[Public-List] Another Hope Island Racing Conference done...

[Gordon Laco]

Hello Gang - 

Well another Hope Island Racing Conference is behind us - here is a synopsis
of what happened.

SURPRISE slipped lines and departed Midland Bay Sailing Club for Christian
Island at 1900hrs Friday. Crew was George Strathearn and his son Duncan ...
Myself and my son Peter.

We motored around Midland point out of Severn Sound and darkness fell as we
were passing south of Giants Tomb Island.  We had thought to stop for the
night at Methodist Point but the going was good under an incredible starry
sky so we kept on toward the anchorage at Beckwith Island.  We felt our way
in by GPS and dropped the hook at about 2000hrs.  I issued a ration of Irish
Wiskey to all hands then lay back to watch the meteor shower;  were rewarded
with the sight of several that appeared to leave smoke trails.  The
puttering of motor boat gen sets from all around us was a not so pleasant
accompanyment.  The night was so fine that I slept in the cockpit under the
stars - meteors kept coming, some so bright I could see them with my glasses
off.  Lovely.

Got stared early Saturday morning and motor sailed to join the HIRC
rendezvous at Christian Island.  No A30's this year... Just us in the heavy
small old fashioned boat ilk vs nine other larger, lighter racing oriented
yachts.  The closest to us in rating were an Erikson 28 and a C&C27.

The first race was a clock-wise circumnavigation of Beckwith Island (those
interested can peak at google earth by searching Christian Island Georgian
Bay Ontario)  The race started with a blistering spinnaker reach in 10-12kt
of wind.  We galloped away keeping up with the X- boat , the C&C 35 and
Express 35 keeping up nicely.  Rounding the northern tip of Beckwith the
course tightened and one after the other we had to drop our chutes.  We are
not good at all upwind against 'modern' boats so fought desperately in a
falling wind to maintain our lead and hang onto the big boats ahead.
Finally we got around the southern part of the island and back up went the
chute.  We shot ahead again and finished galloping across the line.  The
committee shouted "wow - you did really well!" more about that later.  We
placed third overall last year and hoped to do better this year.

Saturday night we had the 'Conference' - good fun was had by all.

Sunday.  The race course this time was down Beckwith Channel, around the
southern hook of Christian Island, round Campagna Shoal buoy and back to
Little Sandy Bay.  Again the first leg involved a galloping spinnaker reach
and we were in among the big boys...but on the long beat south in a chop, in
failing air, we watched the big boys walk away from us and the small fry
come up hand over fist.  Luckily the C&C27 owner is not a very sophisticated
sail trimmer so we held him off but the Erikson sailor was good and he got
by.  I did everything I could to grind him down from astern, finally
attempteing to lure him into a tacking duel after noticing that he took a
long time to recover from a tack.  He responded to cover us for four tacks
but then becoming alarmed at how we were profiting from the duel (he told me
later) he let us split tacks and resumed climbing away.

The return from the Shoal buoy was pure misery - baking hot sun, failing
wind and falling speed.  We caught up with the Erikson but when we were
about 1/2 mile ahead, and just around the last point of land from the
finish, we stopped.  We raised the Committee to enquire about the time limit
(all the big boats had finished) and were told they'd wait for us.  They
then called the Erikson and asked him how far behind us he was ... He said
"five boat lengths behind SURPRISE".  We laughed but did not squeal on him.
Clearly he was afraid the committee would hit 'flush' and tell him he was
too late to finish.

Just after that we caught a zephyr which filled the chute and we glided in
at just under two knots, leaving the C&C27 and Erikson28 standing.  When it
was apparent that they were now nearly two mile behind us, the committee
remarked wryly as we finished "Gee wiz Gord, you guys must have been doing
25knts this last half hour to get that far ahead..."  the other two finally
got in.

So, the race committee went into their huddle to crunch the PHRF numbers.
Remember they told us on day one that we had done 'very well'?  The results
were announced and we ended up fifth in the regatta.  That's not 'very well'
in my books so I asked ... It turns out that as in previous years the
ratings were applied based time on time.  That put us in second place.
There was a complaint from several boats who objected to being beaten by a
heavy forty year old full keeled boat so they used 'time on distance' which
put us in fifth.  That was more palatable to the hot boat crowd... Oh well.

We'll go again anyway - and once again will hope that other A30's can come
to race with us next time.

Cheers - 

Gord SURPRISE #426