Almost … but not quite

The J 22s after Start 1

The second to last race of the season was on Sat. Sept. 29. Kevin was there on time but Nick was racing on Black Magic. Kev and I got the boat prepped and I anxiously looked out into Humber Bay. I decided we had to go with or without Nick. There was no sign of Black Magic but winds were very light. We decided: WTF let’s go racing!

As we entered the Western Gap we spotted Black Magic. There are no rules in the shark race. Black Magic went the opposite way than the other boats in the race. We did a boat to boat transfer; something that was probably confusing to the other NYC boats motoring through the gap to the starting area.

Winds were very light. Start 1 was basically J 22s. They started mostly at the pin end (see photo above). My idea was to start near the RC boat. Light wind in a mixed fleet: one should be to windward, regardless of line skew. It was excruciatingly slow but we did manage to start as planned.

As soon as we could we tacked over to the island. Surprisingly there were not a lot of boats doing this. Of course being on the right side gave us this option; to tack. (If we were leeward of the fleet we would be pinned.)

We had a good run to the Eastern Gap. Good, i. e. clear air and relatively fast speed versus the other boats. It was a bit tricky getting through the restricted area of the Eastern Gap. We had to tack back and forth. The light winds and narrow channel made this a challenge. We were in a good position: ahead.  : ) The light winds gave the little boat an advantage.

Unfortunately the light winds became lighter. It seemed to take forever to get to T1. We were pleased that the R boats passed us somewhere south of Centre Island pier. ( This should've happened a lot earlier in the race.) The light winds were very frustrating. Spinnaker or not? After looking at other boats we tied, but was it too late? The RC moved the finish to Gibraltar. The R’s finished but we were just a bit slower. Too slow. The wind died.

We tried everything, we could think of, to move the boat. We were now the only racer near the RC boat so I am sure the RC was amused by our desperate attempts to move.  At one point we lowered the genoa since it appeared to be back winded. There was a brief puff but it really didn’t move us closer and it didn’t last. To be so far ahead and not finish!

It was a very frustrating experience. Should we have put the chute up earlier? Should I have tacked or not tacked in the last puff? My view is that it was just a 'no wind situation'. We did good up until the wind died. If there was just a bit of wind at the finish … but it was not to be.