August 27th - The wind tonight was very light so we figured that looking for greater pressure and keeping the boat moving would be more important than playing the wind shifts. We had three of our crew (Art, Dimitri and Reggie) go below about six minutes before our start. At our warning signal (start of PHRF-A), we decided that we might not make it to the line in time so ran the engine for about 30-40 seconds (we turned if off about five seconds before our preparatory signal). After a decent start we slowly worked our way up to J Mark (the first time we've ever gone there!). Ron had us moving pretty well in the light stuff compared to the other boats in our class and we were right next to Creeper. We tacked away and by the time we got to the windward mark Creeper was a long way behind us. We rounded first followed by some of the Martin 242s with Creeper the first PHRF-B boat.

Downwind we started off by continuing to the south on starboard tack for a while. We gybed to port on a slight shift but mostly to stay between our competition and the next mark. We tried to look for pressure first and play the shifts second and gybed a couple of times downwind. As we approached the detached breakwater it was getting dark and Cincos (PHRF-AA) reached in from the south to round just ahead of us. The PHRF-AA boats only went to S Mark and Black Knight was 15 minutes or more ahead of us with Cincos as the second PHRF-AA boat.

Sailing down the outer channel the wind went even lighter - we figured maybe 1/4+ kts of boatspeed plus 1/4 kt current for speed over the bottom of slightly more than 1/2 kt. As we approached the apartment buildings we were just able to ghost past Cincos on her northern side (in wind so light I don't think we could say whether it was to weather or leeward of Cincos). At that point the wind seemed to alternate between "gusts" of 0.5-1 kt and nothing. The only optimism came from the fact that we had a long time to finish and the tide was still coming in. Unfortunately, soon after we passed the turning buoy Cincos got some kind of private wind and sailed right over the top of us (at that point there was enough wind to know it seemed to be coming from ~180-200°). We did get some of the breeze after Cincos passed us but we were unable to finish. We were about 5-8 boatlengths from the finish line when the 8:30pm time limit expired. The next boat behind us (quite a ways back but visible in the dark) was a Martin 242 (possibly Patience).

Tonight was a really tough night for sailing. It was very frustrating to have sailed so long and concentrated so hard and yet not finish. However, although we were disappointed at not finishing within the time limit we had the satisfaction of knowing we had done really well compared to the other boats in our class. This race will definitely not be one of the 18 that counts for our final score.

A highlight of tonight's race was knowing that because our competition for the MR Trophy (the Santana 20 Bandit) did not finish either we clinched the 2003 MR Trophy. But, there wasn't much celebrating as it was something of a bittersweet victory - with a non-finish amounting to a victory it certainly felt like we backed into it.

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

Quote of the Night! - At one point while sailing in the outer channel we were moving at maybe 1/4 kt with windspeed of 0.5-1 kt. Someone asked Ron, our helmsman, why he was heading in a particular direction. His response: "Oh, I am heading a bit low so we can head up if it gets light." No one was able to keep from laughing at that, which we think Ron meant as a serious comment!

Last updated: September 4, 2003