New Year's Day race 2016

We entered our second new year’s day race hosted by Constitution Marina and had a memorable day :) . We had a crew of seven and had winds from 10-20kts from the west. Our course was from Pier 6 (Charlestown) to Red #12, then Green #13, back to Red #12 and then return to Pier 6.

But before we began the race we noticed that there was some gunk on the hull of the boat. Rudy let us use some tape of his to pass under the hull. Here are Dan and Benson lightly scraping the hull to get the gunk off.

We had some good practice runs including using the spinnaker and then we were off. All went well for the first five minutes and then near Battery wharf we decided to deploy the spinnaker. All went well, initially, until the wind hit hard and then we realized the tackline was not attached (see 2:57 in this video). Over the last few weeks I have changed how the tackline is attached: previously it has been at the bow but now I have it back to the cockpit so that we can make fine adjustments as we sail. Once we got the tackline tightened, and after a few blisters and bruised ribs, we were off again and catching the field.

(picture by Dan Avery)

We rounded #12 nicely and now tacked upwind toward #13. We dipped beneath Slice, skippered by Chuck Fluhr, and rounded the mark in front of Slice. Now for the next downwind leg back to #12. However, we couldn’t deploy the spinnaker due to a sheet getting caught so we continued under genoa and mainsail. Chuck blocked our air, we headed up to try to push him away and had a good bit of competition.

We rounded #12 and set off for home. We had a choice of which side of an anchored barge to pass. We chose the southern side and Chuck chose the northern side. He made the best choice and beat us home. Kudos to Chuck and the crew of Slice. But there is 2017…..

(picture by Benson Willis)

All in all, a great way to start 2016 especially with the chowder and beer at the Sailloft following the race.

A year end summary of Prairie Gold's 2015 adventures

This year we managed to achieve several new firsts – we entered our first race on New Year’s day placing 6^th out of 8.  We competed in the Boston harbor Wednesday evening race series and didn’t come last in our division. Two notable races were the Round the Island Race starting in Edgartown, Martha’s vineyard and the Boston Harbor Alliance Regatta.

The Martha’s vineyard race was a 56nm race and was such a fun time with Joe, Morgan and myself participating. My most enjoyable part of that race was a long several hour downwind spinnaker run from the NE tip of Martha’s vineyard down to the Atlantic.  Of course in addition to the race was the overnight sail to get down there as well as a very fast return sail taking just 14 hours. Since then we have remarked several times that the bacon cheese burgers we BBQed while sailing down to Cape Cod were the best we have eaten.

The Boston Harbor Alliance Regatta was delayed by a week due to highwinds. Even when the race was started the winds were still good. Since we have a cruising boat high winds favor us and we managed to win that race. Here is an excerpt from the blog entry at the time:

“As we approached Red buoy #2P near Peddocks island we decided to deploy the spinnaker. With 7 on board she went up flawlessly, and quickly. Many jobs to be completed, attach the halyard, pull the halyard from the mast, take up the slack in the cockpit, furl in the genoa, switch genoa for spinnaker sheets (we have only one set of winches), raise the spinnaker “condom”, and trim the sail.

We set course for green/red near Hospital Shoal then a little more to port for green #7 daymark at the tip of Gallops. On this long reach we were chasing down Atalanta, a Sabre ketch who had started six minutes earlier than us. As we were approaching #7 we were able to block her wind and cut inside between the day mark and Atalanta. We then turned to head up The Narrows, with the spinnaker sailing 60 degrees off the apparent wind. We were flying!! However, we couldn’t come more into the wind so we quickly dropped the spinnaker and got out the genoa. Again the crew were fantastic. Joe and Morgan on the deck were getting wet, but wrestled the spinnaker into the bag.”

During the course of the racing we have had 14 different crew members join me with a range of experiences from novice to seasoned sailor. And at the same time I have started as a novice racer (never competed before as crew or skipper) and during the season I think I have improved slightly to novice+ (still lots to learn on my part).

Joe always says “it’s always interesting when the spinnaker goes up”, and he is right. We have given the spinnaker several baths even using it as a sea anchor during a Wednesday evening race. Here is one of the incidents from a previous blog entry:

“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.”

In addition to the racing we managed to set a new record for the greatest number of trips on Prairie Gold in a year – 94. In addition to the racing we went cruising up into Maine including stops at the Isles of Shoals, Portland, Boothbay, Camden, Rockland, Kennebunkport, Portsmouth.

Thanks to all who have joined us on our 2015 adventures and we hope to see you in 2016.