C22 Whitby StoneHaven Cup

WYC Stonehaven Cup is the last race of the season counting towards overall standings. Winds were forecast to be 10-18 knots from the north.  Went out single handed with a reefed main and heavy #1.

There were 5 boats out for the race in my class.

• Still Time (Catalina 22)
• Cheeky Moneky (Shark)
• Salty 11 (Shark)
• Eclipse (Viking 28)
• Iris (Catalina 25)

Start line at mark 9, windward to mark 1 then out to Ajax weather buoy and back.

Going out to the start line, I noticed that there was a clump of weeds on the rudder.  Could only do 2 knots with sails and motor.  I tried to backup, but the weeds were wrapped around it.  Used the whisker pole to clear it, but broke the end off of the pole in the process.

Wind was less at the start about 10 knots, got to the windward mark with all other competitors.  6 miles downwind to the Ajax weather buoy.  Electrical connection to the autohelm was on the fritz again, so setting the pole for downwind was difficult; could not keep the boat on course going forward to set the pole.  Wind was very gusty and then died; 3-5 knots of knots dead downwind.  Shook the reef on the main and got wacked by the boom RIGHT in the glasses.  Finally gave up and just reached out away from the mark.

Got the to Ajax buoy behind the fleet (DFL).

I had to do something different, so I swapped out the heavy #1 for the light #1.  I followed some wind to west towards Ajax and got the boat speed up to 5 knots for about half an hour away from everyone in the fleet.  Risky move!

Winds died yet again, so I swapped the old main for the racing main.  After about 15 minutes, the winds filled in from the SE so I had a beam reach right to the mark, and finished less than a minute behind Cheeky Monkey. 

In corrected time I won the race for my division (5 boats), and placed 2nd in the fleet (18 boats).

Enough to secure first overall in division 1 (small white sail).

Before the race with all the forecasted wind, I was thinking of using the #3, but in the end I used all the other sails on Still Time (except for the spinnaker).

Trip Odometer: 14.3 miles
Moving Average: 3.2 knots
Moving Time: 04:25:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2013/20130908.kmz