ACE Wednesday Night at National

With Whitby Yacht Club Wednesday racing done, I am able to get out on ACE for racing at National Yacht Club.  Peter and I took the GO Train in to Union Station, and met Still Time helmsman John at the Porter shuttle bus on Front Street.  John works downtown.

Windfinder was saying 12 knots from the SE with gusts into the 20, building after 8pm
Lots of rain in the forecast.

Crew

• Michael (tiller)
• Mike (main)
• Bart (bow)
• Jenny (pit)
• Peter (jib)
• John (jib)
• Carson (runners)

We could have used another person on the runners, so Jenny jumped back to help Carson when she could.

Full main and #3.

Good start on the pin end on starboard, pushing a J/80 up and forcing them to tack away.

About half way to the mark on a starboard tack at close to 8 knots, there was a J/109 Carpe Venus who was about lee bow us on a cross, but had something happen, so they almost T-boned us!  Mike had to bear away almost 90 degrees to avoid them.  We put up our red protest flag, fully expecting them to make some penalty turns.  If they had T-boned us, there would have been MAJOR damage to both boats and some injuries.  At the time, I was on the foredeck, low side getting the chute ready.

Around the windward mark, hoisting the chute went alright and we got moving over 9 knots downwind.  We had to gybe to get to the finish.  First time I had to gybe the chute on the boat.  The end for end gybe went well except I reversed the new guy and we wouldn't bring the chute close to the pole because of the forces of the reversed guy on the jaw pin.  It was only about 3ft out, so we left it and finished. the race.  4th over the line of 9 boats in our class.

So an hour and half commute into Toronto to race for 25 minutes; worth it.

John on the helm of ACE

John took the helm on the way back to the club.  With main only on a beam reach, we were doing 8+ knots of boat speed!

We had some beer and food in the dining room.

National announced the top three finishers in the 3 division; something I would like to start doing at Whitby.  We came in sixth in our class corrected time.

Peter and Jenny drove John and I home.

Glad the major rain held off until after we were in!

Trip Odometer: 8.53 miles
Moving Average: 6.2 knots
Moving Time: 01:22:00

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2014/20140910.kmz