Nice start to the race with 10-15 knots from the WSW. That went down to almost nothing before a westerly vein came and went to carry everyone home. Current was ebbing all night. Course was from H to 22 to D to H.
I missed the previous week since I was on vacation at Long Beach Island. This week was my first time on the boat in 2 weeks and it was nice to be back on the river. Frank and I were the crew tonight and we motored out of the slip shortly after 17:30. We were greeted by a healthy WSW breeze which made for a great reach over to H.
Once at H we went upwind a bit and found more pressure up the course with a righty. This made us want to go to the right side of the course after the start. The line was committee boat favored. With the nice breeze I knew there would be some traffic around the boat at the start. We did our typical start for these conditions:
- Run the line from the RM on starboard from 3:30 to go.
- With 2:30 to go, we tacked about and headed back towards the RM.
- At 1:30 to go, we were downwind of the RM and moving towards the fleet that was approaching on starboard. (We were on port)
- With 50 seconds, we tacked onto starboard and began our approach.
- We were slightly early, so I headed up to slow down and keep our position.
- With about 15 seconds to go, we were two or three boat-lengths down from the RM, but we were building speed towards the line.
- We started with little room to spare. We had enough speed to tack over to port and cross the guys that were slow coming out of the fight for the boat end. (I heard some of those boats had barged in)
So off to the right we went. When we tacked back to starboard up the course, A Train could cross. Zoom banged the left corner and at the mark had a comfortable lead. I can never figure out why the left side pays off in this situation. I call it the Bugaboo move as Bugaboo always kicked our ass when they stayed left. The current and direction seemed to favor the right side, but the proof is in the results. The left side was favored and I cannot explain why. A comment on this would be most welcome.
Downwind, we had a few B boats around and we worked with them down the rhumb line. Zoom went to the East side and had a tough time there. Seems like they went back to the well and I once again have no idea why it did not work for them. The only thing I can think of is that the breeze did not seem to get far enough east. Half way down the leg, Frank saw some dust coming off the land to the northwest, so we headed west for a few minutes to catch the new breeze and got to D quickly.
Once at D, we headed up and sailed to the finish. The breeze was nice, so we sailed around until 21:00 before heading in.
The Race Marshall did a tremendous job this night. The course was long and challenging, yet everyone finished in time. The line was fair and the announcements were clear and on time.
As far as the golf course doosh bags, since I heard enough of their first names and searched the local courses on the web, I now know the golf course they are from and have reported that back to the FCC. That should help them end this issue quickly (FCC translation = months). Next week I will hail them by full name. If the FCC cannot end it, I will publish their personal information and anyone will be able to discuss marine radio etiquette with them any time of the day.
I plan to add a special post on barging. This is common and I think there is a good opportunity to make starts more orderly if everyone knows what barging is.
Here is a video of our post race sail.
Here is a picture:
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