John and I as Melissa could not make it out. John got there before me and had rigged the light #1. Winds were to be light from the S about 5 knots and swing to the SW near race time. Course was set for 3 short.
For the last couple of races, we have had bad starts. Part of it was our Kantankerous Kitchen Kountdown timer, me not having my watch on, and we don't know the flags on the committee boat. I had got out a racing sticker that shows what all the flags mean and how the start sequence goes. We decided to hang around the line, even luffing, and power up just before the start all so that we could see the flags.
At our five minute warning, they hoist our class flag on the gun.
At four minutes, they drop the class flag and hoist the AP flag on the gun.
At one minute, they drop the AP flag on the gun.
Gun at the start of race.
We watched the process a little back from the line, and the committee boat had Fed up the dropping of the AP flag at one minute and confused the fleet. We tried to start at the proper time, but half the fleet was still running the line as the AP flag was still up. The race committee realized their mistake and sounded the cannon twice for a general recall (restart). John and I were OK with this because even though we were near the line at the start, we were back a little from the line and were being blanketed by all the starboard tack boats running the line.
While all this was happening someone in the club was on the VHF asking the committee boat to assist a power boater from the club who's engine had died about 3 miles SW of the club. It was really annoying for us in the boat, can't imagine how distracting it was for the crew of Tanker Jones who was running the start of races. Once the race started, I just turned the radio off it was so annoying.
For the second start, we came in on starboard by the committee boat, and Snapshot in front of us let us in (they could have pushed us off). We luffed at the line and hardened up nicely for the start. Snapshot in front of us were over early. What a great start in clear air!
Winds had picked up at the start to maybe 10 to 12 knots. In the first start, Paroose had ripped their light #1 from luff to leach.
We had a good race, finishing 2 minutes behind the Viking 28 and 2 seconds behind the Grampian 28. We won handily on corrected time.
After the race, the disabled boat was being towed in by COMRA.
Nice night on the water with just enough wind to get the race in.
Trip Odometer: 10.8 miles
Moving Average: 3.9 knots
Moving Time: 02:47:00
Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130626.kmz
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