Racing - A NEW EXPERIENCE

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A NEW EXPERIENCE

Printed From: myHanse.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Racing
Forum Description: Hanse Chat about various races, gear setup, sail choices, rig tuning, etc....
URL: http://www.myhanse.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=11260
Printed Date: 09 February 2023 at 09:19
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: A NEW EXPERIENCE

Posted By: silversailor
Subject: A NEW EXPERIENCE
Date Posted: 05 March 2019 at 00:46

I have been cruising and racing my Hanse for about 10 years. I do weekly around the buoys races at my yacht club as well as distance races from 15 to 200nm. Fortunately, Legacy and its crew have done well with numerous 1st in division as well as regatta 1sts. This fall, after putting Legacy on the hard I received an email from North U (the educational and regatta arm of North Sails) announcing an interesting opportunity. They had partnered with a Canadian company that owned 10 Flying Tiger 7.5 sportboats. They were bringing the boats to St Petersburg, FL. USA. You could buy a crew position or 5 could reserve their own boat. You got 2 days of learning how to sail this speedster and then participated in 3 days of one design racing in the St Pete NOODS. I signed up. Upon arrival I met my 3 other crew members and our coach (a racing pro from Annapolis, MD USA). The 5 of us were assigned a FT 7.5, all of which were tuned alike and had matching North sails. We spent 2 hrs per day in the classroom and about 6 hrs on the water learning the boat, how to hoist and gybe the spinnaker, roll tacking and the biggest difference between racing my Hanse and one design racing on a sportboat.... every second counts. The level of concentration, trim adjustment, steering adjustments, etc. was extraordinary. The regatta began the morning of the third day. Before the 1st race our coach told us that we should not have high expectations. We were a group of 4 strangers, 2 of whom had never hoisted a spinnaker before. Two of the other boats were manned by a professional crew and another two were manned by full crews who had sailed these boats or others together for many years. (There were a total of 9 boats in our one design division.) In our training we had divided up into two teams of 2 and rotated positions every race. We decided to continue that system during the regatta. I steered the boat for Race #1. Incredibly we finished 3rd! Our rag tag crew of newbies were all attentive to their jobs and while we might not have executed as fast as others, we made few mistakes and kept the yelling to a minimum. I had a chance to steer again on day 2 and again on day 3. At the end, I had a 3rd and two 1st place finishes. Don't know if those results were due to my steering or the fact that I was off the sheets. In any event, we ended 4th overall, behind the 2 pro crews and 1 fully crewed boat. It was an extraordinary experience and I'm sure it will effect my racing on Legacy when she's launched this spring. Hope my crew doesn't mutiny.

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Silversailor
South Haven, MI USA
S/V Legacy
2010 Andrews 28

Replies:

Posted By: lukemi
Date Posted: 05 March 2019 at 16:23

Alan,

This sounds very exciting!! Glad to hear you are getting some off time in Florida to enjoy the sport. I am heading down to Ft. Lauderdale next week just to enjoy a bit of Sun (alas no sailing). It's been a lot of clouds and rain/snow on the east coast most of the winter. Looking forward to getting some nice weather to get StellaMaris back into sailing condition for the spring/summer.

Mike

StellaMaris 370e

Posted By: Rubato
Date Posted: 05 March 2019 at 17:23

Well done, what a great opportunity and it's fantastic you took advantage of it.

Cheers

Steve

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Steve

Hanse 400e, #168