Date: 08/06/2003 Log Entry: Race
Distance: .0 Weather: Clearing skies, Wind: S 12-14, < 7 kts Current: ebb 1825 at Ram Island,
Course: s/f-W-I-W- s/f with port roundings. Crew: BB, BF & RW
MRMSA Wed Night Summer Series - Race 4
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With Bob and family at the Cape, it was Brian, Seth and I for the fourth race of the summer series. With the starting area just outside of Flat Hammock, the course was 1 mile south to W (West Harbor R6), 1.6 miles north to I Intrepid Rock), upwind 1.6 miles to W and 1 mile back to the start/finish line for a total of 5.2 nm. During the warm-up & starting maneuvers, we had winds of 12 to 14, and discussion of possibly resorting to the flattening reef shortly after the start.
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Starting mid-fleet on starboard and buried mid-pack & headed, we tacked and split from the fleet to starboard soon as an alley opened. We had a good beat up to West Harbor's R6 in very gusty conditions, never having to utilize the flattening reef, though flattening the foot of the main numerous times with the outhaul, and easing in the lulls. After five more tacks we rounded seventh behind Mini Maxi, Jolly Mon, Hotspur, Cosmic Debris, Sassy Lassie & Sanibel but ahead of Blue Light and Tumult.
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We had a momentary twist of the spinnaker on the set, yet Brian & Seth quickly sorted it out which got us past Sanibel with a big spinnaker mess on their foredeck. They then passed about a third of the way down the course towards Intrepid, prior to our port. Nearing Intrepid, now ahead of Sanibel, we hoisted the genoa, doused the spinnaker and got the pole stowed in plenty of time for a smooth rounding, inside of the J24, Sparky, and settled down on port for a bit prior to tacking to favored starboard. Playing the shifts, it took eight tacks up the beat back to W, though two were unnecessary… a little fiasco on my part. On our second tack across on port, Brer Rabbit (C&C 33, Class 3) passed on port safely to leeward then tacked to starboard and crossed. I should have ducked, but for some unknown reason, tacked to port on their lee bow. After a few tense moments of avoiding one another and clear, we tacked back to starboard.
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We rounded with another bearaway, and jibed to port at the first opportunity for the majority of the run to the finish. The wind now dying to 7 with occasional puffs to 8 and 9, we maintained our lead over Blue Light, Sanibel and Tumult, heating it up in the lulls and bearing off in the puffs. On the final four-minute starboard jibe, a hot angle to the finish, the cell phone began to ring a couple minutes short of the line. Doing our best to ignore it, we crossed 6th boat for boat and corrected to 3rd. Sure enough, shortly after starting the motor, Bob called back inquiring as to how our night was going.