Wednesday, July 19, 2006 Crew: Brian, Seth & RW High Tide: 1705 Wind: SE 10 to 12, Gust 14 Great sailing last night. For the only the second time this season the Mudheads had winds in excess of 10 kts for the whole evening. The posted course was two laps from the Horseshoe Reef area windward to 2 nm to the Ram Island R20, for a total 8 miles
I quickly squandered any advantage we had from our best start in ages, by tacking offshore and splitting from most of the fleet. While Sanibel and MiniMaxi followed us to the deep water, the remainder favored the Connecticut shore. My thought, what little residual current that remained an hour after high tide would be offset by better wind offshore was faulty as we found the better part of a knot against us once we were on the long starboard towards Ram. We then had no choice but to make the best of it. On the final port tack, a severe duck of Crystal Slipper short of the layline did not improve matters. Knowing that the port would be favored downwind, we opted for a jibe-set, which went smoothly. In retrospect, I believe for a long leg there to be little advantage to a jibe-set considering the acceleration loss out to the mark. The long run downwind went very smooth with a jibe back to starboard at about the three-quarter point. Short of the leeward mark and converging with three boats, we stowed the pole flew pole-less as the genoa was raised prior to a smooth douse and rounding.
This time, staying near shore, in similar winds our time to the windward mark was 32 minutes versus 40 for the first windward leg. With the RC shortening the race at Ram at 6 miles, we finished sixth on corrected ahead of Cosmic, MiniMaxi and Valiant. Doone retired early in the first leg. I really messed up the current call on this one. Backing down after the race, we freed a up a big glob of sea weed from the keel. I heard later at the Seahorse that Cosmic & MiniMaxi had seaweed problems also.
Link to Chart