We actually had a race on our hands

Wednesday evening was another evening of fun in which we did not come last. Danielle joined Morgan and Phil as crew. We disembarked early so that Danielle could learn the ropes, and we decided to deploy the spinnaker before the start of the race just to make sure she all was well. Thank goodness we did, because we had a few issues. After solving them we were ready to race.

There was little wind at the start line and we got in relatively good position, but we were doing about 1kt. For Prairie Gold these conditions are not ideal. Heavy cruising boat, low wind does not make much progress. We watched a lot of the fleet start to pull away. But then we realized we were not alone.

The course was two times around North 1.

As we were heading north we were in the windward leg, and there was a Boston Yacht Club race in the middle of our course. Darn it, all those little boats to keep clear of. As a consequence we had to tack a few extra times which slows us down, a lot. We rounded the windward mark, deployed the spinnaker and had a nice downwind leg. Blue note, with a PHRF rating of 159 (Prairie Gold 171) was behind us having problems with their spinnaker. Once deployed they started to catch us, they have a full spinnaker, we have an asymmetric. We rounded the leeward mark (end of lap 1) ahead then set off on the windward leg. We had a great leg, with only three tacks and were able to immediately round the windward mark. But Blue Note was better. She was able pass us and round the mark in front. She set off downwind and decided not to deploy her spinnaker. Morgan had a perfect spinnaker set and we were off. We used our recently acquired knowledge of changes in wind direction on this leg to set our course and were off in hot pursuit.

We were gaining and managed to overtake Blue Note 100-200yards from the finish line as she was playing “We are the champions”. She tried to cut inside. We blocked. We beat her on real and adjusted time.   With our difference on PHRF rating we have a 12 second handicap per nm over Blue Note. Since the course was 5nm our adjusted time should be an additional 60 seconds better.

It actually felt like a race rather than our slowly bringing up the rear of the pack.

We will be very interested to see our adjusted time in relation to other boats. I don’t expect us to edge anyone else out, but maybe we will be closer than usual. Maybe all of the spinnaker practice in Buzzards Bay and our testing of upwind and downwind VMG is helping us. Also, with the VMG practice I have identified a couple of small adjustments to make on my windward sailing that I think are helping. Put another way, I may have been slowing us previously.

Danielle was a quick learner and a great addition to the PG crew.  We hope she comes back for more.

On our weekend trip to Martha’s Vineyard Joe, Morgan and Phil were too tired to mix our Dark and Stormys. We still had ice and so we thought it was fitting to do so last night. Sandy and Sean joined us and we mixed a few Prairie Gold style cocktails. We still have four limes left. Drop by and try our mix.