Saturday at Big Daddy

Not in the original schedule, but Andrew and I decided to go out for the Saturday race day of the Big Daddy regatta sponsored by the Richmond YC.  They had scheduled 3 windward/leeward races so we would have our work cut out.  The forecast was for light winds 5 - 15 knots, so we decided to just go double handed.

We were the smaller boat (at 30 feet) on the PHRF D fleet, with the rest of the boats in the 33 to 40 foot range. With the light winds it would proof to be a tough day sailing in 'displacement' mode against the boats with longer waterlines.

The first race was called for twice around the buoys.  Soon after the start we tacked right while the rest of the fleet went left and that was the end of the race for us.  We went the wrong way and by the time we got to the windward mark we were just a boatlength away from being DFL.  A horrible set, the new kites are big and with the ultra narrow boat they tend to find the water very easy.  At least we got all the bad juju on the first race, and managed not to finish last.

The second and third races call for 3 times around the course.  We had good starts on both races and played it more conservatively with the rest of the fleet.  The upwind legs were a bit frustrating trying to keep up with the bigger boats in the light-med conditions.  The wind hovered between 10 and 15 knots and all the bigger boats were powered up with better speed and point that us.   We would make some gains back on the downwind legs but hardly enough to make up the loses on the upwind legs.  A few times on the runs we got close to breaking loose but still needed a few more knots of wind, adding to the frustration.

On the last race we rounded the leeward mark in second place, our best showing of the day.  We tried covering  Quiver and Encore to the upwind mark.  I tried too tight a cover on Quiver that was a mistake as they were able to poke their nose to leeward.  We were both on port tack when I see a starboard sail poke over the top of my mast (good thing we have a short rig).  It was Encore crossing us on starboard, F>>>!!! crash tacked and all was well, other than loosing two positions.    It was a surprise to see Encore that close.   We weren't paying as much attention to starboard tackers since we thought that Quiver would be our cover and signal if anyone was coming.   But the separation was enough that Quiver just took their stern leaving us with a big surprise.  To our surprise we never heard a hail, but it is very likely that we were completely hidden behind Quiver's sails.  Disaster avoided.

We weren't feeling too good after the race, boat for boat we were finished in 4th place on both races, but ended up correcting to 3rd, finishing the regatta in 3rd place.  We never got close to the J120 in these conditions.  Would have needed to be 'blasting' mode downwind to have any chance of closing the gap.    But it was a good day and great practice for the busy summer season.

Next, Cabo!