Over early

During the season I have been reading books about racing tips, and we could sure need some. They have all talked about aggressive starts and that if you don’t go over the line early then you aren’t pushing enough. For the past few races we have been trying to aggressively position ourselves in the race. Last night we succeeded. Since we were short handed – Yolande, Morgan, Joe and myself - we were not able to put anyone on the bow to count down the distance to the start line so we had to play a bit of a guessing game. We had been timing runs from different positions to the start and noticed that the rest of the boats were preparing for a long starboard tack run to the start line. Cunningly, or so we thought, we decided to circle near the committee boat, sail along the line on a beam reach and push up into the wind with about 15 seconds to go as the other boats approached. It worked perfectly except we should have waited to push up at 10 seconds.  The horn sounded twice, the second horn to say there was a false start, then over the radio we heard “sail 495”.

Now we had to get back behind the line and start again, we loosened the sails to slow down and had to wait for the other boats to pass before we could turn. Once we heard the radio call “Clear” we started over. The course was a simple three times around a windward leeward course.  We started near Battery Wharf and headed over to green Buoy #13 and back. Spinnaker deployment was excellent and it was clear we were even catching boats. We estimated that we lost 3 minutes with the false start so it will be interesting to see how the results come in. 

On our last lap we noticed that the fireboat was out by #13 with her water jets turned on. Luckily for us, they were turned off as we rounded the mark. We think that a captain of one of the ferry’s was retiring and that this is a traditional celebration that accompanies retirement.

This weekend off to Australia, Japan and Korea. However, Morgan is being trained in docking and he and Joe will be the core of the team for the next two weeks. If you see them take Prairie Gold out, don’t call the police, they have my permission.

Our best race of the season – Flip-Flop Regatta

Winds were predicted to be four knots out of the south and the predictions were holding firm for the three days running up to the race. This is a concern for Prairie Gold because of she is a heavy boat decked out for comfort and cruising, not racing. Our core crew of Morgan, Joe, Danielle and Chuck headed out with skipper Phil to the start line NNW of Red #2 in the Boston North Channel.

The race was a pursuit with staggered times based on PHRF handicap. The goal being that with equivalent sailing and effective handicapping all should finish at the same time. hmmm

We made a great downwind start passing several boats on the way to Nahant, the first mark. Doused the spinnaker, rounded the mark and headed close-hauled to Green #5 at The Graves. The winds grew from 6kts at the start to 10 kts giving us a nice sail to #5. We were in Group C and were assigned the 13.2nm course and thus we tacked around the green buoy and headed to the harbor. We were expecting to sail 60-90 degrees off the apparent wind so immediately raised the spinnaker. We were sailing fast ~6.5kts and catching boats in front of us. Joe was trimming feverishly and we were doing a great job. Chuck couldn’t believe that we could sail so close to the wind with the asymm spinnaker.

 YES - those are boats behind us

 Heading toward Boston from Green #5 - we are catching them

 Bummer - they passed us. But we did have fun trying to block them

Winds are getting lighter

Our routing

Sailing into the harbor the winds started dropping and we were against maximum current. By the time we got to Spectacle island the winds were only 2 kts true and now we were downwind – progress was slow. Now the boats we had overtaken and those behind us started catching. The racing boats are light with better sail/displacement ratios and can still work with light winds where we can’t. At the airport we had no wind, 0 kts speed over water 0.5kts speed over ground. The track on the GPS showed we were heading backwards – we were a victim of the current. We and others were in a horrible wind hole.

Somehow we clawed our way out of it – the crew were working feverishly, sail changes, jibing the spinnaker (we lost count of the number of jibes during the race, 20 plus), furling in the main, taking it out again. We could see boats 300yds ahead of us were close hauled, with wind coming from a direction 180 degrees different than us. We prepared to bring out the genoa. The winds switched, quick sail change and off to the races. Winds were up, we were catching and over taking again. Then by the Hyatt, ¼ mile from the finish line, no wind. Well there was about 1kt of wind. We could see wind across the channel. To get there I decided to sail away from the finish with the genoa in tight and tried to make a little apparent wind. We were going in the wrong direction but were making our way out to a location where we could see significant wind.

Now we got good 10kts of wind, tacked and were able to make it to the finish line and overtake Wings, a J24 at the finish line.

Sails in BBQ on, bacon and cheddar infused burgers cooking, beers all around. Smoke coming out of the BBQ and jealous boats coming by. We may not have won but we were feeling good. One came close (we thought they were going to ask for a burger). Instead they said “Are you the boat with the Union Jack kite?” “Nice sail”.

The results are in: 11^th out of 14 in our group C. Overall we placed 23^rd out of 38 boats that sailed our course.

PHRF rating, handicapping is an interesting beast. Clearly its not an exact science, maybe best described as a guessing game. Some boats always come first, or maybe second based on handicapping. Maybe there are some politics in getting the right rating. Maybe we are just awful sailors. It’s clear, however, that we are improving our sailing skills and enjoying it. Well there was a brief period where we were all tired, pissed off that there was no wind and getting a little cranky. But the IPA and burgers helped solve those problems.

Third across the line - wait a minute

Last night was the third and final rumble of the season. We made a poor start, but caught the others in our group quickly. Two times round the course and we crossed the line third. Wait a minute, confusion. Look at the charts, there are two different red #2 at Spectacle island. Mark M was announced and was told to be Red#2 at Spectacle. Later we checked the long list of marks - M is red #2 north of Thompson island, west of Spectacle. We weren't the only to screw up. Will pay more attention this weekend at the Flip-Flop Regatta.  Winds predicted to to be 2 kts - ouch

US Coastguard Cutter James, Long Island Bridge and Cuppa Coffee mate

Simple daysail for us on Saturday. As we were leaving the marina there was some chatter “What’s with all this coastguard security at the coastguard station?” An informative answer came “government stuff”. Actually it was the commissioning of the US Coastguard cutter James. She is the newest vessel in the fleet and because she is named after a famous sailor from MA, Joshua James (1826-1902) an AMerican Sea Captain credited with saving over 600 lives. We met one of the Cutter's crew last week and Yolande took her tour of of the vessel on Tuesday. Her homeport will be Charleston, SC.

We headed out through the islands to Peddocks Island where we anchored for a quick bbq on the back of Prairie Gold. 

Yolande sporting her new look at the helm

We then motored around Nut Island to Quincy Great Hill to meet our Aussie friend, Todd Moore, the owner of Cuppa Coffee. He sure can paddle as well as brew a mean flat white. Unfortunately we were out of beer on Prairie Gold and as a consequence I think we have gone way down in Todd's opinion. He paddled back to shore quickly and I am sure that he went straight to his fridge for a cold one.

Todd racing back in search of a beer

As we headed home we went through Long Island Bridge. It was demolished, because the bridge was unsafe, earlier in the year and so we no longer have the problem with clearance. Unfortunately this has displaced some homeless and people in the recovery program on Long Island.

It's always interesting when the spinnaker goes up

Not certain how to describe yesterday’s race – but one of the crew said at the end “its always interesting when the spinnaker goes up”

Winds were moving all over the place and varying from 4-20kts which made for difficult up wind sailing. The course was once around N2 (see beneath) with us starting in a windward direction. The best course was for a port tack start. We lined up ready to sweep round for a quick port start only to be blocked by a combination of Codzilla and one of the sailboats due to start later (they are supposed to stay away form the start line until their time is ready).  It was a minor inconvenience, but we headed to the port side of the start line and could see four or five boats coming towards us on a starboard tack. We had to give way, but we started well, and they then had to immediately tack on to port to head towards the windward mark. We could keep our momentum since we didn’t need to tack and were then able to catch the fleet.

The higher winds are better for us and we were even able to briefly overtake Charisma2,  Beneteau 36.7 with a PHRF rating of 84 compared to our 171. Of course they then put their foot down and screeched past us. We deployed the spinnaker sailed downwind with winds shifting in direction and speed – a lot. Eagle and Uncle Joe were following us (but they did start 6 minutes after us) and then at the leeward mark we managed to take down the spinnaker nicely and head back up wind. Chuck was having a workout on the mainsail responding to wind gusts to allow me to keep control at the helm. One of the boats had a serious spinnaker takedown problem (we think it was Uncle Joe) and dropped out of the race.

When we rounded the windward mark the crew on deck were raising the spinnaker as we were furling the genoa. We went too fast and should have left the genoa out a little longer because the wind gusted inflated the spinnaker and pulled Joe two feet off the deck while he was holding the halyard. The other crew member, Morgan, helped out and got a line caught around his finger. We are playing an interesting game of learning the limits. We found another one and will correct it next time we race. Good news – both Morgan and Joe reported that a drink or two fixed their injuries.

We headed off to the finish line without incident. We were last to cross the line, but one boat dropped out of the race so we didn’t come last. That’s four races in a row. Now awaiting the handicap corrected times.

Beer on dock was a good solution to the aches and pains of the race.  When we were sitting at the dock, Sean and Sandy, live aboards adjacent to us walked by and said they saw us out at the races as they were motoring by.  “We have some great pictures of you dropping the spinnaker in the water”. 

Cottage Park Yacht Club Make a Wish Pursuit Race – make a wish to have a launch pick you up from the mooring ball since they don’t respond to phone calls or VHF.

The last time Yolande and I double-handed in a race I didn’t blog. Winds were low, really low and we decided to quit otherwise pubs would be closed. Yesterday winds started at 4kts and we wondered what lay ahead. As we were approaching the finish line we could see there was a storm coming from Boston. All hell broke loose when we got hit by a squall line with 30kts of wind. Wind direction changed 90 degrees instantaneously and we were back winded. Yolande wondered whether she was going swimming (she doesn’t swim). We got everything under control, finished the race and headed for the protection of Spectacle Island to furl the sails. Yolande asked me not to refer to that as fun. I now refer to it as awesome and get a piercing look.

In the pursuit race the boat’s handicap is used to determine starting time. Slower boats start earlier and the goal is all to finish at the same time – at the same time if they are sailed equally well and if the handicapping is effective. I have decided that the handicapping is a guess at best.

Winds were light at 4kts as we set sail on a 15nm triangle course – President’s Road (Yellow E buoy) to Red Green buoy “Flip Rock Gong” (near Nahant) over to Graves Whistle Green #5 and back to the start. We were under full main sail and spinnaker and slowly jibing our way through the jib and main only boats. As we passed Deer Island we were able to head a little more to port and the wind increased to 10-15 kts. Now we were sailing. We could see Sparkle Pony, one of our the Constitution Yacht club racing boats, in our rear view mirror. We normally only see her on the start line, but with the pursuit we would get to see more of her. As she approached we were both under full spinnaker and she tried to block our air and pass. We of course sailed up and blocked. We went through a few rounds of jockeying position and she finally passed. It was a heck of a lot of fun. We hit a top speed of 10 knots and it felt totally under control. I would love to go on a planing boat and get 20+kts.

As we approached “Flip Rock Gong” we noticed that marks had been dropped for a small boat race. About 20 centerboard boats were approaching our mark (mostly on port tack). We jibed the spinnaker putting us on a starboard tack, with right of way (phew – that jibe had to work perfectly) and rounded our mark.

We had passed a couple of slower boats in our division and several in the jib and main division. It’s such a rarity for us that we relish the experience. Sparkle pony was pulling away from us and was probably half a mile ahead by the Green 5 mark. As we approached we doused the spinnaker, Yolande unfurled the genoa and took care of Prairie Gold, we then dropped the spinnaker to the deck and I tried to pack the spinnaker away. She is in the bag (the spinnaker that is) but today I will need to get her out and rearrange her to give us a chance of flying her again.

We were now headed for the finish line directly into the wind. This is where Prairie Gold suffers most. Francis from Sparkle Pony talked with Joe, Morgan and me at the Round the Island Race last weekend and recommended we get a folding prop on Prairie Gold. At the time I internally scoffed at the idea. However, I have been researching online reviews and am now closer to the decision to buy one. Yesterday I was wondering how much time we would save with the reduced drag. If anyone has folding prop experience please reach out and give me your insights.  Flexofold 3 blade is currently at the top of my list.

As we were heading for the finish line the density of boats increased and it was clear we had not done such a bad job in the race. We were on our final tack to the finish line and we had that squall I discussed earlier and we finished.  On the radio we kept hearing other boats still out on the course were abandoning the race. Maybe we weren’t last! We finished 7^th out of 10 boats in our division (the spinnaker group that had the 15 nm course). We also finished before 7 other boats in the jib and main only division that were only sailing a 10nm course (Start to Graves #5 and back).

We headed to Cottage Park Yacht Club (CPYC) where we had requested a mooring and paid for post race dinner for the two of us. This is where things started to fall apart. We could find no record of a VHF channel to call – nothing online, nothing in the instructions. I had been given a cell number of a mysterious “Marty”. No answer. We called three CPYC numbers. Nobody new which VHF channel to call. One told us to look for the boson on the docks and he will tell us what to do. Hmmm. Eventually a launch came by and with frantic waving we managed to attract his attention. He had no idea we were supposed to have a mooring. However he took us to one with the comment “I don’t think the owner is coming back today”. After tidying up we called channel 78 (we were finally told a number). No answer. Different radio, no answer, no answer…… It was a great race, but the club is not organized to have guests. We dropped the mooring and headed home. I will see if I can get my dinner fee back.