It’s a personal preference. Some like them poached, hardboiled, sunny side up. Ken, well, I’m guessing he’s over easy. At least tonight he was. 😉
Yessiree bobbo, our ringer at the helm, Mr Eclipse himself got sabotaged at the start line — literally, Sabotage pushed us up and over. There was nothing for it, we were in a trap, and we were probably only over by a nose. Other than that it would have been a perfect start, right at the committee boat and right on time. As they say, if you’re not over early once in a while, you’re not pushing hard enough. Besides, races are never over until they are over. We were quickly back down below the line and then opted to sail away on port tack. By the time we met the fleet we were right back in it. Astern yes, but not by much at all.
That’s the beauty of clear air and a steady breeze. Once we were up to speed, we tweaked our trim just so to get a bit more speed and a lot more height. Almost fetched the windward mark from a long way off, but two quick tacks and we were ready for the downwind. Skootch kept the mainsail full and flying and Ihab and I partnered on the tacks
The way the course was laid, we decided ahead to go for a jibe set. Around we went, Super Dave wove his magic, Ihab was solid in his debut in the pit, and we were filled and flying in no time. With this move we avoided a lot of traffic and enjoyed more clear air. Looking back, it looked like we had gained on the fleet. The wind began to shift forward, so it looked like we could sail hot to the leeward mark. It began to look like we had pulled ahead of everyone — except Sabotage of course.
And then nature winked and the wind started getting swirly. Pole back, pole forward, main in, main out, pole up, pole down. No matter how we trimmed, just when we got the kite filled and flying the wind changed its mind. It was perplexing, but we continued to do well. Then a hole and others to leeward began to overtake. More wind. Off we go again. Looking ahead to the leeward mark I saw the strangest thing: We were flying the spinnaker on starboard (pole on port) at a hot angle with the pole all the way forward. 400m ahead, another boat was flying their spinnaker on port (pole on starboard) on a hot angle with the pole all the way forward! A big wind shift was coming…but when would it come?
The moment came when we were about 100m from the leeward mark, so we opted to douse just as the wind began to turn. Our timing was great, the new wind jibed the jib while Dave was putting the pole away, but he found a way for it to come around and we scooted to the ‘leeward’ mark sailing upwind. We rounded just behind Top Gun with Pandora between us, but Ken found a nifty gap and snuck in to windward of Pandora. As we pulled away we were even with Top Gun, on a close reach to the finish line. Top Gun took us up, but we held our own until the wind wobbled and they passed ahead to get to windward of us.
And then the wind began to wobble more. It shifted forward, it shifted aft, it died, it began to fill from behind. Boats began to hoist their spinnakers. We got our ready. Top Gun and Battlewagon (astern of them and further to Burlington) popped up their kite. We were about to, when I noticed Legacy, abreast of us now, 100m toward Hamilton starting to fill with their jib on the other side. We canceled the hoist, the genoa came around and the new wind was delightfully strong and steady. We were across the finish line before Top Gun and Battlewagon had doused.
And the icing on the cake? just up ahead, our friendly saboteur also found themselves with the spinnaker on the wrong side. They got it down in time to cross the line ahead of us, but only just a few boat lengths. You know what that means?
Yep, we got Sabotage again. And you know how I like my eggs?
…
I like my eggs with champagne 🙂
