Gerry’s 8th Street Deli — Summer Sizzler #1
Results: 3rd Place Crew: Kim, Judy, Andy, Mark
Well, today’s race was supposed to be on the Lake instead of the Bay, kind of a warm-up for the Interclub. At 9AM the wind was South at 10-15 with gusts to 20, but there was line of thunderstorms that had just passed Cleveland. The race committee waited til 11AM and then decided on a shorter course in the bay. So they setup a W-L-W-L-W race. We started at 11:35.
There was only one start, so we had to start with the A Fleet, but we started close to the line with Double Black to leeward. The wind at the start was moderate, but it was pretty fluky the whole way up the leg. We suffered for a while in DB’s bad air and then got away. Lady Jane started way at the back, but passed us on the first leg. Our trim must have been off, because we were sailing slower.
We took our time getting the spinnaker set on the first downwind leg, and we used the fractional chute. We did OK with that but Lady Jane still rounded ahead of us. We had a bad takedown and were a little slow on the last reach to the mark.
We got the trim right on the second upwind and sailed well, and the breeze was building.
After rounding, we flew the new full-hoist chute. We struggled a little while because we were near the south shore and the wind was lighter and swirly. After we got away from the shore, the wind picked up and we were sailing in the 6’s. We gybed and broad reached to the mark. The breeze freshened by then and we were sailing in the 7’s. Lady Jane started behind us and stayed behind us on the leg.
We had a decent takedown and sailed the final upwind leg. By then we had the right trim solution and we put a lot of distance between us and Lady Jane. It looked like their bigger jib may have been overpowering them. We finished in 3rd place, four minutes ahead of Lady Jane. And a good time was had by all.
We had a little difficulty on the way home. After we started the engine, the Engine Temp light and buzzer went on. We turned off the engine, wrested the main down and sailed on the jib, and hailed Lady Jane to standby in case we needed a tow. I checked the oil — OK. Then we turned the engine back on and I checked the muffler and I could feel water pumping. The Temp light did not come back on, so we kept the engine on and motored home. Maybe we picked up a little seaweed or something that clogged the water intake the first time (maybe even on that first leg), but there doesn’t seem to be a lasting problem.
I’ll watch it this week, because we leave the Interclub next weekend, and we will want the engine working!
BTW — the rain never came, the system broke up before it got here.
Red Herring Sailing 