This year our club is doing a Summer Series and we had our first race last night! Now I love a race, but what made this one special was my wife and son were able to come out and race for the first time:)
The race is actually a DH event but you can have other people on board but only 2 people are able to operate the boat. That said, kids 13 and younger are free to do whatever they can. So my wife being the trooper that she is, volunteered to do snacktician duties and thus Ivan could get a ride.
For my son, Matthew, this was going to be his first ever sailing experience. He had been on the boat before but never had we actually been able to sail.
We had 15 boats out for the race and it was a reverse start. The course was 2 miles long in a light 5 knot northerly breeze. It was actually a very square windward leeward course.
We have the cruising main on and the 100% jib and were truely in cruise mode, but when it came time to race, race we did.
We were about a minute late for our start, due mainy to the 1.5 knot adverse current. The good part was everyone else was late too so really, it wasn't an issue.
Quickly we passed boats, and we knew we had to hit the beach hard to get out of this current. We did and by the time we cleared the breakwater we were only trailing Mad Dash but had Avalanche hot on our tails.
We managed to close the gap on the dash 34 but Avalanche snuck in front of us but we were less than a minute behind both at the turning mark, we were ready to pounce. We launched the A2 jibed and started to make up ground fast. Halfway down the leg we passed Avalanche who had there cruising kite tacked to the bow but were moving nicely. Mad Dash had squirted ahead some but we were now in sync with them and were gaining fast........but was it too late.
We split off a bit from them, they took the direct line to the finishing pin while we heated up for some boat speed and one last jibe. With Matthew at the helm - doing a fantastic job - we had a final jibe come off perfectly and it was a photo finish..........and the winner is, YES we beat them by half a boat length! My son was thrilled while my wife and I were proud parents. Whenever your child asks if we can do this again next week you know the night was a success, winning the race was secondary for me.
A big thanks to Ivan for coming out and to the other 14 boats lining up and making it a night to remember.
CdM
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