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.