Getting it right

The first problem for the Wednesday night race was to get the RC boat to settle down. The winds were very light; so light that we didn't unpack the sails pending the anticipated N A signal. The RC was determined to find wind and eventually they were able to find enough to start. The wind was about 5 knots with a bearing of 113. At the start I did my usual starboard tack sitting just below the RC Boat. It is amazing to me that the fleet still has not learned about barging. One boat that wasn't barging was Belle Folie. I tried to head them up. They seemed to be confused by the starting sequence. We heard someone say: "We aren't starting so bear away". Actually you were. I kept heading them up. I eventually touched their port side. Protest? I decided not to. They seemed confused and I didn't want to be bothered. We still had a good start. The fleet was windward but well behind. Jack Rabbit took a lower angle. We both headed towards the Island and stayed on Starboard tack. Once it was clear that we could clear the fleet we tacked over onto Port. We cleared Victory Dance by about a boat length. Jack Rabbit had clear air and was well to windward. We seemed to be staying parallel to Jack Rabbit but they were about 10 boat lengths to windward. On Port tack we got lifted. There was a discussion about whether or not to tack or go to the layline. It was decided to go to the layline (actually we went well beyond the layline as I wanted to be sure that we could make the mark). Jack Rabbit was clear ahead after rounding the windward mark. The downwind leg was very slow. My objective was to keep the spinnaker filled. We were on a slightly hotter angle than Jack Rabbit and this meant we had better boat speed. Jack Rabbit started having problems keeping their chute filled. We moved whenever we needed to to keep the chute working. There were a couple of gybes. It paid off as we were able to work our way around Jack Rabbit. At the leeward mark we did a windward douse. The crew did a good job of getting things organized for the gybe around the mark. On the upwind leg the main concept was to stay ahead. Jack Rabbit tacked but we waited. Eventually we did tack over. The RC boat had moved for a finish at the windward mark. The finish line looked skewed and I did not want to go to the layline. It would be risky, especially given the light winds. We made sure we could make the mark even though this meant that our line was well to windward of Jack Rabbit's. This was a good call as Jack Rabbit couldn't finish without tacking a couple of more times. We finished well ahead of the fleet and had a great light wind race. It clearly showed that the crew is working well!