Spring Race #5

Wednesday 6/8/2011

The winds were light from the West between 4 and 8 knots. Current was changing or something, not a big deal. We sailed from H to 24 to D to H. A & B went twice around.

It was a hot evening. We left the slip and went just to the south of H so I could have some room to swim while the boat was carried to the line. After taking a quick dip, the wind started to pipe up a bit, so we hoisted the sails and began to move.

The starting line was fair with the pin end favored. The RM originally called for two courses that would have us going around the first mark in opposite directions, but then changed to twice around for A&B and once for C. I was happy with this call since the original course would have had the non-spin boats doing windward leeward, while the spin boats were doing reach-reach to get downwind.

Watching the first start, I saw a B boat pull off a port tack start. The slowest boat at their start port-tacked the entire fleet. I heard some starboard hails, but I am not sure if anything was even close. I have done that start once or twice in the same breeze. The trouble is that the left usually pays and port tacking the fleet brings you right. I don’t know what happened after that.

Back in C, we had a nice conservative start. We were close to the pin, but about 10 seconds late. We worked our way to the left side of the course before tacking over to port. We made some distance on the other boats by the time we reached 24. On the downwind, everyone seemed to sail north of the rhumb line. We winged it and went straight towards D. This worked out and we even passed a few B boats on the leg.

Leading up to the rounding at D, we heard at least two boats hail the RM to shorten the A and B course to once around. The wind at D was terrible, but the wind up the course was still holding on. While I would agree with the hailing boats that a shorter course was an option, I do not agree with them hailing for it. It is hypocritical for me to say this as I am sure I have done it in the past. Hell, I would probably put a link to a past blog where I talk about regretting getting on the radio, but since it is my blog, I’ll let someone comment with the link.

In the end, most boats that stayed out to race finished. A few withdrew. If you have no chance at finishing in the time limit, I can understand withdrawing. Otherwise, this is a 20:30 hard stop for racing. Surely, two hours on the water on a nice evening is not so uncomfortable that boats should be giving up and going home. I am psycho about sailing, so maybe I am way off base. We get about 20 hours of racing each year on Wednesday nights. Seems a little odd to give up when there is a chance at finishing.

Only two boats were OTL. The wind definitely died, but when we sailed in it seemed like someone would finish from B before the extended time limit of 20:50. Looking at the results, it does not appear that happened.

I would like to make special mention of a great performance on this night. Hard Attack sailed very well. They were out ahead early on the heels of the A boats and took line honors at the finish for B. It was great to watch them have such a good race. They were out with us in the stormy weather that cancelled race #2 and seeing them perform well made me think about how they flew their spinnaker on that nasty night. I hope their practice continues to pay off.

Summer Wind had a great race in C2. It was great to see two of the most dedicated racers getting good scores on this night.