Gerry’s 8th Street Deli #1 & #2

Happy Father’s Day! Two Spinnaker Races on the Lake. The winds were light and we had a crew of two plus me. Good practice for the Interclub (we’ll have three plus me). The racing started at 11:00AM. We left the dock a couple minutes after 10, and made it out to the race course with only 5 minutes to spare. Phew! I guess it’s all good practice for the Interclub

Race #1 Results: 7th
Wind: NE 3-6
Crew: Mark and Rosemary
Course: W/L 2x around

A light air start. We were almost at the line at the start, but in a lot of dirty air. The first upwind leg was slow — not a lot of power and some chop on the nose on both tacks. As we approached the mark we got headed and had to do two short tacks to make the mark. The first downwind leg was slow going, but we were able to go wing-n-wing with the chute. However, the fleet still sailed away from us.

The breeze was abating by the second windward leg, and once again we were excruciatingly slow against the chop. The second downwind leg was even worse. We still went wing-n-wing, but it we were only doing a couple knots downwind. The whole fleet finished 15 minutes ahead of us and just sat there waiting us to finish.

This boat is not a light air boat, even though we had a light air crew. I know people think I like drawing attention to myself, but I really am an introvert, and I really don’t like everyone sitting waiting for us to finish!

 

Race #2 Results: 7th
Wind: NE 5-10
Crew: Mark and Rosemary
Course: Olympic Course (Triangle then W/L)

The wind thermal wind finally started near the start of the second race. This race went better. The first upwind leg was in a little more breeze. We had a decent start, but tacked away to clear our air after the start. There also seemed to be a little more wind on the right side of the course. We rounded near the fleet. After rounding we flew the chute for a very nice easy reach (we really like reaching in about 8 knots of breeze). At the gybe mark we dropped the chute in a good takedown and sailed a nice fast close reach back to the leeward mark. This race was going much better. We weren’t winning, but we were in touch with the fleet after three legs.

The next upwind leg went OK, but we had to take a hitch at the mark again. After rounding we deployed the chute on the port side but needed to gybe. That took a little while, and we gave up some time there. After that we sailed on a fast reach to the finish. We sailed 7+ knots on that leg. Nice!

Even though we finished last again (we beat Silver Wheel from the A Fleet who didn’t fly a chute) we sailed well for being shorthanded.
Then we just kept on sailing back to the channel, dropped the chute and the main and motored through the channel. In the bay we saw the Niagara on her way out. It’s always cool seeing her out.

Oh, and a broken boat part. While motoring on the way back the tiller extension separated from the tiller. That has apparently been in the works for a little while, with just some plastic holding it in. I just ordered a replacement ($53) so we should get that repaired before we leave for the Interclub. It would have been bad had that happened while we were sailing with the chute up in a decent breeze!