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Colors 2010
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Vayu Triumphs at Colors
(Sunday, June 6, 2010) Vayu won first place in the Beneteau 40.7 section at Columbia Yacht Club’s Colors Regatta held over Saturday and Sunday, June 5-6th. This is the only one-design class event of the year for the Lake Michigan Beneteau 40.7 Fleet in which any professional sailors are allowed aboard the boats as crew. One pro is allowed per boat.
.jpg) Vayu’s skipper was Ron Buzil and her tactician was Rob Rafson. Also aboard was Vayu’s long-time professional coach, Andrew Kerr. “We sailed well this weekend”, said Ron Buzil, “Maybe not as well as we had sailed at Key West a few months ago, but I was proud of the team this weekend. We always understandably sail our best when Andrew is aboard.” The rest of Vayu’s crew were: Scott Reich at mainsail trim, Nigel Brownett at spinnaker trim, Ed Radzikowski at mast, Lior Cohen on the bow, Paul Molenda in the pit, Amy Becker on guy trim, James Judge and Wojtek Wolantkowski on jib trim, and Bryan Hayes as “utility infielder”.
The weather looked precarious as the boats gathered around the starting area at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning. The forecast was for thunderstorms to move into the area. Radar images substantiated the forecast. As the rain began, the Race Committee prudently decided to postpone the day’s racing and ordered all competitors back to their harbors. Shortly after noon the sky brightened somewhat and the announcement was made that racing would resume at 1:00 PM. Once again the competing boats gathered. Two races were able to be completed Saturday afternoon.
With the wind southeast at about 10 knots the first race was called at a course of 135°, at a distance of 2 miles, 4 windward/leeward legs. Initially after the start, La Tempete, Das Boot, and Rhumb Runner went to the right and there found pressure which put them solidly in the lead for the rest of the race. Vayu, which had started near the pin end of the line, tacked early, crossed about four boats, and for the pressure on the right. At the first weather mark it was La Tempete, Das Boot, Rhumb Runner and Vayu, rounding in that order. In fact, that was the order of rounding at the leeward mark, at the second weather mark, and at the finish.
By the second race of the day, with the wind veering, the course was called at 240°, also 2 miles and 4 legs. The wind now was building to 13 to 20 knots. Many boats had started the race with their light #1 genoas but on the first downwind leg foredeck crews were seen scrambling to change sails, some going to their #3, some to their heavy #1 genoa. After another pin end start and a tack to cross some remaining starboard tackers on the left, Vayu led at all of the marks and won the race.
At the end of the first day of racing, Tom Weber’s La Tempete was in first place by 1 point, followed by Vayu with 5 points, and then Jay Muller’s Das Boot and Bob Arzbaecher’s Sociable with 7 points each and the tie-breaker going to Sociable.
On Sunday, after a brief postponement of about ten minutes, racing started in about 13 knots of breeze out of the northwest. The first race was called at a course of 320°, distance 2 miles, 4 legs. Oscillations in the wind direction of 15° were seen every minute or two. Vayu was first around the weather mark and first at the leeward mark. At the leeward mark a change of course was called by the Race Committee but in the confusion and noise of the mark rounding, many boats didn’t pick up on the change. One result was that Vayu overstood the layline for the new weather mark before figuring it out. This allowed Turning Point, under skipper Dave Hardy, to round the 2nd windward mark in first place with Vayu maybe two boatlengths behind. In the end Turning Point held onto their lead and won the race.
Fun and games at the start of the second race on Sunday which was called at 20°, 2 miles, 4 legs. Vayu was forced above the committee boat seconds before the start, almost hit one of the auxiliary boats, and had to spin around and cross the line over 40 seconds late. Instead of tacking, Vayu dug in on starboard tack as the wind began shifting more to the right so things weren’t too bad when Vayu rounded the weather mark in 5th place. It was on the downwind leg that the race began to go topsy-turvy. Halfway down the leg the wind shut off, leaving everyone gasping for air. When a tiny breath of wind, 3 knots at most, filled in on the lower part of the course, the boats were able to go through the leeward gate, this time with Clem Botz’ Cancan in the lead followed by Vayu at the left gate and Jim McDonnell’s Spanker leading at the right gate. On the third leg, now mostly a reach in light air and with the continued right shift leaving just about everyone overstood on the layline, it was Spanker who rounded first followed by Vayu now in 2nd. And that was the order at the finish: Spanker, then Vayu, then Das Boot.
In the end, Vayu won the regatta by 9 points. The next five boats, Spanker, Das Boot, La Tempete, Sociable, and Turning Point were all clustered within 3 points of each other. Spanker and Das Boot were tied with 16 points for 2nd place, the tie breaker going to Spanker so Boot came in 3rd.
Former Tsunami crew were on the race course: Bryan Hayes was with Vayu and his father, Don Hayes was with La Tempete.
Excalibur missed racing on Saturday. After returning to Montrose Harbor after the postponement Excalibur did not return for the afternoon start.
After racing on Saturday, professional sailors Andrew Kerr, who had sailed with Vayu, and Geoff Moore, who had sailed with Sociable, conducted a one-hour review of the day’s activity. About thirty sailors from at least five of the fleet’s boats participated in some good discussion on sail selection, tactics, and rules.
After the regatta, Andrew Kerr had these comments about the weekend activity on the racecourse:
“It was a great weekend of sailing with challenging conditions for teams on both days. We tried to have an open mind tactically with a constant look out for velocity and a scanning and reviewing of the angles of the other boats in other fleets for clues to what may be happening up the course.
The plan for our team was to try and sail a solid race every race , after the start of race # 1 this was almost derailed completely as three boats sailed to the right shore and sailed away from the rest of the fleet!
Key elements of the weekend were a constant reassessment of initial assumptions as shafts of velocity came own the course along with shifts - very often changing the game plan, we found that as our mechanics improved our ability to keep our heads out of the boat improved commensurately.
From a starting standpoint - getting a start that enabled a team to sail in a straight line unhindered going fast was key so that the team could then determine when they wanted to tack and not have another team decide it for them.
Geoff Moore made some excellent observations at the Saturday debrief about sailing with the heavy #1 at the top range and the need to sail the boat with a constant angle of keel and not be afraid to steer a lot to keep the boat going and tracking in the chop and big gusts.
One thing I would add, is for crews to slide aft on the rail when it gets to the top range - about 6 inches to a foot per person , it's a squeeze but getting the weight aft kelps keep the rudder in the water and stops the natural tendency for the bow to dig in and load up the helm as the buoyant stern rises as the boat heels.
The last race was a challenge for all competitors. We had a poor start but were able to get in phase and get back in the race. Teams were sailing very well and there was a tight battle all the way around.
Team Spanker sailed a great last race to hang in with all the changing conditions. It was the type of race where you had to be ready for anything and try not to move too much when putting the spinnaker up or down so as to not disrupt the motion of the boat.
Good sailing everyone, it is a delight to sail with such a great fleet. "
Besides Andrew Kerr of North U and Geoff Moore of North Sails (Toronto), other professional sailors aboard the fleets’ boats this weekend were: Mike Considine of UK-Halsey Sails on Das Boot on Saturday and Perry Lewis of North Sails (Chicago) on Turning Point on Sunday.
The races of the Colors Regatta do not count in any of the season series.
Vayu crew:
 Final Colors Regatta Scores:
Photos of the Colors Regatta begin at: Photos
More 2008 & 2009 fleet photos start with: 40.7 Photos
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Email to cygnus(at)interaccess.com.
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