Race Report July 16, 2009
What a fantastic night on the Sound. A sunny 80 degrees and 10-15 knots of breeze. Last week we had two goals: better start, and better spinnaker set. I guess 1 out of 2 ain’t bad. The start was better, mid fleet. We kept pace most of the reaching leg. On the downwind leg we tried twice to set the spinnaker but the sock still got twisted up, or snagged on the jib hanks. Even after we did a dry run at the dock. Next week!
We did witness some excitement too. At the second mark we were coming in with 4 other boats. We were rounding to starboard with two boats to port (windward) and two to leeward of us. The boat clear ahead of me seemed to be warning the boat to starboard (leeward) of us that he didn’t have rights. I found this surprsiing since we were all in the cruiser class and some boats were running motors, definitely not a serious fleet. But never-the-less the boat to leeward felt the need to bail and fell off into a gybe, but didn’t see the boat to leeward of them. The turn was close, but they couldn’t quite make it, and their anchor nearly ripped the after platform of his neighbor off of it’s brackets, crumpling the pushpit, and nearly sending a cooler to Davey Jones locker.
Meanwhile we had asked for room and were able to round without incident. Phew.
Upwind we had a new issue. The last races we had pointed great and made up ground that way. This time we started the windward leg near the middle of the fleet but couldn’t point worth a dang. We ended up being near the end of the fleet at the finish.
Anyway, another awesome night on the sound. Thanks again to Travis and Jen for the keys to Europa and to the great crew: Bob, Pamela, and Jeremey. I’m out next week, Brian will be at the helm. More adventures to come.
