Shanghaing the crew

On Wednesday, I was only certain that Janet and Chris would be available. The Club has a "crew bank" were skippers in need of crew can "shanghai" crew looking for boats. I don't like to use this service unless I have a good core crew (e. g. Janet and Chris).There is supposed to be a club volunteer to supervise but on this Wednesday it was pretty much a free for all. I got two good crew bank crew: Mike, who has experience sailing but not racing; and David who has dinghy experience.

We needed the extra crew to help manhandle the boat. The drysail dolly was out of commission. The dolly acts as a 'third wheel'. It supports the trailer's tongue. My boat is not well balanced on the trailer and is bow heavy. The dolly makes it much easier to move. Fortunately the boat is near the crane and we now had lots of able bodied crew.

The winds were very light and I was convinced that there would be no racing. In late afternoon the 'sea breeze' sets in and counters any wind coming onshore. There can be very little wind in our racing area for a few hours before sunset. You can avoid this problem by going south into the lake. That's what the Race Committee had us do. There was a nice easterly wind once we got about 2 miles south of the shoreline.

The wind wind was from o45. We had a good start and managed to stay clear of the bigger boats in our start. The conditions were excellent for people new to the boat. We were ahead of Jack Rabbit at the second leeward mark rounding and on the upwind leg there was a bit of a tacking duel. I did a loose cover, since I wanted to stay south; in the better wind. After a couple of tacks I let JR go north while I stayed south. With our inexperienced crew and JB's experienced crew there is an advantage to JR. At any rate our strategy was good and we gained. The downwind leg winds were difficult to read. I chose a hotter sailing angle than JR and as a result we lost to JR. Very frustrating but still a good race.