C22 Whitby Race Night

Melissa, John, and I, winds were forecast to be light near shore (2-3 knots), but 7-8 knots offshore.

We went out with #1 genoa and old baggy main.

Going out of  the harbour, we waved hello to Rita, her Mom and her friend Winnie:

Hello Moeder (dutch for mom)

Course was set for 7 short, and the winds were 5-6 knots from the SSE.

We had a BAD start because we had to duck some starboard boats from the previous start who also had bad starts.

The winds were greater offshore, so we tacked to get to them.  We were definately going faster than everyone in our class, but we sailed a longer distance (see track at bottom of post).

Coming up to the windward mark, we could not make it because the winds were diminishing, and had to throw in a couple of tacks to get around it.

On the next two off wind legs, the winds were shifting all over the place.  On the beam, then deep broad reach, move the genoa over to the other side, pole it out.  Ugggghhh.

We turned for the final upwind leg, and John from Black Shaddow said there is a "fantastic current" coming from that way.  We tacked to take advantage of the 2 knots current.  Before this leg we saw Brian on the T-Bird going faster than everyone else with the current.

After a couple of minutes, the winds were shifting and we were getting knocked away from the finish line, so we tacked.  About half way to the finish, the winds COMPLETELY died:

0.0 knots of wind

0.0 knots of boat speed

We were dead stopped with ZERO boat speed for 30 minutes. At one point I asked Melissa on the helm to fall off, and she just laughed because the helm had been over for 10 minutes; no water going over the rudder.

Winston Churchill (left)
Frenzy (right)

Looking at the GPS track, we actually went backwards:

Click for bigger

It was getting very dark, no moon.  Boats were withdrawing (Fly Buoy, Foxtrot), but we were determined to finish.  The winds finally filled into 4 knots and we crossed the finish line!

It took 45 minutes to cover the final 750 ft!

Taking Sails down in the dark

Trip Odometer: 8.26 miles
Moving Average: 2.9 knots
Moving Time: 02:51:00
Stopped Time: 00:32:42

Track: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12535935/Still%20Time/2015/20150902.kmz