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Highlights:
Winning - when we didn't think so. Surviving a double broach. Superb helming on the last beat. (Come on guys, you really know it was good!) Having Bob back now he's finally finished his thesis.
Downers:
Blue Chip are so occupied with trying to raise their own spinnaker that they don't see our broach - from only 100 metres away.
Result:
1st on Club Handicap. Possibly first on IRC
Lessons Learnt:
Watch yer telltails on the beat. Watch the bitch on a run.
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Winter Series Race 1. Friday 20 January
Wind 5-10 knots, North Westerly, becoming 10 - 15 knots at times.
It's another civilised briefing time today, at 10:00, and things are looking up for TeamJackal. Bob's back aboard (having emigrated, immigrated back again and now finished his blasted 'I'm too busy to go sailing' thesis), Neil is still keen, having specifically requested ?Sailing for Dummies? and Hamish arrives before the briefing without any signs of a hangover. We're racing a medium inshore today around the usual marks - and it's not really cold, about 20 C despite being mid-winter.
Amazingly we get out onto the course early - half an hour before the 11:30 start - and sail around, testing the line and the breeze. Opting for a port start we reach off and at T-minus 2, gybe around to head up for the line, passing a floundering Rapscallion and crossing only about 5 seconds late, upwind of the fleet, in clear air, at speed and with the weather gauge to boot! The others tack to starboard and we continue on port, straight into a rather large hole in the wind. Drat. But tacking out of this find we're still ahead and keep it that way up to the windward mark, Green and White Spar. Around this to starboard we reach across to East Buoy, deciding not to fly the spinnaker as the wind is all over the place. Patchy and full of holes.
Around East Buoy to starboard again we reach, to clear the reef, and then, setting spinnaker, turn for a run down to Earth Station. Rapscallion is hot on our heels, but as the wind angle increases off the land we gain. A smart, controlled drop, sees us gybe around Earth Station and reach over to Shoal Spar, before hardening up for a beat back to Pumphouse Port Buoy.
"They've laid these marks a bit close to dry land today", I mutter as our keel nudges something solid down below. And then we tack to port, very quickly. On the beat we keep losing the wind. It's swinging about 60 degrees and can't make up its mind at all. Plus, it's full of holes, which makes interesting steering as we tack our way up the centre of the course. But things are looking good as we overhaul Division II boats who started half an hour ahead of us, and continue to look quite reasonable as we approach Pumphouse Port Buoy. The wind is always gusty in this shallow bay, so it's no real surprise when we're laid flat a few times close to the mark, but we struggle up to it and tack around to starboard, just behind Blue Chip, another Division II boat.
All prepared for a good downwind leg back to Shoal Spar we set the spinnaker and shortly afterwards need to gybe her as the wind angle is horrible and the bitch is flapping and flopping. And that's the start of it:
A total howler of a double broach. A gust of wind, shifted by about 40 degrees gets us, just as we gybe. Wallop. Flat on the water, bitch flogging, rounding up and a cockpit turned into instant aquarium. But we're used to this. We've done it before. Lots. And this time there's no shouting, no swearing, no panic. Just my voice, calmly and quietly telling Bob to let the sail be until the boat bears away all by herself and then at the right moment sheet in to gain pressure. We pop up and resume racing - just like that! The crew let out 'yeeehaaas' and stuff. Very cool. Total relief!
Now we're just chasing TNT with all other boats a long way back, so we focus on getting down to Shoal Spar, gybing several times to keep the bitch on the wind angle she so aggressively demands. "Not too much; not too little - or I'll bite" she whispers with a slinky, slightly threatening flap of her nylon.... But all goes surprisingly well. I guess she's intimidated us enough for one day. We reach the mark, drop her back into her companionway bag and bear up for a final reach to Earth Station, gaining on TNT all the time.
On the final beat back the wind has swung to the west favouring the port tack hugely and I concentrate on the sails, getting them set absolutely perfectly, driving to the telltales and carving up just slightly in the gusts. I remark to the crew about this superb helmsmanship several times, just to make sure that they realise they're witnessing a class act on water, as we overhaul TNT as if she was standing still. We've got about 20 minutes or more on the Rapper now and we end up finishing about 7-10 minutes ahead of TNT as well, crossing the transit finish at 13:54:20
Later, just before de-brief and prize-giving we find that Helmwind has sailed straight onto the very bit of reef that we claimed as ours two years ago; Rapscallion went aground for 2 minutes at Earth Station mark (One of her own crew was responsible for laying the mark - a bit too close to the silt banks perhaps) and that Blue Chip, Polly and possibly another boat had also broached. Confident of a duffers prize for our on-water stage show, I'm somewhat dismayed to realise that this prize is now hotly contested. Until Mike calls the results and I find that we've come first on handicap.
But whether the crew agree or not (mostly not) that last beat really was a superb example of helmsmanship. I just might have to write a thesis about it.
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