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Eclipsed?

Race Details

  • Wind: 8-10 knots SW veering west and shifting
  • Course: 6S-Drop-14-6-Drop-14-6F (Drop mark was in front of Sarcoa restaurant)
  • Temperature: 14°C
  • RaceQs Link: Not tonight
  • Results Link: Visit
Course Map

Crew

  1. Bowman: Squirrel
  2. Mastman: Squirrel
  3. Understudy: null
  4. Pit: Afterguy
  5. Foresail Trimmer: Lazy Sheet
  6. Mainsail Trimmer: null
  7. Helm: StarPort
  8. Extra Crew: Bob Duggan trimmed the main and helped on the foredeck

 

Boy was this ever a busy night!  Plenty of breeze, a bit shifty, only one guy (person, not line) on the fore deck, and a triangle course with two laps.  That means 2x hoist, 2x jibe at the mark, 2x douse.  Squirrel sure earned his snack tonight!

And we were joined by special guest Bob Duggan (Induljence) who took care of mainsail trim and went forward for the spinnaker maneuvers. Thanks for the great tips, Bob, and for all the work on the pointy end of the boat.

But why do we call this race “Eclipsed?” ?  Well, when you watch the highlight reel you will see it.  On the first lap we fell prey to all their tactics — a lee bow, forced up while flying the spinnaker (they were flying their massive genoa), and getting stuck in their wind shadow every time we tried to pass them to leeward.  After the first douse we lost them, but by the end of the second lap, we were hunting them down to the finish line.  They crossed about 25 seconds before us.  Were we eclipsed?  It’ll be within seconds one way or another, after handicaps are applied.

It was also a night full of highlights:  7+ knots of speed, water over the rail, a fantastic start where we pulled away from the fleet, a breathtaking crossing within a meter of the stern of Black Magic (we never saw them again after that), and water over the rail!  Oh and it was the first race of the year in short sleeves and short pants…great to feel warm out there!

But it was a race won and lost by technical execution, and we’re just not ready yet to win that kind of duel.  The legs were so short there was barely a time for a breather, and each spinnaker maneuver cost us precious boat lengths.  Give us another month of experience and a full crew, and then let’s see how it goes!

But two weeks of racing, and we are still outpacing Battlewagon handily!  Sandpiper was also behind us at the finish.  Black Magic won the race, but were we second or third?  Only after the PHRF calculation will we know if we were eclipsed or not.

One thought to “Eclipsed?”

  1. NEWS FLASH: WE WERE NOT ECLIPSED!!!

    Results are posted: we finished 21 seconds behind Eclipse, but once corrected for PHRF handicaps, we edged them out by 5 seconds, for a 2nd place finish. Nice job, guys!

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