teamTiburon

Somehow, the weather forecast for today got us thinking that it would be a little less windy than yesterday, but it's almost the same with 20-30mph winds gusting up to 40mph, the only difference being that today it's out of the west instead of the west northwest. It's going to hairy. We've seen wind like this earlier this year in Charleston, where it was quite windy, but that was only about 26mph sustained with gusts in the low 30s and the event was in a much warmer venue. Temperatures today are going to be in the low 50s versus the mid 70s in Charleston and that makes a big difference. You aren't wearing twenty pounds of gear to keep you warm that also impedes movement, one doesn't have to worry about getting wet because if you do, it dries almost instantly, and mentally, it seems that the cold weather just grinds you down. But that's what separates the good from the just ok, and we are used to this (just don't enjoy it as much). Good news is that it is going to get warmer throughout the week.

It's going to be a difficult call for the Principal Race Officer (PRO) today. If they canceled the practice race yesterday, I could see them postponing the racing for the day.

With steady breeze in the upper 20s and gusts hitting 45mph, most of the fleet decided not to practice today, including Tiburon. The few that did go out managed to get a sweet ride as they reached into the bay. However, that two minute reach resulted into what must have been a tough 30 minute close hauled course back to the club with all the weight on the rail. You could see the two or three boats that went out just getting pushed to the side instead of making real forward progress.

Around 1PM, the Race Committee decided to postpone the practice race for the day, by which point the two or three boats that went out were well back on their way into the safe confines of the clubs docks.

Tommorrow's forecast looks to be almost as windy, but gusts should be hitting 30mph instead of 45 mph, which is a pretty big difference. This will also be the second run with our new experimental jib, currently the only one in the fleet and literally the only one as we don't have a spare and can't use a normal M24 jib if we blow it out. There have been a couple kinks worked out over the past week or so that we have had it, and there have been a couple trips up the mast as well as a few parts purchased (like a stopper ball), but we are starting to get used to it at this point. More to come!

With one day left until the start of North Americans at Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, the club was buzzing with activity, but not as much as we would have thought. Tiburon was pressed into service to help the record setting 49 entries get launched, however, as of this evening, only 18 had shown up, meaning we had a pretty light day of volunteering. But it's an 18 we are happy to be a part of - Dave Ullman, Stephen Strauss, Blu Moon and Joe Fly are just a few of the present entries, several of whom were out on the river practicing today.

First official practice should be tomorrow before racing begins on Wednesday and it's going to be an interesting day. After our experience in Charleston in 26 plus knots, we are pretty confident in our abilities, however, it is entirely possible that we may get blown out tomorrow as this cold snap keeps on coming in. Current forecast has 20-30 mph winds coming out the WNW with gusts in the low 30s and temperatures in the low 50s. It is going to be the windiest, coldest, highly overcast and most miserable day of the week. The good news is that it's only going to get warmer and sunnier after tommorrow!

A little less wind than yesterday, which was a lot less wind than Friday. A lot more current then both days, which completely skewed some of the top teams. Overall, it was a learned experience. We went from top five in Corinthian to sixth or seventh, not where we hoped. North Americans are coming in a month and we hope to use some of things that we learned in Charleston in Annapolis.

Is huge. The current was insane, we didn't realize it until a little too late and had a couple bad races followed by a decent race. The weather forecast was also a bit off - no 10-20 knots today. We may have hit 10 knots at one point.

Talks with the Quantum and North reps resolved that we may have done better than at least one of them - we didn't hit more than one mark.

Another good day coming up. Forecast calls for 10-20 knots out of the northeast. Check out www.m24charleston.com for press release, but the more interesting photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sail22/sets/72157607384537513/show/. More later, we're gonna go sailing.

Overall, we are in 16th place and 6th in Corinthian. Good start to the regatta.

Too bad our Velocitek took a dive and stopped working, just starting blinking "plaid" (ref: Spaceballs). It's now cooking in the oven to dry out. If you are in Charleston, pay attention to the NOAA forecast. wunderground.com was a bit off, however NOAA was right on. Twenty knots plus on average. The RC reported sustained twenty-six knots at one point, with at least one gust up to thirty-two knots. With about a mile leg, the races lasted about forty-five minutes. Upwind was painful and slow and downwind went entirely too quickly as we were easily seeing seventeen knots average and much faster with the gusts. Then the Velocitek died and we started hitting the fourth harmonic downwind. Overall, we sailed well today, had a couple foul-ups with the kite, but considering the windspeed, we were fast and in control. Video will be posted on youtube.com shortly. We're out for a drink and then it's going to be an early night for this team.

Weather report for Charleston, SC is calling for 12-15 mph out of the north-northeast. During the practice races yesterday, that's about what we saw. Not exactly planing conditions, but it makes for some tactical racing as you can't win on speed alone. Tiburon did well in the starts and the practice race - it's good to have the A-Team back in action. More later today.

Team Tiburon started out the season with a bang. With a international fleet of 26 boats we lead for some of the races. At the end of the third day we ended up 8th overall. Not to shabby for the first race of the season. This weekend we have the Annapolis NOODs.

New Year.
New crew. Mike Heinsdorf - short but knows dinghies.
New boat. 378 is for sale. Tiburon is now 568.

Should be a good year!