September 3rd - After last week's frustratingly light conditions we were real happy to have a decent breeze as we sailed out of the harbor. We saw the line square to ~230° and wind of ~220° so we decided to try and start at the pin end. But, as our start approached the wind seemed to lighten slightly so Ron (helm) and Peter (main and tactics) choose to start about 1/3 of the way from the pin but in clear air. Spirit was closest to the pin with Creeper next and then us. Teaser was on our immediate right.

Just after the start it seemed like Teaser might try and roll over us to windward but before we had time to really think about whether to luff them as a defensive move they tacked away. We continued maybe 10 more boatlengths on starboard and then tacked over onto port as that tack was more directly headed toward our windward mark (B Mark). Spirit and Creeper continued to the south on starboard tack. When we first tacked onto port the windward mark was bearing ~220° with our course at about ~245° so port tack was definitely favored. The seas on port tack were big and UGLY so Art (jib trim) really had to ease the sails to get enough power to crush through them. And, we had Demitri and Reggie go below (with Dick in the companionway) to help minimize the pitching. This definitely wasn't a night for trying to pinch on port tack. We think Crimson Star

About 0.3-0.5 nm up the course we were able to pass just ahead of Teaser, who had tacked over onto starboard. We kept going for about 10 more minutes and then with a ~15-20° header we decided to head south to keep ourselves between our competition and the windward mark. On starboard-tack the seas were much less of an issue and our boatspeed was maybe ~1.5 kts faster and we were able to sail much closer to the wind. We crossed well ahead of Crimson Star and a PHRF-A boat and figured we would keep going almost to the port-tack layline for the mark. As we got about 0.5 nm from the mark Piranha had to duck to pass behind. The wind seemed like it might get lighter so we figured that we better tack back onto port and punch our way throught the waves before we lost any wind strength. As we got closer to where the GPS said the mark should be we saw PHRF-A boats seemingly setting their spinnakers at random. We tacked several times hoping to find B mark but to no avail and decided to sail to the closest mark on the same compass course. In fact, that mark turned out to be BB instead of B but we decided it was better to round the wrong mark than none at all. As it turned out, our decision was a good one because all of the boats behind us also decided to sail up and round the BB Mark (including Twelve Bar Blues, a PHRF-A boat). With all of us rounding the same mark we figured the race would count despite the missing mark.

Reggie and Dick came up on deck to set the spinnaker and after rounding the windward mark we continued on starboard tack down to the detached breakwater. Once the spinnaker was drawing Demitri came up on deck as well and we spread the weight as far outboard as possible to dampen any rolling. I don't think we've gone out to one of the double-letter marks for quite a while and the downwind leg back to the harbor is LONG. Plus, the seas were still ugly and in a different direction from the wind so it was just plain difficult to keep a decent shape in the spinnaker! But, we persevered. As we got down to the detached breakwater it started to get dark and so we threw in a couple of gybes so we could be closer to the detached breakwater when we gybed for the rounding.

We rounded the detached breakwater just behind a couple of cruising boats and with Twelve Bar Blues just inside of us. Twelve Bar Blues decided to go outside the cruising boats but since there was plenty of room between the cruising boats and the south breakwater we decided to go inside of them. The wind was pretty far south and we were almost wing-and-wing on the short leg to the outer channel. Once in the outer channel we simply headed for the turning buoy as there wasn't a lot of traffic to worry about. Twelve Bar Blues sailed to windward of us and was just able to break the overlap. But once we rounded the turning buoy, we were back to wing-and-wing and we were able to overlap and eventually pass them before finishing at Burton Chace Park.

Since all the boats in our class appeared to have rounded the same mark we figured the race would count. However, after we got ashore the RC decided to abandon the race both for our class and for PHRF-A. This seemed to us like the right choice for PHRF-A since some boats in that class did not round the BB mark while others did. In our class, however, we think all of the boats did round the same, albeit wrong, mark (BB Mark). So, it seemed unfair to abandon the race just because the correct mark was missing. After all, the boats apparently all sailed the same course. We think the RC made a bad decision to abandon the race for our class.

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

Last updated: September 4, 2003