Block Island Race, 28-29 May, DNF, first double handed IRC event, first Cat 3 race for Dark 'n Stormy. Long delivery to start, hanging with the other J/105s until we lost sight of each other during the night. Raced all night without instruments just running lights. We raced 110nm out of 185nm, retired due to electrical issues, later learning over half of our class withdrew after a slow upwind slog back to Stamford.

 

OffSoundings Spring Series, 11-13 June, DFL ,with 15% penalty, hopefully fared a bit better in ECSA PHRF, Overall we finished just behind sailing legend Rod Johnstone and boat for boat ahead of the other J/105 on both days. Good tactics, boat handing, crew work, however strategy less than desirable: day 1, first leg, we went to beach, winners stayed out, day 2, last leg we stayed out, winners went to the beach. Otherwise good sailing, great crew, and had a fantatic time on Block Island. And we continue to work off our OffSoundings penalty. Pictures later...

 

...not off to a stellar start but hey we're having fun and continue to learn and we did rescue a woman from a broached Viper a couple Weds ago.

 

Block Island Race Week, 21-25 June, DFL…still learning the boat. This was DnS’s second race week on Block Island.Class consisted of six J105s including boats with many years of J/105 tuning and one design regattas under their belts. 9 races and we finished 5th in four races, including besting Eclipse once. Never embarrassingly last except when we shrimped a kite but always a minute or two back after every upwind leg.  This time we focused on rig/sail tune, including logging all measurements, hitting speed targets, testing older UK and North jibs and optimizing crew roles. We also employed daily pre/post briefings and spent a lot of time talking with every other owner and the crews about performance. Learnings: New sails are a must for a major event, a 3 year old main used at least weekly April-Nov, a 7 year old jib and 6 yr old spinnaker that I got for free aren’t the sails for a competitive one design regattas. Rig tune is incredibly important as is the need for boat on boat testing, especially without regular access to one-design competition. Confirmed that main and jib should be from the same sail maker, a UK jib with a North main is not as preferred. Think we’re getting closer on rig tune, next up is altering mast butt position 5/8" aft (attempted this Fri am but ran out of time).  More faith boat is competitive as a one design platform especially downwind even with old spinnaker, think new sails will greatly help upwind VMG. Crew for this regatta ranged from 3-4 core crew swapping mid-week plus 3 pickup crew, including main trimmer with little J/105 time…never again will do a major regatta with pickup crew, too much style, skill and coordination aspects to sort out on the race course. Great weather, venue, lots of friends and fun!!! 

Mudhead Midnite Madness, 2-3 July, 65nm course: Groton, Cerberus Shoal then around Block Island and back. Finished 7th of 12, did pretty well most of the race, fell into a big hole around 0300 at http://americanregatta.com/regattas/2010/mudheads/ The races can be viewed by clicking the link above and creating your own free account or use the special MudHead Account, User: mudhead Password: mudhead