A north wind was blowing steady 16 knots with gusts to 30. COLD, 10 degrees, but the sun was shining. The SE wind from the last two days left 5 ft rollers with a long period.
Went with the old main with a double reef, and the #3 (110% jib). This sail combination kept the boat at 6 knots in control, rounding up slightly in the gusts. Perfect amount of sail. The reefing for the new main is not working, and is very shallow; would have been too much sail.
Five boats went out. Black Shaddow withdrew because these was too much wind for that little rocket. Sumac went to gybe at the start, and their traveller car blew up. We are hardening up to start and see Sumac with their mainsheet in the water. Sumac DNFed, but competed in the 2nd race with just their #3.
John is getting better and better on the helm; was was able to feather the tiller to keep the boat from rounding up. There were sometimes after rounding the mark to go upwind, I would be grinding the sheet in, and my arm/winch/handle/coaming was underwater. Water was poaring over the coaming. We kept the crib boards on at all times.
There were times I wanted to switch the 110 out for the storm jib, but didn't want to go forward. At one point we hit a gust over 30 knots, knocking us probably 45 degrees over. I looked up to see the windex that is on the VHF antenna, was working it way loose. I couple seconds later, we watched it sail off and land in the water about 20 feet from us. No windex, so I went below and got some nylon tell tales and tied them to the backstay. After going below I felt a little queezy.
Going upwind, we had the boat going between 5 and 6 knots. Waves were breaking over the bow, we both got soaked. We finished last, but pretty sure we came 2nd in corrected time behind Berserk.
The poor boat was NUKED inside. Water coming over coaming went into the coaming box and leaked into the quarter birth. Waves breaking over the bow had leaked past the forward hatch and soaked the v-birth (all the bedding and pillows). A piece of the companionway trim was broken off.
Still Time performed well, we were please with how we sailed her.
Trip Odometer: 20.20 miles
Moving: Avg: 5.4 knots (WOW!)
Moving Time: 03:48:11
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/20111001.kmz
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