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

[Gordon Laco]

And all that reminds me of when I had the honour of being one of HMS BEE’s captains… she’s an apes-War of 1812 replica schooner gunboat.  She could be jammed up to seem to point quite high (for a schooner) but the leeway up there was heartbreaking.

When doing her best, laid off a bit and footing along, I would stand by the helmsman and look to leeward through the foremast’s shrouds… THAT was where we were going, not where the bowsprit was pointing.  But that was better than what she’d do jammed up as high as she’d point…

Well you have to love gaff rigged schooners for what they are… and there’s lots to love... but they don’t sail like sloops can.   That said, I think BLUENOSE, the famous Grand Banks schooner, unbeaten during her career, still holds the speed record for average speed sailing around a triangular course… I think I read she averaged 17 knots: beating, running and reaching.  

Gordon Laco
#426 Surprise




> On May 26, 2018, at 6:33 AM, Joseph Balderson via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> 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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