Yet another sailing report

I am trying to not post so often about sailing racing, but I am racing more often now and each race or regatta has its own drama, storyline, adrenaline and lessons so it is hard to resist. That is why it is one of my passions yet not every event is post-worthy (although I am not sure what that criteria is).  Here are two different stories from the last two weekends with same result for me: satisfaction.

Last week I raced the RC (T37) boat in Renton (south LW – a new venue for me). After a shaky first race finishing 3rd I started clobbering the fleet. In the next 15 races I finished first 7 times even though I collided with a competitor in one race and was grounded and broke something on my boat in another race. First overall by one point. This rookie is make some noise – got some respect from my competitors. The learning curve for this boat is pretty steep. The pics below are from that regatta.  Lots of pics here if you have time or interest.

Today I raced the J/22 on LW against about 30 boats, all bigger. Winds from 12 to 27mph. Occasional rain squall. Got a great start but made a wrong decision about wind shifts. Was at the short windward mark in an OK position but then… I lost my concentration for 5 seconds during the spinnaker set and hit the mark. That means two penalty turns. But then the rudder snagged the line holding the mark, so now we are half-way up with the spinnaker and snagged on the mark. And the wind is picking up. Now we have to get the buoy off the rudder, then do two penalty turns (with the spin pole already up), and round the mark again. Can’t get the buoy off the rudder, so eventually I unclip it and hold it until it clears the rudder. Now the start behind us (15 boats) is coming at us full speed to round the windward mark (that I am holding in my hand!). I re-clip it and sail free as the 1st boat rounds us. Now I have to do my two turns but I have no rights so I have to sail away from the crowd that is coming towards us.  Spin pole is still up and we do the 1st 360 and one of the crew loses his hat in the water. As I start the second 360 I realize that we can keep the spin pole off the stays and sail past the hat in a way that allows crew to snag it. Success x 3! Not only do we exonerate ourselves for the mistake and pick up the hat, we manage to round the mark (without touching it this time) just ahead of the remaining 14 boats. Does not matter how we finish now, We sailed well.

In fact, we did sail well the rest of the race and worked our way back up to 7th of the 18 boats that sailed the same course. The story of this race should have been about the overpowering winds in the squall but it did not seem as important after snagging the hat.   Opening Day Results

These pics are to document my sail trim. Note the sag in the forestay and shadow to the upper jib batten