Taking some time over the holidays to do some work on the boat.
The mast is down and I just finished sanding it down to the bare carbon ready for a new clear coat. That should start tomorrow. Three or four coats should do it. I'm taking advantage that the Doyle loft is shut for the week and they have been kind to let me use it. Indoors should be easier on my and should help with faster curing.
Having the standing rigging looked over to see if it needs replacing, hopefully it is good for a couple more seasons.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
South Beach YC Winter Series - December Race
Today we went out to race in my old stomping grounds, the home of the South Beach YC and the World Series Champs. It will be the last race of the 2010 season. The forecast for today was less than ideal, with rain scheduled all day, however the wind forecast was a respectable 10 - 20 knots from the SW, shifting to the S.
Rob was back from school, and he joined Andrew and myself to round up the crew. Started the day with our now traditional breakfast at Ole's, and after some good pancakes, waffles and bacon we were off to the boat. Loaded the boat up and started the motor to San Francisco from the Estuary. It was overcast, but no rain. Maybe the rain would stay away. We had a nice ebb out of the Estuary and got to South Beach with enough time to hang out at the guest dock for a little while.
We followed Wasabi and Wild One out of the marina and headed to the start area. Course 12 was called, which had us going around Treasure Island, either way, and back to the finish. We got a jump on the start and the big kite went up immediately. Our lead was short lived as Wasabi quickly caught up. We were a little higher and holding our own particularly during the gusts. Wild One was close behind and constantly threatening. The 3 lead boat all chose to round TI to port. There was much change in position or distance between the boats, until we got under the bridge and the winds lightened up. In this area every boat got to extend their lead on the boat following, opening the gap between the boats. A few hundred yards from the bridge we dropped the kite to start making our way toward the end of the island.
Breeze was now consistent between 10 - 12 knots and with the help of the current we were making good speed. We got around the the north end of the island but stayed close to shore on the west side to stay away from the ebbing current. We followed Wasabi close to shore, but Wild one headed to the city side. Right before crossing the bridge we were able to host our reaching kite for maybe a mile, but soon we were back to white sails to make the finish. It clearly payed to stay close to the shore of TI as we had made a huge gain on Wild One. We were the second boat to finish behind Wasabi and corrected to first place. Not a bad way to finish the season.
Merry Xmas to all, we will be back in the new year ready to go again.
Rob was back from school, and he joined Andrew and myself to round up the crew. Started the day with our now traditional breakfast at Ole's, and after some good pancakes, waffles and bacon we were off to the boat. Loaded the boat up and started the motor to San Francisco from the Estuary. It was overcast, but no rain. Maybe the rain would stay away. We had a nice ebb out of the Estuary and got to South Beach with enough time to hang out at the guest dock for a little while.
We followed Wasabi and Wild One out of the marina and headed to the start area. Course 12 was called, which had us going around Treasure Island, either way, and back to the finish. We got a jump on the start and the big kite went up immediately. Our lead was short lived as Wasabi quickly caught up. We were a little higher and holding our own particularly during the gusts. Wild One was close behind and constantly threatening. The 3 lead boat all chose to round TI to port. There was much change in position or distance between the boats, until we got under the bridge and the winds lightened up. In this area every boat got to extend their lead on the boat following, opening the gap between the boats. A few hundred yards from the bridge we dropped the kite to start making our way toward the end of the island.
Breeze was now consistent between 10 - 12 knots and with the help of the current we were making good speed. We got around the the north end of the island but stayed close to shore on the west side to stay away from the ebbing current. We followed Wasabi close to shore, but Wild one headed to the city side. Right before crossing the bridge we were able to host our reaching kite for maybe a mile, but soon we were back to white sails to make the finish. It clearly payed to stay close to the shore of TI as we had made a huge gain on Wild One. We were the second boat to finish behind Wasabi and corrected to first place. Not a bad way to finish the season.
Merry Xmas to all, we will be back in the new year ready to go again.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Nose and Tail Job
This season we did a few upgrades to the boat to improve handling and lighter air performance. The boat always rocked on strong conditions (over 18 knots), but we suffered a bit on the light airs. Boat still moves well but its hard to race to its rating when in displacement mode as we are normally bunched with boats with larger waterlines.
We also had been suffering from a bit of helm. The boat will always want to turn to starboard if the tiller was let loose. It took a while to realize what was wrong, but after some close inspection it was obvious that the rudder was off the vertical axis of the boat. I'm not sure it affected performance much, but going 18knots with the kite up, the last thing I wanted was for the boat to want to round down. I could have just repaired it by realigning the rudder post, but since the saws-all will be coming out I decided to upgrade the steering system on the boat, with a new rudder, beefier rudder post and bearings and a new composite tiller. I already had the original designer of the boat, John Swarbrick, working on a design and production of a new bowsprit for the boat, so I added the new steering system to the order. The rudder is a little deeper than the original and tracks quite nicely compared to the original one.
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| Original tiller |
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| New tiller and rudder assembly |
The second improvement was a new bowsprit, It is 3' long and we got an A2 and A5 to fit the new dimensions. We got everything installed just before the end of the season and it is looking very promising. We'll know more after a full season in 2011. The bowsprit is pretty nice looking, and makes the boat look a bit meaner than it already looked.
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| Side view of bowsprit |
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| Bow view of bowsprit |
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Vallejo 2
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| By Sue Estey |
The wind at the start was just right to try out the new A5. This is a reaching spinnaker, and with the wind just ahead of the beam it was perfect for the reach out of the straits. We set up high on the start line to have some runway to set the kite, and as soon as we got a clear lane the kite went up. We quickly passed most of the boats in our fleet and got to chase Outsider who got off to a clean start and was leading. As far as I could tell we were the only boat flying a spinnaker and we were making good speed. We got ahead of Outsider, but put the kite in the water during the douse and they caught up. We again picked a high line to exit the river and it payed off well, leading the sportboat fleet out to San Pablo Bay.
We shore tacked off the north side of the channel to stay out of the main current, and took a hitch across before getting too close to the restricted area. We were now chasing Arcadia and some of the Wylie 30's. We had wanted to keep a loose cover on Outsider but we split sides at this point. Initially the split worked for Outsider as they found some favorable current closer to the channel (a bit counter intuitive as it should have been flooding), but the angle was better on the left side and the wind eventually filled from the South ultimately giving us an advantage.
Around Pt. Pinole, a couple of rain bands started to pass through making things a bit miserable onboard, with the light winds and soaking conditions. We found some emergency rum onboard to keep us warm through the worst of it. We stayed patient and continued working the left side (South) of the course. For the conditions we were holding our own as the lighter conditions upwind are not very favorable for JetStream. The Hobbie 33, Olson30 and Express27, with their larger genoas were not far behind and well within the corrected credits.
We cleared the Richmond restricted area and set the reaching kite one more time to the finish. It payed off again, allowing us to pass a few more boats in route. We had a good finish boat for boat, but didn't quite put enough time on our competitors to correct strongly. So the success of Saturday was not repeated on Sunday, but a good time was had nevertheless. For the regatta we would finish 2nd behind the Express 27 Motorcycle Irene. Link to preliminary results and race article in norcalsailing.
Closing the 2010 Season - Vallejo 1
This past weekend we had our final race of the Singlehanded Sailing Society 2010 Season. The Vallejo 1-2 is a 2-day race. The first day the whole fleet sails singlehanded from the Berkley Circle to the Vallejo Yacht Club, and on Sunday we reverse courses and sail doublehanded from the Vallejo Yacht Club to the Richmond Yacht Club. Mark joined me on the Sunday race. JetStream would have to defend its win last year.
Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. Day started as our usual sailing days with an early breakfast with Mike at Ole's. A little grease and grits to take us through the day. The new (used) 6 HP outboard, although a bit heavier, is both smooth and quite and showed great reliability. It also pushes the boat at 7 knots which makes for a bit quicker deliveries and has an external fuel tank which eliminates the need to continuously refill. The forecast called for a strong 15 - 25 from the SW, so we prepared for a fast race. SW winds meant that we would be reaching across San Pablo Bay so we initially set up with our reaching kite. But ten minutes before our start, the earlier starters looked to be in very light air so we switched back to the large running spinnaker. We had a decent start with the whole fleet starting on port reaching up towards Red Rock. With the T650 to windward and Outsider to leeward I choose to stay in the middle and stay in touch with both boats. Soon it looked like we could set the kite and hold our course above the buoy marking the restricted area off the Richmond fueling docks. With the big kite up in a beam reach we started trucking and passing some of the earlier starters. It would have been better to have the reaching kite up for this leg, but right after the restricted area we would have to bear off and be in a full downwind run. The boat is not set up for spinnaker peels so we committed to the big kite. It was some hard work to reach above the mark while holding the spinnaker, but our center position paid off putting some distance between ourselves and the rest of the sportsboat fleet. Before getting to the Richmond Bridge we had caught up many of the early starters, and only had about a dozen boats still in front of us. The winds had stayed pretty moderate with about 10 knots as we made our way to the Brothers.
After rounding the Brothers there were now just three boats in front of us. 'True North', 'Arcadia' and 'Ragtime!'. True North was sailing non-spinnaker so we quickly passed them. Halfway to Pinole Pt we caught up with Arcadia and by Pinole Pt we were in the lead. The wind had know picked up to the low to mid teens and we were in a beam reach fully powered up.We were sail a hotter angle than the rest of the fleet and we extended our lead through this section. We sailed conservatively the rest of the way, crossed over to the Vallejo side of the channel and prepared for our spinnaker douse as we entered the Mare Island Straights. I could have kept the spinnaker up a little longer, but didn't want to risk and emergency take down inside the Straights. But the winds were light and we lost some of our lead here. Still, JetStream was the first boat to finish the race and was received with the blast of a gun. We made record time for us, getting to Vallejo before 1:30 PM. It was a good start for our title defense.
Sunday's race report to follow.....
Sunday, September 19, 2010
2010 SSS Richmond to South Beach
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| Courtesy of Stephen Buckingham |
On Saturday we had the continuation of the SSS race series with the Richmond to South Beach race. This is the penultimate race of the SSS calendar with the culmination of the series in a month time with the Vallejo 1-2 race. I'm racing the series in the doublehanded division, but my crew couldn't make it this time and a last minute attempt to find a replacement wasn't fruitful, making Saturday a day for me and the autopilot to get to know each other a little better. The forecast for the day was for a mellow 5 - 15 possibly going to 15 - 25 later in the afternoon, and most of the race would be in a light ebb.
Good start to the day with an early breakfast at Ole's in Alameda with Greg and Karl. And then we were off to the long delivery from Alameda to Richmond. I'm using a borrowed outboard while I sort out a replacement for my now defunct outboard. It is an old 2-stroke 2-cylinder 4HP Evinrude. It runs like a dream. The 2-cylinders make for a very smooth and quiet ride compared to my previous 1-cylinder 3.5HP Nissan. It was an uneventful delivery with a flat bay and minimal currents.
The start of the race is inside the Richmond breakwater. We setup for the start in lightening conditions and we suffered a bit. A few boats with genoas roll over us and we are sagging and falling behind. Had to take a painful clearing tack to get on a lane with clear air and little by little started picking boats back up. But the damage was already done. Both Outsider and Flight Risk were able to stretch a few hundred yards ahead of us on the light conditions. After clearing the restricted areas around the Richmond fuel docks, I set the kite and start heading towards The Brothers. I start catching a few of the slower boats that started ahead of us and soon join the procession of boats rounding The Brothers and heading back upwind towards Little Harding.
I head towards the right hand side of the course staying right of a current line under the Richmond Bridge. SOG confirms that we are doing better on this side. We finally catch Flight Risk after the Richmond Bridge. I probably came a little closer than I should have, prompting Flight Risk to try to pinch me out, but we were able to hold our lane and get ahead. I see Arcadia and Uno in the distance and focus on them as the main targets. Can't tell where Outsider is, but hopefully we'll be back in contact again. Keep playing the right hand side footing down a bit to avoid getting too close to shore and fall prey of any windholes. As I approach Racoon Straights I get a glimpse of Outsider crossing on port from the left side of the course a half mile ahead of us. Not good, we have some serious catching up to do. We have a fast traverse of the Straights, first staying close to the Tiburon side and crossing over to the Angel Island side mid Straight.. I nailed the lay-line to Little Harding and catch a few more boats in the process, and we are off on a reach above Alcatraz towards 2NAS. I was hoping the wind would have built up a bit more my now, but we were still sailing in about 10 - 12 knots. We are still doing 8 and 9 knots on the white sail reach, but not the full potential of the boat had it been blowing 15+.
Here we start to reel in the Wylie Cats and some of the bigger boats, and I can now see Outsider and Sweet Jane ahead. We set the kite around Alcatraz. It is still a beam reach. I try to keep the sheet on the ratchet only to have a bit more control of the kite, but after a few minutes I'm spent and my driving is suffering, so I give it a wrap around the winch and settle down. I'll probably get some snide comments from my crew, but the winch works better when singlehanding the boat.
We are able to sail a bit higher and hold the spinnaker quite a bit longer than Outsider and Sweet Jane. We significantly cut their leads, with Outsider maybe a quarter mile ahead and just behind Sweet Jane as we round the last mark and head towards the finish. This area of the South Bay is notorious for shifty and gusty winds, but only the shifts materialize and the winds stay on the moderate side. It turns into a cat and mouse game, playing the shifts and trying to make some gains. But I'm unable to get ahead of Sweet Jane and we finish in that order for our class. Outsider, Sweet Jane, Jetstream. The resutls aren't yet in, but I think I still corrected over Sweet Jane. But Outsider, finishing around 5 minutes ahead should have covered his handicap.
A good, long day on the bay.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
A weekend of seconds
Labor Day weekend is a busy sailing weekend. This year we had planned to do back to back races. Friday is the traditional Windjammers Race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. We would do Windjammers aboard Ocelot which normally means that with a 9 AM start we can be in Santa Cruz before sunset. Enough time to drive back home get a few hours of sleep and get JetStream on the water Saturday morning in time for the Jazz Cup. The Jazz Cup takes us from Treasure Island to the Benicia around 26 miles.
Friday's forecast was for light winds in the ocean. We started with a fresh breeze in the Bay, but as we worked our way through the Golden Gate into the ocean the breeze lightened up. We went through quite a bit of our sail inventory. Started out with our #2 jib, up to our #1 jib as we cleared Seal Rocks, to our Code 0 near Montara, momentarily to our jib top, back to the Code 0, to the A1 past Half Moon Bay, to the A2 by Pigeon Point, A2 plus stay sail by An~o Nuevo when the breeze finally picked up to 15 - 20 kts, finally back to the #1 jib as we made the turn into Santa Cruz for the last few hundred yards to the finish.
Most of the morning was a pretty close race with boats all around us. But the race within the race was between Ocelot, the ID 48 and a Melges 32. In this light to moderate conditions the Melges stayed close to us the whole way down the coast and would eventually correct out for 1st place in division and overall, leaving us on Ocelot on 2nd place in both division and overall. Not a bad day in the ocean. We finished just after sunset, with plenty of time to put the boat away and hit the Santa Cruz Yacht Club for a few rum drinks and some clam chowder before jumping on the car for the ride back to Alameda.
At home by midnight to get a few hours of sleep before the 8 AM dock call for JetStream and the Jazz Cup.
The Jazz Cup is a great race for JetStream, mostly reachy and downwind. We were defending champions for our class so we were pretty psyched to get out racing. This year Mike and Andrew rounded up the crew. Conditions were to build to 15 - 25 for the afternoon, great conditions for us. In our division this year we would have our friends from Head Rush (the Antrim 27), two Flying Tigers and Wasabi (a Kernan 44) amongst others. Wasabi was the scratch boat with a -44 rating (compared to our 75), that means they will owe us 119 seconds, almost two minutes, a mile. The Antrim rates the same as us and the tigers are on the 50s range. Our strategy was to stay in touch with the Antrim and the Tigers as they were the more closely rated boats.
We had a great start, in a strong position mid line and a good lane. After a couple of hundred yards we could clear the starboard boats to windward and we tack on port to head to the right side for more pressure. As we approach the windward mark we are in a great position, we round in 4th place behind Wasabi, the ID35 and on the hip of Bloom County, with our Antrim and Tiger competition behind us. The next part of the race is a reachy run across the central bay, these are prime conditions for JetStream and we are soon in second place after passing Bloom County and the ID35. We now begin our effort to cover the fleet while avoiding entanglements with all the slower boats that started ahead of us. We work on staying high and clear so we can more easily pass the slower boats. Most of the boats in our fleet are now following us except for the Antrim who took a lower track towards Richmond. On days with a strong ebb current this is a good strategy, but today we didn't have much current and we decided on the rhumb line to Red Rock. As you approach Richmond the wind bends to the south and you get lifted, so we took an early jibe back to the east to be in a better position covering both sides of the fleet. Boat was moving well, but as we got into more of a downwind run both the Tigers and the Antrim started to catch up some. Next decision was to choose which side of Red Rock to go. Traditionally most of the fleet leaves Red Rock to port. Yucca was heading in that direction and more often than not, they are the boat to follow. But looking at some of the catamarans well powered up on the left hand side, we decided to break tradition and leave Red Rock to starboard. It paid off hugely, and we gain some of our loses back.
We have good pressure up to the Brothers and make our right turn into San Pablo Bay. This section of the race was mostly a procession. The wind angle locked you into a deep and slow downwind run. Not our best point of sail, but we had clear air all the way through and were able to hang on to our position.
Half way to Pinole Point, the wind freshened and it helped moved our apparent wind to the beam. This is the sweet spot for JetStream, we just accelerated and were off to the races. We were on a drag race with a Melges 20 but we soon were able to pull a bit ahead of them. In the next 20 minutes we would put about a 1/4 mile on the fleet behind us. And for a while Wasabi, who was doing a horizon job on the fleet started to get larger and larger. We were having a blast aboard JetStream.
As we approach Vallejo the wind shifted right a bit more and lighten up a bit and we were back in downwind mode. In this mode, the other boats in our division with larger spinnakers tend to do better than us, so it is always a bit nerve recking. We continue to play our angles and keep the boat moving fast, but as we enter the Carquinez Straight they are back within striking distance. We head to the North side of the channel as we are getting great pressure and a good angle from the breeze reflecting off the hills. We decide to go back in for another run of these winds into the Glen Cove area. This is were we lost the race.... As you can see from the charts, the shallow waters come out quite a bit at Glen Cove. Something that I should have been paying attention too as well. Just as we start our jibe back out, we slowly come to a complete stop. Andrew turns to ask 'what am I doing?' and the realization that we have run aground quickly sets in. Immediately we bring down the spinnaker, shift all our weight to one side to help heel the boat and start the process of coercing the boat to point towards the deep water. After a few more minutes of back-winding the jib we get the boat pointing back at the channel but still stuck. At the same time, both Andrew and I say, "lets rehoist the kite". We were beam to the wind and it will both give us more power and heel to drive the boat back to deep water. Moments after hoisting the kite the boat start to move forward and soon we are back sailing. Not soon enough though.... By this time we have let the Antrim, one Tiger and the ID 35 get ahead of us. There goes first place. Our mood on board changed immediately. There was no need to be so aggressive to the edge of the channel as the currents were pretty negligible at this time. We were far ahead enough of the competition that we just needed to play it safe to keep our front spot. I also had my iPhone chartplotter available, which should have had out. That would have avoided this mistake. For the next few minutes we were all pretty bummed at what we allowed to happen.
But the breeze started to fill up and the boat started to go fast again, and we were soon having fun. We were crossing jibes with a trimaran and the Melges 20 (yes, they too caught up after our grounding). We pass the ID 35 as we approach the finish area. For this race, to finish you have to leave mark G"25" to port and go around 2 temporary marks before crossing the finish line. The temporary marks are small and hard to see. For a moment both the Antrim and the Tiger ahead us, ahead in the fleet and with no one to follow, started going straight to the finish instead of the required temporary marks. They discovered the errors of their way before giving us a chance to catch back up. So we finished behind both of them.
Ultimately however we corrected to second place behind Head Rush in our division. We also finished 11th overall for the race, and the second monohull overall. Don't really want to think what the results would have looked like had we not spent 9 1/2 minutes on the mud... So it was to be a weekend of second places for us.
Friday's forecast was for light winds in the ocean. We started with a fresh breeze in the Bay, but as we worked our way through the Golden Gate into the ocean the breeze lightened up. We went through quite a bit of our sail inventory. Started out with our #2 jib, up to our #1 jib as we cleared Seal Rocks, to our Code 0 near Montara, momentarily to our jib top, back to the Code 0, to the A1 past Half Moon Bay, to the A2 by Pigeon Point, A2 plus stay sail by An~o Nuevo when the breeze finally picked up to 15 - 20 kts, finally back to the #1 jib as we made the turn into Santa Cruz for the last few hundred yards to the finish.
Most of the morning was a pretty close race with boats all around us. But the race within the race was between Ocelot, the ID 48 and a Melges 32. In this light to moderate conditions the Melges stayed close to us the whole way down the coast and would eventually correct out for 1st place in division and overall, leaving us on Ocelot on 2nd place in both division and overall. Not a bad day in the ocean. We finished just after sunset, with plenty of time to put the boat away and hit the Santa Cruz Yacht Club for a few rum drinks and some clam chowder before jumping on the car for the ride back to Alameda.
At home by midnight to get a few hours of sleep before the 8 AM dock call for JetStream and the Jazz Cup.
The Jazz Cup is a great race for JetStream, mostly reachy and downwind. We were defending champions for our class so we were pretty psyched to get out racing. This year Mike and Andrew rounded up the crew. Conditions were to build to 15 - 25 for the afternoon, great conditions for us. In our division this year we would have our friends from Head Rush (the Antrim 27), two Flying Tigers and Wasabi (a Kernan 44) amongst others. Wasabi was the scratch boat with a -44 rating (compared to our 75), that means they will owe us 119 seconds, almost two minutes, a mile. The Antrim rates the same as us and the tigers are on the 50s range. Our strategy was to stay in touch with the Antrim and the Tigers as they were the more closely rated boats.
We had a great start, in a strong position mid line and a good lane. After a couple of hundred yards we could clear the starboard boats to windward and we tack on port to head to the right side for more pressure. As we approach the windward mark we are in a great position, we round in 4th place behind Wasabi, the ID35 and on the hip of Bloom County, with our Antrim and Tiger competition behind us. The next part of the race is a reachy run across the central bay, these are prime conditions for JetStream and we are soon in second place after passing Bloom County and the ID35. We now begin our effort to cover the fleet while avoiding entanglements with all the slower boats that started ahead of us. We work on staying high and clear so we can more easily pass the slower boats. Most of the boats in our fleet are now following us except for the Antrim who took a lower track towards Richmond. On days with a strong ebb current this is a good strategy, but today we didn't have much current and we decided on the rhumb line to Red Rock. As you approach Richmond the wind bends to the south and you get lifted, so we took an early jibe back to the east to be in a better position covering both sides of the fleet. Boat was moving well, but as we got into more of a downwind run both the Tigers and the Antrim started to catch up some. Next decision was to choose which side of Red Rock to go. Traditionally most of the fleet leaves Red Rock to port. Yucca was heading in that direction and more often than not, they are the boat to follow. But looking at some of the catamarans well powered up on the left hand side, we decided to break tradition and leave Red Rock to starboard. It paid off hugely, and we gain some of our loses back.
We have good pressure up to the Brothers and make our right turn into San Pablo Bay. This section of the race was mostly a procession. The wind angle locked you into a deep and slow downwind run. Not our best point of sail, but we had clear air all the way through and were able to hang on to our position.
Half way to Pinole Point, the wind freshened and it helped moved our apparent wind to the beam. This is the sweet spot for JetStream, we just accelerated and were off to the races. We were on a drag race with a Melges 20 but we soon were able to pull a bit ahead of them. In the next 20 minutes we would put about a 1/4 mile on the fleet behind us. And for a while Wasabi, who was doing a horizon job on the fleet started to get larger and larger. We were having a blast aboard JetStream.
As we approach Vallejo the wind shifted right a bit more and lighten up a bit and we were back in downwind mode. In this mode, the other boats in our division with larger spinnakers tend to do better than us, so it is always a bit nerve recking. We continue to play our angles and keep the boat moving fast, but as we enter the Carquinez Straight they are back within striking distance. We head to the North side of the channel as we are getting great pressure and a good angle from the breeze reflecting off the hills. We decide to go back in for another run of these winds into the Glen Cove area. This is were we lost the race.... As you can see from the charts, the shallow waters come out quite a bit at Glen Cove. Something that I should have been paying attention too as well. Just as we start our jibe back out, we slowly come to a complete stop. Andrew turns to ask 'what am I doing?' and the realization that we have run aground quickly sets in. Immediately we bring down the spinnaker, shift all our weight to one side to help heel the boat and start the process of coercing the boat to point towards the deep water. After a few more minutes of back-winding the jib we get the boat pointing back at the channel but still stuck. At the same time, both Andrew and I say, "lets rehoist the kite". We were beam to the wind and it will both give us more power and heel to drive the boat back to deep water. Moments after hoisting the kite the boat start to move forward and soon we are back sailing. Not soon enough though.... By this time we have let the Antrim, one Tiger and the ID 35 get ahead of us. There goes first place. Our mood on board changed immediately. There was no need to be so aggressive to the edge of the channel as the currents were pretty negligible at this time. We were far ahead enough of the competition that we just needed to play it safe to keep our front spot. I also had my iPhone chartplotter available, which should have had out. That would have avoided this mistake. For the next few minutes we were all pretty bummed at what we allowed to happen.
But the breeze started to fill up and the boat started to go fast again, and we were soon having fun. We were crossing jibes with a trimaran and the Melges 20 (yes, they too caught up after our grounding). We pass the ID 35 as we approach the finish area. For this race, to finish you have to leave mark G"25" to port and go around 2 temporary marks before crossing the finish line. The temporary marks are small and hard to see. For a moment both the Antrim and the Tiger ahead us, ahead in the fleet and with no one to follow, started going straight to the finish instead of the required temporary marks. They discovered the errors of their way before giving us a chance to catch back up. So we finished behind both of them.
Ultimately however we corrected to second place behind Head Rush in our division. We also finished 11th overall for the race, and the second monohull overall. Don't really want to think what the results would have looked like had we not spent 9 1/2 minutes on the mud... So it was to be a weekend of second places for us.
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