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Spring Series Races 1 and 2. Friday 21 April
Wind 5-10 knots, North Westerly
Today is very different. The Club have organised a pre-regatta practice session, around a laid-mark trapezoid course, (square; sausage; square) complete with start/finish boat, so we're taking advantage of this to run our first two races of the Spring series. No whiteboard; no Race-sec briefing. And Bob's back, so no Race chick this time either I'm afraid.
We head out on the water and heave the main up, sailing down to the start area to commence our highly strategic pre-start manoevres. Testing the very short line we bear off, gybe and sail over a fishtrap line. I watch as the plastic float moves towards the side of the boat and dissappears. It doesn't pop out from our stern, so there we are, anchored within 10 minutes of the start. I luff up, we back the sails and stop, hoping to get rid of this unwanted ballast, right in the middle of a tight mix of other boats, causing a bit of a traffic jam. But it comes off, so we resume our tactics. There are thousands of fishtraps today, everywhere. Small, home-made ones with plastic milkbottle floats. Traps that stick on keels and rudders....
Our start is back, some would say late, but we cross the line at full speed, upwind of the fleet, on starboard, in clear air, only 10 seconds late and rapidly overhaul the others before tacking to port. Our tacks are very quick, so we tack up the middle of the course and head around the top mark to reach out to thenext mark. The wind angle is we think just a bit tight to carry the spinnaker, so we reach, chased by Rapscallion, who's now running a spinnaker and gaining, but we manage to hold our own and head down to the bottom mark and commence our second beat. Rapscallion just follows us. Every time we tack, she does. Every time we have to work out the layline, she doesn't. They're just such copy-cats.
The race continues. Our spinnaker work is really good now. Neil is the Gybemaster of all time. Perfect timing. No snarl-ups - an unusual thing on Jackal. We cross the finish line after our third beat and run about 4 minutes ahead of the Rapper - just about enough we think, but we're not sure. On land for lunch, Mike's confident that he's got us by 2 seconds on corrected time from 3.5 minutes behind us. I'm sure he was closer to four minutes which could make all the difference, and at result time, find that I'm right we've come second. Beaten not by the Rapper, but by Touch & Go on handicap. Drat.
Race two sees us start again just the same as before, blasting past the Rapper who suddendly comes to a grinding halt, completes a number of strange 360's, and then gets going again. "He wasn't looking where he's going" we agree, "He's caught a fish-trap". We're later told that it was 5 fishtraps. I innocently ask if it was 5 all at once or one at a time...
We all feel very sorry and sad for Rapscallion's plight. It's a dreadful thing to see second place (We mean to win regardless) cruelly taken away from a competitor so early on in a race, but Rapscallion isn't giving up yet and chases us. She is fast, we have to admit. Fast upwind and faster downwind. Plus she keeps bloody copying our line. So in addition to the idea of having a sign painted on our stern for Mike, we form a plan. A dastardly and cunning one...
Because she's bigger and heavier she tacks much slower than we do. Because we've lulled her into a complacent 'follow Jackal's backside every time' we can have a little play. So we'll tack, early, before the line to the top mark. We'll throw in three extra tacks, just to see.... Right on! Rapscallion tacks to follow. We tack again. So does she, some way behind. We lay the line and tack to starboard, pointing high, knowing that we just gained 30 seconds on every tack. Lovely. And we can see the gain on the water.
That'll teach her to copy us all the time
We later cross the line with a big lead, having pulled away even on the downwind legs and later confirm that, yes, we have come first on IRC.
I have to say, and it's not often that I'll do this, but my crew have been fantastic today. Not one little error on Race two. No snarl ups. Perfect gybes. Perfect sail trim. Good co-ordination, teamwork and concentration. They even helped to spot the fishtraps.
Neil even knows what a leech-line is. I think he's been reading Sailing for Dummies. Highly impressive.
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