Treasures from Prairie Gold: Offshore 160, Damage and Beringer Bowl

Lots to catch up on concerning short handed sailing over the past couple of weeks. Prairie Gold has competed in three races, got its first hardware of the season, needed repairs and sailed sufficient duration and distance to be eligible for the Bermuda 1-2.

The offshore 160 was held in Newport and set a nominal 160nm course that included offshore sailing south of Block Island and Long Island. Phil took Prairie Gold to Newport in two legs; on Wednesday from Boston through the Cape Cod canal to Red Brook harbor and on Thursday on down to Newport Yacht Club. The Friday morning briefing was quite enjoyable as it allowed me to mix with very experienced offshore sailors who have competed in the Newport Bermuda races and to meet one of the safety inspectors for the race. It was good to know that I am getting things together.

Off to the start line, which had to be moved because of two other races on going at the same time. Prairie Gold had a great start and had the chance, but chose not to, barge the ultimate winner of the race while starting. We crossed the start line second, which felt like a good start. Over the next several hours Prairie Gold held her own with some of the faster rated boats and when we made it to the first mark – the SE corner of Block island I could hear other boats calling in the time of their mark rounding. In this race one announces boat name, mark # and time of mark rounding so that all in range can record this to their log sheet.

Newport Yacht Club

The big boys racing at Newport

I was encouraged that I seemed to be holding things together in the race. My strategy was now to head west close-hauled and to try to use the current coming south between Long Island and Block Island to help give me a little drift towards the upwind mark. It was the right strategy but the area was filled with fishing boats. Not knowing whether any were dragging nets I decided to tack south to get away from them before heading west again.

At around 4am on Saturday I could hear two other boats radioing that they had rounded the second mark located 26nm SW of Montauk Point on Long Island. Wow, I really was in the race. I even saw the two boats making their way to the next mark. The wind was calming a little and I continued to make my way to the mark #2. Then the wind ceased. This was so frustrating as the wind initially dropped in the west, so the other boats, who were heading east, did not yet have a loss of wind and were stretching way from me. I drifted, at times in the wrong direction to New York City, for what seemed like an eternity – 6 hours. I could see the mark, I just couldn’t get to it and managed to drift with the current a few miles past it. The wind picked up a little and at 11am I managed to round the mark. By 2pm I put the spinnaker up and had a glorious sail until about midnight. Then the wind dropped again and now I was in dense fog in the main shipping channel to Buzzards Bay. I was making 1knot at best. I decided to call it quits at 4am after another 4hrs of drifting. The wind projections for the next day were awful so it would have taken until late at night to finish and the after party was scheduled for 2pm.

Importantly I transited 163 nm over 40hours that exceeds the requirement of 100nm in 30 hours as an eligibility requirement for the Bermuda 1-2.

4qm, 165nm elapsed, 1kt boatspeed

I learned several things during this race. 1) Don’t get dehydrated – drinks lots of water. 2) When the wind drops and you cant get anything going, don’t keep trying in the baking sun as it is exhausting. Use it as an opportunity to sleep and rest. 3) Food is fuel. Prep more instant style food in advance and minimize the need to take care of cooking. 4) Sleep more. Keep taking naps sooner. Don’t let the excitement of the race get in the way of resting.

Damage: Heading back up Buzzards Bay in dense fog I was hit by another sailboat. Fiberglass toerail was damaged, and stanchions were taken out and lifelines snapped. Looked ugly and scared the **** out of me. I keep revisiting the situation to see if there is anything I could have done to avoid this. Radar and alarm was on – no radar signal from the boat. I was using my fog horn, and constantly on watch. The fog was so dense I was not able to avoid their plunging into me as I only got sight of their boat a split second before they hit me. The fog was that dense.

Damage

Went on to Red Brook harbor for the night and licked my wounds. Next day headed home and dense fog set in yet again. I made it through the canal okay but I was again astounded by how fast boats proceed in such dangerous conditions. Many never use a fog horn.

The sail north was glorious and as I got to Mnot's ledge light I BBQed a burger, the now traditional Minot's ledge Bacon and Cheddar Burger.

As I was in a fast reach heading north I was on the phone to Yolande (shore crew) who found the stanchions we needed and got them overnight shipped. On Tuesday Yolande and Chuck helped install them. It was a really rewarding job since we could now sail again. After I was hit I wondered if the season was over. So, you can imagine, turning this disaster around was really rewarding.

Broken Stanchion base

Base removed

New Stanchions installed with Dyneema lifeline

To celebrate we entered the Wednesday evening race – Phil, Yolande and Chuck. It was good practice for the next race, The Beringer Bowl, an overnight race from Marblehead to Provincetown that Chuck and I had entered doublehanded.

On Friday morning Chuck and I set off for Marblehead for the beginning of the race and to attend what was listed as a mandatory skippers meeting. Puzzling, all race information distributed in advance, no new information at the skippers meeting. Many skippers didn’t attend. I guess I will save half a day in the future. But we did get free burgers that allowed us to eat before heading off to the race.

At the Start line we had winds WSW 15 kts. As we watched other fleets depart we saw that during fleet B’s start the winds gusted to 25kts. It caused a little excitement for them at the start. The doublehanders were the largest fleet of the race with 9 entrants. Jonathan Green on Jeroboam was BBQing at the start, a tradition of his. We counted down and made a brilliant start being first over the line. We had to tack upwind to the first Mark, R2 near Boston. We knew that the wind was predicted to turn more westerly and so decided to stay above the rhumbline to this mark to take advantage of the wind shift and it worked perfectly.. As we descended on the mark the boats started grouping up and we could see 4 or maybe 5 boats nearby. We really were in a race.

We then turned onto a close reach, starboard tack for the next 36nm, or so. Winds were fantastic 20-25kts. Too much for the spinnaker, but great for a full main and 135% genoa. All night long there was lighnting all around as well as fireworks from the vicinity of Scituate. We tried to hunt down Jeroboam but he managed to pull about a mile ahead of us. As we got close to Ptown we began hearing other boats radioing in with their finish times. It was very close and now we would need to wait for corrected times. We finished at 3:05am and had a fantastic sail. In the end we placed third in the doublhanded division, and seventh overall amongst the racing boats and got some hardware as a result.

Chuck and I sat in the cockpit at about 4am in Ptown harbor watched the sunrise then went to bed, satisfied that we had done well but not yet knowing the result.