"1730: Broken mast! Words no one wants to hear! The Hess/Hess team mounted a mark, capsized and the mast folded in two. No more racing today."

Wow. Very rare to hear of an alum superwing mast folding. Was it a situation where the spinnaker was up and the main uncleated?

Dunno' about Team Hess, but I was spectating just leeward of C and saw a couple of boats with the main sheeted "out" and traveller out ... we all commented about the boat ... "that mast is going to fold" ... it didn't but ohhhhh boy ...

BTW, the Race Committee said that the winds were blowing (at the top of their mast) a steady 18-21k ... although I thought the gusts were a bit higher than that.

The river had a nice chop that I'm sure caused some harrowing moments for a crew or two.

Did the mast get jammed into the bottom before it folded? I was there most of the day with Terry. (thanks again to you and your Dad for taking me out to watch the racing)

There were lots of crews pushing the boats very hard in lots of wind and chop, but no masts failed under sailing loads.

Now if you stuff one into the sand and jump up and down on it...

HEY.. all you dudes on the water watching.. wheres the PICS!! I took something like 200 pics last year at the Alter cup and posted them!
ok.. I gave them on CD to Jake who posted them but still...
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Roy was on our boat and took plenty of pics ... give him some time and I'm sure he'll have a link to the photo's.

I know some of you guys are foaming at the mouth to know what was going on at the Alter Cup. Here's the quick and dirty:

There was plenty of wind, when the first group went out for the first race, I would guess it was at least 17knots out of the SE, which is right up the river putting up a nice chop. We were on a pontoon boat and were taking spray over the bows (I'm GLAD I didn't have a camera or it would have been soaked!)

At the start, the fleet went off on Starboard of course but soon a few taked back to port, the fleet spread out pretty far, and we motored up to the A mark to watch the spin sets. JC and JW were in the lead wire to wire, with ohters catching them when they did one big stuff, deep, but they kept it together, didn't capsize, and held on to first until that race was abandoned because a few boats were having trouble. Seems a few of the lines that hold the spin. poles tips were coming untied, one pole broke and two more were coming untied, so the race was abandoned, after sailing 5 legs of 6. JC was in the lead at that time.

The fleet returned to the beach, the spin pole lines were all retied, the boats checked over and the same fleet returned to the course for a new race. Team JC/JW was pushed much harder this time by Team Tomko but held on for the win, Tomko in 2nd, I can't remember who after that. It was fantastic to watch these top teams flying downwind on the Blade, through the chop and spray, the wind was now up near 20 with some gusts over 20. There were only a few capsizes, maybe 1-2 per race. Even without footstraps, these guys figured out how to make the boats fly downwind in chop. We nearly pitch-poled the pontoon boat on the way in, going downwind, over the top of one big wave the bows burried deep into the back of a wave and we had a foot of water running down the floor. I thought for sure we were going to roll it but it popped back up and we kept on.

Race 2, (second fleet) the wind was about the same, near 20, plenty of chop. A real fight at the front of the fleet between Kenny and Johny Lovell. They both had blue spinnakers so from a distance it was hard to tell who was in front, but the lead changed a few times and at the finish line, it was Kenny by a couple seconds, Krantz in 3rd. Very exciting finish.

I had to leave before the third race so I didn't see what happened with the mast failure thing. I did see some crews going downwind under spinnaker with the mainsheet eased WAY too far off, and you could see the mast bending the wrong way. I was amazed a few didn't break. The one that did break I think was due to a capsize, maybe it hit bottom, the river is not too deep, about 10 feet.

I hope some of the sailors will add their insights into the racing, they will be able to tell you how the Blade handled in 20 knots and chop. From what I saw, it was having no trouble. There were some troubles being had by some crews who were unfamiliar with spinnaker boats in 20 knots however, which led to a few capsizes. The leaders were not having trouble and made it look easy, fast and easy. But I don't know if JW got JC's shoe out of his butt yet...

Roy was on board for race two and should have some good pictures for you later.

I wish I were going to be around to watch the rest of the week but I'll be away.

Anyone who does go, please try to keep us posted.

Thanks.

The conditions sound vigorous, but the mast should easily be up to it unless there was some operator error <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Tim,
I think it would be great to be there to see first hand what is going on but the next best is a good report and some pics. Thanks for the report.
It will be good to see the photos Roy took when they are available.

Thanks again.

Regards,
Phill

Correction; the first race was abandoned because one team had the bolt that holds the tiller to the cross bar shear off just before the start (it appears that the bolt had some sort of defect in it). We didn't know what was wrong with that boat until they returned to the beach and had a chance to figure out what happened.

Because of the way the rotation system works we need to get all 10 boats at least to the first mark in the first race - otherwise, we don't have any history or data from which to give those sailors a redress score...you can't tell them they get a last place finish and you can't tell them they're first.

The timing was good however, because by the time we had decided to abandon, while the committee was starting the abandon process, one boat came back with a spinnaker pole broken because of the way one of the lines was tied. We felt that this could potentially be a problem with all of the boats, so the sailors were instructed to return to the beach and not to fly the spinnakers. We corrected the problems and sent them back out.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, we had two volunteers that couldn't make it leaving us a little short handed in that area. We'll try to do better.

Darline is keeping up to the minute updates on the US Sailing site at HERE

Do you think that they have enough wind ?




Photograph by Gloria Lawrence


But their sail is very full though andn they're sailing with alot of leech twist as well.

Derotate the mast, lift some board, crank on the downhaul and mainsheet and witness what will happen to the F16 then !

Ohhh Yeah !

Remember FLAT is FAST !


We also have the intermediate results. See http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/usmhc/alter07/07results.asp


It appears the lightweights are out of the competition. At the top are the more weighty teams.

To see the faces with the names go to http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/usmhc/alter07/07teams.asp and see their mug shots !

Wouter

Lets here it for the weighty teams!!!

It wasn't blowing any harder than it was at the Area D South qualifiers.

Wouter for Olympic sailing coach!

Looking at the results, I assume " [color:"red"] [/color] rds "[color:"red"] [/color] means redress. Does anyone have any information specifically and in general?

In general, it was break downs. Some already described in posts above.

Redress is awarded by the jury?

Yes, the participants are told to inform the RC then head for the beach for repairs ... the RC then informs the Alter Cup Chair (Jake) of positions around Windward/Leeward marks. After that, I think, that Jake and the Protest Committee confer on whether redress is granted. If so, they use the place in mark roundings as a "slot" to finish the competitors.

Thanks T. You gonna come do Cinco de Mayo with us at GYC?

How 'bout you Ding?

Pulling the strings for brother Bob at the Mug on his P19. Doin it old school!

yeah, I haven't been playing with rotation too long but for that wind, that is too much if they are going uphill.