RACE REPORT, May 27

Crew
Kathleen, Steve A - Foredeck
Susan - Main Sheet & and Start timer
Gary, Trevor - Jib Sheets
Ron - Steering
Pam was giving her sore elbow a rest, Nansi had done too much gardening, Steve M was still south, Chris was out west. And Trevor's RS400 was still not ready so he joined us.

Wind
It was blowing, though at the club it seemed quite benign as it was out of the SW blowing over us. But everyone coming off the Queen attested to its strength in the Bay. The forecast was for 15 to 20 knot winds and people were reading 25+ knots at the Island airport. As we left the entrance to the club the wind immediately jumped to 15 knots and as soon as we got to the centre of the bay it was a steady 25 with gusts to 30. Yes it was blowing.

Sail Selection ( and the #3 in the locker on shore)
With some confidence we rigged the #2 on deck before leaving the dock. While in the Bay before the start, even before we put the jib up, we put a reef in the main. A good call. We decided to stay with the #2 when the Skipper realized that the #3 was still in the locker on shore.

Course
The start was initially delayed as the lightning detector on the Robbins went off soon after leaving the dock so the race committee returned to dock and postponed. We waited in our mooring until they went out again. The start was at the east end of the bay with the windward mark toward the RCYC. The course was windward leeward WE 2X, buoys to port. There were no stars or dinghies out so the first start were Sharks but were was a another delay of the start after the Shark warning due to the committee boat dragging anchor.

Race (including the inaugural soaking of the Skipper)
By the time the race committee reorganized themselves and restarted the sequence it was well past 7:00 and there weren't all that many boats left out there (or even came out, for that matter).We were delaying putting the jib up until closer to our start to save wear and tear on it and the crew, but were blind sided by Graham collapsing all 4 PHRF starts into one so instead of having 16 minutes to get the jib up and get a start sequence organized we suddenly only had 4. But the foredeck crew worked fast and got it up while we sailed toward the gap away from the line. By the time we tacked back to the line on port at the pin end, the rest of the fleet were going for the line on starboard at the boat end. With 40 seconds left we tacked on to starboard and went for the line mostly by ourselves at the leeward end. As it turned out maybe only Susan and I knew we were actually starting.

With a reefed main and the #2, Circe was charging in the 25 knot wind. We stayed on starboard into Wards island for a while and close to the lay line tacked onto port and had to duck Veloce's transom to clear. Most of our division was out except Abracadabra who withdrew prior to the start. Veloce tacked over soon after and it turned out we had both over laid the mark a little and had to ease down to it; no mean feat in that wind as we were then well over powered. The rest of the fleet had tacked out into the Bay before us so were coming into the mark on starboard. Blue Streak rounded a head of us and we had to watch a couple of Sharks but we tacked at the mark ahead of Veloce, Alpha Omega, and Amelia who were all in a close bunch behind us running for the leeward mark.

The wind stayed broad enough on starboard tack that we could keep the jib full by staying just above the mark and gave us clear air on the boats behind. we were doing a steady 7 knots down wind with the main still reefed. About 5 boat lengths from the mark we headed down for it, winged the jib over then jibed the main and hardened up around the mark on port tack in still heavy but clear air. We hung on to port tack until all boats behind tacked over onto starboard and about half way to the lay line we tacked over to cover. We tacked back on the port lay line and increased our lead further by the time we got to the windward mark. We laid off for the finish and shook out the reef and finished close to the committee boat close enough to BS to think we had a chance and safely ahead of the rest of the pack.

It was an exhilarating race for everyone with everyone performing well in near extreme conditions and not being intimidated by any of it. Susan did a fine job of adjusting our the main sheet to control our heel, with only one major miscalculation that completely soaked the skipper steering to leeward. The foredeck crew also working well skirting the jib and staying on the boat as the deck slope changed 90 degrees on each tack and The grinders got the jib in a wonderfully quick time on each tack.

Well done Circe crew!!!! It was a blast!

And all soles were still on board at the end.

Results - we won!
We won. We beat Blue Streak, who finished second by 18 seconds on corrected time with Rob's new adjusted rating. Alpha Omega was 3rd, Amelia 4th, and Veloce 5th. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th boats were only 28 seconds apart on corrected time. We were 1 minute 20 seconds ahead of Alpha on corrected time. Skeena, a boat from another division, got the jug.

-Skipper Ron