Yesterday evening was the last of the CYC evening races in the Boston inner harbor for the season. There was a good turnout for the race although winds started low (6kts) and were predicted to drop soon.
Danielle, Morgan and Yolande joined me on Prairie Gold for the race. We set up for a port tack start circled and came toward the line at good pace. Unfortunately all but two boats in our fleet were on starboard tack, so we had to turn hard to port to change our tack as we were crossing the line. As a side note, the next division all started on port tack, clearly the preferred approach for the course.
Low winds on a cruising boat spell disaster. As the winds dropped to 2kts we were wondering whether we would make it to the finish line. At one point we calculated 18hrs to go. We slowly clawed our way tacking along a small line of wind. When we were about a quarter of a mile from the turning mark, the wind grew to 6kts and turned to come from the south. We turned for the finish line and were able to sail on a beam reach with the assym spinnaker. Winds grew to about 10kts and we were now making 6kts and catching the other boats.
We came across the line in an unequivocal last place position. With the handicap adjusted time although we came last we were really close to the rest of the fleet. Handicapping is done on time over distance. Thus when speeds are low, and the faster boats pull away they have a distinct advantage since there is no handicap adjustment. No complaints, we are doing well.
Its been a great season, having learned lots but most importantly, shared jokes and laughs with good friends. A couple more weekend races to go.
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