Summer Race #9

Wednesday 9/15/2010 Inconsistent North wind from 8 to 18 knots. Current flooding, but changed shortly after the race. A&B sailed from H to C to 22 and back. C sailed from H to C to F to 24 and back. I went up to the boat early to get some small repairs done. I had blown my outhaul the previous week and there were some lingering issues to deal with. I was happy to see that Samalot Marine had fixed my outhaul earlier in the week. They did a great job with it. This is the third or fourth time I have had a breakdown and they were able to patch it up without having to miss a race. It is a great benefit for us to have a full service sailing facility in the marina. Since the major repair was done, I was left to clean up a few things and repair some of the woodwork below. Frank and Kevin (the greenhorn) arrived right as I finished up and we headed straight out to the course. Along the way, I tightened the shrouds, as the mast was way too loose. This brought some extra tension on the forestay. As we arrived at the start area, I was happy to see the RC on station. A great line was set. It was an appropriate length with the boat end a little favored. We sailed around in a nice heavy northerly and got the course. I decided to start near the boat and get there a little early to avoid the crowd. As I was sailing away from the line on port tack, I noticed other boats were setting up early as well, so I tacked after them and figured I would get to the line right on time. Coming back on starboard with less than a minute to go, the early boats started to luff. They were not in the best spot as they were luffing while being too far to windward. This allowed me to sail below them without any concern for not being able to head up to the line. We settled into a nice controlling spot with no one below us and a few boats above us. I was thinking about shutting the door on the windward boats, but opted for a clean start at the RC boat. At the start, two boats were over early down the line. Up at the boat we were all clear. We sailed for a minute or two before tacking onto port. Further up the course, we were close to the port layline when an A division boat crossed us and tacked right on top of us. We are not in the same division and there was no reason to tack directly on top of us. It is not like we were on the lay-line, just close to it and they could have sailed a little further and not hurt us as badly. This slam move ended up killing us for the rest of the leg. I should have tacked right away to clear my air, but instead I sat in the bad air until we got over to the right side of the course. We rounded the mark and the wind lightened. This made it tough on us since we do not have a spinnaker. Four boats in our division passed us on this leg. The leg was 3 miles, but with the current, it seemed like it was forever. We finally rounded 22 and knew that we had to pass Gusto to keep our position in third place for the series. We tacked out to the left side for a minute to clear our air. We were behind Gusto and another boat, so the tack allowed us to sail in clear air. Once out there, we were able to sail our optimal upwind angle which is lower than most boats. We got ahead of Gusto and felt good up on the left side. Then Gusto tacked to the left side and we were late to react. We could see them making a gain above us, so we tacked back and then tacked right on top of Gusto. Let’s pause. Seems like I did the same bad move that I was complaining about earlier. Well, I did. The difference here is that I needed to put Gusto about a minute behind us to correct over them. We are in the same division and whenever we race against each other it is always close. ALWAYS. So I made a competitive move against a boat that we are locked into a tight battle with. In the earlier example, the boat that hurt us gained no advantage in affecting our wind. In this case, we gained an advantage, as we needed to put a few seconds between them and us. We crossed the line right behind A Line Up from C2 and just ahead of Hard Attack. Gusto was about the exact handicap time behind us. In the end, I think we beat them by one second. It was a thrilling last leg and a great challenge right up to the line. Every second counted and that is about all you can ask for in PHRF racing. With the mix of C and A/B boats finishing together, the RC did a great job with the course. It is ideal to have everyone finishing around the same time. The RC made the line, course, and management superb. It was a great race for all. After the finish, the wind was on the higher side and we reached around for a while to enjoy the last bit of evening. After a few beers, the sun set, the wind got lighter, so we headed in. It was nice to see a couple of boats sailing around as well. As long as the wind is up, it is great to sail on the river during the twilight. There is one race left in the season. Depending on the times for Gusto and us, third place could come down to the final race. It is nice to go head to head against our closest competitor once more.