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OT - First Race w/ New Boat

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5932 Posts

Initially Posted - 06/29/2005 : 08:26:05

Last Saturday I raced my new-to-me C&C 35 Landfall for the first time, and would like to report on it for any who might be interested.

Friday, I singlehanded the boat about 30+ miles from my marina to Annapolis. Most of the way it was a fast and easy beam reach. The last few miles, the wind came straight out of the south, and it was a steady wing-and-wing.

When I arrived, all the moorings were taken, so I anchored in the "South Anchorage," which was very exposed to waves rolling in from the Bay, as well as the wakes of boats moving through the harbor, and it was the roughest anchorage I've ever stayed in. I had to put out 2 anchors to hold the boat, and the boat bucked and rolled so violently that I was afraid I would get seasick if I went below, so I sat in the cockpit and watched the Saturday afternoon racing until I was so tired that I'd fall asleep quickly.

There must have been about 40-50 boats of all kinds racing in the harbor around a square rigger that was anchored there. About the smallest of them was a Catalina 27 with an outboard motor. It couldn't keep up with the bigger boats, but was sailed well enough that it might have moved up in the standings with its handicap. Some of the boats raced through the anchorage within a few feet of my boat. It was a rare sight for me, but I expect it was a regular Friday night regatta for all the participants in that sailing mecca.

The next morning the harbor taxi boat brought my crew out to my boat, and we motored out of the harbor and down the Bay to the starting line. The race was sponsored by the Pearson club, but was open to all. About 18-20 boats participated. We got to the starting line late, and estimate that we were about 6 minutes or more late in starting. The race course went south 14.2 miles to the windward mark, followed by a run downwind several miles to the finish line. At the start, the wind was blowing at about 15 mph. We flew our 150 and full mainsail, and the boat quickly began overtaking some of the boats, but we weren't pointing as high as them. As the race progressed, we made adjustments in our sail trim that got us pointing on a par with the others.

The first time we saw the boats tacking, it was obvious that they were having difficulty. The wind strength was gradually increasing, and everyone was carrying as much sail area as possible, and most of the boats were bigger than mine. When they tacked, some lost control and did an unintended 360, and others fell off the wind and headed back up as they slowly ground the winches to trim their genoas. Nevertheless, they took relatively short tacks within sight of a chain of islands. To save my lone young crewman, I took long tacks halfway across the Bay and more. Navigation was more of a problem on our long tacks, because there were not many marks in the open Bay, but my crewman, who knows the Bay better than me, was able to keep us oriented.

As we approached the area where the windward mark was located, the wind increased to about 25 mph, and the seas became very choppy. We were still carrying the full main and genoa, and the boat was clearly overpowered, but it was still driving reasonably well to windward, and was always under control, although we were leaping off the tops of some of the waves. I knew we should have reduced sail long before, but wanted to see how my new boat stood up when overpowered. It made me really understand the difference between the racing version of the C&C 35 and the cruising version (the "Landfall"). I believe the racing version would have been uncontrollable if overpowered that much. The Landfall is considerably heavier and has a slightly longer keel (fore and aft), and it can stand up to much more wind and much more sail area. It's an honest sea boat but still has a reasonably good turn of speed. Happily, that's exactly what I wanted in a boat.

We finally rolled up about a third of the genoa, and the boat speed picked up nicely.

We misidentified the windward mark, and sailed past it. When we realized it, we were well past the mark and dropped out of the race, taking a dnf. We didn't feel too bad about missing it, because we only saw two boats that did round it, and when we passed it, we had overtaken a lot of the boats that had started long ahead of us. I had a gps on the boat that would have helped us identify the mark, but didn't know how to use it yet.

Sunday I sat down with the owner's manual and figured it out.

Some might consider our performance in the race a bust, but I learned a lot about the boat, and gained enormous confidence in her, and the mistakes we made are easily correctable. Another thing I learned is that those folks in big boats and big waters put their pants on one leg at a time, and, with a little experience, we small reservoir racers can be competitive with them.

Steve Milby J/24 "Captiva Wind"
previously C&C 35, Cal 25, C25 TR/FK, C22
Past Commodore

Edited by - Steve Milby on 06/29/2005 08:49:29

matsche
Captain

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USA
280 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2005 : 09:45:57

Great story. I love to hear what others experience when they move up to bigger boats. Especially the C&C line. I've always had an eye on those since my ride on a 24 years ago. Keep em coming!

Edited by - on

Ben
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1234 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2005 : 10:38:22

Sounds like tons of fun, Steve. Also sounds like you're a real contender for future competitions. Keep us informed!

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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3324 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2005 : 11:03:40

Ok Steve, you can admit it...you dnf'd to save the faces of the "big boat big water" guys who would have been embarassed to have a "mere" lake sailor beat 'em!
Well done on a good day racing.
Derek
P.S. Sure wish you were bringing your old C25 to the Nationals...

Edited by - on

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 06/29/2005 : 15:45:24

Thanks for the sailing report. Sounds like it would have been fun to be part of the crew. Thanks also for mentioning the unintended 360... now I can admit to having done that a couple of months ago. Thought I was the only one.

Steve

Edited by - on

takokichi
Captain

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USA
321 Posts

Response Posted - 06/30/2005 : 14:15:56

Fun! Keep the reports coming

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.