Wednesday June 17th Evening Race - well crawl might be a better term

What a difference a few weeks can make to the wind. In May there was a dismasting, last night we wished we could have doubled our sail to displacement ratio because the winds were so low. But on to the good stuff. The course was scheduled to be two laps from near Battery wharf out to Red buoy #12 at Logan airport and back to the start mark. We started with light winds ~8kts and it was only going to get worse. With the light winds we stayed close to the start line and had a perfect start with most of the boats in our class crossing the start line near simultaneously. Quickly we could see why we have a good handicap since we slowly slipped back in relation to the rest of the fleet.

We had a crew of four who have all sailed before on Prairie Gold and you could tell because everyone was working well together. Tacking was crisp and we were getting 3-4kts of boat speed – for a while. But, we were against the current and the wind was dropping – 8, 7, 6 kts.  Fortunately we had another slower boat we were contending with which was fun. As we approached the Red buoy mark we had two tankers to contend with and then it was to spinnaker time.

Morgan and Joe went out on the deck and had configured the spinnaker and they hoisted her as we rounded the mark. Yolande was in the cockpit using all seven arms she magically grows to control genoa inhall, genoa sheets, spinnaker halyard and spinnaker sheets. Then to top it all I asked her to furl in the mainsail (and we are still married)

It was a well coordinated spinnaker hoist that was synchronized with furling the genoa up. Probably the best spinnaker hoist to date. But the wind kept dyeing 6, 5, 4 kts. Since we were know running with the wind the apparent wind was even lower. We were making 1-2kts boat speed at best. Although we were cursing the current on the windward part of the trip,  now we were thankful. With the current in our favor we were making 2kts over ground.  If it had been against us it would have been time for the anchor, a beer and wait 6hours for the current to turn.

The race was shortened to one lap and we finished. If there had been two laps we were thinking we might need to cancel Thursday’s meetings, and turn on the bbq to make dinner and midnight snacks.

The racing is getting better, even if the winds are getting lighter. The crew is learning all elements of the boat and I can stay at the helm and enjoy their running around taking care of things.