We had a fantastic start to our GHYRA campaign today, sailing a blistering fast race mostly on a close reach. AVERAGE speed was 8 knots, with a peak of 9 knots absolutely flying from the burlington bridge to Newport.
With resident tutor Doug on board, we got the boat trimmed beautifully after a good start and pulled away from everyone except “Don’t Panic” who told us later of a peak speed around 11 knots in a gust. Our course was a little above the mark, and we lost some ground to the rest of the fleet approaching the turning mark, but were still well ahead of them all. The last stretch was a beat in gusty wind, and here’s a new record for heel angle:
Upwind we pushed past Don’t Panic to take the gun for our fleet. After handicaps, I’m not sure where we placed, but for certain we were well ahead of Big Yellow and Battlewagon 🙂
It was another #2 night, with winds in the mid teens and occasional gusts. Fantastic to have two great nights in the same week. This one was even warmer, though, with a softness in the strong breeze and a watercolour sky. Fantastic night on the water with another fantastic result.
We’ve got a really fun rivalry building with Eclipse. Basically, they pull ahead of us upwind and we overtake them downwind. Tonight’s highlight reel has us changing places with them several times. Ultimately? On the last downwind leg, we struggled to overtake them, but eventually prevailed and broke out of their enormous wind shadow to claim third place.
Sabotage took honours and Top Gun got us too. No surprise there! Battlewagon fell behind early tonight and didn’t hoist their spinnaker, so they didn’t threaten us. Big Yellow didn’t come out.
Here’s how it went:
Brisk wind at the start and we wondered whether to fly the #2 or the #3. Finally we opted for the #2, noticing a slightly less voracious wind near the start line. We thought maybe we’d be a bit overpowered upwind, but this way we’d have more canvas in case we didn’t choose to hoist the spinnaker. It turned out the be the right choice — yes we had some gusts that rounded us up, but we were able to get good balance most of the time and fill both the mainsail and the new ominous black foil to fly along above 6.5 knots.
At the start, there was an opportunity to go for it, but I was a bit shy, since it seemed like Eclipse was offering me a trap, and I worried we might have been too early. As a result we started a bit late, in a big wind shadow. No problem, though, since we just waited for clear air and then tacked onto port. We’d seen other boats start on port and fair pretty well.
For us, by the time we crossed the fleet, Battlewagon was astern, but the others were ahead. We held a nice line to the windward mark, pointing wonderfully high again (I really have to run RaceQs again to measure our tacking angles — they must be in the low 80s). By the windward mark, we were not far behind Eclipse or even the others.
At first we thought we wouldn’t hoist, but once we were around we saw a few other spinnakers go up, and decided to go for it. After all, it was the only chance we had to catch Eclipse. Up went the kite and the boat surged ahead running deep for the leeward mark. Along the way, we swept by Eclipse, keeping them well to leeward so they couldn’t force us up.
An early and clean douse, and around we went for another lap.
We tacked early onto starboard and pushed down into the bigger wind about mid bay before tacking. At first it appeared we had claimed the layline, but a few knocks proved that we should have pushed even further to Hamilton. Eclipse made the right choice and squeezed by us at the windward mark.
And then we got another knock and really had to pinch to make the mark, heading almost dead upwind at the last moment so that our momentum carried us around the mark. Phew!
In that moment, Eclipse gained a handsome lead. Up chute, and away we chased. As we bore down on Eclipse from astern it was like deja-vu. I remembered a time last season when we could not get past them. So we coiled up like a spring, and started to sail a hotter angle to try to climb over them to windward. But they were not flying a spinnaker and the risk was that they would push us up until the spinnaker collapsed (they were leeward boat with the right of way). Sure enough, Ken spotted us, and began to take us up. We were ready, though, and once it was clear that we wouldn’t get past him, we changed our approach, turned deep and pushed beyond them on the leeward side. It took some time, but we eventually pushed past his wind shadow and accelerated away for a solid third place finish.
A nice coup-de-gras after an exhilarating race.
The evening was so lovely we doused the spinnaker, left the genoa furled and cracked open the grog as we toured the bay under easy sail, enjoying a watercolour sunset as we approached the marina.
Good wind tonight, blowing 11-14 knots with some nice gusts and a few lighter patches. Clear sky and a warm sun. Summertime!
And the new #2 rocks!!!! With the wind up in that ‘tweener range, this was the first time we have ever sailed with a #2 genoa, and it was just perfect. Afterguy kept it trimmed pretty flat, and I had the backstay on pretty firm (about half-way in), Bert kept the main as full as possible and we pointed high and sailed fast. The speed meter was in the 7+ knot range most of the night, upwind and down. Absolutely thrilling.
Putting it all together, tonight the lads in blue put in a great performance to secure a strong second place finish (behind top gun of course), with Eclipse coming on strong enough at the finish to make us stay focused to the bitter end. Here’s how it went.
The start was its own thrill as we were able to catch Eclipse in a trap and push them over the line early. They weren’t too happy about it when I shouted “Stay up”. They hollered back that we had no overlap. This was true when the boats were parallel (Eclipse ahead and to windward, Perspective as the leeward boat with right of way). But as soon as they tried to bear off the wind, the straight line across their stern angled down across our bow, and I hollered “Stay up” again. Net result, they were over early and had to double back to cross the line again.
We started right at the gun, just to windward of Top Gun who was right beside us and began to point higher and higher (as they always do). But with the new #2, we were able to stay up and point as high as them. We carried on that way for quite a while before they aimed lower and began to pull ahead of us. And about this time Battlewagon came charging up from behind and to windward with a full head of steam. Unlike the rest of us, they were sailing their new #1 jib and coming on fast. They overtook us to windward as Top Gun pulled away to leeward, and Eclipse came on strong, making up the gap. Game on!
Approaching the windward mark, we lost some ground by tacking too early toward the Burlington shore , so that Eclipse snuck around just before us — we were now in last place. The next leg was a short reach, and we trimmed well and managed to get the inside lane on Eclipse at the next mark. Four Hands was masterful up on the pointy end getting everything ready. Around we went, inside Eclipse and up went the kite, gaining us several precious boat lengths. After a quick jibe we were on a fast point of sail, true wind about 120 degrees off our port side. With over 8 knots of boat speed in the puffs, we had the apparent wind on our beam and Afterguy did a great job keeping us fast and balanced. Battlewagon didn’t hoist their spinnaker, and we overtook them without much fuss
With the big wind, and no traffic around, we doused a little early. We might have given Eclipse a couple of boat lengths, but they were solidly astern of us. Result: nice and clean with no stress, though we did get the spinnaker a wee bit wet. Not a problem — next hoist we dried it off!
And then the magic happened. We tacked soon onto starboard and sailed up the middle of the bay, pointing nice and high, and enjoying the strong wind. We chose this course, trusting in more wind, even though it meant we had to push through the shadow of an anchored freighter. The rest of our fleet chose to sail above the freighter, closer into Burlington. A few gusts rounded us up, but we took the lift each time, holding our line through some light air into a nice patch of wind before tacking over to approach mark #5. A beautiful tack, strong wind and great pointing had us on the layline. Couldn’t have called it better! (truth be told, I thought we would have one more leg on Starboard before rounding, but the boat was pointing so well we sawed off a tremendous corner. And this kept Eclipse at bay.
Four Hands had no time to set the pole before we rounded, but he had it up and ready quickly afterwards and we filled our spinnaker, sailing deep so as to make the committee boat without a jibe. Too deep, though, we couldn’t fetch the boat. So, instead of jibing the spinnaker we just jibed the main for a few boat lengths to finish. 17 seconds ahead of Eclipse, after nearly an hour of racing. Fantastic! (that’s 0.4% difference in our speed, or the difference between 7.00 knots and 7.03 knots sustained for an hour)
And what a great night. Warm, fast, fun, and a great spirit on board. Apres sail we sat long in the midsummer light, enjoying the glow of a great night on the bay.
(And Bob Duggan popped by so that I had the chance to check if I was right to call Eclipse up at the start line — from my description he concurs: unless they could have sailed clear across my bow, they had to stay up). Cool!
Gorgeous night on the water — warm, soft humidity, moderate changeable breeze and a pastel sky. And it was the first night with our new toys. Check out the video for the hardware in action, some really crisp maneuvers and nature’s display
Our start was great, and we were flying out of the gates with great boat speed. After that, somehow the decisions went against us. Battlewagon and Big Yellow chose to tack over to the Burlington shore early in the beat, while we pressed on to the Hamilton shore with Eclipse. By the time we crossed, our rivals were so far ahead as to be beyond reach.
And as we approached the windward mark, the swirly air around the west end of the bay seemed to conspire against us, conceding ground first to Eclipse, and then ultimately to Sandpiper. But once we hoisted our Spinnaker, we quickly overtook Sandpiper and then closed some of the distance on the others…but not enough to reach them.
And that’s how it goes some times. Never mind, it was great to stop working and get out in the fresh air with good friends. The new gear looks great and feels crisp, and apres sail we collected our laurels from the spring series.
I think the Thursday crew is blessed with fine weather in 2017, whereas the Tuesday lads…not so much!
A lovely 20C, sunny with a mild 8 knots of wind off the North East corner of the bay, and we were in long sleeves and short pants. What a welcome change from the drenching fog and blustery wind two nights earlier. And we were all keen for a sail. Everyone was there early, Skootch and Lazy Sheet had the covers off and bags installed before I even arrived. Squirrel brought doughnuts to celebrate a great customer audit at work, and we were away with fenders off by 5:47pm, after changing the headsail at the dock.
That gave us plenty of time to set our halyards and genoa cars to where we wanted them, and then settle in to enjoy the pre-start. No surprise, just about everyone came out tonight, making a splendid show in the evening sunshine.
Our start was well timed, crossing at the gun near the middle of the line, ahead and to leeward of our fleet. After a short stretch, we tacked onto port so as to stay on the Hamilton side of the bay, where we knew there was more wind. Our fleet tacked too. And just before we would have crossed below Top Gun, they tacked and sailed down to smother us in their lee bow. Nasty — by the time we recovered boat speed, we were ten boat lengths behind them. Harrumph!
But pay no mind, we were pointing higher than Sandpiper who was ahead and to leeward, and by the time we crossed them after a few more tacks, we had to dip them — shaving them by a hair and maintaining great boat speed while they struggled on the opposite tack.
One advantage of starting last and following the other fleets to the windward mark is the chance to judge the lay line. Tonight we got it right. We avoided painting the corners, noticed many boats struggling, tacking or pinching, so we chose a higher line to approach the mark. Perfect!
Battlewagon, Christephanie, Rehab and we all converged at the windward mark. I thought Battlewagon (approaching on port) would have to dip all of us, but they tacked early and pinched up to the mark, just squeaking through. Al four of us rounded in one concentric wheel. Battlewagon inside, then Christephanie, then us with Rehab on the outside. Fun!
Our plan was to jibe at the mark, and then set the spinnaker, since we wanted to get away from the Hamilton shore as soon as possible, back to where the air was moving better. but with Christephanie in our path, we couldn’t put in the jibe right away. Eventually, their spinnaker filled and we could swing around, jibing and then heading up to get to windward of them.
A smooth hoist and we kept a hot angle, focusing on boat speed to get over to the better air. Sure enough, we eventually found the good stuff, jibed sweetly and enjoyed a nice hot run to the leeward mark with the wind building as we went. Great to get real boat speed again and to hear the gurgle of the water on the hull.
By this time Top Gun was ahead — they had the same game plan as we did — Eclipse was sailing a low and slow course directly to the mark, way over toward the Burlington shore, Battlewagon was following them and Sandpiper fell behind — they didn’t hoist, and I get the impression they had some sort of trouble with their sails.
We tweaked and tweaked and built more and more speed, but Eclipse filled nicely and managed to get to the leeward mark ahead of us. So we doused early with no pressure. Still, something got tangled up front, so our jibe at the leeward mark was a bit a bit untidy. That was quickly resolved and we enjoyed a nice calm fetch to the finish line.
Just lovely!
Apres sail, we chatted long, enjoying the warm evening, the long light and a full moon rising. Idyllic!
We almost had the perfect start. We even had a chance to push Top Gun over the line. If only we had!
We caught up to Sandpiper on the downwind and got an overlap before the leeward mark. If only we hadn’t hit the mark with our mainsheet while rounding. If only!
But those two moments were the only regrets in a fantastic sail tonight. Were we wet? were we cold? Of course we were, it was a Tuesday night on 2017! But were we grinning from ear to ear while we lounged in in the five star hospitality aboard Heer’s Summer? Who wouldn’t!
One more comment before the play by play — with 12+ knots of wind tonight (mostly steady) we flew the newly recut #3. That was completely awesome. We pointed so high relative to our fleet that we sawed corners off the course and sailed way less distance than our competitors. Tacking angles were unbelievably tight. And all this with good balance, the mainsail mostly full, no backstay pressure, and boatspeed in and around 6 knots (sometimes more, sometimes less). Tacks were crisp and fast with the little jib, and it was a joy to be so nimble out there. So, all the adjustments have really paid off — the combination of the shorter forestay and the flatter jib came together beautifully tonight.
But the real magic was downwind. Here’s how it went.
Timing on the start was fantastic. We were able to set up in a position we wanted, timing our approach to the line well, accelerating to the boat end without concern of anyone pushing us up. Top Gun got across our bow and we could have pushed them up and over, but we were a few seconds early ourselves, and I chose to bear off a bit. As a result, Top Gun had a perfect start and we were to leeward in their shadow when the gun went off. As soon as we had clear air and room to tack, we popped onto port toward the Hamilton side where we expected better wind. A beautiful dip on Eclipse (and again the next time)
Remembering not to paint the corners, we put in a couple of quick tacks, pointing so high we got well ahead of Battlewagon, and not far behind the others.
Our hoist at the windward mark was a thing of beauty, and we quickly overtook Eclipse and began to gain on Sandpiper. We tweaked our trim, getting more speed with each adjustment, but the magic gear was the boom vang, which gave us half a knot. Sandpiper could begin to feel us closing the gap, and they didn’t want to sit in our wind shadow, so they sailed a hotter course. We were on line for the leeward mark, so we held our course and over time we worked our way forward gaining a meter or two each minute. Afterguy was supreme on the spinnaker sheet, total focus, constantly tweaking the trim — even innovating a pretty comfy position, lying down with his head on the coaming to rest his weary neck!
As we approached the leeward mark, Sandpiper began their dowse before we did and that enabled us to get an overlap on them and claim mark room. Down with the pole, dowse the spinnaker — something’s not working right…we forgot to blow the guy. Bert was busy sorting that out, I was busy steering in the gap between the mark and Sandpiper when it happened. Nonsuch saw it first and hollered to bring in the mainsheet, but we couldn’t react fast enough and the lines touched the bucket. FOUL — time for a 360.
And that didn’t go so well. Up front, the lines began to play cat’s cradle, including Calvin’s leg, and in the back we powered up the main rather than the jib so we couldn’t jibe. By the time we did our penalty turn, Sandpiper was well away, and Eclipse had overtaken us. But our friends on Battlewagon were still astern and we pointed so high I thought we might make the boat end of the finish line in one fetch. Not quite, we needed another tack at the end, playing chicken with Don’t Panic.
If only, if only — we had a shot at a second place, but gave it up for a fourth. Lessons learned — can’t wait to try it again!
But what a blast sailing with bigger wind — the first race in a stiffer breeze. We all immensely enjoyed almost 8 knots of boat speed sailing deep with the spinnaker — we could feel the boat respond with each puff of extra breeze. Encore! Encore!
Glorious! Just what we were looking for: a beautiful night, comfortable temperature and a modest breeze that kept us moving. As the sun grew low, it back lit myriad spinnakers glowing on the water, and because we had two laps of a relatively short course, we were always among other boats.
How did we do? A solid second behind Top Gun and well ahead of Battlewagon. A fantastic result, and we overtook many boats from the fleets ahead of us, even finishing before several sharks!
And the combination of the nice weather, the good performance, and the camaraderie on board made for a relaxed crew at the dock, lingering long in the failing light to toast an evening that just reminded us all why we love this so much.
Here’s how it happened:
The triangle course had two upwind legs that were neither straight upwind nor a fetch (something you can sail in one tack from end to end), so there was definitely a favoured tack, but plenty of options for strategy and tactics. The pin end of the start line was strongly favoured.
So I intended to start on starboard at the pin end, sail down to the expected stronger wind at the Hamilton shore and tack from there. But we were about 20 seconds early for the pin end of the line — oops — so we tacked onto port and put in a decent start.
As a result we headed toward the lighter air on the Burlington side of the bay for a while before tacking away. Watching the other boats approach mark #5 (nearly the Burlington shore) helped us avoid going too early, and that saved us precious time since the air up there was shifty and light. As a result we rounded ahead of Battlewagon.
On the next leg, they made up some ground on us, but we were just enough ahead when we met, that we got across their bow even though we were on port!
Our first hoist was a bit slow and messy. I was expecting that we’d be favoured if we had the pole on port, so we planned a Jibe set, but once we got around the mark and hoisted, it was clear this was the wrong move — it sent us back toward the light air at Burlington shore, rather than to the better air in the other direction. No problem, a quick jibe got us on track.
Battelwagon and Top Gun had gone further to the Hamilton shore, sailing hotter angles and chasing better wind, but it didn’t pay for them. We made up ground on Top Gun and kept Battlewagon well astern.
Back up to #5 we were wiser this time and kept to the better air toward the south, and on the approach to #1 several boats from earlier fleets had to dip us, and we slipped through several spinnakers on our way to the mark, rounding with a nice lead on Battlewagon.
This time we were ready with the right setup for the hoist, and gobbled up a few more boats including our friends on Pandora II, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to Top gun.
Just a quick leg from 14 to 15 for the finish — a great result on a stellar night!
I’m sitting here with a cup of tea for a reason. And slowly I am thawing out. It’s not that it was freezing cold out there. It’s that we got completely soaked and then the temperature dropped. After putting the boat away in a downpour, we sat under the tin roof of the BBQ dock pretending our cold beer was a hot toddy. What a night of change.
In the afternoon, the wind was howling from the southwest and I had images of new speed records. At the dock at 5:30pm, it was quite a different story. Storm clouds moved in, and slurped up the wind. All along the north shore, there was thunder with lightening in the distance. We waited at the dock until it appeared that the storm was moving off toward Toronto. All this time, Hamilton was sunny, so we headed out to the start line.
The wind dropped steadily, so that by the time we started, there was barely a whisper and we struggled to get the boat moving. Slowly we tacked onto port and filled the sails, coaxing 0.6 knots of boat speed. Top Gun pulled well ahead, and Battlewagon stayed on port tack to the Hamilton shore. Eventually we built to almost three knots of speed on a good course to the windward mark. By now, Battlewagon appeared to have overtaken us, but they were far to leeward at the Hamilton shore. When they tacked to the layline, they got a knock, we picked up a lift and it became clear that we were ahead of them.
But it also became clear that the wind was dying completely. Time to cue the video — a gorgeous western sky with smoothly undulating water reflecting nature’s best.
Slowly, we bobbed toward the mark, and feared that the current would sweep us into the mark, necessitating a 360 degree penalty turn. Just at that time, the whisper of a wind shifted direction 180 degrees and we were able to react quickly, get a bit of momentum and jibe around the windward mark. That was strange!
Top Gun had rounded earlier, and were completely becalmed with their spinnaker up when the wind shifted around. By the time they doused and gathered momentum, we had closed the gap on them significantly. Gradually we found a bit more wind until we got a comfortable 3 knots of boat speed. But ahead we could see that the storm was on its way back. A straight line on the water showed bigger wind coming our way, and buckets of rain and thunder behind it. The heavens opened up just as the committee boat announced the race was abandoned.
We gave Top Gun a farewell buzz before heading across to LaSalle, shivering as we stowed the sopping gear. I think I’ll have another cup of tea.
There’s a chapter in Walker’s book on advanced racing tactics that talks about the perils of greed. Tonight, yours truly learned the hard way that Walker was indeed correct!
It was a very chilly night on the bay. Temperature was 11C, feels like 8 on land, but with a cold Northeasterly breeze off the frigid lake it was much colder out there. Add a layer of fog spreading out overhead, and it was spectacularly cold, especially upwind! Before the race, the cold was seeping into to me despite thermal underwear, but once we were in our start sequence, that all faded away, and we were warmed inside by the action and the fun.
The breeze was really perfect. An almost steady 8-10 knots, a bit lighter near mark 8 (close in to the Burlington shore), so there was plenty of power, but no stressful moments. And that was a relief since we were a little short handed with both David and Squirrel doing double duty on our first Thursday race of the season. These guys flung away their cobwebs quickly though — just compare hoist 1 and hoist 2 in the highlight real and you will see the crew leap up the learning curve!
And our old friends on Big Yellow were out to play today. So what did I do? You bet, we tangled with them! And I got greedy at the leeward mark. And it didn’t pay. And after the race, Skootch pointed out that I missed an opportunity on the approach to that mark — we would have been in our rights to push them up and cross their bow to claim the inside lane to the leeward mark. In summary, a missed opportunity and my greedy blunder cost us about 15 boat lengths — probably enough to claim second. Instead we’ll settle for a third.
But enough yammering….let’s have the play by play!
Today the start was well timed. The rest of our fleet went for the pin end, and we took the line near the boat. It seemed like we were first across the line, and crossed well ahead of Eclipse who tacked to port early. Upwind we found a nice mode after a bit of sail trim adjustments to get speed, but tacked a bit early for the layline. An easy correction and we headed to the mark behind Top Gun, Eclipse and Take Notice Again. But not far astern at all. Our first hoist was fair, but we took our time to make sure everything was set. We almost immediately put in a jibe and had a great run down to the leeward mark, overtaking Eclipse and making up ground on Big Yellow and Top Gun.
Approaching the mark, we converged with Big Yellow. We were both on port and PERSPECTIVE was the leeward boat, sailing a hotter angle. I might have been able to push them up and pull clear ahead before the 3-boat-length circle around the leeward mark, but I didn’t recognize the opportunity until Skootch pointed it out later. Instead, since I wanted to give us all lots of time to douse, I gave Big Yellow the inside lane. The douse was no problem, but we lost a lot of speed as Big Yellow’s enormous wind shadow smothered us.
And then I got greedy.
“Stall, David, stall”, I whispered, and we let our sails go slack, slowing the boat as Big Yellow passed.
“Calvin, let me know when I am clear of their stern”, I whispered to the bow.
Once clear I began the turn, planning to sneak into the gap that I expected Big Yellow to leave as they rounded the mark. I had this picture in my head of slipping in to windward of them, and stealing their air. But they were onto us, and shut the door at the last second.
I had no choice, but to bear up, miss the mark, and put in a 360 to get around it. By then, Big Yellow was 10 boatlengths ahead and flying away at full speed. We never caught them.
Greed…one of the seven deadly sins. Starting to sink in. 🙂
Never mind! We just had to try 😉
Back up and back down we got more chances to practice our tacking, our trim, our hoist, our jibes, and we made up some of the distance, but not enough to overtake Big Yellow, even though they owe us 10 seconds per mile.
But we all agreed — just add 15 more degrees centigrade and a nice sunset, and it would have been a perfect night on the water!
Hat’s off to Skootch, Squirrel and Lifeline for braving the elements.
It all came down to the finish. We got a knock heading for the pin end of the line. TopGun and Sandpiper were to windward. Without that knock it would have been a photo finish for all three boats, but as it happened, we needed two tacks to cross the line for a third place finish. But never mind, I’m all aglow with the satisfaction of hunting Top Gun to the finish line. Fantastic!
And it didn’t come easily. Twice, we lost enough time to make all the difference, and even so, it came down to that last wind shift. Fantastic!
It was a chilly night on the bay, especially upwind into the northeastern breeze. Wind was 8-10 knots away from the burlington shore, but there were some deep holes near mark #9, and we were almost becalmed at times. But the western sky was beautiful as the sun lowered into fluffly clouds down at the end of the bay.
Here’s the play by play:
Our start was tragic. I’m totally out of rhythm. The lads kept the boat moving fast, and our tacks were really crisp, but I wandered around too long to far below the line, putting in too many tacks. In the end we managed a port-tack start near the boat end of the line — and that is sort of what I think I wanted — but we were at least 20 seconds late, passing just astern of Battlewagon.
On port we raced out toward Hamilton, where we believed the stronger wind was, and at times we were crusing along at 7+ knots with tons of clear air. Eventually the breeze began to slacken so we tacked to cross the bay and rejoin our fleet. It was really cool, all the boats tacked onto the same line as us, and we were all really close, but we were trailing them all — Battlewagon was really flying with brand new mainsail and genoa, and they had pulled quite some distance away from us. At this time, we could clearly see that we were pointing higher than Top Gun. In fact, I think we were pointing as high as anyone in the fleet — Oh what a feeling! But I didn’t like following on the same line, so we tacked away, and this was our second mistake: I didn’t account for the freighter at anchor, and tacked too soon to clear him. When we ran out of room and tacked back, we fell into a huge lull, while the rest of our fleet carried on without delay.
Combine those two errors, and we were the last to round the weather mark, at least a minute behind everyone in our fleet. But then, as so often happens, we hoisted crisply, filled the spinnaker in the light breeze and began to reel everyone in. After a quick jibe it did not take long to overtake Eclipse and Battlewagon, who didn’t raise their spinnakers. Sandpiper had put in a jibe set, and sailed high over toward Hamilton in hopes of catching better air more quickly. Top Gun had jibed earlier than us and were sailing very deep. We gathered speed and then turned downwind following Top Gun’s track. Flying the kite in the light breeze was tricky, and it changed directions a bit — but we were really sharp, and made small adjustments to our trim to get the most from the wind. Slowly but surely we closed the gap on Top Gun, but not quite enough to steel their air — that would have been dreamy!
As we approached the leeward mark, all three of us converged, with Top Gun rounding first, Sandpiper getting by us and just a few boatlengths separating each boat. Our douse was slick, and we waited to the last moment, rounded and began to power up.
Decision time. Top Gun pushed toward the Hamilton shore before tacking onto the layline for the boat end of the finish line. Sandpiper tacked at almost the same moment, aiming at the middle of the line. We tacked too, hoping for the pin end. It was looking really good as we powered up and it looked like the pin end was nearer — had we cut off a corner and shaved precious boat lengths? Alas no! Just before the line, we got knocked, and had to tack twice to finish.
I guess you could call this the one that got away!
