Koloa Maoli’s first race!
On Saturday August 2, Koloa Maoli sailed in her first race under my own ownership when we sailed in the Seguin Island Sprint race out of Portland Yacht Club. My friend and frequent sailing partner Sean Doyle flew out from Hawaii for the week and we made a plan to do some sailing and training, do some boat work, and then sail doublehanded (just two crew) in the 141 nautical mile Monhegan Island Race. As the day got nearer however, we decided to change our registration from the longer Monhegan Island Race to the 50 nautical mile Seguin Island Sprint, based on the weather. The longer Monhegan Island Race started on Friday with a forecast for very little wind and the shorter Seguin Island Race started on Saturday, which forecast more breeze.
Drone shot of Koloa Maoli on the downwind leg.
After a lovely lobster bake and lively party at Portland Yacht Club on Thursday night, Sean and I went out to test the A2 spinnaker and spectate the Monhegan start on Friday before coming back out on Saturday to sail in the Seguin Sprint. With very little wind at the start, I was quite worried that we would be stuck to the water in a Class 40 in the light winds, but was pretty pleasantly impressed with her performance. We were the fleet’s scratch boat (fastest rated boat) and should therefore theoretically finish first. Against other 40 and even 50 foot boats designed to arguably go upwind better - Class 40s are round the world reaching machines, not light air upwind buoy boats - we knew it would be very possible for one of our rivals to finish ahead of us, especially in light winds. No matter how we corrected out, we did at least hope to finish first. Fortunately, we had good pace off the start and eventually rounded the windward mark in first place. Our closest rival was a well known local J/121 called Wild Blue. Also close behind them was our only other doublehanded rival, a J44 called Family Wagon that was owned by the local sailmaker Richard Hallett.
Going upwind in light air shortly after the start, with the ever-present lobster pots.
Crossing tacks with our rivals much of the way to the windward mark and then calling a perfect lay line from quite a way’s out, we rounded and quickly switched from J1 (larger jib) to A2 spinnaker and J3 (staysail). Soaking down low from the time we hoisted, we managed to make it to the leeward mark with no jibes and sailing a very straight course. With the deep angle and relatively light winds however, it was going to be hard for us to make up all of our time that we owed to our rivals, despite continuing to pull away. With the breeze increasing towards the leeward mark, Koloa Maoli accelerated up to 10 knots and began pulling away from the boats behind more quickly, but this was only short lived for us. Dousing the A2 spinnaker at just the perfect time, we rounded the mark smoothly, but took a bit of time to find our proper sail settings. Struggling a bit to find good boat speed upwind out of the mark, we then hooked a lobster pot and came to a stop, and then took a bit of time to get going again.
Hard upwind on a port tack in about 15 knots of wind (the breeziest portion of the day) we came out of the mark a bit low due to our mistakes, which killed any small chance of us sailing straight to the next course mark with no tacks. We would instead need to tack back over to lay the next mark. We only needed a couple of minutes on starboard tack, but alas we were impatient and tacked back probably 30 seconds too early, which would mean two more quick tacks at the mark. We were still well ahead of Wild Blue and Family Wagon, but were doubtful that we would correct out. With our -9 PHRF rating, we owe everyone so much time that unless we spend a good part of the race going fast downwind, it’s extremely hard to correct out over the other boats, if they are well sailed. With this race having no ‘fast’ downwind conditions or fast reaching conditions, it would be very hard for us to correct out, which was in line with original expectations.
Upwind towards the finish.
Once we settled into a groove and found our settings upwind, our boat speed improved and we began steadily pulling away from Wild Blue again, after a long portion of the upwind section where it felt like they weren’t getting any smaller behind us, and perhaps even getting bigger. Once we reached the final mark, it was a sheets-cracked reach on port tack to the finish line, making 8 or 9 knots in a 12-14 knot wind that just kept hanging in there longer than on most days in Portland. Crossing the finish line at the final moment of daylight, we were sailing back into Portland Harbor and docking at night, which was a moment of high anxiety for both of us, due to the all the lobster traps. I generally avoid navigating here at night for this reason, but I had a great co-skipper in Sean Doyle and we found that a spot light off the bow helped a lot in spotting traps. Docking the boat back at Maine Yacht Center and leaving the clean up for the following morning, we managed to be in the pub having a cocktail and a meal before 10 pm. What a day of sailling!
In the end, we finished first on line honors by a long shot and sailed the course in 6 hours and 48 minutes, which was just 15 minutes off of a course record. We didn’t correct out as well, but were only a handful of minutes behind most of our closest rivals on corrected time. Had we sailed with zero mistakes, and/ or had better conditions that suited our boat, we actually could have done very well even on handicap. All in all, I was very happy with how we sailed the boat however, and was happy with how the boat performed. I also recognize that sailing the boat in a race setting with two people was extremely valuable practice, and to have other boats around to gauge performance with was also well worth the price of admission. I almost didn’t enter the race because I knew we were highly likely to get crushed on handicap and didn’t loved the optics of that, but in the end i’m glad we went.
Special shout out to Gregg Carville the race director, and the crowd at Portland Yacht Club. They were extremely hospitable to the whole Koloa Maoli gang that showed up on Thursday night, and they ran quite a professional race complete with good media and a fabulous awards brunch the next morning. Really a top notch race with great community and a fantastic group of sailors present. What a cool scene to be a part of.
Class 40 racing with Velocity
As well as my sailing on Koloa Maoli, i’ve also been doing a fair amount of sailing in Newport, Rhode Island on Class 40 #145, named Velocity. Owned by a gentleman out of Annapolis named Martin Roesch, we have been sailing the boat in a more fully crewed format, which has been valuable training. We sailed in two short one-day races out of Newport called the NYYC Coastal Races and then a buoy race on Sunday. A few weeks later, we raced in the 24 hour Ida Lewis Distance Race, which was a long 150 mile triangle around Rhode Island Sound that took place with a lot of light air. Similar to the Seguin Island Sprint race, the races were sailed in very nice, moderate, champagne conditions, but involved light air and a lot of upwind, which meant that we had virtually no chance to correct out. Unless you get these boats into longer format courses and real ocean conditions, Class 40s struggle mightily to correct out against more upwind/ downwind designed typical racing boats. I’ve had some great sailing with Marty and his fun, talented crew, and hope to continue to sailing with them on some future occasions. Additionally, it’s been super valuable for me to do more Class 40 sailing and racing, and to learn how more of the boats are set up and sailed, and to also see what they are capable of.
Downwind off the start of the 150 NM Ida Lewis Distance race. Photo credit: Ida Lewis Yacht Club/ Stephen Cloutier.
