Summary of the 2007 Season
10/27/07 Great Pumpkin
Where is the course ? To Infinity and beyond ...
10/6/07 Fleet Week BBQ
This was perhaps the shortest trip we ever made. We anchored right at the entrance of the marina. The airshow was phenomenal. Here is a video clip with the highlights:
9/15/07 Chuck on Big Boat Series 2007
My congratulations
to all on a tough series. All did a great job against really tough boats
and crews. You know sail boat racing when the pros get involved. You don't
think seconds count look at the race results. Race #2 we lost 6th place
to Velos by 58s. Race #4, we were 23s out of 6th and 3 sec out of 7th.
Race #6 53s out of 7th and 19s out of 8th.Race#7 35 s out of 7.
This would put us in 8th. AHHHR!!!!
Thanks to all for a good season, Farr 40's now know how to spell Zamazaan.
Chuck
Pictures of Zamazaan during the 2007 Big Boat Series by Charlie Bergstedt:
9/4/07 John's Tactical Recap of the Jazz Cup
Our start
position was very good -- in a race this long I mostly just want to have
open space, clear air, and a full head of steam when crossing the line.
I deliberately set us up a bit early to let us pick our spot and to take
some pressure off the trimmers.
When we ducked for position on the line I think we should have aggressively
taken that boat up, to open our hole, and either force the other boat over
or behind us. Zamazaan has a lot of momentum, and should be able to do that
pretty effectively. Regardless, we still had a good start, although we were
slow over the line and throughout the first upwind leg due to sail trim, which
prevented us from tacking when I wanted to. As a result, we lost considerable
time and position.
We did much better when running with kites, except for running way too deep
in light wind. Sail handling was pretty good. Bodacious did a great job on
tactics and boat handling to finish well ahead of us on corrected time, but
other boats ( e.g., City Lights) didn't do well with similar tactics, so I'm
still pretty comfortable with the course we sailed, even in hindsight. Races
are mostly won by boat speed, not tactics.
We finished
8th out 14 in our division (45 out of 91 overall), but I still think we
did well, beating Velocita, Aleta, City Lights, Defiance, Shaddy Daddy,
and Equity Kicker. PHRF isn't intended for downwind racing (as noted by
US Sailing), especially for a boat like Zamazaan . (IRC should be much
more kind to us in Big Boat.)
My analysis of my GPS log is that we lost at least 15 minutes (clock time)
to our own mistakes, which would have placed us much higher on corrected time,
on par with Bodacious or even 2nd.
9/1/07
Jazz Cup Tactics
1. (Short upwind leg) Probably use #2 due to light wind. Prepare for starboard
rounding and bearaway set with port pole and light reaching kite.
2. (Reach to Angel Island) Much like HDA Islands Tour: Watch out for Angel
Island hole! Prepare for peel to light running kite.
3. (Deep reach to Red Rock and the Brothers) Tough call on whether to go left
or right past the islands -- much will depend on where the wind fills in first.
4. (Run to Pinole Pt) Watch out for shoals near Pt San Pablo. Stay out in channel
for flood tide.
5. (Run to Carquinez Bridge) Stay out in channel for flood tide. Favor right
side under the bridge.
6. (Run to Benicia) Probably prepare #2 for last upwind leg. Prepare for kite
drop before port rounding of leeward mark. Probable floater drop on starboard
side.
7. (Beat to finish) Focus only on boat speed. Clean up after finish.
With a course of 26 NM and relatively light wind, I figure about 4-1/2 hours
to finish at about 1530.
8/18/07 Zamazaan
takes line honors (all fleets) and 2nd in class on corrected time in
HDA Islands Tour!
Fantastic weather and a fantastic day! On corrected time Zamazaan
was beaten only by Bodacious, was over 33 mins ahead of Q (a very competitive
boat) in 3rd,
over an hour ahead of Phantom Mist, and 1:16 ahead of Aleta!
John Navas' Tactical
Recap of the HDA Islands Tour:
• Start: Very good start, powered up near the pin end
of the line to catch stronger wind. A much smaller boat port-tacked us, barely
cleared, and were cheering at having made it, although I suspect they didn't
realize how close they had come to being t-boned and sunk!
• Leg 1 (beat to Yellow Bluff): Phantom Mist tried to
lee bow and then luff us up, but Chuck "politely" told them to stuff
it, and we promptly rolled over them. We were solidly 1st in our division around
the first mark.
• Leg 2 (reach to Alcatraz): Wind angle was ever tighter
than I had forecast so we couldn't carry a kite. Simply powered through wind
shadows of smaller boats in divisions ahead of us, taking advantage of our
big stick. Stayed high to crab against the flood tide and maintain speed and
angle all the way to Alcatraz, which worked well and stretched our lead, especially
against those boats that headed directly to Alcatraz.
• Leg 3A (run to Angel Island): Got our kite up early,
stayed out of the wind shadow at Alcatraz, and then cooked just inside the
right tide/channel line down to Angel Island, stretching our lead. Aleta initially
got stuck in the Alcatraz wind hole, but then broke free to ride the wind and
flood tide down after us.
• Leg 3B (run to Red Rock): We went into the classic
Angel Island wind hole, changed down to lighter whoompers, and crept with flood
tide toward the new wind below Raccoon Strait. Phantom Mist went low toward
Bezerkeley, which looked good at first, but then she (and those with her) disappeared
into a major wind/tide hole never to be seen again. Aleta had closed on us,
but we still had a decent lead at Red Rock, the 1st boat of all divisions to
reach it. Rounding Red Rock we stayed far enough away to avoid the wind hole
that several behind us got stuck in.
• Leg 4A (beat to Pt Bluff): Immediately headed over
toward Paradise Cay to get the land breeze, but made the mistake a number of
times of tacking too early, then losing the land breeze and getting caught
in the flood tide, allowing Aleta to gain a great deal on us. Finally did the
right thing and sailed on a port tack header over to the shore, so we could
then ride a long starboard tack lift down to Pt Bluff, stretching our lead
again. Aleta made bigger mistakes, and soon disappeared into the distance behind
us.
• Leg 4B (beat up Raccoon Strait to Yellow Bluff): Very
tricky wind when we got to Raccoon Strait made it impractical to follow classic
and intended tactics of hugging the north shore. We did well on the south shore
at first but then tried to cross to Pt Tiburon and dropped into a big wind
hole. Bodacious, coming in later, was able to play the north shore and gain
hugely on us while we were trapped in the hole, why we finished 2nd on corrected
time instead of 1st. Finally got wind and started charging away from Bodacious
but didn't have enough distance left to go to regain 1st on corrected time.
• Leg 5 (downwind to Finish): Didn't get our act together
to get a kite up, and the wind was now blowing hard, so the call was made to
sail the last short leg without a kite, which wouldn't have made any difference
in results and wasn't worth the risk. Good call by Chuck -- we rounded up on
a jibe even without the kite, and it might well have been much worse with a
kite up. Finished with a good head of steam right at the committee boat, 1st
boat of all divisions to finish, 2nd in our division behind Bodacious, way
ahead of all other boats.
7/28/07 Encinal Second Half Opener
6/2/07 Delta Ditch Race
5/12/07 KFOG Kaboom Party
5/5/07
Zamazaan finishes second in 2007 Vallejo Season Opener
Even seasoned sailors could not remember to have encountered head winds during
the first day of the Vallejo race. Instead of smoking the competition with
the Whomper, we could practice our tacking between the start and the Benicia-Martinez
Bridge. After that, it was straight sailing all the way to the Vallejo River.
The wind was changing all the time and we tried to make the best of it by changing
jibs accordingly. Towards the river mouth, winds go really gusty and the final
stretch was more tacking against the Farr36 Wicked. Aleta came in second, but
as it turned out, we had not made up enough time to come out on the top. All-in-all
not a bad race that leaves open all options for the season.
4/21/07
Duxship Race
Ye Buccaneers, be advised that we finished 4th on corrected time in the Dux
race out of 10 boats and were second to cross the line. We beat one of
the SC 52's in the first fleet.... Gary
3/24/07 Lightship Race
