THE CREW
Audrey, Kathleen, Pam - Foredeck
Susan - Main sheet
Jay, Steve - Genoa winches
Ron - steering
This race marked the return of Pam from the injured list and Steve from the lands of coconuts and rhum.
Funny Mazza faces - like father, like daughter
THE RACE
It was light winds out of the south east. It looked like the only wind there was was funneling thru the eastern gap. And it was variable and oscillating. We went with the light #1 from the start.
The course was a buoys to starboard triangle 3x around. The usual suspects were out and this race, the final of the first series, would decide the winner of the series as there was a 3 way tie between Blue Streak, Alpha Omega, and Circe.
For some of the starts before us there was a nice little breeze and for some less so. For some of the starts it was pin end favoured and for some committee boat favoured. The wind died for our start so Circe decided to stick close to the line. We found ourselves at the starboard third end of the line so stalled a bit before laying off on starboard tack and running the line at about one knot. The intent was to arrive at the committee boat in time to harden on across the line as the gun sounded. Unfortunately the wind increased enough to speed us up so we got there earlier than anticipated. But we thought we had pegged it perfectly and hardened on as the horn sounded. But alas we were called over early as was Veloce who was about a boat length to weather.
We laid offand gybed around the committee boat on to close hauled port tack to restart at the committee boat only to discover Veloce ahead reaching down almost parallel but converging on starboard tack and a lot of bellowing from their bow about fouls and doing 720's. We figured as a restarting boat they had no rights so ignored them and carried on on port. They hardened up around our transom and carried on on starboard just clearing the committee boat.
We tacked on to starboard half way up the leg and the bellowing continued from Veloce for us to do a 720 which we ignored.
Now we were playing catch up. We rounded the weather mark behind Alpha Omega who was behind Blue Streak and Abracadabra. Not sure where Amelia was. Veloce was well behind.
About half way up the third leg we sailed over Alpha Omega and simply left her behind as if she had stopped dead. We rounded not far behind the yellow and big blue boat.
The next circuit was uneventful except for a number of extreme wind oscillations (180 degrees) and periods of zero wind. We got to the third mark and were prepared to harden on for the third time around only to realize they had shortened course and we were finished.
But then things got really interesting. just as we were getting our light #1 down, a major 15 knot gust came out of the north. Not sure that sail would have enjoyed that if it had happened sooner. But we got it safely down and motored into the new wind to down the main. the new wind was 180 degrees different than it had been all night.
Only when we got back to the dock did we see Veloce's protest flag and realize that we had, in fact, been protested. The date and time of the hearing is yet to be announced.
THE RESULTS
Assuming we beat the protest, and I'm pretty confident we will, on corrected time we won that race by a very wide margin. Blue Streak and Abracadabra were tied on corrected time and we were more than 5 minutes ahead of them. And that means, if the protest doesn't stand, that we win the series with two bullets and two seconds. If we lose the protest, we finish second in the series behind Blue Streak. Still not too shabby.
Well done Circe Crew!
Skipper Ron