2006 Sunset – Race #1

April 19th - Crew for tonight's race was Dick, Art, Frank, Jim and Reggie. The wind was light, which after last year's WINDY first race was something of a relief. But, the wind was so light that it became a problem for some boats. Since we had only 5 crew we didn't mind the lighter winds.

When we checked the starting line it was set square to approx. 210° but the wind was slightly south of that, although it was shifting quite a lot. Our intial starting strategy was left hand end if the windward mark could not be fetched from the starting line (A or maybe B Mark) but the right hand end if it could be (D or S Mark). The RC sent PH-A to BB Mark (apparently AA Mark was missing!), PH-B to A Mark and PH-C to S Mark. That meant we would go to S Mark as well and could fetch the "windward" mark from the start and so we went for the RC boat end as it was closer to S Mark. It was so light we didn't have any real choice - we simply sailed toward the RC boat on port tack at "top" speed and when the gun went off hardened up and started. At that point we were maybe 2-3 boat-lengths from the RC boat. There were no other boats within a boat-length or two of us so there were no tactical considerations. Many of the other boats were down at the pin end, where classes Ph-A and Ph-B had started.

After starting, we simply sailed as high as we could toward S Mark. With the very light wind and left-over chop we kept the sails very full and did not try and pinch at all. Initially, we were heading slightly low (north) of the mark but as we got closer to the mark the wind-strength came up slightly and we were able to head right for S Mark without tacking. For the first part of the leg it looked like the boats that had started down at the pin end had equal or greater pressure and might beat us to S Mark. Mayhem, a B-25, looked particularly fast. But, about halfway up the leg there seemed to be more pressure on our side of the course and we pulled out. We rounded well ahead of the rest of our class.

The course from S Mark to the detached breakwater was a very tight reach. We decided to head straight for the south end of the detached breakwater and delay putting up a spinnaker. In fact, we seemed to be going as fast or faster than the J/105 next to us that did have a spinnaker up. The wind went aft for a few minutes and the J/105 pulled out smartly on us (as they should) but then it went back forward again and we were able to sail the same speed as the J/105. So, although we considered putting a spinnaker up about halfway down the leeward leg we never did so.

Because we were the 7th or 8th boat to make it to the detached breakwater there was virtually no traffic. The Soverel 33 Trust Me blasted through to weather of us between the end of the detached breakwater and the shoal markers off the south breakwater. But, based on their rating, that was what they should do. So, that left us heading down the entrance channel with Trust Me and the J/105, J-Hawk, just ahead. Creeper was quite aways ahead of those two.

We kept our concentration up and were able to pass both Trust Me and J-Hawk before a short finish at Burton Chase Park. We were very pleased to get a 1st as we only were able to win 3 races in all of 2005. This race makes a nice start to the season.