J/80 North American Championship at Forth Worth Boat Club - Day 1
by Karen Smith 3 Nov 2012 07:12 GMT
1-4 November 2012
The serious fun began today on Eagle Mountain Lake with thirty J/80s on the line for racing. PRO Mark S. Smith promised at the Competitors' Meeting that he would make the best possible use of time and weather conditions to maximize the quality of races and closely watch weather pattern changes for Saturday and Sunday. He did not disappoint. Yesterday one of the judges asked, "Is that breeze in the trees?" And another replied, "No, that's a squirrel."
Today the breeze was a little later coming in than we planned, but after a brief postponement, the first race was started at 1027. Five W4 races averaging 48 minutes in length were run with breeze ranging from 9-11, starting at 210 degrees and shifting to the left throughout the day. Most shifts were easily accommodated with a code flag C notification, but Race 3 went to AP within a minute of the start and the signal boat was repositioned and all marks reset, with the race starting at 1242.
Extra aggression at the start line caused early leaders to find themselves in the middle of the pack at the end of some races, but experienced eyes on both ends of the line prevented any General Recalls today. Velocity was generally good, but raised some concern on the second upwind leg of the 5th race --- filling back in to bring the racers down to the finish line with plenty of breeze and happy to be heading to the barn.
The TracTrac worked beautifully, with only a 20-30 second delay on the live feed. While it won't allow you to vote early, administrator Matt Arno who monitored from the pin boat reported, "The race tracking software generated some nice replays to view in the bar this afternoon."
Preliminary results were posted to www.j80northamericans.com (pending protests) as soon as the subsequent races were started and Commodore Schutts reported that Facebook and Twitter feeds were alive and well.
Weather conditions for Saturday: Partly sunny skies, breezy and warm with scattered showers (30%) and thunderstorms. Winds: S 5-15 with a high of 84. Competition resumes tomorrow at 1000.