Closing in on 1st!

Could you ask for better weather in the winter?

The sun was shining when I awoke Sunday. It looked like the perfect winter day with the only exception that http://www.sailflow.com was predicting no wind.

With numerous crew unable to attend the race I thought I may be single handing it. Sara, a new crew member and Cheryl were in so I was in luck. I was pretty happy not to be going alone. I wanted to maintain our position in the standings and I really wanted to see how our new PHRF rating would play out.

We got out to the start line and found there was little if any wind. It was going to be a drift I thought allowed. The RC postponed the race and we made our rounds checking in with the two other division 2 boats: CARLITO's WAY and WILLOW.

Cheryl and Sara on the way back to the marina.

As we sat there the wind started to pick up from the west and soon there was 9 knots and rising. The race was on. The course was set for a windward freighter out past Jericho, then the Barge Buoy, around the QC Buoy and back across the start/finish line. When division one was out of the way we began our approach crossing the line 20 seconds off the start horn.

After clearing the line we tacked and headed NW close hauled. Being that it was a westerly we opted to approach the freighter with one tack up the middle of the Bay. WILLOW and CARLITO's WAY continued across the line heading for the south shore. At first I figured we had them all beat. There were freighters that could cause them problems when the headed back up for the mark freighter.

When we made our tack for the freighter I could see that we had certainly beat CARLITO's WAY but WILLOW would be well ahead of us. Rounding the freighter we had a reasonable hoist and the chute went up without a hitch. As we settled in, Cheryl who was helming lost track and we suddenly fowled the kite around the forestay. There was nothing for it. We dragged it mostly down. With it half on the deck I was able to quickly unwrap it and we hoisted it again without losing much ground.

How it went down.

As we approached the Barge Buoy I realised I had miscalculated and we would want to jibe and then do a take down. While it was not our most graceful jibe, for 3 people in 14 knots it wasn't half bad. Rounding the mark we went on a beam reach and we tried to snuff the spinnaker behind the genoa. I didn't pull the spinnaker sheet in enough so when we loosened the halyard it filled. Sara quickly popped the guy and Cheryl held our course and soon we had a pretty pennant flapping in the wind. We recovered the chute without it touching the water and set about clearing the boat for a tack around the fast approaching QC Buoy.

The wind for the day as recorded at the Jericho Sailing Centre.

As we rounded the QC Buoy we could see WILLOW well ahead of us close to the line. CARLITO's WAY was well behind us and things went there natural course with us coming in second. I was pleased that with the same rating as me I was able to beat CARLITO's WAY. I was disappointed with my results against WILLOW however. Despite his boat being faster, and Jason being a better sailor (I think I found out the problem) I hoped to be closer. In the end we now sit in 2nd place overall and are a mere 2 points behind SHAWPA. With any luck we should be able to pull off a 1st place. Of course a closer inspection of the results would show that it was more of a participation ribbon we were fairly consistent throughout the series.

Results for race #7 division 2.