Great to see nine RS Aeros out at Corinthian Yacht Club, Seattle for their Turkey Bowl Regatta on 21/22nd November with more new faces emerging. Winter is setting in but on the Pacific Northwest USA this can be great sailing with mild coastal temperatures and good winds.
Dan Falk, the 2016 RS Aero North American champion, took out the win;
‘The conditions were perfect with breezes in the teens all weekend and clear but cold skies. This is my first regatta since the Cascade Locks event in July as I’ve been off sailing. I am still working at figuring out the ergonomics of downwind sailing in the boat but the RS Aero has definitely reignited my enthusiasm for sailing.
Michael O’Brien has some interesting insights;
‘Great conditions. Dan was again in a class of his own in his 9 rig. The other 7s and 9s were evenly mixed with the 9s having an edge when the wind got lighter. At 14-16kts, the 7s and 9s were very, very even.
On one downwind, Dan was able to heat it up a few degrees and plane away from the fleet while the rest did VMG downwind angles. Clearly, there are some opportunities in marginal planing conditions. We had a couple of boats sailing quite different angles upwind too. Some going high, some low, but surprisingly even at the end of the beat with the pointers loosing slightly to those footing the boat a bit more (in some conditions). We had some big gaps between the front and the back of the fleet and we are going to have to do a clinic or two to close the fleet up.
I was playing with settings and pulling the vang and cunningham hard such that the leach just collapses, hinging at the inner batten edge. What is interesting is that in 22 kts+, this may actually be faster. You sort of convert the 7 sail into a 5, which is very fast upwind. More test is required to see if backing off the tensions just a little is slower or not.
What was really cool is that with 5 of our fleet unable to come due to other commitments, we still got 9 boats out. The growth continues ….’