June 9th - Crew for tonight's race was Dick, Art, Frank, Jim, Linda and Reggie (Jim is back from vacation but Demitri is off to New York). Dick checked the wind at the CYC clubhouse around 4 pm and reported a steady 17-18 kts. When we left the dock at 5 pm the wind didn't seem to have lightened at all. On the way out to the starting area we were debating between the #2 and #3 but opted for the #2 in the end, which was a good choice. The #2 has only been used a couple of times (once already this year) and is a very flat sail.

In checking the wind before the start we got a wind direction of ~240°. We thought the line was approximately square to 240° so neither end was more upwind. However, we thought that with the stronger breeze we might want to cover the right side of the course. That indicated a start toward the center of the line. But, as the time for our Warning Signal approached the wind went south, making the pin end more upwind. So, we thought we would start at the pin end and try and go north relatively early on the upwind leg. As expected, the RC sent us out to DD mark. We started about 1/3 of the way from the pin to the RC boat with only Avet, the J/80, between us and the pin. The wind was probably ~15 kts at the start.

We got a pretty good start with full speed at the gun with the closest boat to windward at least 1.5-2 boatlengths away. Initially, we headed out on starboard tack. Spirit, Superstar and Creeper were just to windward of us. As we sailed out on starboard tack Creeper was sailing as high and about the same speed while both Superstar and Spirit were sailing slightly lower and gradually falling in behind us. Avet was footing off to leeward - she doesn't seem to do quite so well on windy days.

Superstar tacked over onto port and went north first. We go a slight header and were waiting until we could cleanly cross ahead of Creeper before we tacked when SURPRISE - Creeper tore her mainsail in half [she immediately turned around and went in]. We immediately tacked to go north and Spirit followed suit shortly thereafter. Avet tacked right in our wake but quite a ways back. As we went north we crossed ahead of El Gato Grande, who tacked in our wake as well. Avet took a tack back to the south, presumably to get out of bad wind from El Gato Grande.

As we headed all the way across the course on port tack and got near the starboard-tack layline we got lifted at tad initially and then headed slightly, which helped us against the boats to the south of us. Superstar had gone almost to the layline but was quite a ways from the mark and we tacked onto starboard before getting to her line. As we sailed along on slightly parallel courses Superstar was sailing about the same course but was definitely much faster, which had not been the case just after the start. We tacked onto port to get north to the layline and Superstar tacked to cover. Superstar went well past the layline before tacking for the mark, essentially match-racing us away from the mark. We tacked simultaneously with Superstar and we both had to sail down to the mark.

Superstar rounded the windward mark (DD) a short ways ahead of us and then had trouble getting their spinnaker up in the windy conditions. That was probably the race right there. We were able to get our chute up very quickly and quickly gybed onto port (rolling dangerously to windward in the process). Superstar struggled with her chute for quite some time and by the time they got it un-wrapped we had separatedly widely. We had some fun on the downwind leg worrying about how to miss the upwind boats without making any radical turns that would put us at risk of broaching (a distinct possibility!). When we came back together with Superstar just before the detached breakwater we were still ahead (due primarily to the lead we got when they had problems setting the spinnaker).

Down the channel we were able to stay ahead of Superstar until the turning mark. We were slowed somewhat by Shandy, a cruising boat inside of us, and with her big mainsail Superstar was able to blast through our lee. We kept her in sight however and were able to just save our time at the shortened finish at Burton Chase Park. We corrected out to about 20 seconds behind Superstar. If they hadn't had problems getting the spinnaker up and lost so much time near the windward mark they would have beat us for sure. Our ability to get the spinnaker up and drawing quickly in 18 kts really paid off tonight!!

Too bad Creeper blew out her mainsail. Hopefully, they will be able to scrounge up a replacement mainsail until a new one can be delivered. We would hate to lose a consistent competitor!

Last updated: June 16, 2004