New Year’s Day Race

Our goal was not to come DFL and we achieved it. Actually, we were pretty pleased with our performance. 10 entries, 2 decided not to start and we came 6^th out of 8 who raced. There were a couple of notable parts that were really fun too: gybing around red buoy #12 and pulling away from a similar boat to Prairie Gold on the windward leg.

New years day was chilly, starting in the 20s and climbing to about 30F by the end of the race. Winds were about 15-20kts gusting to 25kts apparent out of the South West so we were set for good conditions for the race. With hand warmers in my gloves I went to the skippers meeting not knowing what would happen. Donuts coffee, a lot of chatter, and about 1 minute of instruction about the race. But it was nice to get to know some of the competition. The course was a simple triangle– start line to green buoy #13, fall off to port to red #12, gybe to port and head for the finish line.

We met on Prairie Gold discussed the course, and disembarked and sailed around to feel out spots for wind direction and then practiced our start. The race was a pursuit race in which each of the boats has a handicap based on the relative performance, assuming equal crew. The first boat SLICE set off at 12 noon and we were scheduled to leave at 12:00:48. We had time for two practice starts where we practiced the clock countdown: the first was awful the second pretty darned good. So we set ourselves up for the start with 5 minutes to go. Suddenly it was 12 noon and we realized that we were too far from the line and so we “put our foot down”, so to speak. The good news, our goal was to hit the start line with speed and not to have a false start. Tick that one off. However we were about 30 seconds late. I put that down to my error. But we were off and having fun.

On the first of the three parts to the race we tried to de-reef the mainsail but it was stuck. We are not certain why but that cost us another 20 seconds or so. We quickly decided that although we didn’t have optimum sail area it would be best to keep going rather than mess around with the sail. Quickly two boats were up our tail – an Island Packet (IS Fearr Cara) and a Beneteau 351 (Jeroboam). Looking back at the start sheet I realize as I write this that the Island Packet was due to start 12 seconds before us. I can only imagine they miscalculated too given that they were behind us. Both boats were closing as we were coming to the green buoy, our first turn. However, IS Fearr Cara had miscalculated the layline to the turn and was too low and had to tack twice to get on line. This slowed their progress considerably. However, Jeroboam was getting closer.

Jeroboam is a great boat and her skipper, Jonathan Green is a great skipper having crossed the N. Atlantic solo, sailed in the Newport to Bermuda race. Here is their blogsite for those interested. 

We rounded the green buoy and were now heading downwind towards the red buoy. We could have really done with a full mainsail at this point. Jeroboam was catching.

During this leg of the race the crew started to click and began talking to one another helping one another with suggestions. We came to the red buoy and gybed around it almost perfectly. Indeed this was needed because we had to stop Jeroboam from putting her nose in between us and the buoy. She was a mere 10 feet behind us.

After the gybe we were heading upwind. This is where a reefed main and a small jib (the headsail) worked to our advantage. The reason for the small jib was that our 135% genoa (the big headsail) is torn and we are having a new one made. Since in this third leg we were heading to the wind our apparent wind speed increased so smaller sail area was a great benefit. We slowly and steadily pulled away from Jeroboam. Nothing like having the right sail plan, if only for the wrong reasons.

We could see the finish line, at which point the big fast racing boats Eagle, Twist, Ye Old School, Black Seal all started to pass us. They had handicaps of up to 8 minutes and it was pretty awesome so see them sail by. During this period we hit the only no wind spot in the harbor. Suddenly, for what felt like an eternity, we had 1kt of wind. This is when all of these racing boats passed us. I am not certain if they found better wind (kudos to them if they did) or whether their boat design sails through low wind better than ours. Whichever it was it was quite a sight. Then the wind picked up and we finished sixth. 

But who won the race? Chuck on a C&C 30 called SLICE. He had the slowest boat in the fleet, had the scratch start time and sailed a great race. Congratulations to Chuck. Yolande who was at the start and finish line learned that one of the boats started the race 2 minutes early. With no return to the start were they disqualified? If so, were we actually 5^th. Doesn’t matter either way. We achieved all of our objectives – get out on New Years Day, sail, have fun and laughs be competitive and enjoy the company of friends.

Here is Prairie Gold Finishing

Afterwards we quickly dropped the mainsail, put the canvas cover back on Prairie Gold (although we left the headsail in place for a quick turnaround for sailing again) and went beneath for a beer, and hot tomato soup.

Thanks to the crew Bob, Linda and Rudy for such a great time. This was my first official race and I enjoyed every minute of it. When my son called me later, I told him all the tall stories of the race and said that I was really pleased with our first race. To which he laughed “First race. Hmm. You always race other boats when you are on the water.” I guess he is correct, but there is something special about trying a real race where your competitors know they are in a race also.