Author: Rob DeWitte

If Leaping Les & the Sleep Deprived were an ’80s era punk band, our own Four Hands would have torn down the house with his onstage antics tonight.  With four on board and plenty of wind, putting in a good race on PERSPECTIVE can be a tough challenge in the best of times, but add to that the fact that Dave is on the steep part of the learning curve and Lazy Sheet and I had our heads full of moth balls after losing a lot of sleep on the LO300, and you can see what kind of gap Les had to fill.  Squirrel got his nickname from running all over the boat to cover many positions.  Following that tradition, Four Hands might be rechristened as Chipmunk!

The adventure started when we couldn’t start the engine, and chose to sail out of the dock on the #3 headsail.  Easy Peasy!

The wind out on the course seemed pretty high, so we kept the number 3 up for a while, but it became clear that the fury was out of the wind, so we (I mean Les & Dave) changed to the #1 just in time for our prestart. Of course, as soon as that was done, the wind came back up to 13 knots or so.  No time to change to #2, so we went with it.

Before the race, I had made a point that we were just out to have fun, and avoid a DNC, but once we got into start sequence that mission was chucked overboard and focus and decisiveness came from deep reserves of energy (and an afternoon nap!).  As a result, we had a well-timed start near the middle of the line, Top Gun just to leeward and Battlewagon down at the pin end.  Sandpiper got the boat end.  Here we go!

But we weren’t pointing.  In fact, the boat was performing like it did about two seasons ago, and we quickly fell off the line, conceding height to windward to the entire fleet.  Les made some minor adjustments to the car position, Dave fine tuned the mainsail and we were back on track — it just goes to show how much we have learned as a crew, and how much we rely on individual experience in each position to eke out the most from the boat.  Having fallen behind, we needed to try something different to win back some distance, and pushed in far to the Hamilton shore before approaching #3 on port.  It worked, and we were back in it!

At the layline, we tacked just in front of Sandpiper, but then we got a knock and it became clear we would not fetch the mark.  Two more tacks and we were around.  And behind…again.

We were rigged for a jibe set, but the wind had backed further SW, so we sailed hot on jib alone while Four Hands got the pole lines ready under the jib.  A jibe at the Hamilton Yacht club, and a clean hoist we now had a very deep spinnaker run down to the golf course.

It was like role reversal — usually we are the ones who sail hotter lines with the spinnaker while the J35s soak their way to the leeward mark.  This time we were soaking while the rest of the fleet sailed extra distance.  It worked out well for us, as we sawed off a lot of distance and earned the inside lane on Sandpiper.  Just Top Gun and Battlewagon ahead.

Once nice thing about soaking is that it is easy to free-fly the spinnaker, so Les was able to get the pole down early and we could hold the kite up until the last possible moment.  Four Hand jumped into his chipmunk hole with the spinnaker in tow like his superhero cape.  Down it came like liquid, and we rounded the mark tight so that Sandpiper could get inside us.

Awesome, we are now in third place in a fleet of six, with Sandpiper right behind.  Strategic decision:  cover Sandpiper, let Battlewagon go, and hope that Remarkable doesn’t overtake when they split the course.  Tack one:  perfect, we are straight to windward of Sandpiper.  They are sailing a bit faster and lower than us.  They tack, and have to dip us.  We tack to cover after crossing ahead:  Oh no! The spinnaker halyard interferes with the jib sheet.  We recover quickly but have lost a few precious boat lengths.  Next crossing, they are ahead.  We split the course and keep heading to Burlington, and they don’t tack to cover.  This is our chance.  We get a lift.  Need one more tack to fetch the finish line.  Remarkable has closed the distance. Tack three: crisp.  We are fetching the pin end on Starboard.  Will we force Remarkable and Sandpiper to dip us?  Knock.  We cross ahead of Remarkable, but behind Sandpiper and we will need another tack to finish, or at least to shoot the line.  Sandpiper finishes, Remarkable tacks, we shoot the line.

We hear two horns in quick succession, about 3 seconds between them.  Were we close enough to get Remarkable on PHRF?……..YES!

So we were one lift (or jammed spinnaker halyard) away from a third place finish, but managed to pull of a fourth.  Not bad for Leaping Les & the Sleep Deprived.  Thank goodness for the punk energy of our lead singer tonight 🙂

And afterwards we sailed the boat right into our slip under headsail alone.  I guess, handling PERSPECTIVE has become so second nature that I can do it in my sleep ;-).

But that was the end of the line.  All the energy in the reserve tank was spent.  Lazy Sheet went home, and I had trouble putting together complete sentencezzz.

After a thunderstorm cleared through the area in the afternoon, a strong gusty breeze followed, and we delayed our decision about the headsail until the last reasonable moment.  True wind settled down below 22 knots, and the course involved a short beat, and lots of reaches.  We chose the #2 with the logic that we may be overpowered on the first beat, but we’ll need the horsepower on the reaching legs.

And with just five of us on board, we weren’t convinced we would fly the kite.

By the time we were in sequence, the burr had been rubbed off the wind and the #2 was exactly the right choice.

Our start was solid, well-timed, right at the committee boat.  We had to scrub some speed off by blowing the genoa for a bit and by steering greedy zig zags.  Top Gun was in our trap to windward, but we were early so we let them across.  Timing and position were perfect, but we took a bit to find our groove and get our boat speed.

Remarkable had a great start to leeward and were able to cross our bow on port tack.  The rest of the fleet sagged to leeward, but with our #2 we could almost fetch mark #5.  Top Gun tacked across our bow.  We held out longer and then tacked.  We met again on the layline and put in a lee bow attempt.  It was pretty good, not perfect, but we were able to keep Top Gun from rolling us.  So, I’ll give that a solid “B”  Sandpiper snuck in around the mark ahead of us.

We footed off as we rounded and snuck to leeward of Sandpiper, letting them scrap with Top Gun to windward.  Half way to #1, they pulled a few boat lengths ahead, but we were holding off the rest of the fleet.  At the second mark, the order was Sabotage, Remarkable, Top Gun, Sandpiper, Perspective with Raison D’Etre and Battlewagon astern.

A quick jibe at the mark, and we deliberatley selected a higher point of sail while David set the bag and pole.  I still wasn’t sure we would hoist, but the theory was that we would sail above the rhumb line so that we could follow a lower course with the spinnaker up.  Regardless, we caught up to Top Gun and were abreast of them to windward when we both hoisted.

18 knots of wind, with TWA of 138 degrees.  It was hot!

With the pole low and the mainsail inverted we hopped up on a plane over 9.4 knots and just took off.  Top Gun to leeward struggled with their spinnaker (probably getting some of our bad air).

A few big gusts caused us to round up, but we recovered quickly from these near broaches.  At this point we were preparing to douse — maybe it was just too much.  But we had one more trick up our sleeve.  Rather than douse, we footed off, taking a lower angle.  Now with the main sheeted in we took off once again….and our friends on Top Gun doused.  This was a decisive moment in the race as we pulled well ahead of our rivals.

Gil smiled like a cheshire cat as he drew on all his childhood experience flying kites to keep us fast and under control.

Aside from Sabotage (shaking martinis in the Bahamas by now), only Remarkable lay ahead, and we realed them in quickly, as they had no spinnaker up.  But how to overtake them?  To windward was dangerous — they could simply push us up, cause a broach, triggering losses to Top Gun and the entire fleet.  No good.  So, I tried passing to leeward.

Sure, it looked like we might overtake, but then we got in their wind shadow and fell behind them again. It just wasn’t going to work.  So, we opted to douse a bit early, make sure we were clear to tack, and then try to reel them in on the final fetch to the finish line.

Douse was clean, and we were abreast Remarkable (them with the precious inside lane).  Everyone was tensed for the rounding.  We gave Remarkable mark room early — this was not a night for sneaky tricks — and focused on a strategic rounding:  wide, harden up to a fast reach, then close hauled at the mark.  There were mere inches between our bow and their stern as we came around the mark….but they didn’t give us any chance to get to windward of them.  We settled into a drag race right on their stern as the wind was big and the gusts were even bigger.  Top Gun was dead astern, doing their level best to reel us in.

David trimmed the genoa perfectly on this close reach and Gil kept us trading gusts for speed.  We couldn’t close on Remarkable (they got us by 14 seconds), but we kept Top Gun astern!

The mood on board was unbeatable…just like Forest Gump might say….”We beat Top Gun….again”

Pinch me, was I dreaming?  I’m sure that this race came right from the pages of a fantasy of mine sometime during the cold dark months of winter.

Bert, Alvin and I took the inshore route this time, and it paid!  (Lazy Sheet had to pull out to get his eye looked at)

It was another gorgeous, hot steamy day with light wind and biting flies.  Another day to focus on dialing in the boat speed and keeping the boat moving.  We’ve had a lot of practice doing that lately.  The wind began pretty much on our nose at the start, and forecasts suggested it would clock to the right, so nearly every boat in the earlier fleet went to the right to take the header early.  We had this in mind, but we watched some boats try a port tack start…all it takes is one boat on starboard to make a mess of things.  We decided we’d be that boat on Starboard.  Besides, the boat end was favoured

Our start was really good today.  Timed well, in clear air right at the committee boat.  Perry-Eh took the pin end on port tack.  Sure enough, they had to dip us, but it was a very calm crossing as the wind was only about 4 knots.

We got dialed in quickly on starboard tack, so we held off on tacking just to see what would happen to the wind ahead, which looked better than the wind over to the right.  Sure enough, we gained speed and gained conviction about the inshore route.  This was redoubled when we finally did tack, and couldn’t find the groove on port tack, so we tacked back to starboard again and headed toward Jordan Station with growing boat speed.

It was remarkable and so satisfying to be sailing at 5 knots of boat speed in just 3 knots of breeze.  We were making our own wind!

And then we began to get a lift as the wind started clocking right.  We took about half the lift and footed off for speed with the other half.  A glance at the fleet and once again we had rolled a lot of boats who were up on the rhumb line.  Out came some amazing sandwiches and fresh cherries for lunch.

It became clear that after another lift we’d be able to fly the kite so Bert & Alvin got things ready.  Up went the spinnaker in a nice smooth hoist and we powered up on a hot line directly to our destination.  By now we had over six knots of speed on a smooth sea.  Even the flies were impressed, so they backed off!

As the wind continued to clock to the right we sailed deeper angles and chose to heat and burn our way back up to the rhumb line to consolidate our gains.  Here is a picture of our fleet from our stern.   Can you spot them?

This was about half way through the race, so the game plan became simple.  Stay between the fleet and the finish and go as fast as we can.  That sounds intense, but as the wind rotated further aft, it was really a matter of keeping the kite full and flying.  Here’s what it looked like on board:

There is something just so gratifying about being in a really strong position early in a race and then enjoying the game of getting the most out of a steady stable wind.

But it was clear that the wind was not going to stay steady for long.  The west end of the Lake began to disappear, and the distant sky rumbled its malcontent as harbingers of what was to come.  The radio chirped with squall warning and then squall watch.  Yes, we were watching!  With the spinnaker up, we were poised for a quick douse to remove sail area as soon as possible.  By this time we were about an hour from Bronte, and it became clear that the brunt of the storm was tracking along the Niagara side of the lake.  Good for us, but not for the smaller boats in the fleet who were still back there.  Here’s the western end of the lake at this time.  The lift bridge had completely disappeared, and the distant thunder was approaching:

We scanned the water for squall lines and studied the clouds, ready for signs that it was time to douse.  The first sign came as a wind shift and we jibed back on course for our destination.  Then it hit.

The kite powered up with a will of its own.  Bert grabbed the sheet and headed into the hole.  As we eased guy and sheet the kite went higher, filled more strongly, pulled the boat around.  We blew the lines and the kite came down.  By now the wind was up to 20 knots, and the mainsail gave plenty of power.  I sailed the boat (over 7.5 knots of speed) on main alone, while Bert and Alvin cleared lines.

Just as quickly as it hit us, it was gone and we pulled out the jib, readied the spinnaker bag and hoisted again.

And like all good summer storms, it bounced off something in its path and came right back at us!

Another wild and woolly douse, back to jib & main sailing, and we watched rain settle in over Oakville.  By now we had only a mile to go, so we settled in for a white sail finish, even running wing-on-wing for a bit.  Conditions would have allowed us to set the kite once more but we were weary and wary.  Looking back at the fleet, everyone had made the same decision.

All told, we finished with line honours again, 12 minutes ahead of Perry-Eh, and a good half hour more on the next boat.

We turned at the line, aimed toward Burlington, away from the rain and watched the finish line completely disappear in the downpour.  Although we got a bit of rain, it wasn’t much and soon the sun was shining, drying us up as we tidied up, motored through the bridge and to our slip at LaSalle.

What an awesome day!

Dinghy, Lazy Sheet and me had a fantastic day together and we got PERSPECTIVE’s mojo back on a long pursuit race!

Of the two competing forecasts for the day (1-2 knot drifter, 10 knot sea breeze), neither proved to be true, nor did their average.  Rather we had a sea breeze of about 7 knots from the east at the start, dropping to a milky calm 4 knots that rotated SE, S, and then rotated to the SW and built to 15 knots for the finish.

Our thoughts were to go into shore to catch the sea breeze that we expected to build, and after we watched Nautibuoy start with a hot spinnaker heading for the Burlington shore, Dinghy got the spinnaker bag set so we could do the same if we chose.  Half an hour later the sea breeze had begun to fill, Pandora compared notes with us about following Nautibuoy and we watched them start.  The sea breeze had filled enough and the wind angles had changed enough that this was clearly not the way to go.  After retrieving Brian Garrett’s hat, we opened the #1, but left the spinnaker bag in place as an eventuality. The sea breeze filled more and we prepared for speed.

The start was well timed and we were pretty quickly dialed into good boat speed and performance.  We were even able to harden up a bit to point high — above our rhumb line — taking all the height we could in case the wind shifted forward.  Battlewagon started 20 seconds behind us and they must have had a good start too because they began to approach on our starboard quarter.  For nearly an hour we were able to keep them there as the wind began to slacken and veer.  Eventually it settled into a surreal drag race on mirror calm water separated by less than a boat length.  Wish we had some drone footage!

And then they rolled over us.  All it took was one wiggle in the wind, one lapse of concentration in steering and our speed fell off while their momentum carried them over us.  We stayed calm, and I think that was the key to our success today.

We rebuilt speed quickly again, but by now, Battlewagon had fallen off the breeze and we gained leverage to the outside.  Something Brian Garrett had said to me a few weeks ago echoed in my mind…”when the breeze is light, sail a higher angle to create more apparent wind”.  Like young Luke responding to Obi-Wan, I took the advice while we kept the slot wide open between the main and the genoa.  As the wind continued to rotate, this path took us away from shore and away from the rhumb line, but we were moving much faster than everyone shoreward and within the next hour we rolled over nearly the entire fleet!

Only Big Yellow (off our starboard aft quarter), Magic (ahead), and a few smaller white sail boats remained in contention with us.  After a lot of discussion we landed on a great plan — carry on sailing fast and away from the rhumb line until we could hold a hot spinnaker on the bearing to the finish mark.  Dinghy set the pole.  The moment came, smooth hoist, bear away, fill, and Bye Bye big Yellow!  We were ghosting along at five knots of speed consolidating our gains on the fleet as we headed back to the rhumb line.

Here’s what ghosting in mirror-calm seas looks like:

And here’s what it looks like on board (do we have a new candidate for the nickname Lazy Sheet?)

The wind began to build and mist rose from the surface of the water.  Toronto was merely the glint of the CN tower above the haze.  Were it not for that, we may have been sailing off the end of the earth.  Would dragons eat us?  We were keen to find out!

Soon it was only Magic ahead of us (C&C 35, like Celtic Spirit but they fly spinnaker).  We tried half-heartedly to reel them in — to no avail — but mostly focused on enjoying the stronger breeze the moved aft so we could sail deep and fast, finishing the race with 7.2 knots of boat speed.  Looking back, there were no boats in site.  Had the dragons eaten them there?

Three of us on board for a 25nm race on Lake Ontario that started and finished at the Burlington Bridge.  The course was to round three marks (Bronte, Winona Rifle Range, & CCIW Spider) in any direction we chose.  With the wind from the North, we opted for clockwise.

Mainsail trim, Spinnaker trim, Foredeck, Sail changer, Douser, Food bringer and otherwise runner-a-rounder:  Go-go-Gadget.  (Tasmanian devil has nothing on this guy)

Foresail trim, Pit, Navigation & Data: Lazy Sheet

Tiller holder: StarPort.

It was a gorgeous summer day with lots of wind at the start promising a quick and intense lap before a relaxing party back at the marina.  But what unfolded was a four part miniseries with many plot twists, gut-wrenching anguish, a moral victory and a third place result (for GHYRA).  Note:  Top Gun was in this race, but not competing in GHYRA.

Part ONE: Big Wind & Waves

Chose the #2 and it was the right choice for sure: 15g20 upwind to Bronte with 3 foot waves crashing us and slowing us.  We did well, gaining on many boats, but the J35s who started 30 seconds after us were able to handle the surf better and overtook us.  Foredeck was soaked with the occasional wave washing over us.

We opted to focus on boat handling and set the spinnaker only after rounding.  Good choice with three on board!

Rounding was smooth, planing with the #2 headsail while Gil rigged the spinnaker and double and triple checked everything.  We gained some ground on Battlewagon as they also delayed their hoist.  Hoist was smooth and off we shot.  Battlewagon hoisted almost at the same moment!  By now Top gun was well ahead (no delay in their hoist), and we reeled in Battlewagon.  Attempts to pass them were in vain, so we sailed alongside for a while.

Part TWO: Sail Swap

The wind just completely died.  From 15g20 to 0g3 (of inconsistent direction).

It was like hitting the brakes.

After an infuriating delay, a light breeze set up from the east.  By now we had gained to windward of Battlewagon and Stigaro (whom we had just overtaken).  Once we sailed into somewhat steady breeze, we doused the Spinnaker and hoisted the jib to sail in the right direction.  It was all great except that now the #2 was the wrong headsail.  Too small, and too flat.

So, we did a hot sail swap.

Gil & Mark readied a temporary jib sheet for the #2, got the #1 in place with the real jib sheets and then dropped the #2, swapped the halyard and hoisted the #1.  It was pretty smooth, and didn’t take too long, but we had a weird headsail for a minute or so, and then no headsail for less than a minute.  Once we had the bigger genoa we began to sail well, and re-overtook Stigaro.  Battlewagon had their #1 up the whole time, so they were able to put some important distance between us.

Part THREE: A long and winding road downwind

It began fine with a nice match up with Stigaro and their asymmetric spinnaker.  We pushed into shore hunting breeze that was not there, so we went offshore.  For at least thirty minutes (more?) we kept believing there was better wind ahead, and kept chasing these mirages even though we were not sailing in the right direction.  Meanwhile the waves were against us so we were dead slow.  Finally we jibed toward the spider and were able to fill on a deep run with the waves at our stern.  Eventually the wind began to build, but our rivals by now were un-catchable.  In fact, we watched Stigaro overtake Battlewagon by a large margin.

Part FOUR: Curfew

Our new rival was the clock.  Curfew was set for 6:00 and we had about an hour to cover just over 4 nautical miles.  Boat speed was about 3.5-4.5 knots.  Nip and tuck.  A smooth jibe at the spider and we started to get optimistic, but each time we checked the clock the wind faded a bit and the boat slowed down.  Eventually though, we beat our new rival, finishing just 4 minutes ahead of curfew.  What a relief!  We started the engine immediately and made the 6:00 bridge. 🙂

We will remember this day for a long time, and the very important lesson about chasing mirages.  Sometimes there just isn’t any better wind to find and the right move is to sail in the right direction!

Despite the shifty and hot conditions, we had a wonderful start to Canada Day Weekend with the Beyond the Bridge Regatta in our home waters.  Their were eight boats in our fleet with a huge range of handicaps from Nauti-buoy to Sabotage.

Foredeck & Headsail: David

Pit: Lazy Sheet

Mainsail: Dinghy

Helm: StarPort

Race one:  Skirting the hole

Sabotage ahead

Catching up: Pandora outside

Overtaking: Pandora outside

Sabotage Sandwich

Just before the mark

Yessiree Bobbo, this was the THIRD race in a row when we beat Top Gun!

FINAL RESULT: Third place for PERSPECTIVE, behind The Artful Dodger (Kirby 25), and Sabotage.

And afterwards we all enjoyed a great meal and lively band at the regatta dinner party.  Nearly the whole crew turned out with their better halfs and we toasted a great day on the water and a summer full of memories.