ACE Whitby 50

The 9th annual Whitby 50 is the first race of the Toronto East Long Distance Series.  The race is an overnight race from Whitby to Toronto and back.

• Me
• Mike
• Dave (WYC)
• Steve (WYC)
• Terry (WYC)

We had 13 boats with many fast boats from other clubs.

Forecast was for 2-4 knots from the SE all night, then swing to the north and lighten in the morning; did not look good.

We were the first to the mark for the short windard leg, and popped our oversized white chute.  Our game plan was to stay offshore and avoid the Scarborough bluffs.

Very light conditions, but we were able to make between 3 and 4 knots of speed towards Toronto.  We definately had more wind that the boats inshore.  We were doing crosses with the 1D35 Razorbill all night.

Moon came up at around midnight, flat water, good sailing.

Mike on the helm @8.42pm

The other side of Cathedral bluffs, we started losing the wind and had gybed back out where we met with the J/120 The Cat Came Back.  The 1D35 and the J/120 beat us to the mark.  Rounding the mark, we decided to go offshore even more where there was more wind.  The J/120 went way offshore, while the 1D35 went rhum line to the finish.

We were on a close reach with a light genoa doing between 4 and 6 knots the entire time.  The wind was different at the top of the mast.  We found that even moving the genoa cars didn't fix it, so we double sheeted the headsail: cars back to flatten the bottom and used a second sheet forward to close the leach at the top.

Perculated coffee with Baileys was AWESOME
You can see the moon
Time was 5:25am

On this leg we saw between 6 and 9 knots of wind the entire night (at the top of the mast).

Sunrise @ 5:36am

Terry took the helm for a bit

4.32 knots of boat speed
38 degrees off the wind
7.9 apparent wind speed
Course is 19 degrees magnetic

Artsy shot in the morning sunlight

The forecast was supposed to swing right from North to East, we purposely stayed offshore which would mean that we would be able to reach (or pop chute) to the finish.  Razorbill inshore would have to beat upwind to the finish.  The shift didn't happen until after we finished.

We were able to fly a spinnaker for the last 3 miles to the finish between 5 and 6 knots of speed.

We finished 2nd across the line 6 minutes behind Razorbill.

We finished 3rd in corrected time behind Razorbill and The Cat Came Back.

Was a very enjoyable race.  Thanks Dave/Steve/Terry!

Trip Odometer: 56.60 miles

Avg Speed: 4.1 knots

Max Speed: 8.1 knots

Moving Time: 13:54:00

Google Earth Track

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