CYC Scatchet Head

CYC's Scatchet Head has been a wet and windy gear buster the last few years, and we were hoping to get a good blow.  While the J/125 has a reputation as a bomber downwind offshore sled, all we've been able to do is test its inshore upwind abilities with the races to date.  We've been pleasantly surprised by the boats all around capabilities, but are getting anxious to "send it".  We were hoping CYC's Scatchet Head would deliver and the Pacific Storms were lining up.  In the end the race occurred between two strong fronts, so all we saw was 10-15 kts oscillating between the SE and SW.  So the "go big" moment had to wait, but the boat continues to earn the respect of the fleet.

Our crew of Chris, Mike, Adam, Steve and Mikki (along with Jason and Shawn) were off the dock early.  The heavy rain rolled in for the start and we set up for our first real downwind leg, albeit in lighter than desired conditions.  Given that we have never even sailed the boat in a downwind race leg (it's hard to count last week since we never saw more than 5 kts downwind), and we are new to asym spinnakers (the J/36 had a pole), we were making it up a little as we went - but that's how we roll.  We debated about the wind and the forecast to build...or not...and decided in the end to go with the A2 based on the color coded crossover chart on our bulkhead (hey - if all else fails, read the manual...). 

We chose the west side (pin end) of the start and set off down the course in 10-12 kts.  We struck the #3 and hoisted our spinnaker staysail, only to find that the winds were too light and it did more harm than good.  We stayed west and were getting better breeze than the rest of our fleet.  The larger ORC boats started right behind us and the TP52s hugged the west side, as all the forecasts said it would be slightly heavier air there.  A group of us jibed to head farther west in search of this breeze, while the other half of our fleet kept on their lines to the east.  The wind was out of the SE so many of these lighter boats (Wicked Wahine - Melges 32 / Terremoto - Riptide 35) were choosing to sail deeper lines to lay the mark.  After a short run to the west we jibed back pointing mostly at the leeward mark up at Scatchet Head.  We spent a bit of time trying to find the downwind sweet spot, and found we were pointing higher and faster than these other boats, but in the end sailed a longer course.  The wind built to 15 kts gusting to 18 kts and we felt the boat's potential, but never really got it on a plane.  We all converged at the Scatchet Head buoy and, after a conservative takedown on our part where we gave up a little time, we rounded immediately behind Wicked Wahine and abeam Terremoto.

We powered back up hill for home in 10-12 kts with our Heavy #1.  We dialed the boat in, making 7.25 kts through the water, and passed Terremoto and then Wicked Wahine.  We pushed out to the west of the fleet to catch the incoming flood tide and stayed west of everyone.  About half way home there was a big wind shift to the SW which we reached first.  This allowed us to point high and put some separation on everyone.  We had the ORC boats Jedi (J/145) and Jam (J/160) trying to reign us in and we were able to fend them off.  Within a mile of the finish the next front overcame the fleet and the wind jumped up to 15-17 kts.  This allowed us to power along pointing incredibly high and cranked across the finish at 8kts. 

We were the first PHRF boat across the line and fifth overall to finish behind the big ORC sleds: Crossfire (R/P 55), Smoke (TP52), Glory (TP52) and Neptune's Car (SC70).  On corrected time Terremoto was able to keep the gap small enough that they finished first in class while we took second.  Overall, this was not the race for the fast PHRF boats, as we corrected out to 22nd and Terremoto took 16th.  Through two races we are 1st in class and 5th overall.  Results can be found here:

Overall:     Overall Results
By Class:  Class Results