So Race #3 went off and it was finally warm out this year......actually that's not completely true, I think we had a few nice days in January:(
Being short handed on the night ( just 4 of us in total ) we were able to get away from the dock early and dropped #2 mark for the RC. We motored back to the start line and shut off the iron lung ASAP and drifted in the calm waters waiting for the course instructions.
As we thought, it was 1-2-A x 2, quite ambitious with the light flukey winds but none the less we were determined to have a good race and do our best anyways.
Div 2 got off first and Toucan nailed the start.......there was a good 1 knot current going directly against the fleet so being early was key. We ran the line once and thought we could just clear the line on starboard but that the pin end was definately favoured.
A minute to go and we were mid line, with Avalanche below us, the three smaller J boats behind and a non factor but Jabiru was doing a port pin end start.
Avalanche had to tack and then duck the remainder of the fleet. We pinched up but just couldn't quite make the pin and Jabiru squeezed in, advantage them.
We flopped over and quickly sailed fat and fast and got through there lee, and were out in front. About half way down the leg, the boat felt really sluggish, Jabiru was killing us to windward, Avalanche was gaining fast and D9 was just flying up behind us.....quick, what's dragging in the water??????
We went all the way into the beach till the shore said "you have to tack". We were just going to make the mark but the once we got back out into the current we started to doubt ourselves. Were we gonna make it, were we not........last minute we tried to shoot the mark but to no avail, we hit it and the boats behind us let us know they all saw us do so:( No worries, only Jabiru was ahead so we gained some speed - maybe 1.5 knots and did our turn cleanly......
Well the wind completely shut off, mostly because we were floating in the current as fast as the actual wind was blowing, which wasn't very fast let me tell you! So after a quick refreshment, we decided to try and jibe, and low and behold, we found some pressure.......off to reel in Jabiru! Well we didn't, actually they got away on us and Avalanche was charging hard........what are we doing wrong out here!
The breeze was now at a whopping 3 knots as we rounded the mark. The guys did really well in doing a windward drop and we tacked right away. Jabiru was a good minute and a half ahead of us and Avalanche right behind. We trimmed like crazy and for the one and only time in the race, felt fast....we were actually reeling Jabiru in and left Avalanche for dead.
We finished 48 seconds behind the J 35 guys and corrected out 44 seconds ahead to take another bulleet, our 3rd of the series! We turned around and were sailing back to get the mark we dropped when I noticed something strange......the prop wasn't feathered! Ah now that makes sense, that's what were dragging out there! We quickly picked up .2 of a knot:)
Oh well, great night out! Thanks Andy - Keith and Don!
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