Sails: Pandora main, EP Sails 169LP genoa, and EP Sails spinnaker. Course: MRSA Marks: A, J, G, J, A.
Met at Yacht Haven at 0800. Drove Fred's car to Potapskut Sailing Association, arriving about 0840. Unbent the 135LP genoa and bent on the EP Sails 169LP genoa. Motored out to MRSA mark "A" where the committee boat was awaiting the fleet for an 1000 rendezvous.
No wind, at least not enough to race. Sailed around a bit. Tried to amuse the fleet while we waited for wind, by using the long handled deck scrub brush to "clean the hull" by leaning over the side. By way of contrast, Barbara had a diver clean her boat, and Lanny had dove his own, as did Mike Meinhold. No idea about Skybird. No diver for Constance this year as I never found one with reasonable rates and Trinidad XSR seems to last at least one season, nearly, without a diver, but with regular use. Anchored (third time) to show Fred a bit of how to do so. Wind filled in a bit from the east around 1130. Race committee decided to hold a race.
Committee boat had anchored expecting to send us to Mark "G" first followed by Mark "C", twice around. After the wind filled from the east, the committee reversed the line so that the committee boat was at the port end and started us heading to Mark "J", then "G", twice around. Started by sailing away from the boat on starboard at three minutes for just over a minute, reversing course, and coming back on port. Arrived at the boat, about ten to fifteen seconds late and turned upwind to start. Constance was located above and slight behind Windswept, who was above and behind Carnival Lady. The fleet crossed Skybird who started on starboard too late to factor in the start.
We held our own against Windswept for about half the first board, moving at speeds from 2.7 to 3.3kts. Windswept settled down and was able to pull ahead, crossing our bow, we had to duck slightly, when Windswept tacked to starboard. Arrived at the first mark clearly behind both Carnival Lady and Windswept. This set the order for the race. The two boats with scrubbed hulls gaining on every leg. Two boats in the middle and Rinn Duin well behind.
Downwind from Mark "J" to Mark "G", started as a beam reach, slightly freed. Following suit set by Carnival Lady and Windswept, we hoisted spinnaker immediately. Crew happy to separate the actions of furling the genoa from the actions of hoisting the spinnaker...no chance of the spinnaker halyard being caught in the foller furler. Note: Windswept was sporting a roller furling genoa; don't remember seeing that before. Found a new method of handling the spinnaker sheet that crosses the bow. Placing the spinnaker sheet into the chocks installed on the bow on 2024-09-26 prevents the sheet from falling below the bow while keeping the sheet away from the furler and not requiring that the sheet be tensioned in order to stay in its place in the chocks.
Sailing downwind from Mark "J" to Mark "G", the angle eased as we came north, passing Gibson Island to the west. Was able to work very well with Jesus, speaking quietly, asking him to take in six inches of the guy at a time. Carnival Lady and Windswept had kept rather closer to Gibson Island, forcing them to turn perhaps 45* to reach Mark "G". Could have been Carnival Lady deliberatly sailing high with Windswept to windward off her starboard quarter, thereby forcing Windswept to be further behind once they made the turn to port to fetch Mark "G". We cut their corner, making a turn to port of ~25*. During the second half of this leg, sailing a broad to very broad reach, Skybird was able to close distance on us, but not catch us. Skybird came close to doing so by the mark, but was denied. Used the "Goto Waypoint" feature of iNavX to find the marks...MRSA marks as small, perhaps 18" to 24" high and 8" to 12" around.
Rounding Mark "G", we were able to sail a course a bit higher and faster than Skybird, putting boat lengths into them on the first board. Had hoped to clear the day mark G"1" at the end of the Dobbin Island shoal but did not. Of the fleet, only Carnival Lady managed to clear G"1". Two more boards saw us reach the windward mark "J", and arrive some eight boat lengths ahead of Skybird, but far behind Carnival Lady and Windswept, both of which widened their lead over the fleet with each leg.
The last leg from Mark "J" back to the start at Mark "A", had Skybird gaining on us again. Had the leg been long enough, she would have passed us. She finished about two boat lengths behind us.
The race started at 1155. Finishing times are: Carnival Lady: 13:43:53; Windswept: 13:50:15; Constance: 14:01:36; Skybird: 14:02:14; Rinn Duin: Retired.
Rankin Race: GPX
formatted track . Distance: 6.16, average speed: 2.71, estimated duration: 2.16
Return trip: GPX
formatted track . Distance: 13.06, average speed: 4.71, estimated duration: 2.45