A wild and woolly race
October 18th 2006 20:50
a wild and woolly race
A wild and woolly race day out on the lake.
I had my first opportunity to race my yacht in what seemed like ages yesterday.
The wind was howling from the north-west and at one stage before the race started we clocked one gust at forty five knots!
We sailed with a reef in the main and a #3 headsail. This is a handicap race and each boat starts at an allotted time. As the slowest boat we start first and the fastest boat last (about thirty minutes behind us) It is a nine nautical mile course.
We sail a triangle course and do three laps.
The boat was flying over the first lap and our nearest opposition gave up and turned for home. We have not had contact with him but suspect he had gear failure due to the strong winds. The next boat started to catch us on the next windward leg. He
was carrying more crew and as he could balance his boat better, could also carry more sail area. Disconcerting when he is a smaller boat. He was in fact the first boat to pass us.
As the race progressed the wind started to die off but it still threw some strong “bullets” at us. It was not until the last windward work that we were game to shake out the reef in the main. It was our downfall as by then the larger predators had gathered about us and sailed over us, leaving us wallowing in their wake.
We came last. Not the greatest result but what a great race! As a handicap race it took ninety five minutes for the first boat to finish and we were two and a half minutes behind
Every day out on the water beats a week in the office!
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