Sunday, 08/08/04 Course: start/finish - Dumping Ground ? Intrepid ? Dumping Ground ? start/finish Distance: 12.2 nm Start area: ½ mile south of Seaflower Class start: 1215
On the ride out to the mooring in Spicer?s launch about nine-thirty, Woody mentioned a forecast of up to twenty knots of wind, far beyond the eight to ten I expected from my research. Rigging the boat, and I found the girls had left their weather gear behind and commented that they were going to get wet.
By starting time the wind had built to the mid-teens. At the line it took a few seconds to recover from Goombay Smash passing above us to windward. Finally in clear air we continued on a long punishing starboard hitch then tacked to port and laid the mark. Bob and I decided prior to the start due to the conditions that wing&wing would be the wiser downwind choice. Rounding into a starboard jibe, Bob set the pole, shook out the reef with Kim & Laura?s assistance and we were off towards Intrepid with occasional surfs over seven knots. Jibing to port at North Hill, we began to put the reef back in as we passed between the Dumplings and got setup for the rounding of Intrepid.
Short of Intrepid, I noticed Sagacious (Bob Gerry, the eventual Ensign class winner) on starboard beating back up towards the Dumplings. We decided to hold on port after rounding and ride the current westwards towards Vixen the headed course by ten degrees. On the rail in three to four foot seas the girls were getting severely doused. Nearing Vixen we tacked to starboard for a brutal forty-minute hitch to the port layline then twenty minutes on wing&wing to the finish for a an elapsed time of three hours and twelve minutes.
There was some confusion listening to the radio nearing the finish line, as the RC announcing that Class II Non-Spinnaker would not have a second race, though the remaining four classes would. The second race was to be much shorter, with a beat back out to the Dumping Ground and return. My crew was beat, soaking wet and visibly shacking from the shivers. With the wind still in the mid-teens and sun disappearing behind a high cloud cover, we notified the RC of our withdrawal from the second event and headed home. We finished the first race in 6th, 14 seconds out of fifth, 1 minute 4 seconds out of fourth, 2 minutes 33 seconds out of third, 3 minutes 16 seconds out of second, And a whopping 12 minutes, 31 seconds out of first
I am curious if going back up through the Dumpling as Sagacious may have, would have given us closer headings on both tacks & maybe less severe waves with a better result? I found out later at the yacht club, that the sun came out half way up the wind windward leg of the second race and the wind subsided to around ten or so, which would have made the second race doable with the spinnaker.
Link to Race Chart