[Public-List] Last race of the season...

[Gordon Laco via Public-List]

Hello gang,

Our club¹s had it¹s last race of the season ­ in contrast with the one the
week before, this one was a real cracker with heavy air from the east, not a
common direction in our latitude (44N).

The fleet was much thinned out, partly perhaps by the decision to run a long
ŒSnake Island and back¹ instead of the usual course race.  At the 5pm
skipper¹s meeting there was dissension over the fact that we¹d be returning
in the dark due to the shortening days... One boat didn¹t have running
lights (a Shark of course) so we all sighed and decided on a shortened
course running from the entrance to the club to M20 (the red pin marking
Midland Shoal) and back, twice.

So out we all went, bucketing along under power into the short steep chop
the east wind was piling into our end of the harbour, which is at the
western extremity of Severn Sound.  Noticing a shouted conversation going on
over at the committee boat, we sauntered over and learned that the course
was being shortened to only once out and back... Rats.

We got our main up, and after a discreditable bit of confusion on the part
of our otherwise competent foredeck team over which cringle was the
cunningham, and which the first reef tack (yes), we shut down the engine
started sailing.

You can imagine my surprise when we heard a horn which was reported
confidently as the five minute, then saw the fleet start it¹s stampede for
the line... It was the one minute.  We¹d missed the whole shebang of flags
and horns.  We made a wild gybe and broad reached down to the start at over
seven knots and rounded to cross two minutes behind the fleet.  Oh well...

The course to the pin was a buck we could almost lay...  Poor SURPRISE was
slamming occasionally in the short steep seas but we got her up to 5.5knots
which wasn¹t bad considering the conditions.  Once a combination lift and
gust laid us down to put the leeward winches under water before the main
could be eased... And when it was popped, I saw it only ease a bit before
the end of the boom was in the water...  My son Pete shouted ³well I guess
winches have had their annual servicing¹.   We got up to where we could tack
over onto port and lay the pin, we found we¹d caught up with our rivals and
were less than a minute behind them.

We closed on the pin picturesquely with spray flying all over and shook our
reef on the fly.  My foredeck guys shouted back to the cockpit ŒSPINNAKER?¹
Now here was a quandary.

Before the race I¹d spoken with our arch rival, Matt Thurley in SUNDANCER
(Pearson 28) and since he had only one person for crew that day I¹d agreed
for our last battle of the season we wouldn¹t use Œchutes.   Well here we
were at the windward mark, having caught up heroically on the beat and there
was SUNDANCER just ahead trudging along under white sails... We could have
come up astern with our spinnaker, and after asphyxiating him in our wind
shadow, surged past and won the last battle....  I couldn¹t do it to him.
Oh the black looks I got from my tigers up on the foredeck....  Later they
told me that despite having the agreement described to them, at the time
they thought I¹d lost confidence in them over the errors they made tucking
in the reef before the race.... I smoothed their feathers.  We surged over
the finish behind SUNDANCER...

So the last race was over in about 30 minutes.  We¹d not quite made up the
two minutes we lost by starting late, but as I observed so many times before
in so many races... If only we¹d had a better start, the catching up we did
manage would have been Œpulling ahead¹ and we¹d have been covered in glory.
Maybe next year...

We¹ve got the Misery Trip coming up next... It looks like it¹s happening on
the 30 October weekend....

Gord #426 Surprise