Windward, no Leeward

The rain stopped so the racing could start. (c Ron Jenkins)

Message from the crew: “It’s raining.” People who are new to racing don’t understand that a race is different than a sail. Racers are different from sailors. My reply: “Yes I know it’s raining and I am ready to go.” 

After clarification about the value of weather reports, the crew was ready but the PRO wasn’t. We went into an onshore AP which ended at 18:00. We and the two “winds” headed out but we were the only ones to stay.

It was difficult to set a course as the northerly wind shifted 180 degrees south after the start pin had been set. I was a  bit worried that the PRO would be frustrated and call it a night. He eventually moved the start south and we had a race. Well a sort of race as we were the only starter in our division.

The upwind leg was more of a beam reach as the wind had shifted once again. The wind was enough north that we were able to fly the chute on the downwind leg. A great practise event. The wind again shifted near the end of the last leg; we were once again going leeward on what started out as a windward leg.

An unusual race and I think the crew can all now say: “We are racers”.

New Recruits

Nick was unsure about whether or not he could crew and in the end he was unavailable. The crew bank provided two new recruits Monica and Wesley. Monica had little experience but Wesley was a boat owner. Jeff gave an intro to spinnakers. As a test we did a spinnaker hoist as a pre race practise. Things got off to a good start.
There was a bit of delay at the start. The wind was North north west and fairly brisk. Dragon Lady seemed to be standing by. Was it being towed? Yes. Dragon Lady was having motor probs. The PRO had to use preset marks and used Dufferin as the windward mark.
There was a lot of traffic at the pin end. This made for a lot of tacking and a bit of a work out for the new crew.

Flawed Logic gave a great demonstration of how to sail a small boat but they were so far ahead it was hard to learn anything. We had a good start but slowly fell back. Windlight and Windburn kept to the right side of the course while we went left. I was happy with our tacks. We got the chute up and down without any undue problems. Wesley and Monica did a very good ‘first time’ on a J performance but we couldn’t keep up to the more experienced crews on the two ‘Winds’.

The key is that we had a great time. It may not have been a prefect performance but it was good.