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Oh Chute!

Race Details

  • Wind: 12E dropping to 0, switching quickly to 5W, turning to 10S
  • Course: 15S-7-1-7F
Course Map

We were in for a big surprise tonight on our approach to the ‘leeward’ mark.  One by one, the boats ahead fell in a hole, turned 120 degrees, dropped their spinnakers, hoisted their jibs and found new wind.  We were a bit behind at the time and steered toward the Burlington shore, hoping to go around the worst of the hole.  No such luck.  When it was our turn, exactly the same thing happened.  And as the hole moved to swallow us, the new wind met the boats toward the Hamilton shore.  One by one we powered up and rounded the mark in about the same order we were in before the hole.

We saw that we might be hoisting again once we rounded and Squirrel had things ready lickety split.  Sure enough, we hoisted again, for a quick hot reach down to the finish.  We made ground on Battlewagon, but not likely enough to overtake them  C’est la vie!

All the action that decided the race happened on the upwind leg.  We had a pretty good start, and held our lane against Sandpiper.  About half way to the windward mark, we found ourselves in a clump with the J35s and Sandpiper.  I opted to tack away for clear air.  When we converged with them all a bit later, we had lost significant ground.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere, that I think I should have learned already.  Stay calm, take a little dirt, stay close to the pack, and pounce on the downwind.  Next time!

Anyway, there are some nice highlights in the video tonight, gorgeous weather, lots of wind at the start, good hoists and some fun overtaking boats on the last leg.  Enjoy!

 

 

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