Spring Race #3

Wednesday 5/25/2011

Nice night for sailing. SSW breeze between 6 and 10 knots. Current was flooding. Course was from H to K to G to H. Skies were mostly clear and the temperature was a comfortable 75 degrees.

It was a great night to go out on the water. The forecast had called for light winds, but the chance for a sea breeze was in the forecast and it filled in right before the race.

The Race Marshall was on the course early and had a good line set. The committee boat was on the starboard side of the line and the boat end was favored. The setup was typical, a nice southerly breeze, light flooding current and a windward leg to K.

We got off the start line in a good position. We were at the committee boat and had room to tack. We thought the breeze was better on the right side, so we tacked a minute after the start. One boat came with us to the right side, the rest stayed on the left side. We may have lost a little on the right as our exchanges up the leg showed we had lost some of the lead.

Eventually, one boat got ahead of us. We exchanged a tack or two before settling in on the starboard layline. They tacked above us and for a while we were in a good position. The boat above us then footed down and was able to get on top of our breeze. This hurt us and put them an extra 30 seconds or so ahead. We rounded the mark about a minute behind them and ahead of the rest of the fleet.

The second leg was a broad reach. We made some time back on the boat in front of us. They had there jib flying, but they never let their main out far enough. With the main choked, we were able to close the gap and get right behind them by the time we reached G. I thought about diving in for an overlap, but we did not have enough leg left, so I took the more conservative approach and stayed outside of them.

At the mark, the boat ahead took a nice smooth turn around the mark. I went high on my approach and began my turn before I was at the mark. I was already almost heading for H when I actually passed G. This allowed us to be about a boat length above the competition and from there we pulled ahead. We had a nice easy sail to the finish.

It was a great race. The Race Marshall was on top of things from the beginning and ran it well. The course was a good length and the fleet stayed tight. We were constantly in a battle to get ahead and just eked out a first in the end.

After racing, we turned back upwind and sailed to leeward of some of the C boats that were still heading to the finish. I took some videos and posted those to my YouTube site.

It was nice to see so many boats sailing after the race. I really get a kick out of seeing all the sailing boats on the Hudson in the evening. It adds to the beauty of the river. We sailed on until a little after sunset and headed in to get some food. Next time the weather is this nice, I will remember to bring sandwiches so we can sail longer. With the breeze holding, we could have sailed well into the evening.

I tried to diagram the windward mark move.  This is a general idea of what happened.  I condensed it as the actual maneuver took over three minutes.  Jazz is in yellow and the boat that pulled ahead of us is blue.  It was a good move for them and put them way ahead at the mark.