First some corrections. Last week's race was the last race of the first series, not the start of the second series. And the results are finally posted and Circe did win it as we suspected!! So that puts us into a solid second for the first series. Blue streak won the series with 6 points, we were second with 9, Abracadabra third with 12, and Veloche 4th with 13. So, the pressure is off; we are in the Champions of Champions in September.
The results as read after the race were wrong, as we suspected. They were the elapsed times not the corrected times. We did indeed finish second on corrected time with (big surprise) Blue streak winning it, a new boat in our fleet, Alpha Omega, finishing third. Abra fourth, and Veloche 5th. Alpha Omega is a dark blue J30 very well sailed by another Queen City Junior Club graduate, Eric Whan. She has a rating of 156 compared to our 150 so we owe her time. For example, in last night's race which lasted an hour we had to give her 39 seconds. We also owe Mark time but with his rating of 153 only half as much. But the three boats are very close on boat speed so it should lead to some very close boat for boat racing among the three of us. Much more fun than watching BS and Abra disappearing over the horizon.
Now about last nights race, it was a good one. We had Pam, Kathleen, and Nansi on the foredeck, Susan on main, Steve and special guest crew member, my son Graham, on the jib winches, and me steering.
The weather was very unsettled with rumours of a significant storm cell moving in from Hamilton. We went out under main alone for some time under about 12 knots of wind and a threatening sky. We rigged the heavy #1 on deck and waited. At 12 minutes before our start the cell came through with rain and 18 to 20 knots of wind. We guessed it wouldn't last the rest of the night at that strength but did not know how long it would. So we pushed the #1 back down below and hauled up the #2, which was all we could handle under those conditions. But the race committee screwed up the start sequence of the start before us so scrubbed that start and restarted the sequence which delayed our start by another 4 minutes. It also caused lots of confusion in the part of the fleet that does not read the race committee flags. The entire fleet in front disappeared. Did they start on the postponed start? And half of our start started on their new start and had to be called back. But Susan was reading the flags and timing our starts so Circe knew what was going on.
We had a better start than the last few and were only about 12 seconds late at the line and weather boat. The course was a buoys to starboard triangle, W,N,E. We were in good shape at the weather mark just behind Abra and well ahead of Veloche and Alpha Omega. Then the wind started to drop. On the second leg we dug out the big #1 and rigged it on the other halyard. But even on our #2 managed to pass Abra as she too was doing sail changes. We hung on to the #2 until the jibe mark then once it was out of the way after the jibe pulled up the #1 and downed the #2.
The wind by now had just about dropped to zip and was dead aft so we were wondering if we put up the wrong sail. Maybe the light #1 was in order. Then the breeze started to fill in from behind and the fleet behind, all wing and wing, started to close on us. But we caught it too and managed to hold off a last minute buoy room bid by Abra to round ahead of the pack. As usual Blue Streak was out of site.
But the breeze now was a very enjoyable 12 knots out of the west and we went two more times around. Abra managed finally to get by us up wind but always stayed in site. We kept ahead of Alpha and Veloche and had a most enjoyable race with everyone functioning well. Skipper Ron was apparently overheard complimenting the foredeck crew on the efficient sail change but further witnesses are required to confirm the veracity of that.
So, a good night on Circe. It was good to have Graham back on board after what was apparently a 5 or 6 year absence. The rust got knocked off pretty fast.
Skipper Ron