'No problems'

AHMEN V was held on Sat., Sept. 26. Once again the forecast called for rain. The western horizon was ominously dark, but the rain was not expected until late afternoon. The wind was from the east; the first mark was T1. We started just a bit behind and to windward of Balance.

We broke tacks; Balance was clearly ahead on our first crossing but we slowly gained. I think it was because we had good tacks. If you are sloppy on your tacks then you will slowly lose ground. (Of course it is a case of relative performance.) The ability to scamper from side to side on J 24 is a definite skill. South of Centre Island we were clear ahead of Balance.

There was a little bit of traffic as we approached the layline. Some of the faster boats from start 4 had caught up to us. They really didn't cause a problem since they were faster and passed us to leeward. When they tacked onto the layline they were clear ahead.

The mark rounding at T1 was good. The only problem was that an R boat was having problems getting their chute up. They had rights so we tacked away. The course to the next mark was very much port gybe favoured, so we were now heading 90 degrees to our proper course. We gybed back as quickly as we could. It was a very long downwind run to the other side of Humber Bay.

At the leeward mark we made a windward takedown of the chute. We headed up to close haul to the next mark and then had a close hauled course to the finish. We finished well ahead of the other boats in our division. What a contrast from last Wednesday when everything seemed to be a problem!

It as a very active day of sailing in Toronto. The I 14s had a regatta just south of Centre Island and the Hobie 16s had a regatta in Humber Bay. I didn't see much except for a brief glimpse of a boat as she flew past the bow.

The problems began after the race. The wind was offshore. I had the main dropped too soon. The boat was depowered but had to head into the wind to make the dock. The crew had to provide the last bit of power with a push off of the dingy dock.

The next incidence was when we were putting the boat onto the trailer. The tongue fell off the dolly and onto Nick's knee. It looked very painful. The tongue seemed to hit just below the knee, a very bad spot.

The final problem was that the race committee didn't score us. They confused our sail number, 3708, with 7308! Brian is really good when he can win a race without even participating!

Other than Nick's trailer encounter, it was a great day. The rain held off. I was really happy about our ability to make gains; basically because the crew was efficient in their boat handling. 'No problems' make for a good race.

Problems

There was rain in the morning and the forecast called for another late afternoon shower. The storm arrived at 16:00 but cleared in time for the launching of the boat. The wind slowly began to rebuild and by race time there was a good northerly breeze. Grand National dropped a 'pin' near where Mark 1 should be, and Dufferin was the windward mark.

Once again it was a very congested second start. I was once again on the pin side and I was not able to figure out how to navigate to the line. It took us three attempts to make it; the first two failed as we were knocked by the exhaust from bigger boats. (We were perhaps the smallest boat on this start.) Once started, we did well and were able to cross Polaris. However, clearly the start was problem 1.

Problem 2 was trying to make the windward mark. We overstood but were badly knocked as we got closer to the mark.

Problem 3 was discovered when we hoisted the chute. The sheet was under the lifeline and had to be reattached. Once that problem was solved we discovered that the spin sheet was jammed into the genoa block. It took us awhile to get it unjammed. All of this sorting out meant that the chute wasn't flying!

Problem 4 was getting around boats at the leeward mark. We were windward boat and the two leeward boats had problems gybing. Their spinnakers got wrapped around their forestay. We might have been able to gybe over and go on their other side if we had thought about doing that earlier; but that was not possible now.

Problem 2 recurred on the second rounding of the windward mark; even though I thought I had made an extra extra allowance!

Problems? We didn't do well but ... there was no rain; we did a good job at recovering from various mishaps; the nav lights worked; it was a great day to be on the water. What problems?

Line Honours (note should have been posted Sept. 14)

The third AHMEN was on Sept. 13. The wind was from the north at around 10 knots. We had a beam reach start to Mark 1. It is a bit different being on a beam since we could head directly to the first mark. Foehn headed us up but not above close reach. We had power but no longer sailing directly towards the first mark. Foehn bore away. They were over. By being headed up, we took that bit of extra time to be on the start line. We were well ahead of the other boats. A great start.

The first mark was a beam reach; the second leg was almost a dead down wind. We rounded and dropped the chute without any problems. We were now on a long beam reach to T1 at the entrance to the eastern gap. The nice breeze at the start became very light and shifty. According to the archived records the wind dropped to 5 knots. Balance decided to try their chute and were able to make up some ground. We tried as well but the wind seemed to be too far forward and we quickly dropped it. As Balance approached they seemed to loose power; perhaps because of our shadow or perhaps because they were headed and the chute was no longer efficient. We started to gain.

Fantome, in start 4, slowly was overtaking us. We were almost on the T1's layline and I made sure to keep windward. I wanted to prevent the bigger boat from passing to windward and robbing us of wind. We were far enough ahead to be able to do this. After the rounding there was no longer a problem. We separated; Fantome's wind shadow was no longer a threat.

The winds seemed to pick up as we headed back to Gilbaltor. When we headed into Humber Bay proper the winds were gusty. Gusts may have been up to 15 knots. It was pretty much a question of keeping the boat as flat as possible and avoiding any rounding up in the gusts. It made it a bit exhausting as I constantly had to adjust the sheet, traveler, and tiller; while squatting, as much windward as I could. An uncomfortable position for a long race.

We obviously did well as we finished well ahead of Balance. Windlight finished third but in corrected time, was able to get second place. Another great day on the water. Great start; led the entire race! Getting line honours when you are not the fastest boat in a division is always a great race.

Animism

The wind was from the east and the RC made the first mark, T1. We had a poorish start; slightly shadowed by Balance, but not a big deal. My thought was to head towards the island. At NYC, local knowledge says that with an east wind you should head towards the island; to take advantage of the inshore lift. I didn't notice any advantage, perhaps because we were too far west. We stayed further out, and our course gave us a more direct line to the mark. The wind was strong but it was shifty. South of Centre Island, Balance crossed us, and headed further south. Most of the fleet over-stood; perhaps it was because of the wind's oscillations and skippers were worried about getting a knock close to the mark. I also over-stood but not nearly as much. I stayed on a close hauled course in order to have a bit of insurance against a knock. It paid off. We easily made the mark; Balance had over-stood by too much and was now behind.

Animism is a religion which includes the belief that objects have souls. There are times when I wonder about the validity of such a world view. One such time was our attempt to hoist the spinnaker after rounding T1. Everything went SNAFU. Halyards and the topping lift swung with wild abandon. Spinnaker poles had to be wrestled into submission. Clearly this could only be explained by evil spirits who had taken control of these objects and directed them to rebel against humanity! Needless to say, it took us awhile to get things sorted. The only solace was that our call on the layline had given us enough of a lead to deal with the evil spirits, or whatever, that were preventing us from getting the chute up and under control.

The next leg was a very long downwind run to Mark 1. Balance was to the south and slowly gained. They were sailing on a hotter angle. Neither of us could make the mark without gybing. Balance decided to douse the chute, and gybe to the mark with their genoa. We opted to gybe and do a windward takedown at the mark. This paid off; we had gained but could not take the lead.

There was a short beam reach to the finish. We beat Balance on corrected time, in spite of a brief revival of animism and its evil gremlins.

New series

New series; new crew combo. So new that the RC hadn't sorted out the SI's. Fleming came over and announced, just as we were about to drop the boat into the water: "You realize there is no RC!". Charles couldn't make the fall series's earlier start time, and Janet was off on a Croatian cruise. The replacements were John, who would handle sheets; and Nick, who would do foredeck. The early start was almost too much for Emi and David. They arrived at 17:31, just in time for the RC to have sorted things out.

I definitely wanted to do a few practise gybes/tacks before the start. The wind was from the east, so the waves had had a chance to build. The east wind was a good direction for a downwind run to the start. The hoist did not go perfectly and the gybes were a bit rough; but at least we had a bit of experience for the new crew.

There were two starts; all white sail would be in the first start, and all FS would be second start. I found it difficult to maneuver in the very mixed fleet. Our start was horrible; I wanted to get into clear air, so we tacked. I had to duck a late starter. Late to the start line; bad air; having to go back to duck , note to self: "what not to do"! The fleet headed north-east towards the island; while we were headed south, out into the lake and the chop. Even clear air had its down side. However, by the time we headed back to the fleet, it seemed that we had gained. Clear air has its upside too.

Being more south of the shelter of the island we encountered the worst of the chop. The motor almost came off; an unnecessary distraction for the skipper. I resolved to take the motor off and store it below - next time. We crested one particularly big wave and the boat was half out of the water. I had headed up and we were in danger of tacking. There were some anxious moments but no real problem.

We had a good hoist. The downwind leg went without incident. We approached the leeward mark on port. When we were more or less directly downwind, we gybed. Now on starboard we took the chute down. Right at the leeward mark we gybed back onto port. It was a bit slow but we had everything well sorted for the next hoist.

We were well behind Flawed; I decided to go separate routes. This payed off. At the windward mark we were clear ahead. When all else fails I am willing to trust luck and this time I was lucky. Unfortunately our set wasn't great and we ended going too far on starboard. When we got sorted, our angle was too much on a downwind run compared to Flawed. Flawed was able to sail on a hotter angle and they were well ahead of us at the finish. They were third, we were fourth.

This was the first outing for this particular crew combination. We had a horrible start but the fact that we were able to catch up, made for an exciting race. A good first race for the new fall series.

Janet's turn

After the regular season, there is a tradition at National that a crew member gets to be on helm for a race. It is a great opportunity for experienced crew to get a feel at being on the helm. This year one of my longtime crew members was available for the first time in 4 years. It was Janet's turn. David replaced Janet on foredeck; Charles was on holiday; Emi was mastman; and I took over handling the genie sheets. In effect everyone shifted one position.

The wind was from the east and the surface was a bit choppy. I wanted to get in a few practise gybes. The east wind was prefect for a downwind run to the start line. Things went well but not smoothly. I am somewhat anxious with a new race skipper and I made the assessment to change the foresail from genie to a jib. Janet mentioned that she felt the wind would die. We got the sail change done in plenty of time. Unfortunately David and Emi got wet with the choppy sea and with the manhandling of the sails on the bow. David had to sit on the pulpit to unattach/attach the hanks. We haven't done a sail change for awhile and it was good practise.

I am a bit slow to be on the start line and this start was true to form. Once again we had a bit of bad air and there was difficulty to get free of the traffic. We approached the windward layline on port and had to duck a few boats. As we hoisted the chute we discovered it was twisted; but the crew managed to sort it out quickly. Unfortunately the wind started to die. We approached the leeward mark on port. I decided to do an extra gybe so that we could douse on starboard and be ready for a standard starboard tack hoist. The mark rounding went well and we were able to get ahead of Windlight.

The strategy on the windward leg was to cover Windlight. The fleet was now well spread out; so traffic was not an issue. We did a repeat of the first leg with a few tacks taking us up the the windward mark layline. The hoist went well. The plan was to sail on a hot angle to make the most of the increasingly light wind. Patience and focus were needed in the light wind. (At least this wasn't a NO wind race.) We finished well ahead of Windlight but well behind a J4 and two J22s. The main problem was my dumb call to switch foresails before the start. Janet was right about the wind!

It was a very respectable result. We dealt with the issues e. g. the first spinnaker hoist. I think the experience, of crew members working in a different position, was a good one. "Janet's turn" was a good experience for the entire crew.

No wind race

The crew was uncharacteristically late. Janet arrived at her usual time and appeared slightly distressed to learn that she was, unusually, the first to arrive. At 17:30 I put in a call and found out that Emi was in the parking lot and David was at Rees and Lake Shore. There were fewer boats to launch; the 'practise boats' were no shows. Fortunately there was no wind, so no hurry to get to the start.

There was some wind; at least enough for the RC to put the first divison into sequence. We lingered near the pin, a few boat lengths below the line, and waited for our start. I think we can say that there is virtually no wind if the warning flag droops! What flag is is it, 'Warning' or 'AP'?

We finally figured we were in sequence and slowly made our way to the start. We were on port tack but had no problem with rights. You have to move before you can have an issue with ROW! A somewhat bigger boat, a CS 30 (?), sailed slightly higher and we ended up being in bad air. Should we tack away or not? I opted to not tack since tacks would be costly; it would take forever to get 'power' back, and there was a risk that we would stall completely. The boats in clear air had a huge advantage. The RC made an assessment of the fleet's progress and, almost immediately after the start, announced "Shortened course".

Rounding the windward mark was tricky. The current had a big impact given the lack of wind. It was slow. We had to do a couple of painful tacks. On the downwind leg we tried to sail on a hottish angle. A beamish reach is not a great way to make progress towards a downwind mark, but it was the only way to have any speed.

Windlight had an interesting race. They were slow to start; way behind everyone else. She sailed on one tack much further south than everyone else in the fleet. In a sense they were doing everything wrong. The light wind conditions made the 'wrongs' right. They had clear air at the start. They did the minimum number of tacks. They had caught up to us on the downwind leg. With her bigger mast she was able to make the most of the very light wind and easily passed us.

We had caught up to Flawed. This was a similar situation that I had faced on the first upwind leg: whether to gybe/tack away when you are being shadowed by another boat. The problem is that in light air you have to sail at a lower angle; you can not sail towards the next mark. You also lose boat speed with every gybe/tack. When you make choices, to tack or not, you are never sure whether you made the right choice. In this race we had two incidences were one skipper chose bad choice "A", not to tack, while another skipper choose bad choice "B". Flawed decided to gybe away. I would say, after the fact, that bad choice "A" was better, but of course the evidence is subject to interpretation and the two incidences, although similar, were not identical. Flawed clearly had difficulty finishing.

We finished in darkness. We got the sails down and the motor on. Things were sorted just when Flawed finished and was ready for the tow back to NYC. It was a beautiful night. The moon was almost full. The Toronto skyline was in its 'cite des lumieres' glory. This was definitely the best part of the no wind race.