Sailing News

The story so far.... After two days of racing in a four-day series, we'd completed five races, taking three firsts, a third, and a fourth, giving us a substantial series lead of four and a quarter points. (As you may know, each boat in a race receives the number of points that corresponds to the place it finishes — two for second, three for third, and so on — except that, as a bonus, the first-place boat receives three-quarters of a point. The boat with fewest points at the end of all racing is the winner.)

Day three saw Lieutenant Stu and Midshipman Graham replacing the usual crew. The results: a second, a first, and a fourth, with an overall drop of one point to our principal challenger. But going into the final day we were still a comfortable three and one-quarter points ahead. Incidentally, those who remained ashore took some videotape of this day's racing; we'll bring it to New Jersey in July.

Finally, day four of racing. We really had only one challenger — a guy named Steve McNally — to watch for; no one else was close enough to pass us. Race One: A terrible start put us in an unfavored position, and we couldn't get the boat moving well enough to pass anyone. We ended up fourth, two boats behind Steve. Ross said, "The problem, I think, is you were a bit tense," and I replied, "I AM NOT TENSE! WATTAYA MEAN, TENSE!" Sensing that he may nevertheless have been on to something, and knowing that we still held the overall lead, I relaxed and got a beautiful start in the second race. We approached from below the line on starboard tack timed perfectly to cross as the starting gun sounded, used our leward-boat rights to send one boat off where it didn't want to go and another over the line early, and crossed the line with a lee-bow advantage on Steve. (Lee-bow means that we were to leeward of Steve, but about three-quarters of a boat length ahead of him, so that wind coming off our sails deflected into the backs of his sails.) As typically happens in a lee-bow situation, he gradually fell behind us. Steve tacked onto port for clear air. We waited a few seconds and then tacked onto port to cover. We were in position not only to finish ahead of Steve, but also to win the race. And then, BANG! Our forestay broke; our mast fell down; we scrambled to drop the main before there was serious damage, made sure no one was hurt, fished the jib out of the water, secured everything, turned on the engine, and went home. Net result: last place in each of the last two races and an overall finish well out of the money.

Ah well, it's all just a warmup for the only regatta that actually counts: The Maris Stella Barnegat Light Invitational.