Summer Race #3

Wednesday 8/4/2010 Steady S breeze, 8-15 knots. Current was flooding all night. A & B sailed from H to 22 to G and back. C sailed from H to 22 to K and back. We left the harbor early and decided to sail upwind for a bit. We took some wind readings and then headed back to the start area. The RC tonight was late getting a line set. They also set themselves up on the port end of the line, which should no longer happen. I explained the reasons in a previous blog (Spring Race 6). Since the RC was late setting up and did not take registration until they were anchored, the time to register was compressed. Many boats ended up stepping on each other to register. Around 18:10, a course was announced and we began our pre-start maneuvering. I was determined to be conservative at the start. I knew the current was pulling boats away from the line, but I still wanted to be in the second row of boats. We ended up starting over 30 seconds late. This will probably be the last time I try to be conservative. I am just not good at it. I would rather be over early than 30 seconds late. Gusto had a great start right on the line. Off the line the bigger boats were devouring us. We tacked above Chi and were in their bad air in less than two minutes. We then got rolled by an A boat. We tacked out again and finally had fresh air 5 minutes into the leg. The course seemed to be pretty even upwind. The left side seemed to be favored late in the leg and we could have benefited more by moving further left on the port layline. We were the fifth of seven B boats to round the first mark. On the reach leg, we started low and were able to pass Gusto before they got their chute up. Finally and Thriller had a close call after Thriller rounded K and was on port. When we sailed by K, we noticed that K was down to a stub. There was nothing sticking out of the water, as it appeared a motorboat had decapitated the mark. It was very tough to find K. We continued onto G. Before the mark, Gusto had passed inside of us and Finally. With about three boat lengths to go, We turned up high to get some space and then gybed the boat. The three boats ahead of us rounded wide and we were able to sneak inside and take the windward advantage for the rest of the leg. Gusto worked their spinnaker well and pulled ahead of us. We passed Finally and finished fourth on this night. It was a disappointing finish since the wind speed was high enough for us to be competitive. After the race we continued to sail around. The wind was still fresh from the south and the weather was nice on the water. We saw the C fleet finish and Glory Days was impressive. They managed to cross ahead of A-Train from C1. It’s always a good race for a C2 boat when they cross ahead of a C1 boat. Later, in what is becoming a C2 match race, Summer Wind crossed ahead of Alineup. It is nice to see those two boats have fun racing against each other. I remember many races in the last few years where Summer Wind was out there alone. It is always more fun when you have another boat right next to you. By 20:00, it appeared that all boats had finished. For the third time this year, the race committee called out to the fleet to see if anyone was still racing. I mentioned in my Spring Race 5 blog that this is a bad trend. The race committee should stay on station until all boats finish or call in to withdraw. The competitors should not have to confirm that they are still racing when they are having a rough night. One of the reasons we take registrations is to make sure all boats are accounted for. If there is a registered boat that has not finished or withdrawn, the RC needs to stay on station. After the RC got no response, they raised anchor and motored in. We kept sailing. There was a curious cruising boat up river sailing wing on wing. It is rare for cruisers to wing it when they are not racing. Soon the cruiser gybed the jib and started heading for H. We decided to investigate. Turns out it was a C2 boat coming back to H to finish. I do not know why they had fallen behind, but I suspect that the stubby K mark may have been part of the problem. We asked them if they were still racing and they responded affirmatively. We asked them to take a time as they passed H and its bearing was 270. This happened at 20:18. Twelve minutes before the time limit expired. The race committee had abandoned them on the course before the time limit expired. We have sailed 11 races this year and in three of them C2 racers have been hailed by the race committee to find out if they are still racing. We continued to sail around and had another chance encounter that only happens when you screw around after racing. We saw four sailboats coming up river. We were not sure what they were doing so we sailed over to the lead boat. We recognized the boat as a Navy 44. When the second and third passed by, we ran downwind while they motored by and asked some questions. They were finishing up a three-day trip from Annapolis to Newburgh. They looked pretty tired and were happy to be close to their final port. Everyone seemed to enjoy the encounter.