Enjoyable picnic

The crew was late. We were last boat in. We started just before the second start, i. e. a few minutes after our division. The winds were very light from the south south west. Our division was well spread out, but we were very much last.

One of the advantages (?) of being late is you can see how the upwind boats are doing. The faster boats had trouble making the windward mark. We sailed beyond what felt like the layline. There was a big lift on port tack. The wind seemed to be rotating around the mark. We tacked having taken full advantage of the lift and to the windward of the other boats. By the windward mark, we had passed one of the J22s!

The big boats from start III caught up to us at the windward mark. There was a lot of traffic at the rounding. At the offset mark, we hoisted the chute, jibbed, and dropped the chute, all in quick succession. The wind slowly died and we drifted, with the current, east. We now had to tack in order to finish. No wind; we were dead in the water. I dropped the genoa and we had a sushi picnic. Thanks David. The other J was able to keep way and hold a steady course to make the finish. When there was a little bit of wind we tried to tack but in the end we couldn't hold a course to the finish. The current was too strong. I decided to bail. Victor, in the CS 30 division, was in the same predicament. After he got back to the club he told me that he had to make two more attempts before he finally was able to finish.

The good points: 1) Our reading of the winds at windward mark enabled us to pass another boat in our division; 2) We did well to get through the traffic at the offset mark; 4) No wind is no wind; 5) And lets not forget the enjoyable picnic!