Too Much Wind

20 knot winds and 6 foot waves on the nose. Race canceled for today. Staying an extra day in Port Colborne Ontario.

Red Herring in our slip on the unexpected layover day!

2nd Race Today

5th place today. Tied for 3rd for the series so far.

Good Start To The Interclub

3rd place in the first race. And, YES, that’s our arch rival Venture behind us!

Great crew: Judy, Steve, Kim, Anne

Here's the flag for the Buffalo Course race. Crew: Steve, Judy, AJ, Kim, Anne

Interclub Starts Today

We’re at the Buffalo Yacht Club for the start 5 days of racing. Light air and maybe rain on tap for today. Crew: Steve, Judy, Kim and Annie.

3 Race Day Recaps

Here are the missing recaps from the last three race days.

Wednesday, 5/26 — JAM — Brier Patch #3 — A Case of the Slows

Results:  9th Place     Crew:  Judy, Steve, Kim, Andy, Shawn

A light air triangle (the first of the season) that didn’t work out as hoped.  We had a decent start — third or fourth over the line — in reasonably clear air.  The course to the first mark oscillated between a beam reach and a broad reach.  We held off the boat behind us (Good Vices) and rounded the first mark with the pack.

We were a little slower and lower on the second leg and got rolled by about half the fleet, including Silver Wheel.  After rounding Mark S, we stayed on starboard and got pinned by Cloud 9 (in the fleet behind us) who drove almost all the way into the shore before letting us out.

After we tacked, the port tack was more than a knot slower than starboard.  We tried everything:  checking trim, checking the cars, moving weight.  We were just slow.  One by one we crossed tacks with the boats behind us and they sailed off ahead of us.  It was a slow, frustrating upwind slog in very light all the way to the finish.  We finished 9th out of 10!  Doubly frustrating, since we normally make up time upwind and give it away off the wind.  That night it was just the reverse.  After getting back to the dock I even checked the rig tune, and it was within normal parameters.  Just a case of the Slows!

Sunday, May 30 — Spinnaker — The Day Lighthouse Race — The race that wasn’t!

Crew:  Judy, Steve, Shawn, Kim

Because of the holiday weekend I needed to be back at the dock by 2PM, so we were prepared to withdraw if we weren’t going to finish in time.

The day was another light air day with the wind out of the east.  We beat upwind pretty well (overcoming some of the curse of the previous race) and we got to the channel fourth in fleet.  Of course we had to tack through the channel — in very light air, with holiday motorboat traffic — always a challenge.  We were able to stay ahead of Silver Wheel and Keya (from the JAM fleet) and escape the channel in reasonable condition.  We continued beating upwind toward G-1.  Along the way, Silver passed us with his big new sails.

After we rounded we were able to sail directly around Gull Point without tacking again.  Silver Wheel had cut it too close, so they had to throw in a couple more tacks, so we passed them.  Once around the point we were on a very close reach.  Silver Wheel cruised past us again.  We put up the asymmetrical chute because we can carry that to 80 to 70 degrees apparent in light air.  That provided most of the speed we needed.   We weren’t able to pass Silver Wheel, but it stopped them from stretching out on us.  My GPS mark for the lighthouse mark was pretty good so we were able to sail straight to the mark.  Before the mark we had to drop the chute because I still haven’t learned to gybe it from a close reach (someday we’ll try that in very light air).

After rounding we got the chute back up, but Silver Wheel also got his chute up.  We sailed a beam reach about halfway back to Gull Point, then the wind went behind us and we slowed significantly.  Silver Wheel got a little smaller at that point.  After rounding the Point we were pretty much dead down so we had to tack downwind to the mark.  Luckily, the course had been shortened to only once around and we were finished slightly before 1:30 — which gave us just enough time to motor back through the channel and into the marina.

We finished 5th in our fleet (News, Outlaw, Coyaba, Silver Wheel).  Because we had two 3rds in the previous two races in the series that was going to be good enough for 3rd place for the series.

As it turned out, our final place didn’t matter.  Thanks to some confusion about the course shortening, the A Fleet got all screwed up (some boats went 2x around, and some didn’t) — so the race committee threw out the race, and the series only counted the first two races.  So, we got hardware and flag for third place for the Brier Patch Spinnaker Series.  All’s Well That Ends Well.

Wednesday May 3rd — Spinnaker — Spring Series #3 — Race Postponed

Crew:  Steve, Judy, Andy, Shawn, Kim

The weather was threatening all day, with some rain in the afternoon.  By 5PM it looked like there would be a three or four hour window to get the race in.

We rigged the boat, checked the weather and then motored out the course.  When we left the dock the winds were 10-15kts.  By the time we got out of the marina the winds picked up to 20, and by the time we got out to the middle of the bay we were at 25-30.  We raised the main and sailed real fast while waiting for the course.  Then someone on the race committee checked the radar.  Three huge cells with real lightning were barreling down on us.  The race was postponed and were drenched before we even got the to marina!  Curses, the first race of this season with wind, and it was just too much!

The race is rescheduled for Wednesday, June 16.  We won’t be making that race up.  I’ll be on my way to South Bend for Paul’s wedding.  Oh, well…