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2006 Sunset – Race #9 |
June 21st - Crew tonight was Dick, Art, Demitri, Frank, Jim and Reggie. After last week's cancelled race we were raring to go tonight. It seemed to us that the right-hand end of the starting line was favored so we went for a start up near the RC boat. There were a couple of boats that wanted to start there as well but they were all early and ended up reaching down the line to keep from being over early. That left us all alone at the RC boat end of the line. We started at full speed in clear air with no one near us right at the flag - a perfect start! The closest boats were some 5-8 boatlengths down the line or directly astern by 3-4 boatlengths.
As we started up the course on starboard we thought we were on a lift. Teaser was the next boat to our left and she was about the same speed and sailing slightly higher. Before the race we had discussed where we wanted to go and thought we ought to protect the north side of the course. The puffs seemed to be coming from that side. However, the boats that tacked to port and went north immediately after the start didn't seem to be doing well. So, we stayed on starboard out to about J Mark.
After tacking onto port we saw that a couple of other boats had tacked just before or just after us. So, there was a group heading north with us. Teaser was up on our hip and sailing fast. She seemed to be either the same speed and pointing higher or pointing the same angle and going faster. On what seemed to be a slight header we tacked back to starboard. In fact, it probably wasn't a real windshift at all. As we converged with Teaser it seemed like we might be close enough to force them to duck us. However, we got a slight header and they were able to barely cross ahead (our jib-trimmer estimated they crossed ahead of us by less than 6 feet!). We only went a short ways and then tacked back to port to get closer to the center of the course. It was clear that all the boats that went north right after the start were well back. That meant we only had to worry about the boats that had stayed on starboard with us right after the start.
As we went north on port tack we could see that Teaser had gained big time by being on our right. Instead of crossing less than a boatlength ahead she was now crossing ahead of us by 12+ boatlengths. We thought the wind would go even farther right so we stayed on port until we thought we were at the layline and then tacked. After sailing a while on starboard Teaser came in on port and tacked just slightly to weather of our line. We were just a tiny bit overstood so we hardened up to stay out of Teaser's bad air and rounded ~8 boatlengths behind her.
Teaser did a bearaway spinnaker set and went a ways before gybing over to port. It seemed to us that port tack was really favored downwind so we did a bearaway set and gybed immediately. That put us on a parallel course to Teaser but slightly north of her. As we looked back up the course for the other boats in our class we saw Friction Loss following Teaser. Athena and Wildcard gybed soon after rounding and were pretty much dead astern of us. It looked to us like Avet sailed south some distance before gybing so they were on the south side of the course. After clearing the Crusing Class traffic heading to S Mark and/or J Mark we decided to gybe toward the center of the course and consolidate our position. Athena and Wildcard had gotten much closer but were sailing higher and so wound up to the north of us. We had thought they might pass us before we got to the breakwater but going so far north didn't seem to help them. After gybing to starboard the waves and wind didn't seem favorable for flying the spinnaker. But, we were able to press on and rounded the breakwater ~45-50 seconds behind Teaser. Athena, Wildcard and Friction Loss were not too far behind us - probably slightly less than Teaser was ahead of us.
In the entrance channel we concentrated on trying to catch up to Teaser. Because of their significantly longer waterline (3.5 feet), Teaser is a lot faster in the main channel so we knew if we were going to get closer to them it had to be in the entrance channel. In fact, Teaser had some Cruising Class traffic and we were able to catch and pass them right after the last of the NO SAIL buoys on the north side of the entrance channel. Unfortunately, Teaser got a puff and immediately sailed over the top of us to take the lead again. They rounded the turning mark less than two boatlengths ahead of us. They went low to sail through more Crusing Class traffic but we were unable to make it through the traffic. Although at one point our bow was actually ahead of Teaser's it didn't help as they still had clear air and were able to sail away from us, eventually finishing 55 seconds ahead of us (and beating us by only one second on corrected time).
Just about the time that we were directly to windward of Teaser in the main channel, Athena and Wildcard were coming like gangbusters to leeward of us, with Athena well ahead and down near Fisherman's Village and Wildcard about halfway between the shore and the center channel buoys. The J/80s have essentially the same waterline length (22.0 vs 21.9 for Lizzie B) but weigh 2,000 lbs less. Our masthead jib-top lets us stay with them in the entrance channel but in the main channel they are significantly faster. Tonight, Athena was probably 2-3 knots faster and Wildcard was 1-2 knots faster. Both boats finished ahead of us. Athena was minutes ahead and we had no chance of correcting over her. Wildcard couldn't get by Teaser and finished behind her, which allowed us to correct on her. Meanwhile, Friction Loss was not far behind us and we corrected over her by just one second. What a close race! - the 2nd, 3rd and 4th boats corrected to within two seconds of each other!