunday, we were doing okay - five people this time, two new (compared to Saturday). We had some confusion at the windward mark. We were not sure if the offset was technically a mark on its own or forming the 'windward' mark with the actual mark itself. This has a lot of implication for who has right of way, overlap, etc., especially with the recently published changes to the rules. It looks like our interpretation wasn't the same as Opa's, and we ultimately had to jibe to get around the mark, leaving them room. We are still unsure as to which was correct, so we will try to ask around. 

“Race 3: Second race on Sunday, we did better, learning from yesterday's current-related course mistake.

“Race 4: Another thing that we decided to work on a lot because it has much more impact on round-the-buoy races than it does on long-distance ocean stuff is getting the starts really right. For this, we decided to work on one item at a time. We felt that timing was the one item we could most improve, so that is the one we picked. We decided to start about a third of the way down the line (usually boats pick a preferred end of the line), so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic and could focus on timing. It was actually really tricky to get timing right because of the strong current. We were pushed hard against the line. On that third race of the day, we were over early, probably by one or two seconds, so we had to turn around and start again - costing us way too much time of course.”

Besides Express 27s, Melges 24s and Moore 24s, divisions included Folkboats, Knarrs, and J/24s. To see all the results of the Spring Keel, go to www.stfyc.com.

Many thanks to Nat for her detailed report, and to Erik Simonson for the great pictures. You can see more at www.h2oshots.com.