Suboota is listed.

Estelle is listed as well and now we have a new spinnaker halyard (well actually main and genoa halyards as well).

We're not ready yet.

Lisbeth is ready, but no crew.

First two starts for us this summer. On board a fully new crew consisting of Pexi (foredeck), Antsu (pianist) and Erik (trimmer). We pulled up the new main sail for the first time and it looked ok, except the top batten, which is either too tight or too stiff. Something needs to be done about that. Still waiting for the new G1 and getting the new stays in place...

Light winds, which were perfect for training with a new crew. In the first start the line was very short for that amount of boats. Due to the forecast in winds shifting from SW to NW we wanted to tack to BB after the start. The shift didn't come, but we were able to round the top mark before Subbota. As the winds kept being light we tried to sail optimal courses according to the polar table. At the downwind mark it was tight with Subbota and have to say I don't remember how we came out of that mark or what basically happened during the rest of the race. Was it at this point Subbota was able to pin us coming to the top mark? Coming towards the finishing line we tried to reach for the boat end with a hotter angle on BB as Subbota was on SB passing right in front of us.

Second start was close to perfect from our side as we found ourselves in free winds and with space to manoeuvre and tack. We were still hoping for the expected wind shift from SW to NW, so we tacked again to BB. Coming to the top mark we were about in the middle of the fleet among the Firsts. Again we tried to sail optimal courses in the light down wind, but as we reached the downwind mark Subbota was just in front of us. After rounding the mark we tacked to SB as there wasn't any opportunity to pass Subbota continuing to sail behind them. After that we reached the mark with one tack to BB and rounded the mark as we tacked back to SB. From this situation we probably have a different view with Subbota on whether or not we broke rule 18.3a regarding the close-hauled section. On the way to the layline Subbota was able to take our wind and passed. After that we pulled the spinnaker up and sailed downwind towards the finish line. Again fairly close to Subbota, but unfortunately behind.

At the end we had a nice training day and start of the season. Thanks to the crew and Subbota for nice racing!

Mielenkiintoista toimintaa, meidät on diskattu ilman protestikäsittelyä tai edes ilmoitettu että meitä vastaan on protestoitu. Pitääkin selvittää.

First summer-feeling-sailing this year so far. Weather similar to what we had one week ago, but water warmed up a bit so it didn't feel coldish anymore.

Same crew, same stations.

Permanent wind shift from SW to NW was in the forecast, but it never happened. Wind was surprisingly stable in direction, but nearly died in the second half of the first race to pick up again before the second race. Gybing in such winds is not easy for us yet - plenty of room for improvement.

I cannot judge for sure what kicked us more - lighter wind or presence of a sister ship, but Estelle certainly added a lot of spice to the race. I even got a feeling that Estelle built her tactics on competing against us specifically. Which is never a winning strategy in a fleet race, especially LYS. So we had our little match race which evidently brought us to the nearly bottom of the results list...

Nevertheless, the match race was fun. In the first race we protected RC vessel corner and made a pretty good start at RC vessel. Estelle was before us on the first upwind mark, but close. We shortened the distance on downwind leg and came to the mark both on STBD overlapped, Estelle inside. I claimed proper course to the mark, Estelle replied that their proper course is 140 degrees and they will gybe to it and not earlier. After the gybe our course was 100 degrees (not sure if Estelle still had 140 or not) - we both overstood the layline, but I know how tempting it is to keep position between your competitor and the mark. I tried to lift Estelle, but got a claim that it's not allowed because we were in the zone. We clearly were still too far away, but it was also clear that Subbota won't gain any advantage before we enter the zone, so we decided not to bother and just kept clear. We rounded downwind mark Estelle first, Subbota second. On next beat we split and eventually came to the windward mark both on STBD, both below the layline, Estelle front, but with no ability to tack and cross Subbota. Wind nearly died by that time and bigger boats were already on the finish line so it became a sad choice - we lose everyone including Estelle or we lose everyone, but not necessarily Estelle. We selected the second option (sorry!), sailed to PORT layline blocking Estelle, tacked, sailed to the windward mark, rounded, then offset mark feeling Estelle breath on our back. Downwind leg to finish was a snail race under spinnakers, we managed to keep the lead and cross the line 1-2 seconds before Estelle.

On the second start Estelle won good position against us reaching at speed from behind RC vessel and stealing some of our wind. We tacked to PORT right after it became possible looking for clear airs. Estelle immediately tacked on top of us which I didn't understand - STBD tack was favorable at the time to me. Later we separated and sailed on our own.
The troublesome rounding was Subbota fetching the windward mark on STBD, Estelle came on PORT and tacked in the zone to STBD just in front of us, leaving no room inside of her. We had 4,5 kts speed at that moment and to avoid collision I had to luff immediately, then beared away to parallel course and protested. Because of speed difference we got an overlap of nearly whole boat length so we had a nice conversation cockpit to cockpit - just like sitting around a table. During the short conversation I protested and Cage replied that Subbota "had no need to alter course". Well, Subbota luffed and lost speed because of that and then got almost a boat length overlap immediately. That shows some speed difference - I guess we would have had both boats in a repair dock now if Subbota hadn't taken measures to avoid collision.
I say that it was R18.3a infringement and apparently RC was of the same opinion. Why none of use heard anything from RC on the case is another story and is not good - one way or another we all deserve feedback on every protest case.
By the offset mark we completely overtook Estelle and rounded first, not overlapped. Downwind leg brought no close encounters, we were able to build a bit of distance and finished a couple of boat lengths front of Estelle.

Another great day sailing! Thanks to Estelle for all the fun!

The protest was handled after an inquiry on why we had been marked DSQ without a protest hearing. Once the hearing started it was handled professionally by the organizers.

The conclusion by the protest committee was that we broke rule 18.3(a). However, I referred to rule 61.1(a) and demanded the protest to be found invalid as Subbota lowered the protest flag after showing it. For that reason the protest was this time decided in our favour.

Have to say that these practice competitions are excellently serving their purpose as we get training from the start all the way to protest hearings. For myself this was only the second protest hearing I've ever participated in.

Let's hope we get more Fenes on the line next week as it's much more fun than racing against the Firsts, which I believe we basically didn't have much chance against in the light winds we had on Wednesday.

Cage wrote:Have to say that these practice competitions are excellently serving their purpose as we get training from the start all the way to protest hearings.

I agree. I have completely forgotten R61.1(a). Anyways, it was my first ever protest of such kind - plenty of room for learning.