Crew: Bob, Brian, Erin & RW
After motoring out for Saturday's Mason Island race and preparing the boat & crew for extreme conditons, with winds around 20, gusting in to the mid-20's I decided to withdraw a few minutes prior to our 1135 start. The highest gust on our data log was 27 at about 15 past the hour. We were back snug in our slip by 1215. Here are some comments from the ECSA thread on the Sailing Anarchy forum.
PRoss - Tynage J
ust got back to Jamestown from the Mason’s Island race, missed the party as always. Don't know how we did and don't much care. I am just plain worn out. Steady gusts 30 to 35 for some periods and plenty strong when lower 20's with that short chop. I had a true blast, it was one of my greatest times racing in years, what a great time. Put that old boat through the paces with an old worn out blade and double reef. Remedy made it look easy. One very impressive boat I must say. Congrats to ALL who stayed and raced and great job MIYC!! There just wasn't a single free moment the entire day to snap one picture or video.
cOOneyes - Brer Rabbit MIYC hosted what turned out to be an awsome race, sure didnt feel like 15 miles. yet again the forcast was wrong, and this time moderating 15-20 was way off. we got hit with the biggest gust of the day right as we were finishing…i know old C&C's aren't supose to plane, but this time it seriously felt like we were. Awards were fun too. the gag gifts to replace the missing trophies made it unusualy fun. the only thing i cant seem to figure out is were we might have lost or been able to gain 1:45 corrected on Jolly Mon…i guess that little thing is just great heavy air boat. I agree, Remedy was impressive. as was Loony Tunes; they were with 30 sec of us by the first mark starting 5 minutes back. wish i coulda gotten a closer look at the Esse 850 Blue Moon downwind…they must have had a wicked ride.
Figment - Jolly Mon
Scott, does that mean we corrected-out ahead of you? The results aren't on the MIYC site yet, and I was just too wiped to stay at the party for the awards. After two drinks that long ride home seemed REALLY long. We were trying to talk-out the math on the handicaps while we put the boat away, but we lost track of how far ahead you were. Jollymon is a good heavy-air boat because we work it HARD. Our main trimmer had to be relieved for the third upwind leg, and the guy climbs trees for a living. After the race I thought my foulies had sprung a few leaks, but no I was just coated in sweat. We spent the whole day chasing Salud and Euphoria, fighting for every inch. This race was more of a workout than Fisher's Island last year. You guys and LooneyTunes were both looking great, and we were PAYING ATTENTION to what you were doing, believe me. Peter, we only passed close-aboard you once, but you were in fine shape as well. Prettiest boat in the fleet as always. I was hoping to bump into you at the party, but perhaps next week. cOOneyes - Brer Rabbit yes, you did correct ahead of us by about 1:45. other winners were looney tunes, remedy, tynage, and hooligan.
StayinStrewn - new Evelyn 25
Well for the first official race, Ursa Minor with only 3 guys onboard had quite the day;.20-25 with some nasty micro bursts sending us sideways for 10-15 secs didn't help things out being 300 lbs shy on the rail. We did finally throw the kite up on the second leg, as did many other boats and we got cranking pretty quickly; GPS showed a high of 11.8 against about a knot of current - good shit!! as we're cruising along we start discussing the takedown having only 2 guys to handle things, which left us with our heads up our asses and not watching the wind, so BAM!!, a huge lift comes and the boat carved hard to leeward and over we went; blew the halyard, sucked in the chute and we were off and running again - that took care of the whole takedown for sure! same story going uphill the third time around, sideways sometimes, bashing into short chop all the time. We popped the kite again and worked it pretty hard to catch 1 or 2 boats; my back and arms are still sore! we're looking forward to next weekend for Ram Island as we'lll have some new threads to play with and two more people to help keep her flat; should be good times!! thanks to MIYC for running a good course and fun party; see ya'll next week. SS