Well we can check the second race in our VARC division 7 series off. The race began with decent winds out of the NW. It was going to be a long hot beat to Silva Bay. We more or less headed south tacking down to the Fraser Spit (I think that is what it is called) before heading North. The only boat we seemed to be in competition with was DREAM SCAPE; which slowly moved ahead of us.
From that point we headed off chasing the wind across the straight. The weather was sunny and temperate. Around the middle of the straight we began to relax a little as it became apparent that unless the wind shifted or increased we were not going to make it. I had been wanting to practice a mast ascension while underway so with the help of the crew I was winched up. I got some amazing photos of the boat (to be added soon). It was really quite spectacular.
At 5pm with SARANDIS behind us and 8 miles to go we through in the towel and fired up the engine. We made it into port around 6:30pm and tied up. There I decided it would be wise to fall off the dock head first. I escaped injury with the exception of my pride. Throughout the evening the boat took a fair bit of abuse. In the morning we all awoke bleary eyed and surveyed the carnage. The GPS arm had been snapped off, a fire extinguisher was missing (no idea when/where that went missing), and the boat was generally in need of a clean. We washed out the boat as best we could and made our way out to the race course.
We started well in a better position than the other boat starting with us. It was now a SE wind that resulted in us going close hauled on a starboard tack the entire way back to English Bay. We were fairly happy with our performance. The boat averaged between 5.5-6.5 knots most of the way. We had opportunities for better main trimming but lessons were learned. We crossed the line and are now awaiting the official results although I think I know what they are; us last.
Overall it was a good race and we learned allot about the boat in those conditions. The next big race is the round Bowen.
From that point we headed off chasing the wind across the straight. The weather was sunny and temperate. Around the middle of the straight we began to relax a little as it became apparent that unless the wind shifted or increased we were not going to make it. I had been wanting to practice a mast ascension while underway so with the help of the crew I was winched up. I got some amazing photos of the boat (to be added soon). It was really quite spectacular.
At 5pm with SARANDIS behind us and 8 miles to go we through in the towel and fired up the engine. We made it into port around 6:30pm and tied up. There I decided it would be wise to fall off the dock head first. I escaped injury with the exception of my pride. Throughout the evening the boat took a fair bit of abuse. In the morning we all awoke bleary eyed and surveyed the carnage. The GPS arm had been snapped off, a fire extinguisher was missing (no idea when/where that went missing), and the boat was generally in need of a clean. We washed out the boat as best we could and made our way out to the race course.
We started well in a better position than the other boat starting with us. It was now a SE wind that resulted in us going close hauled on a starboard tack the entire way back to English Bay. We were fairly happy with our performance. The boat averaged between 5.5-6.5 knots most of the way. We had opportunities for better main trimming but lessons were learned. We crossed the line and are now awaiting the official results although I think I know what they are; us last.
Overall it was a good race and we learned allot about the boat in those conditions. The next big race is the round Bowen.
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