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

Thu Oct 15 05:05:33 PDT 2015

Gord,
Great story and I can picture your crew and the grumbling from the foredeck.
  I am trying to follow your tale (and your older tales in the archives) on
a chart - which is your club? Is it Midland Bay Sailing Club?

Mike
Rinn Duin #272

Mike
Michael J. Meinhold 301 852 0619 meinhold272 at gmail.com

On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 9:48 PM, George Dinwiddie via Public-List <
public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

> Thanks, Gord. It's refreshing to hear a sailing story on the list. ;-)
>
> On 10/14/15 8:57 AM, Gordon Laco via Public-List wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
> --
>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
>   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
>   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
>   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
>                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
>  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
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