C22 Whitby Double Handed

Melissa and I out for WYC double handed race.

Winds were forecast for 12-14 knots from the SW. 

Four boats:

• Still Time (Catalina 22)
• Katmando (Nonsuch 30)
• Mickey  (Shark 24) [flying sails]
• Berserk (Viking 28) [flying sails]

Course was setup to start at Mark 8 and all boats would follow us around it, since we were the highest handicap.  It was dead upwind/downwind to/from the Ajax Buoy.

Katmando withdrew before the start because they had wishbone rigging problem.

Our wind meter was sometimes showing 19 knots of apparent wind.  We were doing maybe 5 knots of boat speed, so there was maybe 15 knots of wind most of the time.

We had too much sail up for up wind, as we were ragging the main.

Melissa did well on the helm.

About a mile from the Ajax buoy we contemplated dropping the #1 genoa and going with a #3 jib, but we decided against it.  We were healed over a lot, it would have been tough on the bow to drop the #1 and hoist the #3 in the waves.

Rounded the mark and poled out the spinnaker pole to windward with a topping lift.

I was rigging for a spinnaker run back, but decided not to as we could do more than hull speed with just the main and poled out genoa.  Besides, we wanted a first place in white sail.

We finished well back of the two others, but it was a good day on the water!

Trip Odometer: 19.25 miles
Moving Average: 4.9 knots
Max Speed: 8.0 knots
Moving Time: 03:57:00

Google Earth Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150719.kmz