It may be November in some parts of the world (well, technically, it's November here too), but in San Diego there are still sailboat races to be raced. And so on Sunday Dave, Ross, & Midshipman Krabby, representing the Maris Stella Yacht Club, entered a Capri 22 in the 2004 Harbor Sailboats Fall Fleet Race.
The format was a course around channel buoys from mid-Harbor Island to the northeast tip of Shelter Island, then across the bay, then down past the Coronado Bridge, and finally back up to the western tip of Harbor Island — roughly 10 nautical miles. Boats of all sizes were welcome to enter.
Since larger boats go faster, the start was staggered according to boat capabilities. The 22s were to go off the line at 11:30, the next largest a couple of minutes later, and so on. Chaotic as that may seem, the start turned out to be a little more so as the race committee only set up the line at about 11:20, and at some distance from where everyone had gathered. The committee was determined to hold to schedule, however, so boats turned on engines just to reach the line on time, a planned 10-minute gun was never sounded, and much pre-start maneuvering went by the wayside. Even so, that didn't excuse our having left ourselves in position to be luffed up at the committee-boat end by our old friend Steve McNally and, as a result — how shall I say it — "nudging," "grazing," "kissing" the committee boat itself. Doh! Penalty turn for you, Captain Dave!
But after that we sailed well enough, remaining near the front at the first several marks. The long leg from Shelter Island down past the Coronado Bridge was downwind with crews winging the jib (that is to say, holding it out by hand on the side opposite the main) in a breeze that freshened enough to raise whitecaps on the bay (a much rarer occurrence here than on Barnegat, with our much deeper water and typically lighter winds). Many crew members complained of sore arms at the after-race party. The lead boats (us among them) were initially close enough to hail one another, but near downtown, where the bay widens, they separated into two groups on opposite sides of the course. Near the bridge they converged again and incredibly everyone seemed to be in the same position and the same relative distance apart. Everyone except, that is, for Frederic Hayem — you remember him, the one who you never see anything of him except his transom? Well, we couldn't see anything of him except his transom. Somewhere way ahead.
We rounded the downwind buoy and started some hard tacking (remember, whitecaps, strong breeze) and had a "moment." Somehow we slipped back and lost quite a few boat lengths and positions. But we kept sailing, regained much of what we had lost, and found that Frederic was untouchable, so was the second-place boat (that pesky Steve), but we were neck and neck for third (out of 15 boats, by the way) with a guy named Sheldon Black. We would gain a bit, he would gain a bit; we'd have a good tack, he'd get a good lift, and so on until...we ended a two-and-a-half-hour race with him crossing the finish line 15 seconds ahead of us.
Ah, but all was not lost: It turns out that in that chaotic start Sheldon crossed the line early by about a boat length and a half and never came back to start properly. A race committee would typically, I gather, assess a three-minute penalty for that; our committee had already resolved to be "nice" and assess only a one-minute penalty, but even that was enough to give us the third.
Results and pictures are at this link.
There's been some talk already about the 2005 Spring Fleet Race: Ross might join the club and enter his own boat, and we might be recruiting some high-quality east-coast crewing talent. Waddaya think?
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
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3 comments:
great story. good work. what are you doing with all those trophies you have accumulated? you must need a separate room by now.
Thanks! I recognize that your question was rhetorical, but even so I store the trophies on top of a wall-to-wall bookshelf, and I'm beginnig to think of finding space in the garage for the excess. I'm also thinking of buying an Etchells and getting into some stiffer competition. Of course, there's that whole lack of income thing... But never mind that, are you going to come out in the spring and crew for me?
only if you buy the etchells
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