Sunday 09/06/09
Crew: Seth, Bob, & RW
Wind: NE, E 10-18, lulls-8, gusts-22, avg-12
Current: ebb North Hill 1210
Start time: 1025
Start: south of Vixen; Course: s/f-W-Intrepid-Silver Eel-Vixen-Intrepid-s/f; starboard-roundings
Shrouds: +4, +7, +3
We were down one crew today as Brian and “Empty Pockets” were on a cruise to Shelter Island and beyond. A pretty boisterous day for single-handing I say.
Expecting winds into the mid to high teens I cinched the rig down on the motor out to Vixen. The RC set drop-mark ‘W’ north of Vixen in towards the airport to give us bit of a windward start. Though, shortly after the start the wind clocked to the East. We had a decent start right on the pin and witnessed Kahoutec (IOD) harden-up and take Jennie head to wind. Jennie, then in an unintentional auto-tack forced Salud into an emergency duck of their stern. Good thing we were slightly trailing at the start and able to stay well clear. As it was the last hour of the flood, we tacked along the shore, though the wind was shifty both in direction and velocity (8 to 12).
Our first attempt to lay Intrepid fell short. And while on the starboard extension I looked up to see Matador (J80) begin to bear off in a duck of our stern, then stop and head right for us mid-ship, a t-bone. We were yelling starboard, and helpless, when at the last second they cleared. Had they hit us…. We then laid the mark and with a good set in 12 to 14 kts of wind, Matador clear ahead.
Passing North Hill, the Ensign ‘Triton’ overtook us to windward. Bob luffed the spinnaker a bit to slow us down so we could harden-up cross above their stern to windward pass and pull away. We had a timely douse and close jibe about Silver Eel. Then a very quick genoa reach to Vixen led to the outside track car forward & Bob trimming like a spinnaker. Likewise a tight fast rounding of Vixen and beat with multiple tacks to Intrepid.
This time we rounded Intrepid with winds of 16 to 18, and good set. After five-minutes we took a jibe shoreward for current relief. A few minutes later the jibe back to port did not go so well. Seth could not get the pole back on the mast. Somehow the pole got eased to the headstay and we ended up with an hourglass, Seth could not shake out. So we ended up lowering the chute and re-hoisting making for an exhilarating ride and a handful of long planes to the finish.
And speed record data point of 9.74 knts, far exceeding previous data.
After crossing the line, dousing the spinnaker and slowly working our way homeward, we heard the withdrawal of Hammer over the radio. Jeff Lamothe broke his arm holding on to the mainsheet as it swung across in a jibe.
2nd place
Link to Results
Three minute avg at finish
TWS: 17.8 kts, BSpd 6.8 kts
Peak last three minutes
TWS: 22.5 kts at 13:52:52
BSpd 9.74 kts at 13:54:39
Link to chart
Link to slide-show, (right-click, for next page option, 9-slides)
courtesy of David S. Costanzo