A beautiful night to race

Wednesday evening the storms came rumbling through with a thunderstorm at about 4:30pm. We had wondered all day whether the races would be on. So we headed to the boat with beer in hand as a plan B (and as a plan A for after the race if it occurred).

Winds were low - 2-3 kts - but we all went out and floundered around. Carl, on the race committee boat, announced that we would wait for the new winds to strengthen and settle down before choosing a course. We expected winds to build after the storm had passed.  By 6:20pm winds were growing to a steady 6 knots out of the South. Course 7, once around, was set and at 6:30pm fleet C (the slowest boats) got their warning signal with a 6:35pm start. Our crew of four – Joe, Morgan, Yolande and myself – worked well together and got off to a great start crossing the start line second.

We managed to head nicely up to buoy #13 on a single starboard tack with peak apparent winds of 17kts. However, the speeds were very unpredictable and the direction oscillating somewhat. As we rounded #13 and headed to #12 we deployed the spinnaker and managed to sail 60 degrees off the apparent wind towards #12. We pinched as much as we could to gain a little separation from the mark just in case there was a wind shift. As we approached #12 we pulled out the genoa and doused the spinnaker. Then something bizarre happened – the wind started shifting and we nearly didn’t make the mark. We were close hauled and made our turn with inches to spare. In seconds the wind shifted 90 degrees and was now out of the east. We could now use the spinnaker on what was now a downwind leg back to #13.

By the time fleets A and B who started 6 and 12 minutes behind us had approached #13 the wind shift had already occurred so they couldn’t spinnaker from #13 to #12. Advantage to fleet C!

We made it all the way to #13 before we were being passed by the fast boats. Its quite incredible how fast they are: even in light air they seem to grab all of the oxygen and get sufficient fuel to glide through the water. Its quite a site, even if it’s a little frustrating. But as many do say, we do have the best spinnaker design. One shouted across to us “Rule Britannia”. Thank goodness nobody shouted Brexit.

As we got to the finish line we looked over our shoulder and could see two boats still to finish behind us. But of course they started after us. However, it makes a change as we used to always cross the line last.