August 20th - We were a bit later than usual and the starting line was already set when we sailed out of the north entrance. We ran the line and found it square to ~145°. We then sailed clear of other boats and checked the wind - ~142°, so the starting line was essentially square. We sailed upwind for a bit to set sail trim and jib leads etc. and found our starboard-tack course to be ~205° with starboard tack to have more slop than port tack. Ron (helm) and Frank (tactics and main trim) intially thought a starboard-tack start anywhere on the line looked good. However, after our warning signal Frank thought it looked as if the boats up the course on starboard tack were getting headed so Ron sailed us over to the pin end of the line and we did a quick wind check. Sure enough, the wind had gone south ~10-15°. That made the pin end of the starting line favored and meant we would want a pin end start. We sailed below the pin on port tack with about 60 seconds to go, two boatlengths or so behind Crimson Star. We started our tack back to the pin with about 30 seconds to go and got a perfect start, on the line at the gun and maybe three feet from the pin.

Immediately after the start, we had a Catalina 38 (El Gato Grande or Broad Reach??) on our weather hip. Our boatspeed didn't seem too good but Ron was able to build enough speed so that we could sail slightly higher and in front of the Catalina 38. That left us with clear air and free to tack whenever we wanted. With the wind lightening we had one crew sit to leeward and one to windward with one in the compaionway. We were sailing ~190-195° and only going to S mark so we couldn't afford to go too far on starboard tack. Plus, there seemed to be more wind on the right side farther up the course and we thought the wind might shift part of the way back to the ~240-245° we saw before the start. So, we went a tad further and then tacked to port. As we sailed toward the middle of the course we got headed slightly (~10°?) so the boats behind us on port tack started pointing down at our transom. Good news! That meant we were ahead of the boats that were south of us and only had to worry about the two boats that had gone north right after the start.

As we approached the middle of the course, we saw two boats coming back on starboard, Creeper and one of the Catalina 38s (El Gato Grande or Broad Reach??). Creeper crossed ahead of us by several boat-lengths and we passed well in front of the Catalina 38. We didn't want to risk overstanding the windward mark so we tacked back to starboard. Creeper had decided to go north again and had tacked back onto port. They were able to pass clear ahead of us but just barely - we had caught up several boatlengths. We decided to stay on starboard for a while longer, which turned out to be a major mistake. Creeper was slightly further north than us (5-7 boatlengths) and significantly faster. We finally figured out that they were apparently in more breeze (there was no windline that we ever saw). Instead of being right behind Creeper at the windward mark we were at least 7-8 boatlengths back.

Reggie (pit) and Demitri (foredeck) did a great job of gettng the spinnaker up. Reggie was filling in as pit for Jim Ach, who was off driving the CYC RC boat this week. Creeper did not have a good set so we made up a little of their lead just after the windward rounding. We think Crimson Star was the next boat around behind us but they were a ways back. Both we and Creeper gybed onto port tack to head for the breakwater at about the same time, with Creeper slightly farther south. Creeper was able to sail lower and faster - somewhat frustrating as in the past they have not pulled away from us quite so rapidly. In addition, the wind went slightly farther north heading us down more towards the breakwater. Creeper was able to round without gybing again but we were forced to gybe twice more. Creeper was first at the breakwater with us over two and one-half minutes back and Crimson Star about the same distance or more behind us in third. Superstar rounded the breakwater fourth, a fair distance behind Crimson Star.

As we and Creeper were the first boats around the breakwater we both had clear air. It was very light in the outer channel and Creeper went to the north while we stayed to the south. We seemed to have a tad more pressure (and maybe less out-going current) and got closer, but not close enough. Creeper was a little over two minutes ahead at the finish (shortened to Burton Chase Park). As they owed us just over a minute, we corrected out to about a minute back. Crimson Star and Superstar rate the same so they wound up third and fourth. One interesting note - our crew were pretty sure they saw Teaser out racng but they must not have entered as they did not show up in the final results (or perhaps they weren't out after all).

Tonight's crew was Ron, Frank, Art, Dick, Reggie and Demitri (going from the stern to the bow) - two less than last week.

Our only rival for the MR Trophy, Bandit, got a first tonight so they are still in hot contention. However, as we have about a three point lead with only three races to go we are in a good position for the rest of the series and we think we might be able to wrap it up with a win next week.

Last updated: August 21, 2003