Splashing the Star-Severne Raceboard

I took my first sail on the Starboard Phantom 380 and Severne Raceboard 9.5 today. There was barely any breeze, but the sail provided punch and the board had surprising glide for a planing bottom raceboard. The glide in this wind was similar to sailing my old Lechner A390 Div2 hull. I think the rocker development on this board is remarkable. It sits in the water very well and makes fantastic use of its waterline. The sail has a lot of depth at the boom, but key for lightwind and pumping is that it also has depth higher up the sail and a tight outline. I was very happy with how well it pumped, and how light it is.

Hopefully there will be some breeze this weekend so that I can try it out in planing conditions as well.

I sailed off of the Village Beach in Elkhart Lake, WI - my home waters. Check out how clear the water is in the attached photo album.

Feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions about this gear. I think it is going to be a great all around setup for course racing, especially in the Raceboard Class.

Splashing Star-Severne Raceboard

Arden, EL-11

Phantom Maiden Voyage

Here we go...

2011 Worthington Scores

Complete scores are available HERE.

Click HERE for the MOWIND regatta report.

Jeff Hegwer's Handmade Trophies

Check out the handmade trophy that Jeff Hegwer created for the event. I think he has been doing this since 2003. Very unique. He even made me a SUP paddle a few years ago that is gorgeous. I'll try posting some more pictures of his trophies from previous years when I get a chance.

For now, I found this article online:
http://www.globegazette.com/news/local/article_9640075a-c3b9-11df-b195-001cc4c002e0.html

Jeff, great job by you and your team with every aspect of the event this weekend. Keep it up!

Arden, EL-11

Worthington Wrap Up

Day 2 featured shifty and gusty 5-15 mph winds. Sailors needed to balance their tactics between capitalizing on opportune shifts/gusts while staying cautious about not over-committing to one side of the course.

The course for the day was a 2-lap "P" course, basically a box with a set of jibes on the way down the outside leg. There were a lot of lead changes and position scrambles in each race, especially on the long upwind from the lee mark to the windward mark at the start of the second lap.

Andy Gratton did the best job of navigating the winds today and won the regatta title. Adam Anderson contiued his strong sailing for second place. I managed to do better than yesterday but still couldn't keep pace with Andy and Adam. But I did sail well enough to get into third place.

I will post complete results once I receive them.

Next up is Door County Breeze over the 4th of July weekend.

Arden, EL-11

Worthington Update 1

We will be starting Day 2 racing at Worthington soon. Looks like about 10mph winds on the course. I'm hoping for better results than yesterday.

Alex Monroe (3rd and 1st place finishes Saturday), Adam Anderson (1st and 3rd) and Andy Gratton (two 2nd's) are tied for the lead. I have a DNF in race 1 as my cams popped off my mast on the third leg. Didn't have enough downhaul tension as I was trying to create a deep pocket for the light winds. Race 2 I got 4th position after chasing Andy Gratton all the way around the course only to have Alex steamroll past on the last leg...he was on such a roll he even caught and passed Andy. Adam also caught me on the last leg as I had gone left on the last beat (trying to get lucky to catch Andy and Alex so I split tacks) and Adam went right.

The Saturday races were exciting even though the wind was very light. You had to stay on your toes to keep in the better wind, avoid holes, and respond to the shifts. Lots of positions exchanged throughout both of the races.

Headed to Worthington

I'm about to hit the road for Worthington this weekend. As I did my "walk around" of the trailer and gear before leaving I noticed some high wear on the tires and decided to get them changed before the 800 mile round trip. Good thing Fleet Farm is right down the road from my house. Should still make it to Worthington by midnight.

Double chicken strap

"Double chicken" straps are popular these days on formula boards, but my Starboard HWR doesn't have them. It came with a standard single chicken strap on the centerline of the board. So, I decided to install inserts for a double chicken setup, but first I built the adapter pictured above in order to help figure out placement before I permanently installed new inserts.

I finally got a chance to sail with the adapter this afternoon and it went pretty well. It was a bit windy for trying out the adapter since I didn't want to push it too hard, but at least it was pretty flat. SW wind about 15-25 mph.

From this session I think I want the straps about 1" farther back and maybe 1/2" to 1" farther outboard. I will set the adapter up like that the next time I take it out. One more time with the adapter should be enough to decide where to put the new inserts.

Arden, EL-11