***While the cat (me) was away, the mice went out to play…Here’s a race report from Nonsuch, alternate skipper for tonight’s race
Tonight’s race was tremendous fun with a Cracker Jack crew that needed very little direction at all. Everybody knew their job and did it amazingly. Josh was magic on the head sale keeping it adjusted perfectly while Bert on main kept us powered up on all points of sail. The foredeck of David and Gil were truly amazing with the best chute sets I have seen all season. They were so fast on the downwind leg setting the chute and the take down was a thing of beauty with very little chatter, the whole ballet was directed in the pit by Mark Lazysheet with perfection.
Our start was very interesting as we went into sequence with a strategy to stay close to our competition and a cover Eclipse. We approached the line in lots of traffic with Remarkable, Top Gun, And Eclipse with Battle wagon a bit behind. We all were a little early so we tactfully jibed around in traffic along side Top Gun and Remarkable and Battlewagon was also close. Eclipse was luffing on the line and running to the far pin while at 8 seconds we powered up and hit the line on the gun with Remarkable on our port bow and Top Gun on the starboard side. As we powered down to Mark 5 and got into clear air in short order continuing to point quite close to Remarkable while Eclipse was way off to port and Battlewagon charging down on starboard. We covered Eclipse as soon as they tacked with a great lea bow and continued to power to the lay line. Our move forced Eclipse to tack back which caused him to incur a few more tacks. We came down on the first Mark in low traffic with Celtic Spirit to port and a C&C 27 to starboard we threaded through the two of them as the first hoist went flawlessly fast and we needed to get the chute filled quickly. This allowed us to power down the bay on a bit of a reach taking some nice gusts along the way with Josh flying the chute well and Lazysheet adjusting the pole on Josh’s cue.
The White sail folks were turning at Mark 7 while we were going to Mark 11. We did get a little close to Mark 7 while Chico II was rounding along with the Beneteau 23. We managed to adjust for the Beneteau and did our best to miss Chimo II however I owe Hugh Johnson an apology as we got pinned a bit in our move around him but we kept our boat speed all the way.
Approaching Mark 11 we followed Remarkable to the pin while dousing the chute flawlessly in record time and powered up the main and jib for the rounding and a quick tack for the beat home to Mark 14. As we were sailing home to the finish we passed Eclipse and Sandpiper still on the down wind leg to Mark 11!
Battle wagon rounded just after us at 11 and we had a drag race down the Bay to the finish at 14. We maintained a slight lead on them however they started to gain as the wind gave us both a few knocks. Battlewagon were to port and we determined they would need to tack while we had a tight line to the pin end of the line. Sure enough we made the pin and Battlewagon was still tacking across well after we crossed the line. We believe we’re a solid third in the race only beaten to the line by Top Gun and Remarkable but not by that much distance.
Only issue the rookie skipper had was backing into the slip which the crack crew made easier and ensured we put Perspective back in her slip safely. It was a great night nobody got hurt and better still no boat damage and a 3rd place finish!
Thanks to Cap’n Rob for having the trust in letting us take out his baby for a great sail and the crack crew that made it a wonderful night.
***You are more than welcome Mark! And three cheers for the boys in blue for a great race and a great result!