On August 21st we had the final race of the 3 Double Handed races in our new Summer Series. The crew for today was just Ivan and I as my wife and kids were away at our place in Parksville.
The course turned out to be the same as the previous races but today we had a steady 8-10 knot breeze that built to 14 at the finish line.
We set the course at just under 2.5 miles but decided to go with start time #4 which would hopefully get the slower and less experienced sailors a bigger head start but the big boys came charging on........and it worked!
All of the boats got off the start line promptly and made there way down the course on starboard going nicely upwind. We were chasing Mad Dash and they were trying thier best to cover us. The two of us were going into the beach, closer than I normally like to go but they were inside of us and took some comfort knowing they were closer to the shore than we were.
Finally we were able to roll them and then tack out to some deeper water..........what we found was that our obsession to play with MAD DASH had taken us back a bit in the fleet, fortunately not too much but we did lose some ground.
We go to the mark and were the 5th boat to round and right behind was balance of the fleet - to say it was a busy mark rounding would be a big understatement.
We went with a jibe set and Ivan did a nice job of getting things down smoothly. We managed to pass Diversion and Toucan but EX and Plus Ten put too much ground between us and we never got close enough to scare either one of them.
We finished 3rd for the day which was good enough to win the series, so my family is very happy:)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Another Race......another photo finish:)
July 31'st marked the second of the three race summer series for us. This week my oldest daughter Alyssa was able to make it out, adding to Reeeeboook, Andrea, Matthew and myself as the crew for the race tonight.
The race was a carbon copy of the first race in terms of condition - a nice all be it light northerly that meant we were sailing the same course as race #1.
This series is pursuit style racing, with the slower boats leaving first, and everyone having a a fixed time to start racing at. This week we used start time #3.
We got off on time and at the favoured end, following EX out near the pin. We were able to clear the breakwater on the first tack and even though the current was running with us meaning we should be heading out we choose the lift up the beach and to minimize tacking ( mostly because as we are in cruise mode - tiny jib only - we do not excellarate well enough to tack effectively.)
We managed to pass everyone but EX as we neared the turning mark and only Avalanche was threatening to squeeze by us and they did just as tacked and approached the mark - solidly in third place.
We did a jibe set and got the big red A2 up but didn't seem to be making up as much ground as we had hoped to. Plus 10 and Marquis headed in after rounding and seemed to be doing better. We knew we needed to get to the shore to get out of this bad tide so we jibed over....only to struggle badly with pressure! We looked back at EX and Avalanche and they seemed to be getting away so we bailed on our plan and went back to chase after them.
We made up ground fast but as we approached the break water we knew we were "treading water". We had caught right up to EX but Avalanched had squirted away. We knew weren't going to catch them if we just followed so we tried again to get to the shore........and this time after 2-3 minutes it worked. We stopped drifting sideways and managed to get pressure in the sail. We hit our lay line and jibed over, now in some real nice pressure.
Matthew took over driving from Alyssa, who helped Ivan and I jibe the boat and when we finished the jibe we just took off, eventually doing 6.2 knots over the water - while everyone else just floated along. We were very close to the finish line and managed to pop out on top by about 30 seconds ahead of Avalanche.
Back at the dock - talk was that we must have turned the motor on to get that much speed at the end, while we told them it was all skill, when in truth it was as lucky as it was skillful:) but you have to be good to be lucky and we will take the Win.
Happiest moment for me was that my daughter, who was out for her first ever race, got her first win, just like Matthew did in her first race......
Thanks to Andrea we were well fed and enjoyed cold drinks........the full moon was an added bonus not to mention the amazing sunset. A perfect night!
CdM
The race was a carbon copy of the first race in terms of condition - a nice all be it light northerly that meant we were sailing the same course as race #1.
This series is pursuit style racing, with the slower boats leaving first, and everyone having a a fixed time to start racing at. This week we used start time #3.
We got off on time and at the favoured end, following EX out near the pin. We were able to clear the breakwater on the first tack and even though the current was running with us meaning we should be heading out we choose the lift up the beach and to minimize tacking ( mostly because as we are in cruise mode - tiny jib only - we do not excellarate well enough to tack effectively.)
We managed to pass everyone but EX as we neared the turning mark and only Avalanche was threatening to squeeze by us and they did just as tacked and approached the mark - solidly in third place.
We did a jibe set and got the big red A2 up but didn't seem to be making up as much ground as we had hoped to. Plus 10 and Marquis headed in after rounding and seemed to be doing better. We knew we needed to get to the shore to get out of this bad tide so we jibed over....only to struggle badly with pressure! We looked back at EX and Avalanche and they seemed to be getting away so we bailed on our plan and went back to chase after them.
We made up ground fast but as we approached the break water we knew we were "treading water". We had caught right up to EX but Avalanched had squirted away. We knew weren't going to catch them if we just followed so we tried again to get to the shore........and this time after 2-3 minutes it worked. We stopped drifting sideways and managed to get pressure in the sail. We hit our lay line and jibed over, now in some real nice pressure.
Matthew took over driving from Alyssa, who helped Ivan and I jibe the boat and when we finished the jibe we just took off, eventually doing 6.2 knots over the water - while everyone else just floated along. We were very close to the finish line and managed to pop out on top by about 30 seconds ahead of Avalanche.
Back at the dock - talk was that we must have turned the motor on to get that much speed at the end, while we told them it was all skill, when in truth it was as lucky as it was skillful:) but you have to be good to be lucky and we will take the Win.
Happiest moment for me was that my daughter, who was out for her first ever race, got her first win, just like Matthew did in her first race......
Thanks to Andrea we were well fed and enjoyed cold drinks........the full moon was an added bonus not to mention the amazing sunset. A perfect night!
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