[Public-List] Second race of the year...

[Joseph Balderson]

How many degrees will Suprise tack through in 8kts of breeze and a fairly
smooth sea?

On Fri, May 25, 2018, 11:27 AM Gordon Laco via Public-List <
public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

> Hello gang -
>
> Well I missed writing up the first race of the year, as has been my habit
> for a while now, so here’s the Second Race of the Year.
>
> The first race is perhaps better laid aside, due to a regrettable lapse on
> my part involving forgetting to put the spinnaker aboard.   We finished 3rd
> but the experience was marred by the three of us bickering all the way
> around the course trying to place blame for the big forget.   Well I should
> say it was the crew against me, a two way bicker, not three.  I feel quite
> justified in suggesting that they should not have believed me when I said
> earlier in the week that the ‘chute was still aboard from last year… my
> track record should have alerted to them to the fact that I rarely recall
> things like that correctly.  Clearly they should have challenged me, and
> that challenge would have driven me to check and THAT would have revealed
> that the sail was not in the boat.   If they’d done that, we’d have had the
> sail and surely would have fought our way up to a first place finish.  If
> we’d had the spinnaker on board.  Their position was that I should have
> checked myself.  Weak, I say.
>
> There was another problem.  This one I place squarely on the race
> committee.  Due to a bit of confusion on their part, and a drifting
> windward mark, they initiated the start sequence four times.  One time
> involved the guy on the horn trying it out… his timid staccato beeps made
> everyone start their watches… Then the mark drifted and the second start
> sequence was cancelled while the crash boat sped out to windward to catch
> it and anchor it properly… I forget what happened with the third
> (accidental beep again I think) then there was the real start.
>
> Anyway, we were charging in, glorying in our brand new genoa being used
> for the first time, when I realized with ten seconds to go that we were
> alone… the rest of our fleet was about  minute and ten seconds behind us.
> Yup… we were making a perfect start a minute early.  The upshot of all that
> was having to wheel around and start after everyone.  We clawed our way up
> from last place to third, but as usual, we were left wondering how things
> might have turned out if we’d only started better…and if we’d had the
> spinnaker...
>
> Well I guess I did tell about the first race after all… on to the second.
>
> This time we DID have the spinnaker aboard, but Steve had to cancel so it
> was only Clint and I to run the boat.  I decided not to fly the sail.  We
> got a clean start, marvelled at how with the new sail we could keep up with
> SUNDANCE ,our mortal enemy, upwind… but it all fell apart at the leeward
> mark after the run when we became entangled in a squabbling mass of vermin
> (Shark class yachts) in addition to the majestic TO LIFE, the custom
> Killing 50 which had started with A Fleet five minutes behind us and was
> overtaking.  By the time we got clear of all the dead air (and the fine
> breeze had subsided to a sigh of course) SUNDANCE as 1/3 of the windward
> leg ahead of us and we were never close to them again.   We ended up 4th in
> our fleet… not great but ahead of MAID MARION, so we took solace in that.
>
> Oh well, there’s always next week… bring on the 2018 racing season!
>
> Gordon Laco
> #426 SURPRISE
>
>
>
>
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