Polar Bear Race 5 Report

The Course.
It was overcast, cold, and rainy; a typical winter Vancouver day BUT there was wind. The brave crew assembled at the WEASEL with coffee in hand. Mike came out with his fancy new foulies, Curtis made it as did Dave. We climbed onto the boat and motored out to the start line.

The RC had moved the start line from the usual QC and was to the west of it. The wind was approximately 8-10 knots out of the East. As we approached we radioed for the course. It came back to quickly for anyone to right down. We hailed again but were told to come by the committee boat and read it. The next second the 5 minute horn went. We hoisted our sails and made for the committee boat. They had the flags up but their main sail cover was blocking them from our view.

We got in the mix at the start line and made our final run for the line. As we rounded the committee boat I noticed they only had a div 1 flag up. We bore away and fell back. The RC all season has started both fleets together and not being able to see the divisional flags lead us to almost starting off with the div 1 boats.

We got the course finally and started just ahead of CARLITO's WAY our only competitor. The first mark was the windward QC buoy. CARLITO's WAY bore away and heated up. We pointed a ton better but were slower. As we made our way down CARLITO's WAY tacked early and were going to have to tack again to round the mark. We kept our course intending to round the mark on one tack. As we came close to the mark we passed just in front of CARLITO's WAY; it was very close.

The wind as recorded at Jericho.

Rounding QC we made for the leeward freighter to the west of the start line. We got our kite up at about the same point as CARLITO's WAY but we were on the inside and going DDW and the heated up bearing away slightly. As the passed us on the outside I began to move over to shadow them and steal there wind but they maneuvered to make the impractical. We raced down towards the freighter side by side.

At the rear of the freighter things heated up. CARLITO's WAY ditched their pole and flew the sail free. The forced us to gybe and being windward we had too. They forced us down into the wind shadow of the freighter while they remained in a better outside position. Our kite was touching theirs at points. We slowed and they gained 5 boat lengths.

Now it was upwind to the Barge Buoy. Again we went close hauled straight for the mark and CARLITO's WAY dropped to the south. They found better wind and increased there lead. On the way to the Barge Buoy I went down below to pack the chute. While I was down below with Curtis at the helm I felt the boat lurch to the leeward and heard aloud bang and raised voices. Mike had lost his footing and was falling off the boat when his new foulies caught on the shroud cleat and held him up with only one foot dangling in the water.

After rounding behind them with little hope of catching up we both proceeded to the QC buoy. Rounding that we threw up the kite and made for the finish line. We did gain ground here but still 4 minutes and 5 seconds behind CARLITO's WAY.

It was a great aggressive race with 2 fairly equally matched boats. Last race we were in a 3 way tie for 3rd but this race pulled us ahead. With only one DNC we have pulled ourselves into second place by attending the most races. Participation ribbons for all!

The latest Polar Bear Race Results.