MUMM36 ZAMBONI Susan Hood Trophy Race

Got down to the National around 2:30 and Kris had already moved the boat over the wall and was vacuuming out the bilges.

My first task was to put the rebuilt #3 jib car on.

Removed two screws from the end stop on the track:

Lined up the loader with the end of the track:

Slid the car on the track:

Screwed on the end stop:

I then had to splice a dynema strop to pull the car forward.
You can see the broken one in the first photo.

We hoisted Kris up on a bosun's chair to tape the upper spreaders:

By 5pm we had a BBQ over by the clubhouse:

Finished loading and organizing the boat before we pushed off:

We had a full complement of eight, and paired off:

• Kris/Michael
• Phil/Mark
• Ashley/Jenny
• Bart/Tom

If one person was on deck, the other would be below or on the rail.
For all sail changes and manouvers, it was all hands on deck.

We motor sailed over the Port Credit for the start.

Great photo from Ryan on Viking from Whitby of us in the pre-start:

We had a great midline start:

Short 3.5 mile beat to the Clarkson mark.  We short tacked to this mark, while our competitors who did a long tack inshore sailed less distance and were way ahead of us.

Crossing Farr 39 Sea Ya:

Passing that mark @9:15pm:

Sunset looking back:

What are you guys doing on the stern?

Winds lightened as we crossed the lake (down to about 5-6 knots).

The forecast said their would be a right shift to the NW, and we decided to sail below the rum line so we would have a better spinnaker angle when it happened.  ZAMBONI does not like to sail deep in light air.  Well, the shift didn't happen until we got close to the Niagara mark.  The boats that stayed on the rum line or above it sailed less distance.

As we approached the Niagara mark, the winds piped up to over 20 knots and swung right, so it was a 30 mile beat to Burlington. We were overpowered with full main and #2, so we went to the #3 and put a reef in.  We had to crack off slightly from close hauled to 40 degrees to have the power to punch through the waves keep our boat speed between 7 and 8 knots the entire time. 

Everyone on the rail, it was very cold, and got splashed several times.

It was a close spinnaker run from Burlington to the finish.

Rare photo of bowman (me):

We finished a little after 9am (13 hours), while our competitors finished an hour before us.

We finished DFL in the ORC class, but were happy with how we sailed the boat.
All of our crew work was spot on!

GPS Track:

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