Third

We entered a race over near Marblehead yesterday and managed to do pretty well despite not knowing the course. Prior to the race there were limited instructions with nothing about the course. We sailed out at 7:30am arrived in good time for an 11am start. We asked for course details over VHF, but received no response, checked the website for the race (again) on our smart phones but still found nothing. We noted down symbols displayed on the race committee boat thinking they might be meaningful. There was confusion about which fleets would start at what time since conflicting information was provided. Also to somewhere with a hearing issue B, D and G fleet sound very similar so that added to the confusion. But we had our eyes on another boat that we knew was in our fleet and we also knew that it was a boat from the local fleet. Hopefully they would understand the course.

We followed it to the start and then used it as a course guide. We literally had no idea what the course was. Worse still there were two courses, one each for different fleets. We kept our eye on a boat we knew and rounded the first mark. We could now use this first piece of known information to scan through information online and the codes on the back of the boat and we managed to piece together what we thought to be the course.

On the downwind leg we flew the spinnaker and passed the boat that we used as our pilot boat. We rounded the mark and headed up wind amongst boats that were on two courses. A few miles later we saw the fleet splitting, but which was our course? We made our decision and saw one boat ahead of us. All others were on another course. To make things worse, one of the symbols should have sent us on yet a different course. But since these were local racers we trusted their course selection better than ours.

It was a beautiful day with winds 10-20kts, bright blue sky. We finished with boats behind us and came in third on corrected time.

It was a great day on the water. Next time we race in that area we will learn more about how they decide and display their courses. It’s the first time in this year’s racing that this has happened. Learn something new every time.

We then sailed under spinnaker back to Constitution marina and totaled almost 50nm in the day. A great way to end the weekend.