We had Terry, Paul, Cheryl, and Catherine. So a pretty dang good team overall. It felt lighter than the forecast so I didn't adjust the rig as the rig was set for light wind. The forecast was for 10-12 from the N moving E and dying slightly. As I showed up with the drinks, Paul had cleaned the bottom and Terry and Cheryl were rigging the boat. That was amazing! Catherine was "late" aka, on time to the rest of the world. I was a few minutes late as I had to go by Publix for beverages and burn it goodies for the awards ceremony that was going to happen after the race.
The sail up was mostly uneventful. Catherine, Cheryl, and I talked about what is going to happen with the women's crew now that both Linda and I are going to drive. We also all talked about our holiday breaks and when Dave gets to come back home. The wind was squirrley and actually kinda overpowering for the loose rig but I decided to leave it until we got up to the course and see how it settled.
Once we got up there, we did the obligatory spinn set and it was a good thing we did. It was all kinds of tangled. Oh well, light wind. We sorted it out and got it launched again. I tried to do my usual pre-race determine headed and lifted compass numbers. Unfortunately right before the start, the wind shifted and my numbers were meaningless. The wind had built a bit and it was 10 min before the start so even though I wanted to tighten the rig, I decided I didn't have time.
Oh, we also had quite a show that day as it seems that Performance Sail was having a cat race. There were cats with their spinns up just screaming along and playing. So I had quite a task to stay out of their way. They looked like they were having a blast though. Perfect wind for them to have a fast but manageable ride down the river.
I should have written this soon as I've forgotten some details. I think this was the start where I got myself into a not so good spot and had what would have been a second row start, I was just further down the line than I wanted to be and a boat length or two back. I really really need to work on starts.
The whole day I just felt slow. I could not keep up with boats next to me. Ok, well the boats next to me that I couldn't keep up with are JMouse (dry sailed and nice sails), Fine Finish (nice boat, nice bottom, nice sails), and Mischief (new bottom and halfway decent sails). I think it was that marginal air where the current genoa just doesn't excel. It's not so light that shape is inconsequential and not heavy enough to force shape. I tried every sail trim thing I could think of to gain a bit of speed. Some definitely made it worse so I reversed those back!
We had excellent crew work throughout the day. I think both of my windward mark roundings (it was a 2 lap North-Books course) on this race wound up being a pinch and coast around the mark. Paul did an excellent job on one of them trimming the jib to help me point, then dumping it when I needed to coast above close hauled, and then trimming it back in to keep from touching the mark and to help me turn. I had overstood when I first tacked onto starboard to head for the last bit to the mark but there was a header (of course). There were 2 boats above me. Even the boat above and to my hip also had to pinch like hell to make it. I don't remember which boat that was. While I was busy driving with everything I had to avoid the mark, my crew read my mind about putting up the pole and then launching the kite. Go team! We were about boat #2 to round I believe. Going downwind we were doing pretty well most of the time but I really wished I had put up a spin with bigger shoulders. The boats that had those were doing better than we were.
We made our way around the course and I know I lost at least 1 boat due to just being slow and not being able to fix it. We finished third in this race.
Somewhere during the day we had a tangle with Santerella and that was umm fun… Let me start out by saying there were a couple times pre start where I had the legal right of way as well as customary and friendly right of way. For instance, I got pushed away from RC the first time I went by to check in so I made another circle to come back by on starboard. As I was approaching, Santeralla unfurls their jib - on port- and heads straight for me. I do all kinds of maneuvers to get away from them and they just keep heading right for me. Only one person on board can see me (I think, their freeboard is so much higher than ours…). That got scary. We also had some port-starboard crossings that were interesting where I am on starboard and they are bearing down on me but not turning. At some point I see them turn the wheel hard over but the boat has yet to turn. Yes, I've been hailing. Only Paul and I can see them - I guarantee our eyes were big. The rest of the crew was trying to give me info on something or other. I had to tell them "not now" and I'm sure there was some stress in my voice. I sure as hell didn't know which way to go to get out of the way at that point as they had initiated their turn so if I turned down to avoid them, I'd just probably turn into their bow. If I tacked, they'd probably spear the back of the boat. Luckily the boat turned and Paul and I got to breathe a sigh of relief. There were a couple times during the race that I chose a tack just to not have to cross with Santerella again. On a downwind leg, approaching the leeward mark, we converged again with them. I was on SB, they on Port jibes. I have them well enough notice that they were in my path and I was starboard. At least 2 people on board said they need to jibe. However the skipper just tried to keep turning down. They keep just on trucking. I'm closing on them pretty quickly and I actually turn down further than I really wanted to just to give them time to do their jibe. They are still refusing to and people on board saying they need to stay away from our spin. We do touch and they yell that we've collided. Keep in mind I'm actually still quite low - not the course I wanted to hold so that I had some actual speed. It was light enough that going DDW was not a grand idea. Anywho, I've altered my course for them. Gave them MILES of notice of my intent as a right of way boat, we touched poles. They still did not jibe. We touched again. At this point they finally finally jibed. However the foredeck was not informed of this so the pole did not jibe. They got into a mess obviously. Now I'm on my jibe line so while they are still sorting them selves out and yelling about how to complete the jibe and they need to do circles, I go on about our jibe and rounding the mark. I ask my crew to keep an eye on them to see if they do complete their circles. They take a LONG time to get around the mark and then seem to actually be heading home. They go almost all the way to Eau Gallie. We kinda all quit watching them for the circles as we thought they were retiring. Eventually we realize they are still in the race. I go to inform RC I intend to protest, but pass by them on the way (near enough that RC can hear my hail) asking if they did their circles. I get back an answer that they did. I dunno, but ok… I'll let it go. She's just so huge compared to everyone else, she's scary. She cannot just go blasting her weight through the course and expecting us "little" ones to scurry away whether it be by trying to limit maneuvers or lack of rules knowledge or whatever it is. That's scary.
Anywho. We finished the first race in 3rd. Not shabby but if only I had had boat speed…
Ok, second race. Several boats are early to the start, I'm trying to kill speed and kill a little too aggressively. JMouse (?) and Mischief are over early. They cross - on port- in front of me and get too close. I yell that I didn't like it but not protest. I barely barely had to avoid, but they are supposed to stay clear. This is the foreshadowing that this is going to be the race of weird rules games. This race is a one lapper. So, going downwind Mischief, us, Cowbell and Fine Finish are all pretty dang close to each other. FF and Mischief have a bit of head start on me. They start playing games with each other (go right ahead…). I'm fighting to keep away from Cowbell. Eventually we catch a shift or a puff or something and pull away from them. Ok, it's actually several little puffs and shifts. So thanks to my crew for staying on top of calling the wind - Cheryl was calling wind, Catherine was helping and keeping on eye on the mark and what the others were doing, Paul on the sheet, Terry on guy? sometimes. Also watching the pole. They are talking to me about shifts and puffs. It helps me not zone out or oppositely, look around too much on this long slow but high pressure down wind slog. At some point FF and Mischief start playing with each other and there is contact such that Mischief touched FF spinn. Mischief starts to circle - with their spin up - so I just watch the fun. Suddenly they are gunning for me and ostensibly on SB. They yell SB at me. I don't have time to argue and I kinda wanted to jibe anyway, so we did. But I'm thinking about it and am very confused. It started out to where it had to be a penalty turn, but that's a 720 so 2 tacks and 2 jibes. But he's only done something like a 270. 1 tack as he is on SB and me and FF (all originally going the same way) are on Port. So then I think it is some kind of crazy tactical thing. It's ok to me that we jibed as we pass FF during this. Mischief somehow rounds the leeward mark overlapped to the inside of me. We are too overlapped for me to do what I wanted to do and dig down then dive up on top of them. But I do manage to turn wide and then luff up inside them. If I had stayed leeward, they would have had me absolutely pinned so I still don't regret doing this. However we had to luff so hard that we just had no speed. I thought this tack was marginally lifted so I tried to stay here. Turns out I shouldn't have as FF made out on us by tacking around the mark just behind us. Eventually I tack away from Mischief and wind up in a tacking duel, unwittingly, with FF. They did exactly what they should have done. They had superior speed in general and also probably had better tacks. I think I turn the rudder too hard to start so I have to use a lot of rudder to stop the turn and slow us down too much. Through all these tacks, Mischief is just GONE way out in front. FF passes me and just keeps inching away. Suddenly I am in a fight with Cowbell to see if we get 3rd or 4th for the finish. Cowbell tacks off before the lay line of the finish line such that they have to do 2 tacks. My crew is split on if we should tack to cover or stay going another 4 boat lengths so we can make the line with 1 tack. I take the only 1 take method. Suddenly someone realizes that Dick (and a PHRF) boat did not finish! They missed the memo it was a one lapper. FF did beat us to the line but we beat Cowbell by a couple boat lengths to the finish line by deciding to go slightly further to the lay line and only doing 1 tack. I don't know why they tacked when they did. We did not get a header then.
So we ended the day with a hard fought 3rd and 2nd. We then popped the chute, cleated it off and had a fun ride home with beverages. In fact, in a move that shows how much more comfortable I have gotten driving, we went under the bridge with the spinn up, me driving standing with the tiller between my legs, a beer, and talking on the phone.
Good day. Thanks crew - you are completely awesome!
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