16 Mar 05
Fast Cat Refuses to Lie Down
What's that? A Fast Cat behind a Dart?... Not for long!
As some of you may know, I am in the transitionary phase towards joining the elite circle that is the collective 'Dee SC Web Editor'. Like any amateur club, ours relies upon the efforts of volunteers to strip, paint, grease, fix, rescue, committee, feed, clean, entertain and account for our needs. One of the pleasures of accepting such onerous duties as Cutter and Paster in Chief is the reward of seeing our club promoted via the magic that is the internet across the ether to members, kindred clubs, visitors and fellow sailors we might bump into in the wilds of Aruba (ahem). And the ability to gloat.
I have been struggling with my Spitfire since the winter storms set in shortly after I brought White Tiger to DSC last June. I have had partners, generally large or larger, who have crewed with me to experience the thrill of a high-speed dip, but with the principal goal of holding it down while I worked out what to do. These staunch fellows have helped tame the beast and I owe them my thanks. A trip to Amble last year showed that to move ahead in the world of Spitfires you need to take drastic action - namely reduce the payload to somewhere around 19 stones. In my case, that either meant a drastic diet on my part, requiring the loss of at least an inch or two from the waist line, or reducing the weight of my crew by 50%. Neither Grant nor Adrian seemed too thrilled at the prospect. Fortunately, 50% of a crew made himself available, in the form of Jonathan Harris. Even better from my perspective, this was a whole crew in a whole body at half the weight - no surgery needed.
We committed to take on the winter series, only to get blown (scared) off either before or during sailing. When we did make it out, we found ourselves struggling with the Dee's chop, getting overpowered and burying the bows way too often. We were also too intimidated to put the spinni up, which I know will lift us out of trouble when the time (and rigging) is right. Some experimentation with doubling up the downhaul ratio has allowed Jonathan to dump power quickly without killing speed, so by last weekend we were ready to up the ante.
How sweet it was then to see the forecast wind speed drop into the teens, and by Sunday down to a favourable F2-3. The forecast was for a NW, so I was expecting the chop to make an appearance to test us once again. Sunday morning was bright and clear at home so I set off with high hopes. Even better when the spinnaker rigging went right at the first attempt and we were able to hit the beach, ready to sail, almost before any other boats touched the sand. A quick look upwind showed a heavy shower making its way up the Dee. We decided to wait for it to pass before setting sail - there was no need to sail straight into rain and high winds, since our competition was still in the car park. We watched all the Darts - a substantial nine of them, eager to prepare for the Open - come and go, before we decided we'd set out. We sailed up to the Committee Rib to find Mikes Hilton and Johnson had started us with the Darts, all of whom were up at windward mark by this time. Now, this is where the gloating starts…
The water was still flat and the wind ideal for us. The Spitfire was humming, Jonathan was happy with the downhaul for power management and we were getting it together, twin wiring and flying a hull as we set out after the Darts. The phrase that was circling in my mind was the one used by the Commodore during a recent debate-in-jest on the BB about the relative merits of one design racing (Darts) versus Fast Cats - "Fast Cats - oh, you mean those boats we beat on the water".
My excuse, that we were struggling to depower while the Darts continued to blast around in the high winds that typified our six month winter, was not going to bear much inspection if I couldn't make up for it today - ideal crew weight, decent breeze, flat water, same course and the same start as the Darts. There was a job to be done.
Highlights that come to mind include Speddo asking who we were racing against as we passed upwind of him, and could we kindly pass downwind of him. Hmmm, we were racing against ourselves, the clock, and Ar Cat (quite apart from the Comm's comments). Another score to be established there, since Ar Cat was crewed (and doubtlessly remotely co-helmed) by my erstwhile partner in crime aboard the Beast. Back to the request from Pete… when did I ever mix it with the likes of the cream of the Darts? The Spitfire was on song and it was great to be eating Darts. I'm sorry to spoil anyone's day, but we did let Speddo reach the windward mark ahead of us at the start of the second race, because we weren't sure if we should be doing a triangle or a sausage. Once that was sorted, we were off. Admittedly, we weren't so hot downwind on two sails. We'd still arrive at the downwind mark with the leaders and start the overtaking game again. In the second race we used the spinni and realised more practise was needed. It was fun heading for the Committee Rib on one hull downwind though.
Race 3 was a blast, with 11 cats tackling an Olympic course that would have fitted in a football pitch - quite possibly in one half of it. I thought this would be our undoing, since we couldn't use the Spinni on such short legs, and let's face it, our skills at the corners are not fine tuned yet. However, the close proximity of so many boats spurred us on. I soon shifted from not being bothered to trapeze for such a short leg, to getting out there as we rounded the downwind mark. This made for excellent boat handling practise and was much appreciated. Especially as we continued the boat passing. We did try to pass downwind out of consideration, but can't say that we did so every time - it was just too much fun!
We missed the S flag at the end of R3, so we had to come back above the 'downwind' mark to pass through the line, and still got the horn ahead of James. When have I ever used those words before? I figured James would always beat me even if he set out in a bath tub.
Afterwards there was plenty of water, no swell and a steady breeze. What's more, Ar Cat had gone on an adventure downwind towards Chester, to give proud new owner Phil plenty of time at the helm. We figured that a two mile spinnaker run would be just the ticket to practise keeping the windward hull out of the water for the maximum distance. There's so much to working as a team that just has to come from working together and trusting each other - it can't be explained or instructed all the way but has to come from the feel of two people working together. By the end of this leg we'd made a lot of progress, keeping the spinni filled, heading up to power up and raise the hull and bearing away in each gust to carry the speed downwind without dropping the hull. This was fantastic and all the better for being experienced while helming from the wire, secured to the hull by the footstrap at the rearmost point of the hull. The fact that we had Ar Cat in our sights all the way added to the sense of purpose and ultimately achievement.
By way of reassurance, let me tell you that we finally achieved a capsize while retrieving the spinni at the end of this run. I know it was my fault but I can't recall why. Ar Cat came to shepherd us as we took our time to recover - my problem at this point was that the fingers of my left hand would not straighten without the aid of my right hand - the cold had got to me after all! We recovered easily enough soon after the Rib arrived. I was glad to see them on their way, as there was a point when I wondered if my fingers would work again. I do hope they enjoyed their blast out from the club. Once recovered, we had a two mile beat, achieved with both of us on the wire and pulling away from Ar Cat. I know Mark's rule: two boats in the same place at the same time equals a race.
Finally, my thanks to the Commodore for unwittingly providing the perfect post script to his earlier observation of Fast Cats being those that the Darts beat on the water: "Your ears must have been burning - casting that damned great wind shadow over us all". Thank you Ian, it was a pleasure to share a course under conditions that suited me for once!
Now all we have to do on the White Tiger is to widen that window of competitiveness in time for winter, due sometime in June.
Simon Stannard
15 March 2005
[Editor: All views expressed are those of the author. They are not necessarily those of any of the web editors and neither is accuracy guaranteed. Please feel free to contribute your own perspectives, versions of the truth, or otherwise.]
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