August 13th - Sailing out of the breakwater it was apparent that tonight was going to be an unusual night. The wind was far south at ~195-200° but fairly strong. We initially figured A mark as our windward mark (which bears 210° from SS mark). However, those conditions were soon to change as the wind started to lighten down radically just after the Schocks and PHRF-AA boats started at 1755 hrs. Naturally, we had to change quite a few trim settings for the lighter air. We figured the wind might get really light and thought there might be more wind to the south and with the starting line square to a wind of ~200° we planned a pin end start (we also sent Demitri, Jim and Reggie into the bilge to help prevent the boat from hobby-horsing so much in the light air and slop).

Then, the RC gave us S mark as our windward mark, which meant we could fetch the windward mark from either end of the starting line. That caused our brain trust (Ron on the helm and Frank on main trim and tactics) to reconsider whether we wanted to start at the pin or the RC boat end. Then to make it even stranger, it became apparent that the wind up the course was shifting right big time (~30-40°). With the big shift we figured the RC boat end became massively favored (it was, after all, square to a wind of ~200°) and we were the only boat to start there on time. We were a second or too late for the start and Teaser was a boat-length or more directly behind us.

With S mark as our windward mark we were sailing on the unfavored tack and so almost immediately tacked over onto port. On port tack we were initially heading ~240-245° but that wasn't to last for long as the wind went back south again. We were soon able to sail a course of ~215°, which meant we would be able to make S mark without tacking. In fact, the wind went so far south that our jib trimmer (Art) and jib grinder (Dick) moved the jib lead outboard and down to optimize sail trim for the below-closehauled conditions.

As we got further and further from the starting line the wind began to pick up significantly and one of the "bilge brothers" (Jim) came up on deck to sit on the windward rail with Dick and Linda. Linda hooked up the spinnaker sheets and halyard tonight because Demitri had not yet come up on deck (and frankly, Linda weighs less than 1/2 of what Demitri does). Just before the rounding the last of the "bilge brothers" (Reggie and Demitri) came up on deck to help with rasing the spinnaker. We had a pretty good rounding - almost simultaneously tacking onto starboard, rounding the mark and setting the spinnaker. Teaser rounded maybe 2-3 boat-lengths behind us with Superstar and Creeper not too far behind them. It was a pretty tight reach to the breakwater, with it getting slightly tighter later in the leg. Once they had their spinnaker up and flying Superstar was on a tear, passing Teaser and getting pretty close. We sailed pretty much straight for the breakwater while Superstar sailed a bit higher. Fortunately, we were able to keep our spinnaker flying right to the breakwater (had the wind gone any more south we would have had to raise the reacher and drop the spinnaker early).

After rounding the breakwater we actually went wing-and-wing for the short leg from the detached breakwater to the south breakwater. We continued until we were just north of the middle of the channel. Superstar turned to stay closer to the south side of the outer channel and this seemed to pay for them as they definitely were going faster. The other boats (Creeper and Teaser) followed Superstar so our competition was all significantly to windward of us. Unfortunately, we hit a light spot and Superstar was able to pass us to weather. Then, the wind shifted even farther south and we were almost forced to tack! but we got a lift and some slightly stronger wind and were just able to sail to windward of the one buoy that is out of line with the others on the north side of the outer channel.

Superstar was far enough ahead to save their time at the turning mark off the Coast Guard Station but we worked our way over to the south side of the main channel (hoping for more wind and knowing there was probably more incoming tide over there). The wind was really light but we were able to close the distance with Superstar enough to save our time on them.

Tonights race was tough sailing and congratulations to our hard-working crew - Ron, Frank, Art, Dick, Jim, Reggie, Linda and Demitri (going from the back to the pointy end).

Our big rival for the MR Trophy, Bandit, got a third tonight so we got back most of the points that we had lost to them last week. We are in a good position for the rest of the series as tonight's victory guaranteed us a 2nd place in the series. Now it is down to just Bandit and us with us in the lead.

Last updated: August 13, 2003