Race Night
You know wednesdays are race night for me and you know how much I look forward to it. Last night was especially enjoyable. We finished well ... REAL WELL! There was the typical 40 or so boats. Not a lot of wind, actually next to none, just the way my boat likes it.
We got off to a good start, hung in close to the barge storage area and tried to keep any boats from getting above us, for clear air. The first mark was at Browns point, we were headed right to it. Only had to tack once before the mark and once to round it. We were about the 7th or 8th boat at this point. As we rounded there were a lot of boats coming at us, about 30 or so if my 3rd grade math is correct... and not all from the same direction, so I headed out a little further than everyone else. Our next mark was the buoy at Blair waterway. It was a downwind spinnaker run, but just barely. I hesitated flying the chute because the wind was just about the point that we couldn't fly it and had to use the headsail. That far forward of the beam is just not downwind ... but it worked. I kept an eye on the fleet to our left, with nobody to our right and nobody in front of us we had a clean shot to the mark and what do you know .... we were passing the boats on our left. We had better air out where we were. By the time we got to the blair mark we were first... can I say that again ...WE WERE FIRST!
You have to understand ,,, were never first. First in our class yes, but were in D class. There are 3 classes of faster boats above us. So here we are in first place at the second mark and headed to the third mark .... Uhhhh guys .... where's the third mark? I'm so used to following I didn't listen to the announcement. Well, I listened ...but... I didn't remember. In my mind I thought the next one was the finish line, but I vaguely remembered him saying 3 marks to port ... and we've just passed the second one. Fortunately the wind was taking us right to the buoy at Hylebos waterway and I knew if there was a third that would be it. I could always say I just went that far before I tacked... yeah ... that's believable ...right ...GUYS?
As we're heading right for the third mark??? another boat, a J35 "Standing Ovation", is gaining on us. I nonchalantly hollered "do you know where your going?" they said "yes were following you!" ...Ok... not much reassurance...I tried. But after a little more "joking" with them and a look back at all the boat coming our way, I felt certain we were actually supposed to go around Hylebos ... and we did... IN FIRST PLACE!
Ok, off to the finish line which is also the start line. I could see Ed Pinkham in his new J109 coming up fast and knew what must be going thru his mind... he's thinking "I didn't just spend 250 thousand dollars on this race boat to be beat by a piece of crap like that. And I knew we couldn't hold him off for long... but Standing Ovation, an A class boat... I was staying ahead of them! The winds lightened up and were going in circles... I hate when it gets like that. The three of us lead boats got separated a little because we were all taking a little different approach to the wind problem and it was tough to tell who was ahead. Josh's (my foredeck crew) approach to appeasing the wind gods was to have another beer. IT WORKED! Josh swears by that approach... I swear he's going overboard someday trying to please the gods.
So here we are headed for the line and it dawns on me ...If ...and I say IF we actually win this race somebody's gonna lose a finger. You see it's the lead boats duty to stay at the finish line and take down the order in which the boats finish.. And I KNOW ... FOR A FACT....we don't have ANYTHING to write with. So there's gonna be about 40 names written in blood on the deck and pray it doesn't rain!
As expected Ed won. It was a photo finish between us and Standing O'. I haven't seen the official results but I'm telling EVERYONE we came in second.
Next wednesday's the start of a new series (5 races) I don't know if they will move me up a class or not. I do know ... I'm gonna bring a pen.... maybe even a piece of paper. First I'm gonna write down the course and then I'm gonna hand Josh another beer.
We had fun ...something we'll never forget and will probably never happen again.
Just wanted to share. Ken
We got off to a good start, hung in close to the barge storage area and tried to keep any boats from getting above us, for clear air. The first mark was at Browns point, we were headed right to it. Only had to tack once before the mark and once to round it. We were about the 7th or 8th boat at this point. As we rounded there were a lot of boats coming at us, about 30 or so if my 3rd grade math is correct... and not all from the same direction, so I headed out a little further than everyone else. Our next mark was the buoy at Blair waterway. It was a downwind spinnaker run, but just barely. I hesitated flying the chute because the wind was just about the point that we couldn't fly it and had to use the headsail. That far forward of the beam is just not downwind ... but it worked. I kept an eye on the fleet to our left, with nobody to our right and nobody in front of us we had a clean shot to the mark and what do you know .... we were passing the boats on our left. We had better air out where we were. By the time we got to the blair mark we were first... can I say that again ...WE WERE FIRST!
You have to understand ,,, were never first. First in our class yes, but were in D class. There are 3 classes of faster boats above us. So here we are in first place at the second mark and headed to the third mark .... Uhhhh guys .... where's the third mark? I'm so used to following I didn't listen to the announcement. Well, I listened ...but... I didn't remember. In my mind I thought the next one was the finish line, but I vaguely remembered him saying 3 marks to port ... and we've just passed the second one. Fortunately the wind was taking us right to the buoy at Hylebos waterway and I knew if there was a third that would be it. I could always say I just went that far before I tacked... yeah ... that's believable ...right ...GUYS?
As we're heading right for the third mark??? another boat, a J35 "Standing Ovation", is gaining on us. I nonchalantly hollered "do you know where your going?" they said "yes were following you!" ...Ok... not much reassurance...I tried. But after a little more "joking" with them and a look back at all the boat coming our way, I felt certain we were actually supposed to go around Hylebos ... and we did... IN FIRST PLACE!
Ok, off to the finish line which is also the start line. I could see Ed Pinkham in his new J109 coming up fast and knew what must be going thru his mind... he's thinking "I didn't just spend 250 thousand dollars on this race boat to be beat by a piece of crap like that. And I knew we couldn't hold him off for long... but Standing Ovation, an A class boat... I was staying ahead of them! The winds lightened up and were going in circles... I hate when it gets like that. The three of us lead boats got separated a little because we were all taking a little different approach to the wind problem and it was tough to tell who was ahead. Josh's (my foredeck crew) approach to appeasing the wind gods was to have another beer. IT WORKED! Josh swears by that approach... I swear he's going overboard someday trying to please the gods.
So here we are headed for the line and it dawns on me ...If ...and I say IF we actually win this race somebody's gonna lose a finger. You see it's the lead boats duty to stay at the finish line and take down the order in which the boats finish.. And I KNOW ... FOR A FACT....we don't have ANYTHING to write with. So there's gonna be about 40 names written in blood on the deck and pray it doesn't rain!
As expected Ed won. It was a photo finish between us and Standing O'. I haven't seen the official results but I'm telling EVERYONE we came in second.
Next wednesday's the start of a new series (5 races) I don't know if they will move me up a class or not. I do know ... I'm gonna bring a pen.... maybe even a piece of paper. First I'm gonna write down the course and then I'm gonna hand Josh another beer.
We had fun ...something we'll never forget and will probably never happen again.
Just wanted to share. Ken