CREW

Pam, Audrey, Adam- Foredeck

Susan - Main Sheet

Steve, Mike E, - Jib Sheets

Ron - Steering

This is the race Audrey came back for!

We added Mike Erdle for some winch muscle as Veloce didn't qualify

We added Adam on foredeck for some foredeck muscle

Kathleen was out camping

Nansi was unavailable

Chris was out west

Mike V still seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.

BEFORE THE RACE

Ron and Pam started the day in Stratford and were on the road by 6 AM driving through torrential rain to catch the 8:15 boat. By 9:00 AM the rain was letting up and the wind was piping up. Steve managed to get to The Rigging Shoppe on Saturday and picked up the new Ray Marine masthead wind indicator component replacement. As his reward he got to crank Ron to the top of the mast again to install it. Pam turned on the instruments and, eureka!! they worked.

WIND AND SAIL SELECTION

The wind forecast was all over the place depending on who you listened to but reality was showing strong and increasing winds from the south west. We went with a full main and the #2 jib. It was blowing 15 to 20 knots. but the temperature was warm and the sun shining. We were glad we added Mike and Adam to the crew.

COURSE

Windward/leeward W-E with start in the east part of bay and weather mark toward the west. There were to be a maximum of 3 races and the number of laps indicated on the committee boat.

THE COMPETITION

In PHRF 1 the boats that came out were Blue Streak (J109), Alpha Omega (J30), and Bandoleer (ODYSSEY 30). We were first start. There were 6 boats in PHRF 2 who started second. The Stars had the third start.

RACE 1

The race committee boat, the Harold Robins, had a mast failure before the start so lost all their flag halyards. Signals were made by hand. Circe had a pretty good start at the committee boat end with BS at the pin end and AO in the middle. We all stayed on starboard tack into the Island with Blue streak moving ahead and tacking on to port crossing ahead of us. But we had Alpha pinned below us unable to tack until we did. We tacked in Blue Streak's wake and Alpha tacked soon after. We stayed on port to the layline with AO behind and to weather. We tacked on the layline and Alpha ducked us carried on a couple of boat lengths before tacking. We stayed ahead of Alpha but realized we had missed the information on number of laps. But luckily Blue Streak was well ahead so we simple hoped that she knew and watched her at each gybe mark to see if she was finishing or not. On subsequent bucks we rounded the leeward mark and stayed on port toward the city to the starboard layline with Alpha behind. Alpha would occasionally split tacks and go to the center but we decided not to follow and thus avoided two additional tacks (I know - Ron spoiling the crew again). But on about the 4th lap (there would be 5 in total) Alpha followed us all the way the starboard layline and tacked well behind us but the Ongiara decided to make a trip to Wards and crossed behind us and forced Alpha to make dramatic evasive manoeuvres costing her even more distance. Blue Streak was long done at the finish, we crossed second with Alpha third and Bandoleer well back.

RACE 2

We dropped the jib for a bit of a rest between races and ate a bit of lunch. The wind was still strong but there was a sense that it might be dropping. But we decided to stay with the #2 (actually there was no discussion on this - we just did it). But as it turned out the wind actually increased in the second race and we saw 28.5 knots over the deck at one point on an up wind leg. This race committee radioed that this would be the last race due to boat malfunctions but it would be 6X around. We had a good start at the committee boat with Bandoleer to leeward and BS further down the line. Alpha was late to the line and was behind us at the start. We carried on starboard to near the port layline before tacking over. For awhile it looked like we were actually laying the mark but got headed and tacked about 5 lengths from it. There was lots of wind and great intense sailing with everyone working hard going up wind whether grinding, tailing, or skirting and the foredeck crew wrestling the whisker pole going downwind. Our greatest mental challenge was successfully counting to 6. Alpha at one point on the buck seemed to get a wrap and floundered for some time, further dropping her out of contention. But positions did not change and the finish order was the same as the first race. We were back at the dock by 2:15.

AFTERMATH

We left the jib spread on the foredeck to dry and gathered in the cockpit to sip the very fine rum (Angostura 1919 ) Steve brought from Trinidad and eat Audrey's amazing ginger cake and Pam's wonderful Tapenade and compare wounds and bruises and sympathize with Ron getting wet. We all felt satisfyingly exhausted. It was a good day's racing.

RESULTS

RACE 1 - Corrected Time

Blue Streak 0:55:46

Circe III 0:59:23

Alpha Omega 1:01:08

Bandoleer 1:02:00

RACE 2 - Corrected Time

Blue Streak 1:13:06

Circe III 1:14:50

Alpha Omega 1:15:35

Bandoleer 1:23:26

OVERALL - Mysterious Point System

1. Bourne Home 187.6 Points

2. Blue Streak 183.0

3. Gone With The Wind 167.8

4. Circe III 160.0

5. Dove 138.0

6. Troubadour 138.0

7. Alpha Omega 137.0

8. Bandoleer 114.0

9. Skeena 108.2

10. Amelie 88.4

Skipper Ron