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Highlights:
The ending. We love sailing in ultra light air with the tide when others are still sailing against it, or trying to.
Downers:
Skipper stupidity in thinking that the wind is going to shift when there is absolutely no evidence that it may do so.
Result:
First. And only to finish..
Lessons Learnt:
Reading the course map very carefully can be of great benefit in times of uncertainty.
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Spring Series Race 5. Friday 4th April
Wind 5 - 10 knots North East
This time, we've enlisted a crew of deep experience. A chap who has sailed singlehanded around the Baltic, Robert Johnson. We're hopeful of getting our mark roundings right and hopeful of good pace on-water, given the light air we face today.
Briefing time and our Race-Sec, Paul sets the course with a finish heading South to the transit of West Pole and Pumphouse again. This time it's a medium race, but looking at the wind direction, this one's an absolute beauty for us. Long reaching legs most of the way. This should be good.
We set off and arrive at the start line with five minutes to spare and start jockeying for starboard dominance as the wind is from the East. Unusually we are pretty much bang on the start and upwind of Rapscallion for a change (all crew resplendent in matching baby pink crew polos). Neck and neck we head up to the first upwind mark, green and white spar - now an orange laid mark. Mike calls water and takes the inside allowing us to duck inside him and gain the upwind position for the long run to Earth Station
The angle is good, but there's not much wind. We've pulled ahead a lot by the time we get down to the mark. We drop the bitch and prepare to reach back up the course to Pumphouse Port, finding that the wind is still on the beam. However, I reckon it's going to go to the north, so we stay under 'white sail'. Looking back, both Rapscallion and Touch'n'Go have kept their spinnakers up. Convinced that the wind is going to change, we don't raise ours. Still convinced, I still don't ask for ours to be raised.
Extremely unconvinced I decide. "we've lost most our lead, dammit. Let's get the bitch up again" and Hamish and Robert leap into action. We accelerate and draw away from the other two with relief at not being overtaken. Not quite. At Pumphouse we have another reaching run down to Shoal Spar and we extend our lead again. Around this and en-route to Pumphouse Port again under spinnaker, we come to a grinding stop under full sail having snarled a fish trap. Our lead is cut again.
"This is really not our f-ing day" I mutter as we start our beat up to East Bouy. Just two legs to go to the finish now, and the wind, such as it is, is fading. I head out on the tide to keep clear of the wind shadow off the land and we do short tacks up the middle figuring that the only way to gain is by doing so. The wind is really light and patchy now and we are moving against the tide. We creep around East Bouy, managing to go the correct way round it this time, and set the bitch heading to Green and White, keeping a high angle due to the tide. Getting around this we're now moving with the tide, down towards the finish line. Rapscallion and Touch'n'Go appear still, dead in the water while the wind drops and the water turns to complete glass. Our spinnaker only just manages to stay filled. There's just the faintest ghost of air and we creep forward.
Looking at the course instruction we realise that we must pass West Pole to port, dump the spinnaker and cross the transit on the wind again. Paul's diagram shows otherwise, but I reckon it's safer to go by the written instructions, "Leaving West Pole to Port the finish is a transit east of West Pole to Pumphouse". Yes. We're right.
There's just enough way on Jackal against the tide to cross and, after taking our time, we look up the course where Rapscallion and Touch'n'Go are still dead in the water, not yet round East Bouy. The VHF crackles. It's Paul. "Umm, did you guys know that you went the wrong way around the finish?" he tells me, slightly triumphantly. A pause. Hell, were we wrong after all? "Read the course Paul, over," I reply. A longer pause. "Oh shit" Paul exclaims. "You're right, Jackal, out".
Duffers Prize for our Race Secretary today....
I just love it when the wind dies completely after we finish. And I love it even more when we get the course right at the same time.
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