The first race of the 2007 AHMEN series was on Saturday. Chris was still on cruise. Mike filled out the crew and Janet did foredeck. We had to do a bit of spinnaker repair before leaving. With the wind from the south we were able to sail most of the way and arrived in lots of time. Balance and Kokomo were back and there were a couple of new additions to our start. A good turnout. The forecast called for very light winds. However, we had good winds for the start. I had a set of SIs, a diagram of the marks, and a GPS. There was enough time to enter a route for the course. Charles observed that a race is not a good time to figure out a new GPS! We are a slow boat in our start and we are 4th start so observing the lead boats is perhaps the best way to navigate an AHMEN course.
The course took us west and south (mark '3') and then on a beam reach to Gibraltar, a seemingly long leg. Gibraltar becomes a phantom; we are anxious to find it but can't. From Gibraltar we went to Dufferin, which was our only spinnaker leg. I found myself apologizing to David for the micromanaging of spinnaker trim. Next, we went back up to '3', then to Gibraltar then finish. We had wind but it was light and Mike spent most of the three hours to leeward. I was almost sure that with PHRF we would get first.
After the race we had a nice snack provided by the crew. Janet helmed. We hoisted the chute but the wind finally died. A good start for the AHMEN 2007 series.
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