Finally into the race.
2006-09-08

I'm getting that feeling again that I'm existing in a vacuum here. I guess that's OK. I started writing for me, I can end up writing for me. Life goes on.
We finally got our first race of the season in this year. Kind of sat it was in September, but at least we got one in. Of course the crew tried to scuttle the project. I got calls on the day of the race that eliminated 4 regulars and two ballast boys. It's a good thing the winds were light or...
We didn't have much talent. I'm not saying that in a bad way, it takes a while to figure out a boat and to know what makes it go. I had one of my jib trimers, my only so so foredeck person, a 78 year old dude who now just sits in the middle and points out immaginary lobster pots and two non-racers one of which I was forced to put on the main. UGH...
We left the dock on time, got the main up without incident and waited for the start sequence. The race commitee was having technical problems. They announced that the sequence had started but it didn't. They were following the regular Wednesday night sequence, but not what was published for the sequence for this race. 2/3 of the spin fleet were well on their way at what turned out not to be their start. They all had to come back and I'm sure there were protests filed.
I sort of guessed what was going on and when our time came to start we did. It was a down wind start and we had a good one. We were in clean air, moving in the light breeze and ahead of most of the fleet. I figured right off the bat that the J-Boat and the Jeanneau were going to be the problem boats. Both had up new kevlar 150% Genoas to our 135% jib. We also weighed about 8000 pounds more than each of them and to top it off the diver didn't show and the bottom was dirty. In the 5 knot ot less breezes, this was not a good thing. TO top it off, me and my furnature pile were giving both of these guys between 12 and 20 seconds a mile. Not fair...
The Jeanneau headed left the J right and we took the rumbline course right up the middle. At one point or another each of us was ahead and we were smoking the rest of the fleet. The J must have liked our course better because he came down and eventually started sitting on our air. I tried nicely to advise him that it wasn't a good idea. Even announce loudly to our crew that if he didn't quit, I'd have to take him up. He didn't take the hit so I stuffed him, hard. It caused quite a mess for them and their skipper announced isn't it a little early for this? Um, no...
It took them a while to get straightned out and i must have put the fear of God into him because he stayed far far away from us the rest of the night. There was a huge hole next to the lighthouse and we all sat. The boats inthe back began to close. Not good. The Jenneau got movingg first, then us then the J and that's how we rounded the first mark.
The next leg was a tight reach and not much changed. We sailed a solid leg gained a little on the Jeanneau and held our own on the rest of the fleet. We rounded that mark and then headed back on the opposite course back to the bell. The J managed a little bit more boat speed coming into the mark and got an inside overlap. I had to give him room. The leg back to the finish was a fetch with a short beat at the end. We each picked a spot. The Jeanneau went in deep, The J took the middle and we took the outside. It didn't matter. We finished int he order we were in, 1, 2, 3.
We started the stopwatch to see if we were going to beat any of the rest of the fleet. While I would have liked to be in the money, the one thing I didn't want to do was finish last. The next boat to show up was a Hunter (please God don't let me lose to a Hunter). We got our time on them easily. The clock began is slow upward ticking, 8 minutes, 9 minutes, 10 minutes, I knew we'd beated at least three more boats, but there were a few that were going to be close. We packed upt he boat and headed in, with all of us in good spirits.
We got a drink at the bar and settled in just as the announcements were made. We'd saved a third. Our first race of the season and we ended up in the money. Yeah...
I'll be sure and have the bottom cleaned in time for the Dead Bud... Count on it.

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