RACING SCHEDULE & RESULTS

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Swiftsure-04

A Wednesday Evening Race Report

Submitted by Rod Tharp

Last Wednesday evening my wife and I took Strider out on a Wed. night race. Typically we pick up different couples to go with us. Some times they are experienced and sometimes they are novice. This last Wed. the arrangements fell through, due to my laziness, and we were alone on the boat. "No problem", I said in my usual manor. We launched late due to me being late and Susan being later. After motoring out, we raised the main and genoa and headed to the start line. The wind, which had been dead all day was building from the west and was probably hitting 15+. We reached out to the starting line at 12-15 knots and were there in plenty of time. Usually in heavier air when I can't handle the boat by myself, my wife steers and I run the sails. When we got to the line my wife announces that she is "...not going to steer when the wind is blowing so hard". Later I found out that she meant that she "did not want to steer at the start". I ended up steering and trying to handle the main for the whole race. (Add emphasis on crew communication here.) At the start we were close reaching behind everyone else who were fighting for the line, mostly at the boat end. I saw an opening and headed for it as the gun went off. We had two boats to leeward as we hit the line with speed and a bit of clear air. Flying Circus, an Express 37 was to leeward. We sheeted in to stay clear and pointed as high as they were and hung on. In about thirty second we rolled over them, and cracked off a bit and we were gone. The first leg was about a mile up wind. We rounded the mark with almost a 1/4 mile lead over Circus. I don't know who started the rumor that multi's can't go to windward but they are wrong. The next leg was dead down wind back to the start boat. With only two on board we did not want the spinnaker up, so we reached down wind with the main and genoa. Still well ahead we rounded the committee boat and as we headed up wind we got a tremendous over ride on the genoa sheet. This has happened before and the easy solution is to cut the sheet while tacking. I need to talk to the builder of the boat about the fairlead/winch lay out. If he wasn't so hard headed he would fix it - but you know how builders are. Anyway we tack and find that due to wind shifts we can make the windward mark on one tack. Almost that is as the wind is really fluky at the mark. With luck we just make it around with out smashing the boat on the mark. The next leg is a reach south. The land to the west blocks the wind some but after we round the mark we have a close reach in cleaner air (if that is possible in Budd Bay). A quick look at the GPS shows 16+ knots and we feel good and are flying. After the committee boat, we head up wind again. With the pontoon buried we are moving good. We round the windward mark and head to the finish well ahead. We finished the 7.2 mile course in 1:02 with the next boat at 1:18. That was three upwind legs, two leeward legs (sans spin) and two reaching legs on a 31 foot boat with a crew of two. I don't mean to rub it in to the mono guys, as they are great about letting me race, but less hassle and faster sailing is my idea of a great time.

So  what have the rest of you been doing for fun - write it and post it!!!! 

Rod Tharp - Strider who is waiting to defend his, barely won, Southern Sound Series win against all comers. ( We tied with Dragonfly on three races and one on the fourth, first tie breaker)

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