Wind: South, 7 to 12, avg 10 kts Crew - BB, BF, SR & RW Distance - 4 nm The start was near the old MRMSA -X- between Horseshoe Reef and GLP 24, with a little over one hour left of the ebb in 10 to 12 knots of wind out of the south, and two lap WL course of one mile legs at 180 degrees.
I overestimated the ebb and we were a bit late for the line crossing second behind Cosmic to our lee with Jolly Mon trailing directly behind us about four boat lengths. Jolly Mon soon tacked to port, and we followed suit with the thought of a lift from the ebb; and shortly thereafter Cosmic did the same. Nearing the middle of the channel we flopped to starboard with the current and continued short of laying the mark on port so as to give us a short starboard layline in the current. Cosmic rounded and bore away, followed by Jolly Mon taking some time to sort out a jibe-set. We rounded in a good bearaway set, held it for a couple of minutes then jibed to port. In retrospect, holding it for another minute or so would have given us a fresher angle. As it was we were slow the last couple of hundred yards into the leeward mark. I delayed too long for the genoa hoist, resulting in a slow escape from the mark.
With a dark cloud approaching right side of course, we continued on port in a fresh breeze behind Jolly Mon, with Cosmic a good bit to windward due to a better rounding. Our windward leg was similar to the first, though we gave ourselves a bit more time on the layline. Following another good set, I decided on an early jibe to stay clear of the larger overtaking classes. As it was, we were not able to avoid Brer Rabbit passing us to windward, yet we were able to hang on to his quarter wave for a couple of minutes. Just short of the line, a fresh jibe to starboard took us across. Finishing third boat for boat and correcting to second.
Comments-
Leeward mark rounding- had we hoisted the genoa and dropped the spinnaker sooner, we may not have had the problem with the spinnaker sheet becoming caught in the genoa block preventing trimming in of the genoa. I chose the leeward douse thinking it smoother, as we were going to continue on port and could delay dealing with the pole after the round. Yet had we gone for a windward douse slack (we had come down nearly DDW due to the 2 - J24s inside with rights) to would have taken the slack out of the spinnaker sheet and prevented the jam.
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