Sailing Vessel Still Time: MUMM36 ZAMBONI Race to Kingston Day 01

There is a new race on the lake hosted by Mimico Cruising Club and Kingston Yacht Club.

It is a 150 mile race called Race to Kingston (R2K for short).

We had signed up in the spring, as the registration was limited to 50 boats.
Many people were told that their boats were too slow (higher PHRF) for the race.
Guess they didn't want the race to last like 2-3 days.

Got back from Trident a little after 3pm, got my sailing gear together, and Jenny and I took the 407 to Mimico. Kris and Michael met us there. There was a nice dinner setup.

We had a table with the crew from Moxie and Viking from Whitby.

It was good catching up with everyone.

Skipper's meeting was HALARIOUS because the race chairman said something to the effect: "After the start, just F off to Kingston". There were no mark roundings.

Ron Bianci's weather briefing was bleak; not much wind.
Stay inshore for local shore breezes.

The band was good and the Steam Whistle beer was cold.

We left the party at around 10:30.
Kris went back home to Burlington.
Michael to his place in Toronto.
Jenny and I drive to National to sleep on ZAMBONI.

It took us over an hour to go 7 miles from Mimico to National because there was a cyclist fatality on the Lakeshore.

The following morning we were up at 7am for a shower, and organize the boat.
Kris and Michael came in a little after 8am.

Sign on the water at National:

197 nautical miles to Gan

ZAMBONI on the wall:

We shoved off the dock at little before 9am.

It was just the four of us

Kris
Michael
Jenny
Me

The breakwater exit at National has deteriorated. Some concrete had broken off and filled in the gap:

This exit was not as wide, but nice and deep:

We motored across Humber Bay to the start area at Mimico:

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Only 2 knots of breeze, so the race committee postponed for half and hour, and just started us with a weather mark.

Viking from Whitby

Moxie from Whitby

The J/111e "High Tea" has an electric propulsion system and motored silently in the pre-start scrum:

Electric Power

Here we are in the pre-start:

The start was uneventful, and we hoisted our A2 kite called Tiffany after crossing the line.
Winds has filled into about 8 knots, and we were able to make over 6 knots boat speed.

A work barge was being pushed by a tug through the fleet:

Viking

Here is Moxie in pursuit with a really tall mast:

Looks like she has a reef in the main and a fractional chute!

We cleared the Leslie spit and switched to our largest symmetric chute to turn further downwind:

Our plan was to stay north of the rumline a couple of miles off shore to get some shore breezes.
The bearing to the southern tip of Prince Edward county was 82 degree true.
The bearing on the bottom mast display is 098 magnetic with a variance of 13 degrees, so were were sticking to our plan balancing going north of the rumline and slowing down, to sailing a little hot for more speed.

GPS track past Toronto:

On the above track we averaged 6.9 knots boat speed!

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On the above track we averaged 3.5 knots boat speed!
Track Start: 01:20pm
Track End: 08:51am
Track Duration: 19:31:00
Track Odometer: 68.5 miles

We took down the chute to almost Bowmanville, and parked for almost an hour until the wind came in from the east and it was back to a headsail. Winds died again in Brighton and we were parked for over two hours!

Dinner was some Costco sushi: