It’s All in the Hat

You know the story. I bought a Harvey Cedars Marina hat, I wore it while taking two firsts on the first day of the Barnegat Light Regatta, I cavalierly gave the hat to Linda and bought a new one, only to have Linda clobber me in every race on the second day of the regatta. Obvious conclusion: I’d given away my luck along with the hat. The new chapeau was a dog.

Well not so fast...

I’ve been crewing quite a bit on Valhalla all the remainder of the summer, but I haven’t had a chance to skipper my own boat until last Saturday; working up in Irvine has prevented me from taking part in the Tuesday evening Capri 22 races. At long last, however, the racing shifted from Tuesdays to Saturdays, and there I was, with Midshipman Krabby Kyle as my able crew (he having found that his usual skipper has his own work-schedule conflicts). And I was wearing my second Harvey Cedars Marina hat. Yeah, my dog was barkin’.

There was a fairly strong breeze more or less out of the south — didn’t have an anemometer handy, but it was enough to raise whitecaps on a deepwater bay and make it something of a challenge to handle a small boat with enough sail area to be easily overpowered.

And on that breezy day we had a “random leg” race, stretching somewhere between 10 to 15 nautical miles around channel buoys in San Diego bay. (From off the eastern half of Harbor Island across the bay to red 20; on to green 15, about halfway between the southern end of Shelter Island and the end of Point Loma; back again to FM 19, off the eastern tip of Harbor Island; down to red 26 on the other side of the San Diego–Coronado Bridge; back to FM19; and then finishing where we started. Just in case you happen to have a chart.)

The start unequivocally favored a port tack, but of the eight boats sailing, only three of us seemed to notice. Of the three, I got the best start (I’m delighted to say), with Jon Miyate above but behind me on the unfavored end of a lee-bow placement, and Steve McNalley alongside but below me. The other five effectively put themselves out of the race at the start. (Although Traci Miller, a Valhalla shipmate skippering one of the starboard-tack starters, did manage to finish in third when all was said and done.) There were a couple of tacks along the way, but at red 20 Kyle and I were in first place.

Then it got interesting. The route from red 20 to green 15 was, for more than a mile, close-hauled on port tack; then (owing to the shape of the bay; our course had been westerly but veered into the south and into the wind) a quick starboard tack and another quick port tack. Along that long port tack, Jon neither gained nor fell behind, but Steve steadily gained, and gained, and gained, and finally got about a boat length ahead and upwind of me. But he took his starboard tack the moment he could, and I split tacks with him, staying on port perhaps five to ten minutes longer. By the time I went over to starboard and he came back onto port, I crossed ten boat lengths ahead of him. We talked later, and neither of us knew why. Maybe I hit a favorable current. Maybe it was my hat.

But anyway, the suspense ends there. Once I rounded the second mark (ahead), almost all the rest of the way was off the wind — beam to broad reach. Perhaps because I pay better attention to the trim of my sails (ask Kyle how often I made him make adjustments; I’d say about every 10 seconds), or have more experience sailing off the wind, or both, I just pulled away from everyone. Really, for your entertainment if for no other reason I wish I could make this more exciting, but I led by a lot at every mark — 10 to 20 lengths ahead of Steve and more than are worth counting ahead of everyone else.

(Yikes! Am I tempting fate! Allow me to remind you that I am an undistinguished technical writer and my Aikido is laughable.)

So, there’s nothing wrong with my hat after all. Of course, that means I can no longer blame it for my loss in the Barnegat Light Regatta. So let me say this: All you Harbor Sailboats racers, if you thought I was tough, just be glad you didn’t have to sail against my sister!