Category: Race Reports

A gusty, breezy night on the bay sent a few home with injuries tonight, and Afterguy is still glad he has all his teeth.  From least to most grave:

• Rob Irish got rope burn on a jibe (great job today on the mainsheet — a baptism by fire!)
• Four Hands got massive rope burn on all fingertips when the second douse went sour.
• Lazy Sheet pulled a hamstring.  It happened early in the race while reaching for something to tidy up.  Nasty.  We could tell he was in agony.

And Alvin wins the near-miss award, as he ducked out of the way of a swinging spinnaker pole.

Before the race, Lazy Sheet and I had hardened the shrouds.  With gusts in the high teens, we opted for the #3.  We got both of these decisions correct.

The committee sent us on two laps that were a short beat, a tight reach with the spinnaker, and a fetch.  So it was a bit of a drag race out there.  Most of the time, we were under control out there, even managing to hold the chute on a hot spinnaker angle in some pretty big gusts.  We were even able to pass two boats by hoisting clean, and a good first douse.  But at the second douse, the wheels fell off when the guy got jammed at the end of the pole, the pole came off the mast first, the spinnaker filled up high in a gust, the pole went swinging and the sheets ripped  along Les’ fingertips.  The guys got everything settled pretty quickly, but we had to sail beyond the mark which opened a window for Remarkable to slip ahead of us.  We kept Battlewagon astern, though for a fourth place finish.

Back in port, we talked through what happened and learned a bit of a lesson:  When doing a very hot douse, it’s important to do a couple things:

1. Bring the pole back to about 1 o’clock.  Yes this will destroy the spinnaker trim, but it will keep the guy from jamming in the spinnaker pole
2. Blow the sheet early, to take pressure off the guy
3. Make sure to keep the pole connected at the mast until after the guy has been released from the pole
4. And of course, if possible, steer downwind a bit to depower the douse.

Tonight was a hard way to learn these lessons.  I hope everyone heals up quickly and next week gives us 10 knots steady!

 

 

 

We began the day with a theory based on the weather forecasts.  There was light wind from the south bringing another day of stultifying heat.  Over the course of the day, it was expected to back to more of an easterly breeze, and then as the storm front approached, all bets were off about what would happen.

So, Gil and I harkened back to the reading we had done several winters ago.  Gil remembered “take the bad tack early”, and I remembered “sail toward the expected shift.”  Since both of these pointed in the same direction, we agreed that we would sail on starboard tack first, toward the SE.  This, despite the fact that there was a seductively decent sea breeze setting up along the shore.  That sea breeze attracted nearly all the boats today, but all the top honours went to the boats that sailed the road less travelled.

Heidi & Marika were tending the jib sheets today and put in several great tacks to give us a good start.  It was great to be sailing with my girls!

One more lesson from our reading popped into my mind:  we didn’t need to be greedy. So long as we were positioned favorably relative to the fleet, we didn’t need to take extreme measures.  So we tacked once we were further east than the other most easterly boat.  And as the wind rotated toward the East, we headed straight to the turning mark in Stoney Creek, easing our sheets and gaining speed, while all those who went along the shore had to climb all the way back to the rhumb line close hauled.  Along our course, we overtook Chimo II, who had made the same choice we did — a great reassurance that we had chosen the better side of the course.

Sure enough, the entire fleet appeared astern and to leeward of us.  We were feeling great!  Mark kept his eye on the chart plotter to help me steer the best course, we trimmed to get the most performance we could, and Gil readied the spinnaker, hoping for a nice run down to the finish line.  We were clearly in the lead as we approached the turning mark, while Perry-Eh had to put in some tacks to get up to the mark.

But just as we were preparing to round, we got a very large and very inconvenient knock.  There was no way to make the mark, and the pole was in the way.  We tacked with the pole there, and almost hove-to or got caught in irons.  By bringing the boom way above centre-line, we were able to gain some distance to windward and round the mark.  What a massive surprise at exactly the wrong moment. Probably cost us a minute.

That wind shift also meant that our last leg began as a very hot spinnaker angle.  Pole forward and low, main in, we began to fly away from the others.  Things were looking pretty sweet for us, until the wind continued to turn, and we couldn’t hold the kite anymore. Gadget pulled off the hottest douse we’ve ever done (60 degree apparent wind angle in 12 knots of breeze!!), and we finished the race almost close hauled on the #1 genoa.

It was so satisfying to get line honours today: the first boat across the finish line — and a full five minutes ahead of Perry-Eh!  The road less travelled had everything: strategy that paid, a tricky rounding, and a very athletic surge to the line.  Was it enough to claim first place on Perry-Eh?  My doubts were confirmed a little later on.  Not quite enough.  We owed them about eight minutes, so they got us on PHRF.  Never mind, it was a great thrill to lead the fleet home!

 

What a change from yesterday.  Today, the water was beckoning already at 8 o’clock when we pulled into Dalhousie marina, and it just got better from there.

Special thanks to Skootch’s personalized livery service:  we all met up at my place (David and Alvin had already dropped off a car at Oakville), and Skootch delivered us to our boat in St Catherines.  Couldn’t have been any easier.  We especially appreciated this at the end of the day when the racing was done, and we were sun-kissed, tired and wobbly from the rolling swell that had developed.  Thanks Dad!

Originally, this was supposed to be a fleet start race, which would have had us underway at 10:20.  The organizers switched it up, to make it a pursuit race, which meant we had almost another hour to burn.  What did we do?  We went sailing!

As we tasted the wind, and got our bearings, we saw that there was a narrow possibility to fly the spinnaker.  The wind was from about 60 degrees (ENE), and we were heading to compass bearing 308 — about 110 degrees True Wind Angle.  Could we hold the spinnaker at that angle in 8 knots of breeze?  Only one way to find out:  We hoisted and tried it out.  Answer:  WOW that was exciting and fast, and we were asking for a broach, but YES we could!

We moved our coolers to the high side, stern corner, and Afterguy strapped them in.  Anything for a bit of extra ballast.  Douse, repack the bag, re-run the lines, and ready for the start — with the spinnaker ready to deploy.

Check the wind again….hmmm, it has backed about 20 degrees to more of a pure Northeast direction.  Too hot for the spinnaker.

So we focused on getting a good start with the #1 genoa up.  For the first time this week, we nailed the start, right at the line on time, and plenty of boat speed.  We aimed 5 degrees above the rhumb line:  insurance against any further backing of the wind, and hoping for a veer so we could pop the chute and blast through the fleet.  In the end, neither event happened, so we changed our course about midway to aim straight for the finish line at lower, faster wind angles.

The entire course took only about three hours!  Our average speed was about 7 knots, with a peak of 8.22!  The secret was to try to catch the waves that had developed, and surf down them.  It was all in the timing of when to steer upwind to accelerate and when to steer downwind to ride the wave.  When I caught a good one it was an amazing feeling.  David tweaked the genoa and main from time to time, and Alvin and Mark tested out different positions for the ballast.  When they moved to the stern on the high side, we averaged 0.3 knots faster than when they were on the beam.  We figured this out about half-way through the race.  Carried for 10 nautical miles at these speeds, it was worth about 3.8 minutes of time. (hold that thought).

First, and most notable, Battlewagon did not gain on us.  During the race we managed to extend our lead significantly.  We also gained on the rest of our fleet and began to slowly gobble them up, first Lindemere and then Tardis.  We had Perry-Eh in our sites at the finish, but couldn’t quite reel them in.  They got us by about two minutes.  Hmmm, what if we had the guys sitting further aft for the whole race?  Would that have been enough?  Maybe!

After we finished, we watched the rest of the boats come in, and enjoyed seeing Battlewagon overtake Tardis at the line, crossing ahead by one second!  Battlewagon third, PERSPECTIVE second, Perry-Eh third.  By my estimation, that puts solidly in second place overall.  2 points behind Perry-Eh, and three points ahead of Tardis.  One more race to go!

 

 

Yesterday’s thunderstorm cleared out the worst of the humidity and dropped the temperature a few degrees, making for a very comfortably hot summer day.  But the thunderstorm also slurped up all the wind on the north shore of Lake Ontario.  We hoped a sea breeze would set in, and thought our late start in today’s pursuit race would build in time for us.  But that was not in the cards.

After about an hour and a half of trying to get the boats going, the race was abandoned.  Engines turned on, sails were furled, tarps were spread over the booms and the boats began to motor toward Port Dalhousie.  Once we were in the shade and the boat speed created a cooling breeze, we munched lunch and started to relax.

About an hour later, we found new wind, and once we were convinced it was strong enough and stable, we removed the tarp, hoisted sail and began to enjoy a three hour cruise all the way to St Catherines. We were cruising along At 6+ knots and barely had to touch a sheet all the way.  Mark Quinn on Snowbird snapped a gorgeous photo of us as we overtook them.  Love it!

Near port we stayed out for another great swim, and discovered that the water was much warmer here.  Somehow, the PERSPECTIVE Olympic games were born, as each crew member competed at a new sport.  I went and sat on the lifesaver at the end of its line, and the competitors hauled me in to the boat while someone else timed them.  Fun for me — I got four free rides.  Not sure who won.

Once docked and tied up we enjoyed  appetizers and cocktail samples courtesy of the cruising boats and then a BBQ feast at the Dalhousie Yacht Club.

So, no race results for today, but a lot of laughs and one very memorable cruise on the azure blue of Lake Ontario on a cloudless summer day.  Tomorrow, we are hoping for wind, for a great race to Oakville.

We have been known to invoke “Robert’s rules of order” from time to time on PERSPECTIVE.  After all, it’s my boat, so we may as well follow my rules 😉

Today began like yesterday.

• Smoking hot whether
• Similar wind.  (Actually slightly more — we opted for the #2)
• Course was essentially the first half of yesterday’s race
• Not a great start
• An excellent first leg to make up ground.

We were just astern of Battlewagon and Perry-Eh at the CCIW spider.

But now we used some learning from the day before.  Rather than jibing toward the lake, we did a bear away set of the spinnaker, and sailed a hot angle to position ourselves further inshore than our rivals.  Getting there involved some memorable moments as we worked our way to windward of the fleet.  First we overtook R-magic (a lovely red-hulled C&C35) on the windward side by sailing a hot angle from leeward, coming in really close to steal their wind and then push beyond them while they were recovering from our wind shadow.  We attempted the same thing on Battlewagon, but Chris was on to us and we both sailed higher for a while until I turned downwind.

Then we all fell into a hole, just like yesterday.

But this time, we were just able to hold onto our boat speed and just kept sailing as high an angle as the spinnaker would bear — 60 degrees at some points!  (pole all the way forward)  Slowly, we eked toward the Burlington shore, while the rest of the fleet wallowed on the rhumb line to Bronte.

There was a moment of crisis, when we lost our wind entirely.  We all claim that Bert telepathically communicated to us that we should be patient and persist toward shore.   The motion was made, seconded, there was minimal discussion and the motion was carried.  We will do nothing drastic, and persist in toward shore.  Eventually we could see a darker band of water in close to shore, and cruising sailboats making good speed within it.  Our hearts were gladdened (and our electrolytes rebalanced by frozen juice boxes), and then we got our first sniff of the new wind.

Our boat speed began to climb: 0.6 knots…1.1 knots…1.7 knots…2.2 knots, 3.1 knots, 4.8 knots, 6.2 knots!!!!

THE MOTION CARRIED INDEED!

In the new breeze, we were the envy of the fleet, sailing hot and pressing well into shore where we found 10 knots of fresh breeze.  A jibe, and a deeper angle in the better air, and we crested the Shell pier well ahead of our fleet, with only one GHYRA racer anywhere nearby.  “It’s a Conspiracy”, who started ten minutes before us, had managed to escape the worst of the hole and were sailing a deep line to the finish.  We debated whether to sail hot and jibe, or soak down to the line.  We opted for the latter and got the gun eight minutes before Battlewagon. Perry-Eh and Tardis were not far behind them.

It’s hard not to count chickens before they hatch, but this feels like a first place finish for us.  We’ll find out in a few hours!

Apres sail was lunch under mainsail slowly heading to deeper water, a refreshing swim, coronas with lime (to prevent scurvy), another swim.  We were docked and happily driving in air conditioning when the thunderstorm rolled in and gave the world a much needed drink.

More tomorrow!

Canada Day was VERY hot, with a firm breeze in the forecast (8 kts building to 12, no gusts), so they set us off on a 23 nautical mile course.  As you can see above, the forecast wasn’t quite right!  It was a long hot day out in the sun, for the crew, and our guests: Michelle, Cathy and Renee came along for the ride.

We had to choose which way to go around the course: clockwise or counter-clockwise.  It seemed obvious based on the forecasted wind (clockwise), but out at the pre-start, it was a toss up.  In the end we chose clockwise, as did most of our boats.  Only five boats chose counter-clockwise and they won all the top honours.

Our start wasn’t great.  We horsed around a bit with the spinnaker bag and pole to try to make Battlewagon think we were going to go counter-clockwise, as a result, we started slowly, and Top Gun had overtaken us before we even started 🙁  (Since it was a pursuit race, we started at 11:14, while they and Battlewagon started 20 seconds after us.  To give you an idea of the spread, Chewan started at 10:00).

The first leg to the CCIW spider was a close reach, with the #1 genoa up and the shrouds still soft.  We were flying along at 7+ knots, keeping Battlewagon astern and almost keeping up to Top Gun.

We jibed around the spider, whereas Top Gun and Battlewagon bore away, pushing more toward shore.  After some time, we jibed too and were doing well, until the entire clockwise fleet fell into an enormous hole.  The wind ground to a halt, and all the boats that started before us were bobbing along helplessly.

At first it seemed like we would be able to ghost through, and we overtook many boats, but then the inevitable caught up to us also, and we began to wallow.  Closer into shore, Battlewagon and Top Gun had a little better luck, ghosted further and then were able to link up with the building sea breeze nearer the shore.  They were away and one by one boats began to pull away, until it was our turn.  We spent more than half an hour in the doldrums, but it felt like an eternity.  Sanity was preserved by ice cold hats of water thrown on us, and frozen juice boxes.

Once away, we began to cheer up.  Even though we were well astern of Battlewagon at this time, nearly the entire fleet was behind us.  About this time, Perry-Eh, Stigaro and Tardis passed us going in the opposite direction — the three boats who took top honours in our fleet, likely because they were able to avoid the hole on their way upwind.  Also about this time, Battlewagon doused at the wrong mark and began to head to the next turning point.  We didn’t notice right away, but when we figured it out, I hailed them on the radio to let them know.  They turned back to round properly, but that cost them the race.

Leg three was close hauled in a growing breeze for 10 nautical miles.  We had left the shrouds soft and the new breeze was feeling a lot like the forecast, so I asked Calvin and Mark to try to harden the shrouds while we were sailing close hauled.  Somehow they were able to do it — and that made a huge difference on the next leg.  At first, we were sailing a course about 20 degrees low of the mark, and I began to wonder if we should tack to consolidate our position, but slowly the wind began to veer and we got lifted gradually until we were right on the layline to the mark.  We could see Top Gun ahead with their black sails, and there were three others that we were hunting.

Leg four was a thrill ride, almost close hauled in a breeze that was bigger and gustier than forecast.  The big gusts were easily 20 knots of wind.  We were over-powered with the #1 genoa up, but the guys were on it.  Gadget worked that traveler and sheet like a piston, and Squirrel eased the genoa sheet in the biggest gusts.  We were flying!  Slowly we started to gain on the boats ahead, and we slipped by one of them.  Up ahead, the second one got hit by a gust so hard they lost control and did a complete 360 degree turn!  When mother nature got the best of us, we had the cockpit full of water.  Calvin had to unplug the drain hole to bail out 4 inches worth!

I didn’t see the final results, but we counted 7 or 8 boats that finished ahead of us, out of a total complement of 53 racers.  A very gratifying result, and enough for a third place finish in our fleet for GHYRA day one.

But the next hour was a genuine highlight.  We dropped anchor, quenched our inner heat with a long swim in chilly water, enjoyed perfect Mojitos (complements of Gadget the mixologist), mourned the spoilage of beautiful shrimp kabobs (courtesy of Lazy Sheet) all on the awesome cockpit table (courtesy of Squirrel).  This is a team sport!  The spirit on board was fabulous as we watched boat after boat come in for the finish.

We timed our return to harbor so that we wouldn’t be waiting long in the heat for dinner.  Newport served up a perfect steak dinner, but we were baking like potatoes.  After the results were called out, and we picked up one more GHYRA glass for our collection, we went back out, dropped anchor again and enjoyed fireworks from the boat in the comfortable twilight temperatures.  Nearby there were several impressive displays, the FIASCO organizers set off donated fireworks (thanks Gadget & Lazy Sheet!) and then in the distance we could watch the colossal shows from Bronte, Burlington, Confederation Park, and Hamilton.

GHYRA is off to a wonderful start with a SPLASH, many BANGS, and a third place finish!

A stunning warm summer evening with not a cloud in sight, and a big full moon rising just after sunset.  For the last race in June we couldn’t ask for more….except perhaps a do-over on the shroud adjustment.

There were conflicting forecasts, and when we arrived at the boat, the breeze was pretty soft.  So Bert and I dialed down the shrouds to something softer, suitable for 0-8 knots.  In the pre-start, there were some gusts well above ten knots but we set the #1.  It was the wrong combination.  With soft shrouds, the deep #1 genoa powered up and we couldn’t point.  Right off the start, I could feel something was wrong and we slipped to leeward of the line all the other boats were carrying — in stark contrast to other nights when we were able to hold our lane with the J35s in similar conditions.

Sure enough, by the windward mark, we were astern of the fleet.  A great hoist and jibe with Michael on the foredeck  got us approaching the leeward mark with the inside lane on Battlewagon and a flotilla of large white-sail boats.  I was hoping that would give us an advantage on the upwind, but our friends on Battlewagon were just able to pull clear ahead and round ahead of us.

We tacked away toward clear air, and by now we had changed the headsail to the #2, and we were able to sail upwind with much better balance, but we were under-powered in the lulls.  Looking back, the right move would have been to leave the #1 headsail in place, and harden the shrouds instead.

Lesson learned!  In case you are wondering how much we loosened the shrouds:  4 mm for the uppers, 3mm for the mids, and 2mm for the lowers.  Some races are just won and lost at the docks 🙁

Never mind!  Back in port, just as we finished putting the sails away, Squirrel arrived with a cart full of wood, tools and screws.  Just after dark, le voila!  PERSPECTIVE has a table:

 

Shortly after the start tonight we had Starboard advantage on Battlewagon at a close crossing.  We hollered and hollered until finally someone popped their head around to see us.  Too late to dip, they put in a crash tack and we rolled over them.  Check it out:

And that took care of Battlewagon for the evening.  The real battle was with Sandpiper, and they got us by four seconds at the finish.  That’s two photo finishes in a row!  Here’s how it went…

It was another perfect summer evening, steady 10-12 knots with a few gusts here and there.  A great night for technical sailing.  Our start would have been good, but all the other boats had perfect starts, and we got squeezed into a sandwich.  Once clear of the committee boat we tacked away into clear air and enjoyed a nice high line.  We flew the #2 genoa, which was nice and fast and allowed us to keep the mainsail filled.  In fact, we often had to ease the traveler to keep good balance, so it was the right choice for the night.  The bigger boats in our fleet (all of them) flew their bigger headsails, so we were happy to hold our own upwind and round slightly astern of them (aside from Battlewagon).

During the hoist, something funny happened at the mast track, and the pole popped off.  I scampered up to the foredeck and had a look.  Nothing serious…just dropped the mast track car one position and all was good.  After a slightly delayed hoist we heated up and began to get moving.  But this put us closer to the Burlington shore than the fleet — not the desired strategic position — so we jibed, crossed just astern of Sandpiper, and headed over to better air toward Hamilton.  This is the third time in a row we have made this move, and each time it has paid off.  Not only did we have clear air, we had slightly better wind, AND we had the inside lane approaching the leeward mark!

Sandpiper was ahead and outside, and had just put in a jibe.  We were debating whether to jibe to cover them (and keep hold of the inside lane), or to stand pat for a while, trusting to hotter angles for more boat speed.  At this time Christephanie managed to tangle with Sandpiper.  They had crossed our bow on a hot angle on Starboard.  Because Sandpiper had just jibed onto Port, they had to give way, and began sailing deeper, slightly away from the mark.  That was our cue.  We jibed, and sailed to the leeward mark in the inside lane.  Afterguy and Irish put in a crisp douse and at the rounding, Sandpiper were just astern.  Perfect!

But somehow, this advantage began to slip away. We should have been able to smother them with dirty air and then cover them to the finish, but first we weren’t pointing as high, then our next tack (across their bow) got fouled with the jib sheet caught in the hatch cover (and maybe an Irish leg?).  By the time we recovered, we had lost a crucial boat length or two.

We separated from them to try to regain advantage, but it came down to a photo finish that went their way, a bit less than a boat length between us.

It just shows once again how every detail matters.  It’s so fun to be in the hunt!

Another beautiful night with steady breeze.  Being the solstice, the committee boat set a long course.  This is the first time we’ve flown a spinnaker from one end of the bay (#11) all the way down to the other (#3).  A marvelous parade of backlit spinnakers heading toward the lowering sun.

If ever there was a night when every detail mattered, tonight was it.  Six boats out in our fleet, including Sabotage, Remarkable, Top Gun, Battlewagon and Sandpiper.  Game on!

After the start, we wanted to go to the right side of the course, so we put in a quick tack into clear air to sail our own race, while the rest of the fleet went left.  We didn’t quite have our usual pace, which may have been because I had dialed more tension into the shrouds before the race (it had been blowing 10+knots in the marina).  Regardless, we slipped further behind all the other boats with each crossing.

Approaching the layline, I could see that each of them had tacked early, so we pushed beyond them and nailed it.  The others needed extra tacks and Sandpiper tried to pinch the mark which cost them dearly.  As a result, we rounded ahead of Sandpiper and just astern of Remarkable and Battlewagon.  Our hoist was good and we gained quickly on Battlewagon.  ReMarkable’s hoist was slow.  We were almost able to push through to leeward of both of them — that would have been grand — but we couldn’t punch through their wind shadow.  Once we fell back, we crossed Battlewagon’s stern, got clear air and stole their wind.  With the extra speed, we got ahead, and I soaked down to their line, whispering to the guys to get ready to jibe.

 

We got ahead, jibed and headed for our own lane of clear air away from all the other boats.  We jibed back a minute or two later.  It cost us some distance, but as a result we sailed in clear air at a slightly hotter angle to the leeward mark, with a firm claim to the inside lane.  It was the longest run within the bay we have ever done.  At times, it felt like we were falling behind Battlewagon, at other times, it felt like we had overtaken Remarkable (who had managed to overtake Battlewagon to windward).  We tweaked our trim and did everything to go fast — Squirrel even held the boom up to try to scoop some more wind with the mainsail (seemed to work!).  A nice little wind shift to the North allowed us to soak down toward the mark and cut a corner off our competitors.  We put in a late jibe, and held the spinnaker up as long as we dared before dousing.  Every meter mattered as we rounded inside Battlewagon and powered up with them in our bad air astern and to leeward.  We began to pull away as they footed off.

The home stretch was thrilling.  Lots of quick tacks, had to duck a little yellow boat.  Forced Battlewagon to duck us.  Just got across their bow on port (that was close), and finally tried to lee bow them (unsuccessfully) at the finish line.  It was a photo finish.  Squirrel claims we were mast-to-mast when he heard the horn.  Can’t wait to see the results!

And special thanks to Michael Verduyn who joined us tonight on the foredeck.  That’s how we dared to hold the douse for so long.

RESULTS JUST CAME IN:  We crossed the line one second ahead of Battlewagon!  (after PHRF correction, we beat them by 13 seconds).  Wow that was tight — just 0.02% difference in time, or 0.001 knots difference in average speed.  Less than the last digit on our speedometer!  I feel like a downhill skier!

It was a gorgeous evening with more wind than expected.  We softened the shrouds down to the 0-8 range, and didn’t hesitate to hoist the #1 genoa.  Kiwi put in a solid start, well timed full speed around the middle of the line and we hiked hard to hold our lane.  Battlewagon to leeward, Top Gun to windward, and Sandpiper just behind them.

We believed there was better wind toward Hamilton, so we tacked over early, and were able to cross ahead of Sandpiper.  Next cross we were astern of Sandpiper, the result of some knocks.  By the windward mark we had regained third spot, not far behind Battlewagon, with Top Gun just a short way ahead of them.

Hoist was solid, and then we made our move with a quick jibe aiming at the better wind toward the Hamilton shore.  We weren’t too happy with our spinnaker trim until we hit the slightly better air. Then we got her trimmed up and Kiwi started to get the feel of the heat and burn approach to sailing hot angles with the spinnaker: head upwind slightly until the boat picks up speed; this shifts the apparent wind forward, and you can slowly turn downwind until eventually the speed burns off, and then you heat it up again.  We pushed far toward the Hamilton shore.  Top Gun and Battlewagon stayed on the Burlington side in lighter air, Sandpiper split the difference.  The question was:  was the extra speed worth the extra distance?

Coming in to the leeward mark, the answer was definitely YES. Top Gun were not far ahead, Battlewagon were astern, and Sandpiper behind us got the inside line on them for the rounding.  We held our douse until late, and the lads brought the kite down in no time.  Check it out:

Around we went, well ahead of the other two boats for the beat the finish.  In fact, we were handily outpointing Sandpiper, spilling some bad wind on them.  Somehow the spinnaker sheet got afoul of the jib sheet.  Four hands sorted that out, and we put in a pair of tacks to finish second, respectably near Top Gun.  A great result on a great night!