[Public-List] Second Wednesday Race of the season

[Gordon Laco]

Surprise raced last night… the second time we’ve been out this year.  We had a late start but I think catching two in a row made up for that and away we go.

I got down to the boat early after doing some business banking and ate a Sub on my own in the cockpit.  A very large turtle was hanging in the water beside me; I always look for scars on the shell which would indicate if the turtle was the one we rescued a few years ago after she’d been run over by a pickup truck in the club’s parking lot.  We’d heard the loud ‘pop’ of the shell breaking - it sounded like a plastic bottle had been crushed.  My son Rob took the injured animal to a veterinarian here who does first aid for road-injured animals, then paid the $80 to have it sent to the Turtle Rescue facility over in Peterborough.  There, the vets sutured the shell with stainless steel wire (they said they don’t use epoxy anymore because it’s been found to inhibit the regrowth of the broken edges of the shell) and surprise surprise… the turtle turned out to be female and laid a dozen eggs.  

She healed and the eggs hatched over the winter… I was asked if I would come and get the mother because they like to return them to familiar waters if possible.  The babies had no preferences yet so they went into the Trent River.  I released the turtle beside Surprise and think we’ve seen her once since then.  Yesterday’s turtle was another one though, not her.

So after my supper I strolled down the jetty and chatted with friends who were preparing their boats for the race.  The wind was 15-20 knots NNW and the smokey haze was very evident.  One of my fellow club members was a ’smoke jumper’ in his younger days, and remarked how quickly the excitement of being dropped into forest fires lost its ‘fun’ aspect.  He’s proud to have done it but glad he doesn’t have to do it anymore.  I thought to myself that this was exactly the sentiment I often heard from shipmates when I was in the RCN who’d been deployed to war zones.  

5:45 rolled around and my crew arrived at the same time, so back to SURPRISE I went and we set about casting off and heading to the course in Midland Bay.  There were only three of us so I left the spinnaker in it’s bag (this would have been the first use this year and the combination of being short handed and the semi-heavy air combined to lead me to that decision.  Our stalwart friend Robin was aft of me in the cockpit on mainsheet and tactical advice (he’s 92 and a very good sailor… apt to reminisce about his days as an RAF pilot flying deHavilland Vampire first-generation fighter aircraft if prompted) and Clint on the genny sheets with me driving and doing the releases when tacking.  

We motored out with the rest of the mob, which included SUNDANCER our main rival since Robin sold MAID MARION and returned to us as crew.   We got the main up, unfurled the genoa, shut off the mill and away we went roaring toward the start at 7kts with a huge bow wave, rooster tails coming off the quarter and the rail just dipping.  Wow, it’s blowing!  

As usual I did a dramatic fly-by of the committee boat to make sure the recorded we were in the race then began swinging back and forth with the other 19 boats in last nights race.  All of use reaching at high speed and exchanging greetings as we passed.  Robin remarked in his soft English accent ‘y’know Gord, I used to find this part before the starts the most dangerous…’  I nodded… there was no form yet to the traffic with everyone just milling around waiting for the start sequence to begin.  I was again glad that I’d asked Triton to cut the foot of my genoa so the clew was a little higher, sacrificing a bit of efficiency for the ability to see under it.  In due course the three toots of the prep signal went off… one minute to the start of the five minute start sequence for B Fleet… that’s us.  The larger A Fleet boats politely evaporated away to the east of us, allowing B's pre-start jousting to carry on without their interference.   As usual, Robin caught the beeps and his quiet voice behind me announced the time every thirty seconds till the one minute beep, at which point he shifted to every ten seconds.  He counted down the last ten in real time.  

With five minutes to go I decided belatedly to reef the main.  We went off to a vacant patch of water, hove to, pulled down a reef then got going again.  I was glad I’d done it.  SURPRISE heeled less and was just as fast.

As we came in I realized I was a little early but not barging for a change… to eat up time I did a couple of vigorous S’s which served the dual purpose slowing our progress toward the start and also made us look a little dangerous to be near, which didn’t hurt.  We flashed past the committee boat about a meter from its stern with ten seconds to go… bore off to run down the line, gaining speed then as Robin counted ’three - two - one - GO!’ (The last word overlaid by the start horn) we put our nose up over the line.  Great start… clear air and good position on starboard tack.

SUNDANCER was to starboard of us… as usual Matt was sailing her well… and pointing better than we could.  But, what ho… he became entangled in a guffuffle with a squabbling Shark class boat and we took advantage of that to tack onto port and cross his bow.  We tacked again to put him in our air, he tacked to clear himself, we tacked again to hold him. Oh what a battle.

Much to my delight, I discovered that his pointing ability was not quite as devastating as I remembered (this was the first time we’d crossed swords this year)  I settled down to concentrate on steering and asked Robin to keep an eye on them and let me know if they looked like they were preparing to tack again.  I commented to my crew ‘good job pulling down that reef, guys’   Clint responded ’Thanks, but shut up and drive… we can talk about that later’.  I laughed.

A couple more tacks and around the windward mark we went, in heavy traffic.  SUNDANCER  literally a boat length to starboard… away down back toward the leeward mark we all went.  I gave the helm to Robin and said to Clint ‘C’mon, lets shake out that reef’.  We went up to the mast, cast off the vang, cast off the first reef’s clew, then I shouted to Robin ‘CAST OFF THE MAINSHEET!” (he’s hard of hearing so there’s no clandestine maneuvering when I need to tell him something from up at the mast)  We hoisted the main, grunting on the halyard winch till it was up and tensioned, then haul away the downhaul, back on with the vang, IN MAINSHEET! (to Robin) and scramble back to the cockpit.  We needed the horsepower of the full main because the wind was easing in strength… that combined with broad reaching removed all the stress that had caused us to reef before the beat.

We couldn’t quite climb over SUNDANCER all the way down the leg.  I did my best to asphyxiate them but Matt was able to keep his air all the way.  I stayed too close to him at the leeward mark and as we swerved around it it, now with my bow only about a foot astern of him, I let US fall into his dirty air.  I heard Matt’s daughter say ‘Ha! He’s screwed himself!’ Yes I did.  We chose not to tack into the traffic still coming down to the mark so I bore away to get clear air and away went SUNDANCER, climbing to windward and ahead of us.  Damn.  But what ho… as we both worked our way up, I found my cast to the port side of the course bore fruit and next time we crossed tacks there we were crossing his bow… ahead again!  The next cross he was ahead but only by inches…  Up at the windward mark we were again right on his transom and starting the run down to the finish.   We had our own little battle all the way, with the mob behind us but for two boats ahead; one being in A fleet, a real zipper of a 5.5 Mtr class yacht and EVERGREEN of B Fleet,… who used to be in A but was moved into B to bolster the number of boats in our bunch.  He owes us a lot of time on PHRF but I don’t think enough that we got him.    

SUNDANCER also owes us time, but as we finished literally neck and neck, we clobbered them on rating, and beat him by about half a meter in real time.  Oh what glory.

Second place, second second place finish this season… what a great night out.   After a beer at the club going over the race with the rest, I got home to find the contractors replacing our soffits and fascia had finished their ten days of work and had done a great job.  I’m still smiling this morning….


Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com
705-527-9612