Momma said there’d be days like this

We are big fans of the Shields Class Fleet 9 in Newport, RI. Aside from the beauty of the boat, their ability to get 30+ teams to a start line speaks volumes for the type of people involved and the care of which they manage their activity. Malcolm Geftner took a turn at providing the Summer Series race report from July 26… enjoy:

I got to the course early, breeze slightly more than forecast, outgoing tide against breeze so some waves in middle of the course. After doing some upwind trials, the suggestion was made to tighten headstay and consider some more backstay. The adjustments were made, line sight for pin and time length of line all done in good time.

The decision made was to start boat third. I had a decent start, but a very narrow lane. After about 30 seconds to a minute, I got bow out and clear air. Went hard left until a lefty came in, tacked, just short of mark layline. Got to top mark first and led wire-to-wire for a nice bullet. How nice is that???

PROBLEM IS—I am describing the race I had Tuesday night in radio-controlled sailing!

On Wednesday night —– in the Shield race, fortunes could not have been more different!!!!

Same conditions, same race warm-up- same sail trim adjustments BUT with the following changes:
1. Got a crummy start
2. Unable to hold a lane
3. Forced to sail out of phase
4. Arrived at the top mark, DFL

But wait, things got worse!!!

We passed 5 boats downwind, felt good about the left gate, left turn, arrived at the top mark DFL again — how bad is that?

The fleet was so far in front of us, that I had no idea what the actual race was like for 99% of the boats-so nothing really to report.

But not to give up, on the last downwind we passed no one — we needed a foiling Shields at that point—but in the end we managed to not quite come DFL-so our only success of the night.

Overall, I hope to never have to write such a report again, and do not wish such a race on my fellow fleet nine competitors–EVER!!!

“Momma said there’d be days like this, my momma said”