The time we beat Top Gun and protested Battlewagon!

Yup you read that right, and if we win the protest hearing, the Thursday crew will post a 1st place result!

How did this come about?

First off, the crew was sharp as a tack, trimming carefully for every flutter in the wind, and solid maneuvers throughout

Second, it was a night of light and shifty wind: almost a drifter, unless you avoided the worst of the light patches. Battlewagon, Sandpiper and we sailed low and fast toward the Hamilton shore to find better wind.  It was a long way around and we even tacked further over to Hamilton halfway to the windward mark, to get around the deep glassy hole.  At times it felt like we were sailing away from the target, as we got seriously knocked.  But that meant, once we tacked we were lifted all the way to the mark.  Legacy, Remarkable and Top Gun got trapped in the big milky patch for a while.

Third, we had a classic Port-Starboard crossing with Battlewagon three minutes after the start.  Rather than ducking us, they held their course and we had to duck them.  So, we protested!  That meant that after the race I had to run around looking for a form and getting Bob Duggan to sign it.  This could prove to be critical in the final analysis, since Battlewagon was first across the line tonight.

Fourth, there was a marvelous traffic jam at the windward mark, but we were able to slip inside them all, and avoid the worst impact of a great cloud of sail.  That was definitely a highlight.  We rounded just ahead of Top Gun!

Fifth, a quick hoist, and the joy of a hot spinnaker angle straight to the finish line.  Top Gun overtook us, but we were able to reel in Battlewagon and keep breathing down Top Gun’s neck the whole leg.

Sixth, there was an immense traffic jam developing at the finish line as faster boats caught up with slower ones.  I think there was a boat from every fleet crossing almost simultaneously.  This meant that the boats in our fleet had to spread out along the finish line, giving us precious seconds that we needed at the end.

We crossed three seconds behind Top Gun, which was enough to put us two seconds ahead after PHRF correction.  F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C !!!

Here’s the whole thing on high speed.  Crank the volume and enjoy MARS: The bringer of war 🙂