2007 Sunset – Race #2

May 2nd - Crew tonight was Dick, Art, Demitri, Frank, Jim, Paul Edgington and Reggie. The wind was 14-16 kts with gusts to 20 kts before the start from about 230-235°. The starting line was square to approx. 235-240°, which meant the pin end was slightly favored. The wind had been lighter earlier in the afternoon and had built as the afternoon progressed. This meant the wind waves were not really big yet. Also, when the wind comes up late it tends to be steady or even go north. We initially set up for the #2 genoa about 4 o'clock at the dock but when the wind seemed to lighten we re-set up at the dock for the #1. But, when we got to the UCLA dock it was obviously too windy for the #1 so we got the #2 ready to go. However, we waited to actually raise the sail until less than 10 minutes before our start.

We started 5-8 boat-lengths down from the pin. The line was short so there wasn't a lot of room. The only boat between us and the pin was a J/80 (not sure which one). The rest of our fleet started to the north of us. With the #2 and plenty of crew weight we were able to point high at the start and work our way up in front of the boats that started to weather of us. Closest were a couple of J/80s and then Teaser, who got a good start and had good boatspeed. Eventually the J/80s started getting bad air from Teaser and tacked away. Teaser was the same speed or slightly faster than us but was set up to foot rather than point so she eventually started falling down into us. I guess we had the better sail trim tonight as in the past Teaser has sailed higher and faster than us in similar conditions. Just as she was about to start getting into our bad air she tacked away.

As we were going south we seemed to be on a slight lift so we kept going. The J/80 that started to our left tacked and passed astern of us, making us the southern-most boat. However, since we were on a lift we decided to keep going. When D Mark was bearing 261° we figured we were pretty close to a layline with any kind of a back in the wind so we tacked over onto port tack. We tacked well in front of and to leeward of a couple of PHRF-C boats. As we were sailing on this tack Teaser crossed astern by 5-8 boatlengths. She went well past our line and the PHRF-C boats before tacking and from our perspective probably overstood. Unfortunately, one of the PHRF-C boats was falling down to us but going somewhat faster so she gradually got closer and wound up almost even and 3-4 boatlengths to windward. She started to get ready to unreef the main and lost a little speed. We pointed out that we were approaching our windward mark and would be tacking so she fell down behind us. We got to the mark and tacked, sailing maybe 10-15 boatlengths on starboard before rounding.

We had a pretty good bearaway spinnaker set. It seemed to us that the wind had lightened just a bit on the windward leg (or at least the gusts had moderated) so we used the old 0.5oz spinnaker. With good wind (still 13-14+ kts) we could sail pretty deep and headed right for the breakwater. The only issue was some traffic from upwind boats approaching the mark on port tack but we got through them cleanly (the upwind port-tack boats always seem to assume the downwind starboard-tack boats will avoid them, despite rules to the contrary!). As we progressed down the leg, Teaser and Hitchhiker gradually started catching us. As longer boats (Teaser is 30 feet and Hitchhiker is 28 feet) they are somewhat faster downwind, especially with wind close to 15 kts. Fortunately, the downwind leg was short enough for us to hold our lead. We rounded the breakwater first in our class with the closer boat about 10-12 boatlengths back.

Down the entrance channel we were wing-and-wing on port tack. We didn't have much traffic so just tried to go fast with clear air. For a while Hitchhiker was gaining but then she ran into some cruiser traffic. At the turning mark we gybed the jib and sailed to a shortened finish at Burton Chase Park. On the reach Hitchhiker might have gained some as she finished 32 seconds behind us. But, it didn't matter as we rate the same and it would have been virtually impossible for her to pass us. Just before we got to the two-length zone for the finishing mark we overtook a cruiser (Airstream) but they gave us room so there wasn't a problem.