2005 Sunset Series – Race #7

June 1st - Crew for tonight's race was Dick, Jim, Ron, Art, Demitri and Reggie. We went for a start at the RC boat end of the line but it didn't work out very well. We tacked almost directly to leeward of the RC boat with maybe 30 seconds to go. Superstar and a J/80 (not sure which one) were reaching in and sailed directly in front of us but early so we let them sail down the line. Unfortunately, that left us with almost no boat-speed at the start but a nice hole directly to windward. As we were down-speed and boats behind us had good speed we had to tack several times to get clear air. We finally passed H mark maybe a 100 yards to the north on starboard tack in about 8-10 kts with 1-1.5 foot seas. We worked the center of the course fairly well, tacking on 5-10 degree shifts. As we got outside of S mark the wind lightened slightly.

We thought the order at E mark was Blade Runner, Creeper, us, Athena, a new J/80 owned by Larry Travis, and Joy Ride. However, it turned out that Insanity had gone to the south corner upwind and rounded well ahead of Blade Runner. After doing a really good bear-away set we were going the same way and about the same speed as Creeper; Blade Runner had done a bear-away but immediately gybed to the north. Our course at that point was about 90-95°. After about .3-.5NM we got lifted slightly and gybed over onto starboard on a course to the north of the breakwater. Creeper and Joy Ride kept going south while Athena went only a bit farther south and then gybed over onto starboard tack with us. As we passed S mark Athena started to get on our air so we gybed back to the south, where we seemed to get more wind.

As we approached the breakwater a boat came out of the north which looked like an Olson 30 but we thought couldn't be as we thought the Olsons were all behind us. The boat was quite a way ahead of us so we couldn't be sure. It turned out we were wrong and that was Insanity. As we approached the breakwater on port we were converging with Athena and Blade Runner on starboard. We were able to cross a few feet ahead of first Athena and then Blade Runner. They went slightly farther south and gybed, which allowed us to get to the breakwater first without gybing. The order at the breakwater was: Insanity, Creeper, us, Blade Runner, Athena and Joy Ride.

Blade Runner rolled over the top of us soon after we entered the outer channel. Down the outer channel the wind was out of the north so wing-and-wing wasn't really favored but we sailed close to the center of the channel and then went wing-and-wing toward the UCLA dock. We were the only boat to do that and it paid off. When the wind finally went too far forward we gybed the jib-top and then were able to reach over toward the turning mark with good speed - still in front of Athena and Joy Ride. With our hotter angle and speed we were able to leg out a bit on the two J/80s and as a result they never had a chance to pass us. Down the main channel we were able to keep good speed and while Blade Runner and Creeper were able to pull ahead it wasn't enough. At the finish in front of CYC we knew we were first or second depending on whether the boat way ahead of us was in fact an Olson 30 (it was!) and whether we were close enough to correct out on it (we were!!! by just 5 seconds). This was our second 1st-place of the year and it felt good, particularly because it was Ron's first race of the season. This was the first race of the second mini-series so we have a good start on that.

On thing to mention is that Blade Runner has been sold and this was there last race in Marina del Rey (the new owner lives in Northern California somewhere). Gerhard and Janet Klose have been around MDR for years and it will be strange not to have them as boat owners any more. Later this year or early next year they plan on moving back to Annapolis, where they are building a house right on the water. On the other hand, we had TWO more new J/80s out tonight. We think that makes eight boats in MDR now. That is enough boats so they might even get their own class at some point. We had 15 boats in tonight's race - nice competition.

Last updated: June 2, 2005