Wednesday 080906
Crew: Brian, Seth, Megan & RW
Wind: 260 at 5-10 kts
Current: flood 1727 RI
Course: WL 260 at 1nm, 2 laps for 3.7 nm
Seth & Megan arrived early enough to crank me up in the bosun’s chair to hang a block & line for an external spinnaker halyard arrangement. A fix for the jammed internal one will have to wait for winter.
We got another good start and continued out on starboard abreast & leeward of the class. Though leeward of the fleet I was not all that concerned in the ten-knot breeze. Nearly last to tack, we hung on port till overtaking No Problems shadow began to affect. A short clearing tack on starboard & another port got us to the layline a bit behind Tumult and ahead of Doone. Following a good bearawy set, we switched to the long jibe towards shore to get out of the current for the reach into the mark I jibed a bit too soon. Carrying a it bit farther may have got us a little less current and a fresher reach in the light 6 knot air.
We came into the mark just short of rights over Tumult, jibed and rounded on their stern with a good douse. We split and went offshore for a course similar to the first and again jibed to port shortly after rounding the windward mark in a dying breeze. This time we delayed our final jibe for the finish till nearer shore. Just as we were squaring back the pole for the jibe, we hooked lobster pot on the rudder slowing our speed to just over a knot for a minute or better. Seth immediately went to work trying to free it while Brian flew the chute. Finally free we jibed for the finish in a dying wind now down to 4 and 5 knots to finish seventh on corrected time 37 & 38 seconds short of correcting over MiniMaxi & Tumult. And we probably would have faired worse if it were not for the OCS of Sanibel & Cosmic OCS.
The flood was late due the strong breeze out of the southwest all afternoon. In retrospect, tacking to port shortly after the start may have been more beneficial current wise.
After their rounding of the leeward mark, Tumult remained on port and pulled away on the second lap. Following the windward mark as in the first lap, they extended offshore on starboard. Maybe there was more wind offshore on the second lap.
Link to Chart