A weird race

For the first time I had to use crew bank to fill out the crew. Jeff was the assignee.

Obviously the first order of business is the train the noob. On my way out of the basin I held my noob quiz, e.g. point to the main halyard. I think Phatome overheard and was amused by my tutorial effort. We arrived in the starting area in time for a chute practise. Things went slightly FUBAR as the wind made a dramatic 90 degree shift just as the chute was set; co incident with the arrival of rain. A mad scramble ensued to get the chute down and find foul weather gear. (I have a plastic bag rain coat that I got as swag from a Youngstown regatta. This was given to Jeff.)

When the rain was over the wind settled in to a south east direction. Unfortunately the start line was badly skewed. I distinctly heard several sounds and was under the strong belief that we went into AP. We didn't but the second start did. It was very confusing to me. We were well behind when I eventually figured out we were racing. (Note to self: Assume you are racing even if you are confused.)

We did manage to catch up to one of our division on the last down wind leg. The wind had shifted so we were windward and abeam but on the opposite side to the committee boat. After we arrived back at the dock we were told that the RC wondered where we were. We had been hidden by the bigger boat and the RC didn't record our finish.


It was a good experience. I like introducing people to sailing. It gave Janet an opportunity to teach someone the ropes (lines?). A good experience even though it was a weird race.

Downwind

Very light wind day. We did our pre race spin hoist but this put us OCS (unless we got back to the start). Unlike some boats we managed to, just.

We rounded the pin on port and moved towards to committee boat. A port tack start. There was a bit of traffic as some boats were still trying to make their way back to the start.

We had a good upwind leg. We seemed to almost catch Flawed at the offset. However on the downwind they increased their lead. On our second upwind leg we rounded ahead of Windlight. Windlight went on their own course. Perhaps we should have stayed with them and covered. Windlight finished well ahead. I was very frustrated since I could not figure out what was our problem sailing downwind.

AHMEN II

It was NYC's day to host the race. The course was 4 (windward floater), 5, 9, Dufferin, Gibraltar, 4 and 3. Buoys were to starboard. It was a great course: no long leg across Humber Bay from T1 to 5; windward start and downwind finish.

On the way to the start we decided on positions. Nick who was more familiar with my boat did foredeck; Sarah mast; and Claudiu sheets. Nick and I were the the only two with experience in these positions on my boat.

The start was good. We had no problem finding the floater nor 5. We were uncertain about 9, but being in a slow division we had boats ahead to lead the way. The fleets had caught to each other at Dufferin. there was a lot of traffic and we put in perhaps an unnecessary tack to keep clear. Rounding the marks to starboard meant we had to be on port tack as we rounded.

At Gibraltar we ran into further traffic from another race. They were using Gibraltar with buoys to port so as they rounded they were on starboard. We rounded the mark with a bit of ducking and weaving.

I made a big mistake about our course to the next mark. At this point we wee ahead of Windlight. However with the nav error we sailed off course and had to put in an extra gybe. As we converged on the penultimate mark we were now clearly behind. There was no way we could make up the difference.

I assumed we had a good race. Balance, who owes us time was not that far ahead. I was wrong about that too. There were also a few boats that I hadn't been tracking. As a result we finished 4th.

Vertically Challenged

The wind was from the east. We sailed out (still no motor) in lots of time. We did a flawless spin practise. At one point we thought that the PRO would use Gibraltar as the windward mark however, just before the start Dragon lady set a windward mark and an offset.

We had a good start at the fist mark rounding threes Company was clear ahead. At the windward mark we were in good position until we tried to hoist. Somehow the chute snagged in one of the genoa hanks. We spent quite a bit of time trying to unsnag. Each crew member tried in order. Unfortunately it was the more vertically challenged who made the first attempts. Really unfortunate given that we had a good race to the windward mark. We certainly didn't give up but we were now defacto out of the race.

We sailed the boat well and it was a good day to be on the water; but for the race, not so much.

One second

Perfect conditions for the start of the AHMEN series. The wind was from the south; light but building. There was more activity with the drysail crane than I expected; two melgies, a shark and a viking were also racing. We got launched and motored off. Jamie packed the chute, Claudiu helmed, Nick programmed the GPS and I bailed out what water there was in the bilge.

I decided we could go a bit faster and reved up the motor. The acceleration snapped the motor mount and the engine went for a swim. We quickly recovered the engine and set up the sails.

The RC (provided by EYC) set a 'floater', an inflated buoy about a mile to windward of the start line. It was nice having a windward first leg. The course then went east to Gibraltar, north to Dufferin, west to Mark 1 (near the entrance to the EYC basin), and back east to the start at the centre of Humber Bay. It was the same course for the white sail and FS divisions.

As usual I had a bad start. We started near the committee boat, as planned; but this was because we had to gybe to avoid hitting a soling. We started on port and ducked the fleet. After a couple of short tacks we ended up on a long starboard tack to the mark. We had almost fully recovered from the start. A soling was slightly ahead; we were abeam of Windburn; and slightly behind Balance. We were windward. PHRF handicaps meant that Windburn was probably slightly ahead.

It was a starboard beam reach to Gilbraltor. At Gibraltor we would have to gybe. There would not be much time to hoist the chute on starboard before gybing around the mark. We elected to do a windward hoist. I was confident in the crew in sorting things out even though we haven't (or at least very rarely) done this. The manoeuvre went very well. The chute was powered up as we gybed. The windard hoist/gybe was a success. We were now clear ahead of Windburn.

We were on a fairly hot angle on the downwind leg to Dufferin. As we approached Dufferin, we decided to do a windward takedown. It did not appear that the winds would be right for a spinnaker run on the last leg. The windward douse meant that we could if we found out that we could. The Dufferin mark rounding/windward douse went well. We were inside at the mark and windward of all other boats on the next leg, the second last leg. Once we rounded the penultimate mark it was a beam reach to the finish. No spinnaker.

We finished behind Balance but close enough to probably beat them. I was pretty certain that we were not far enough ahead of Windburn. Probably a second place finish. What a great day! I was very pleased with the crew's performance. I think the crew was happy; we sailed the boat well. The chute was prepped for a hoist so that is what we did. We took the long way back to the club. It was a great day, second best is OK if you are having fun.

The results were emailed a few days later. On corrected time we won our division by one second. What is better than great? One second.

Race to the crane

Last night was another drifter. We did do a spinnaker hoist practise (with me as 'crew'). Interesting radio chatter about compasses and GPS. Otherwise a chance for 'scuttlebut'. We were second in the 'Race' to the crane.