Summer Race #2

Shifty North wind between 6-12 knots.  Current was ebbing over 1 knot in the channel.  Skies were partly sunny.  Course was from H to 26 to K to H.  A&B sailed H to 26 to 22 to G to H.  

Early in the day, I saw the forecast and the moon rise prediction and thought it was the perfect night for a late night sail.  With a northerly gradient, I thought the breeze would hold up well into the night and if we got a break from the clouds, we would get a nice moonrise.

Joey and Tommy

Soon after deciding to skip pizza night and sail longer, I got word that we could take some of the youth sailors out for a ride.  I always enjoy this and made arrangements to pick up Joey and Tommy from MYC.  By 17:40, we were on the water sailing downwind to the starting area.

We did a test run sailing up the river to 26.  The right side was favored in wind and with less current.  It was a no-brainer at this point.  We crept over to the very favored pin end of the line and waited for A&B to start.  During their start, the wind changed at least 60 degrees to the right.  The port tack start that we were going to use failed for the A&B boats.  The starboard tack boats were coming off the line well and by the time our start was 3 minutes away, the boat end was now clearly favored.  We adjusted before the start and got off the line by the RM boat a few seconds after the gun.

This put us in the position of being the right most boat in the fleet as a righty was taking over.  We were lifted above the mark and stayed there knowing the current was ripping.  By staying to the right, we thought we would have a little less current than the boats below us.  We also kept it high since the wind was good and we may need the speed of footing closer to the mark.

Everything worked out well and we rounded 26 a minute ahead of the next boat.  We then cruised at 8 knots over the ground to K.  This was a short leg, but we were able to gain a little more distance on the fleet.  Rounding K, we held port tack for 2 minutes.  After tacking back to starboard, the current had shown that the 2 minute lead would not mean much distance on this leg.  We let A-Train get above us on starboard tack since we were already making the mark.

I was concerned about this.  First, A-Train would be further from the channel and probably in less current.  Second, the wind was from the NE now and A-Train was closer to the NE shore.  In the end, we got some additional lift and cracked off a bit near the finish.  We let the kids drive most of the last leg and across the finish.  Although not as talkative as the girls from last year, they seemed to have a great time driving the boat at the end of the race.

Sunset

Their parents were nice enough to pick the kids up at the Haverstraw fuel dock.  This made it easy for us to get back out and enjoy the new freshening breeze.  The wind went back to the north and built to a refreshing 12-18 knots.  These were the conditions we were hoping for to extend the sail into the night.  We sailed down to Croton before tight reaching back and forth. 

Finally around 21:30, with clouds blocking the eastern horizon, we sailed in for the evening.  It was a great ride after the race.  The winds were perfect and the sunset put on a nice show.

The Race Committee did a great job.  For the second week in a row, two courses were used and the boats came back close to each other.  It was a nice length for the conditions.

Pizza night was tough to miss.  We love the event, but I could not turn down this night of sailing after so many weeks of light or no air.  Since I don't get out much on the weekends anymore, the night was just the sailing fix I was looking for.

Sun behind flag

Post sunset