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.