Summary

Rhapsody had a great crew with Donna Polk J/30 "Eggemogin" (Jib & Spin Trim), Vic Farmer J/30 "Vee Jay" (Mast), Jon Bixby (Foredeck), Lisa Hammond (Pit), Jane Eaton (Jib & Spin Trim), Mike Chapman (Tactician & Main Trim) and Bill Kneller on the helm. We used the 2008 North Sails Benz Faget "designer main", a brand new North 3DL #1 Genoa and brand new North 3/4 ounce spinnaker. The sails looked great and boat speed was good under conditions that ranged from 2.5 knots to 17 knots.

There were six J/30s registered but, only Rhapsody, Good News and Falcon showed up. The course started just west of Rose Island by buoy #12, then North to special NYYC race mark 16, south to the green bell off the dumplings, then back to the finsh line off Rose Island.

The start was our downfall. We misread the starting sequence and were too far behind the line with light winds and currents to get a decent start. Good News and Falcon were up on the line, Falcon drifted into the pin and had to do a penalty turn. Rhapsody crossed the starting line 2 minutes after the start and had a lot of catching up to do.

Mike Chapman did an amazing job on calling what parts of the course we should go in order to capitalize on what little wind there was for most of the race, and to take advantage of the currents. We sailed as close as we could along Jamestown to pick up a shore breeze and reduced currents. We passed Falcon just after going under the Newport Bridge. Falcon stayed too far in the center of the channel and got killed by the currents and light air. That was the last time that Rhapsody was behind Falcon the entire race.

Our crew did a great job with 3 people going below to reduce the bodies topside and help heel the boat. I should have brought magazines and games for them. At least they were kind enough to pass up some cookies and drinks along the way.

By the time we were 3/4 the way up the bay to NYYC 16, we were even with Good News. Good news stayed into the shore too long at one point and missed the opportunity for a slight breeze that had picked up further into the channel. The winds had shifted further east at about 3 kts by the time we reached the mark. We rounded NYYC 16 about 45 seconds before Good News and had to make sure that we could clear the mark area as Rhapsody was on Port Tack and Good News approaching on Starboard. We passed clear in front of Good News with about 10 seconds to spare. Due to the wind shift, the expected spinnaker run changed to a broad reach and we left the #1 Genoa up. Mike rigged a barberhauler on the stbd side so we could get the Genoa optimal shape for the conditions. He played this well and it showed with boat speed increasing by 0.3kts.

Good News sailed high to try and cover Rhapsody's air. We sailed higher and ultimately had to bear off or we would have been caught in the doldrums of a wind shadow from Gould Island. The lead shifted twice on this leg. As we approached the southern end of Gould Island at approximately 2:15pm we could see the boats near the Newport Bridge pick up the afternoon sea breeze. The winds started to shift further West. We could see this was a fairly strong wind and immediately got the crew back on deck to get the boat ready for the breeze. The wind filled in from the south at 17 knots and we were moving great. Unfortunately, Good News was 2 boat lengths ahead of us and we needed to tack and separate in order to force a condition where we could get clear air.

After passing under the Newport Bridge we split tacks with Good News. They took an approach that put them on the layline early on stbd tack. We approached the layline on port tack about three boat lengths behind Good News. We tacked on the layline about 20 boat lengths from the mark. Both Good News and Rhapsody had misread the impact of tidal currents and required another set of tacks to make the mark. Had we sailed 3 boat lengths further, we would have made the layline cleanly and passed Good News.

After rounding the mark, we popped the spinnaker (launched from forward hatch). We jybed twice on the way to the finish line, but were unable to catch Good News. We crossed the line 42 seconds after Good News (Elapsed Time 02:42:02) Now go back and read time difference on when we crossed the starting line to see the opportunity we missed!