Another Tuesday without our captain, another win over Sandpiper, and loss to Battlewagon.
When we left the dock, the wind was very low, and proceeded to drop to almost nothing. The race committee set a course, then shortly thereafter we heard 2 blasts, and they announced over the radio an AP (answering pennant), and that the race start had been postponed.
After about 20 minutes the wind shifted around, and picked up considerably. The race committee adjusted the line, and set a new course. Prior to the start, Kiwi started tacking back and forth with Sandpiper. He managed to get right next to them, and forced them up over the start line. They had to tack and head down to dip below the line, while we were away with Top Gun and Battlewagon towards Hamilton. Sandpiper continued towards the Burlington shore after dipping the line. The wind seemed to favour the Burlington side of the bay upwind, and we took advantage, with Gadget keeping the mainsail well-trimmed. However, we were not able to point as high as the J35’s–we suspected the rig was too tight for the wind conditions.
A nice rounding, and textbook hoist had us well away downwind. As per last week, Kiwi sailed a hotter angle for speed, which was working well until we had a messy jibe, and hit a bit of a hole. Sandpiper made up some ground for a bit, but then we got a good line of wind, and Afterguy had us flying down to the mark. Kiwi left me to call the douse (we discussed how it makes sense for the foredeck to make the decision on the timing), and we left later than Battlewagon and Sandpiper. That allowed us to round the mark ahead of them without any traffic, as Dinghy hauled down the spinnaker and appeared on deck in record time to clean up the lines. Lazy Sheet left me flailing about with the pole for a few seconds before releasing the pole up line; his idea of a good time?
A short run upwind still allowed Battlewagon to finish before us. There was a thought that we might have beaten them on PHRF, but that was not the case. However, we did get Sandpiper, so it was a successful night.