Sailing Vessel Still Time: GAR Haulout Race

Grafitti/ACE/Razorbill Haulout Race
NOTICE OF RACE
Fri Oct 16
Skippers Meeting 17:00
All yachts will sail boat on boat (ie no handicap)
All yachts must be moored at their assigned slip with sails down.
The skipper is responsible for crew safety.
All crew must wear personal safety gear (PFDs).
Monitor VHF channel 72
Race starts on or around 17:30.
Crew must finish pitcher of beer in upstairs clubhouse, then run to yachts, and leave dock.
Motor must be disengaged before leaving the harbour at MX3/4.

Race west to Pickering Moore Point (N 43 48.386 W 79 02.490)
Leave mark to port
Race south to Ajax Weather Buoy (N 43 46.005 W 78 59.104)
Leave mark to port
Return to Whitby Harbour.
Motor can be used on entrance to harbour after MX3/4
Dock yachts in assigned slip, safely moore, run to upstairs clubhouse.
Winner declared when pitcher of beer is finished by crew.
No time limit.
No redress for draft issues.

We got started at 17:45. Winds were howling 25+ knots from the NW.

All three boats were having depth issues, as water levels have dropped 18" in the last week.

ACE had nine crew:

Me (bow)
Mike (driver)
Michael (pit)
Jenny (runners)
Ashley (bow)
Durk Steigenga (main)
Dave Sandford (jib)
Mark Backman (jib)
Christine Backman (runners)

ACE was first off the dock; we already had the motor running, we hoisted the main and #4 jib, then used the spinnaker pole to push our bow off the dock. With the sails up and everyone on the low side, we were able to plough through the mud out into the channel.

Grafitti had troubles,and had the work boat tow them out with sails up.

Razorbill had troubles getting out of their slip.

We sailed around outside the harbour for over 20 minutes, waiting for the other two.

We even looped back into the harbour:

Click for bigger

According to the GPS track, we left the dock at 17:50 and didn't start racing until 18:17.

Razorbill coming out of the channel

We had a close reach directly at the west mark just off of the Pickering Nuclear station.

7.5 knots of boat speed. Flat water because of the NW wind. We had some puffs to 30 knots, but the boat just took it with the #4 and full main.

Beautiful sunset at 18:32:00

We had to tack to get around the Moore Point mark at 19:05.

It was difficult to find as it is a small unlit spar buoy.

Click for bigger

We hoisted the spinnaker soon after and were doing between 9 and 10+ knots in comfort with the #4 jib up too.

We doused the spinnaker too soon before the Ajax weather buoy, rounding it at 19:31.

We were on a close reach with the #4, too close for a spinnaker hoist (should have brought my Asym!)

Winds were starting to diminish to less than 15 knots, so we decided to do a headsail change to a #2.

Because our foil feed is jamming, we had to do a bare change (drop the #4, and hoist the #2).

In the dark, the #2 got twisted on the hoist, and it took us about 5 minutes to sort it out. Our speed had dropped to under 6 knots with the main only. Once we got the #2 up, we were able to get close to 8 knots of speed.

We were first in the harbour with Razorbill closing fast at 10 knots with their Asym up. Grafitti had some rigging trouble and retired early, but were stuck in the habour going to their slip.

We had a navigation error, and pointed ACE to the wrong dock (went to 6 not 7), so we got stuck and had to back track to our slip. Razorbill passed us and went right into their slip on the end of 7.

Photo from the next morning from ACE: