C22 Whitby Single Handed

First singled handed race of the season.

Had to have the autohelm working, so I picked up a pin to put in the new tiller from Nat's Marine.

Winds were forecast 18 knots from the NW with gust in to the upper 20s.  At the dock, wind meter showed 20 knots constant.  Hooked up double reef main and #3.

Ross on Gruntled is out of town.
Rob from Firebird II came by and said his boat is not ready.
Andrew from Berserk has not been racing this season.
Surprised that Chris from Iris was not out.

Still Time and Cam from Cheeky Monkey.

Blowing hard out there, I had the right amount of sail for upwind and reaching. 

Course was set to 3 medium.

Autohelm would not keep a course and was wandering all over the place, so I could not use it.  I guess that is why I was given this unit.  Going to go back to my old unit.

Upwind I could keep up with the Shark, we were right with each other at the windward mark.  The downwind second leg was difficult for me.  Cam had all his canvas up and pulled way ahead of me.

The new rudder is awesome.  However, when you do get over powered in the puffs, you could feel the rudder lose its bite as the boat rounded up, but there was NOT a lot of weather helm.  Different than the old rudder which had TONS of weather helm.

I think I made some ground on the reaching and upwind legs.

Finished about 4 minutes behind him.

Coming back from the race course was close hauled, I regularly kept 6 knots of boat speed with the Shark right with me.  With the double reef and #3, the boat was upright with no weather helm.

Coming in the wind was howling up the channel, so I started the motor.  About half way up, it stalled and wouldn't start, so I was tacking up the channel.  Cam was doing the same, and during a tack, his tiller extension got jammed, and he hit the metal wall on the west side of the channel.  I went over to see if he was alright.  Some damage to the stem fitting on the bow.

Turns out my motor was out of gas, so had to do a quick refuel.

Without a working autohelm, dropping the sails was a SHITSHOW. 
Zoom in on the Google Earth track.

Great night on the water.

Trip Odometer: 9.10 miles
Moving Average: 4.2 knots
Moving Time: 02:09:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140522.kmz