Erie Ale House #2 and #3

Here are the recaps for Erie Ale House #2 and #3. [Race #1 was abandoned due to lightning a couple weeks ago – so we still have to sail well to see if we can pull out a 3^rd place for the series.] Overall, a beautiful day for sailing, and a nice day for Lake races. The wind was predicted by sailflow to be very light, but ended up being only moderately light.

Race #1 Results: 3^rd

Crew: Andy, Rosemary, Mark, Kim, Judy

Wind: ENE 6-8 kts.

Course: Windward/Leeward 2x around

We arrived at the race course about 5 minutes before the A Fleet starting sequence, but we were OK because we were started third. We had a decent start and took the left side of the course for the long leg. As we approached the windward mark we say Infinity hit the mark and take it with them (anchor line on keel). Infinity ended up withdrawing. So we had to take a hitch and kind of follow the mark… However, the course was skewed a little, so after rounding we were able to reach to the leeward mark – we like reaches and we sailed well with the leaders of the fleet.

We had issues again with the upwind mark. That turned out to be problematic because we ended up approaching the mark too close to the port layline and ran into a Port/Starboard situation with Shakes the Clown. We had to crash tack (all my fault) and then come around at the mark. On top of that, I’m thinking now that there was current at the mark. In any case, we finally rounded and reached fast to the finish.

All things being said, we still finished 3^rd in the fleet; and we actually corrected over all but one A Fleet boat (thanks to the fact that the wind started building on the second leg of our race).

Race #1 Results: 4th

Crew: Andy, Rosemary, Mark, Kim, Judy

Wind: ENE 8-10 kts.

Course: Windward/Leeward 2x around

The wind built a little for the second race, and the race committee squared the course. We had a good start just to the west of a big “cluster” of shouting and boats pushing each other over at the boat. We were clear and fast at the start. The rest of the race went reasonably well, though we continued to be challenged at the windward mark (continuing “current” issues?). The downwind legs were wing-n-wing which we did efficiently and sailed well. Overall, a satisfying race (especially because we corrected over the J-70 – we like beating the J-70).