C22 Whitby First Race

First race of the season, and Melissa was sick, so Chris, John, and I.

Winds were forecast for 12 knots from the NW with gusts to 18.

Since this was our first time racing, decided to be conservative and rig a reefed main and #2.

Chris and I spent some time getting the shrouds a little tighter.  The starboard forward turnbuckle is bottomed out, so we have to remove it and start the threads again.  However, we didn't have enough time to do it.

Went to rig the reef in the main, and reefing ring on the boom is missing; was there last week.  Cheated and used the Cunningham (clever pig) with long shackle and line around the mast.

Lastly, the battery was dead because I left some things on from Saturday; no wind instrument!

We motor sailed out to the course, much more wind out there!

We killed the motor and sailed comfortably at 5.5 knots close hauled; perfect amount of sail.  On the way back to the start, on a beam reach, we hit 7.0 knots of speed.

Chris was on the tiller, John and I on the sheets.  This year, we are going to get Melissa and Chris on the tiller, so everyone is proficient at it.

Four boats in our class; course was 2 medium.

We had a great start on starboard tack near the committee boat in clear air.  We had Bananas to leeward of us; they wanted us to move up, but we couldn't, nor could we tack because our stern/motor would have hit them!  Chris pinched up a little, which dropped our speed slightly and let them pass below us.

John on the tiller on the way back in

Neat shot from inside the cabin

At the windward mark, we were about a minute behind the three Sharks.

Chris was having some trouble in the puffs; the rudder would lose its bite in the water, and the boat would round up into the wind.  I explained to him how to drive with one hand on the tiller, and the other on the mainsheet.  When a puff comes up and you feel pressure on the tiller (called weather helm), you let the mainsheet out, to bring the boat under control.  He got it.

We finished about 5 minutes behind the three Sharks, not enough to catch them on corrected time.

After we finished, we tacked to head back to dock, and I heard some weird sounds from the front of the boat.   I went forward and saw the our #2 headsail had de-laminated and a panel had ripped out:



Chris folding the ripped sail

I don't think it can be repaired.  The sail is from 2008, and typically laminated sails only last 4 or 5 years.

Great night on the water, and great start to the 2015 racing season!
 
Trip Odometer: 10.14 miles
Moving Average: 4.9 knots
Moving Time: 02:02:00

Max Speed: 7.0 knots

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150513.kmz