'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.