Winds were predicted to be four knots out of the south and
the predictions were holding firm for the three days running up to the race.
This is a concern for Prairie Gold because of she is a heavy boat decked out
for comfort and cruising, not racing. Our core crew of Morgan, Joe, Danielle
and Chuck headed out with skipper Phil to the start line NNW of Red #2 in the
Boston North Channel.
The race was a pursuit with staggered times based on PHRF
handicap. The goal being that with equivalent sailing and effective
handicapping all should finish at the same time. hmmm
We made a great downwind start passing several boats on the
way to Nahant, the first mark. Doused the spinnaker, rounded the mark and
headed close-hauled to Green #5 at The Graves. The winds grew from 6kts at the
start to 10 kts giving us a nice sail to #5. We were in Group C and were
assigned the 13.2nm course and thus we tacked around the green buoy and headed
to the harbor. We were expecting to sail 60-90 degrees off the apparent wind so
immediately raised the spinnaker. We were sailing fast ~6.5kts and catching
boats in front of us. Joe was trimming feverishly and we were doing a great
job. Chuck couldn’t believe that we could sail so close to the wind with the
asymm spinnaker.
YES - those are boats behind us
Heading toward Boston from Green #5 - we are catching them
Bummer - they passed us. But we did have fun trying to block them
Winds are getting lighter
Our routing
Sailing into the harbor the winds started dropping and we
were against maximum current. By the time we got to Spectacle island the winds
were only 2 kts true and now we were downwind – progress was slow. Now the
boats we had overtaken and those behind us started catching. The racing boats
are light with better sail/displacement ratios and can still work with light
winds where we can’t. At the airport we had no wind, 0 kts speed over water
0.5kts speed over ground. The track on the GPS showed we were heading backwards
– we were a victim of the current. We and others were in a horrible wind hole.
Somehow we clawed our way out of it – the crew were working
feverishly, sail changes, jibing the spinnaker (we lost count of the number of
jibes during the race, 20 plus), furling in the main, taking it out again. We
could see boats 300yds ahead of us were close hauled, with wind coming from a
direction 180 degrees different than us. We prepared to bring out the genoa.
The winds switched, quick sail change and off to the races. Winds were up, we
were catching and over taking again. Then by the Hyatt, ¼ mile from the finish
line, no wind. Well there was about 1kt of wind. We could see wind across the
channel. To get there I decided to sail away from the finish with the genoa in
tight and tried to make a little apparent wind. We were going in the wrong
direction but were making our way out to a location where we could see significant
wind.
Now we got good 10kts of wind, tacked and were able to make
it to the finish line and overtake Wings, a J24 at the finish line.
Sails in BBQ on, bacon and cheddar infused burgers cooking,
beers all around. Smoke coming out of the BBQ and jealous boats coming by. We
may not have won but we were feeling good. One came close (we thought they were
going to ask for a burger). Instead they said “Are you the boat with the Union
Jack kite?” “Nice sail”.
The results are in: 11th out of 14 in our group
C. Overall we placed 23rd out of 38 boats that sailed our course.
PHRF rating, handicapping is an interesting beast. Clearly
its not an exact science, maybe best described as a guessing game. Some boats
always come first, or maybe second based on handicapping. Maybe there are some
politics in getting the right rating. Maybe we are just awful sailors. It’s
clear, however, that we are improving our sailing skills and enjoying it. Well
there was a brief period where we were all tired, pissed off that there was no
wind and getting a little cranky. But the IPA and burgers helped solve those
problems.
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